Various - The Best of Broadside 1962-1988 (2000/FLAC)

The Best of Broadside 1962-1988: Anthems of the American Underground from the Pages of Broadside Magazine
Various Artists


Notes - The Best of Broadside, Anthems of the American Underground from the Pages of Broadside Magazine. Eighty-nine songs, including some never commercially released. Compiled and annotated by Jeff Place and Ronald D. Cohen. A five CD boxed set. It was a small underground magazine smuggled out of a New York City housing project in a baby carriage, filled with new songs by artists who were too creative for the folkies and too radical for the establishment. A still-underground Bob Dylan, Janis Ian, Rev. Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick, Phil Ochs, Malvina Reynolds, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Pete Seeger, and dozens of others first published songs like "Blowin' in the Wind," "Little Boxes," and "Society's Child," in Broadside. The Best of Broadside features 89 songs from the Folkways collection, tapes from the Broadside magazine office, and some tracks released on other labels. The set contains a variety of performers, topics, and musical styles that tell tales spanning the 25 years of the Broadside era (1962-1988), but many of them address contemporary issues as well, since the new millennium has not see the end of warfare, nuclear threat, ethnic conflict, immigrants' suffering, women's unequal rights, ecological devastation, and social injustice. This is the underground music that fueled the innocent-sounding Folk Revival on the one hand and the explosions of angry rock and rap on the other. The Best of Broadside brings an era, its musicians, and its many stories to a new audience. The extensive notes feature the graphics of the original Broadside magazine and provide information on the careers of its many musicians with extensive discographies, the stories behind most of the songs as well as their full texts. They also describe the dramatic history of the magazine itself—a remarkable achievement of dedicated musicians and social activists.

Country(s) - United States

Keyword(s) - Folk songs--United States; Folksong revival; Jazz; Music--British Isles; Rock music; Topical songs

Instrument(s) - Autoharp; Banjo; Concertina; Fiddle; Guitar; Piano

Language(s) - English

Year of Release - 2000

Record Label - Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Source Archive - Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Credits - Produced by Ronald D. Cohen ; Produced by Jeff Place ; Liner Notes by Jeff Place ; Liner Notes by Ronald D. Cohen ; Liner Notes by Anthony Seeger ; Liner Notes by D.A. Sonneborn ; Mastered by Pete Reiniger