Best of Broadside 1962-1988 [Box set]

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 12, 2000)
• Original Release Date: September 12, 2000
• Number of Discs: 5
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Smithsonian Folkways
• ASIN: B00004VWX0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,049 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Historically, a broadside was a song (without music) or poem printed on one side of paper, dealing with a topical issue that usually was of a political nature. Itinerant writers peddled broadsides for a few cents, and their message served to spread the news or perhaps create a controversy about a current event.

In 1962 Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen began publication of Broadside, a topical song magazine that quickly would help to start a national movement. After the cold war '50s, a social, cultural, and political revolution was in the air. Broadside began publishing hundreds of songs of social dissatisfaction by musicians who later became the leading lights of the folk and protest movements. Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, and dozens more all had their songs first published in Broadside.

This five-CD set is a marvelously comprehensive document of the magazine's songs and songwriters, all of whom were recorded by Folkways Records. The lyrics of each song are printed and extensive information is given about the context in which the song was created. Background material is provided on all of the songwriters, too.

The discs are compiled primarily around the main topics: labor, nuclear weapons, social injustice, Vietnam, civil rights. Eighty-nine songs in all are featured, most of which loosely could be termed "folk music" in style: basic rhythms, acoustic instruments, spirited singers. Listening to the songs and following the annotations serve to remind one of an era of potent protest in this country when music really mattered, and the songs themselves were the primary means of expressing dissatisfaction and disillusionment.

Broadside was a small publication, primarily a labor of love, but its historic legacy looms large when all of its material is brought together in such a well-researched, well-presented compilation as this one. --Wally Shoup

Product Description

The Best of Broadside, Anthems of the American Underground from the Pages of Broadside Magazine. 89 songs, including some never commercially released. Compiled and annotated by Jeff Place and Ronald D. Cohen. 5-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. Underground--yet 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb slice of history, September 22, 2000

By 

Mahir Ali (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Best of Broadside 1962-1988 (Audio CD)

I am sure I would have loved The Best of Broadside even if had been less innovatively packaged, but the scrap-book format is an excellent idea, and the essays, notes, lyrics and discographies leave nothing to be desired. (I have to confess, though, that I'm a wee bit concerned about the way the CDs are housed - I'm not too hot on the idea of jewel boxes, so their absence doesn't bother me, but some sort of protective sleeves for the discs would probably have been useful.) The real treasure, of course, is contained in the five discs, with their broad range of topical songs from Broadside recordings supplemented by a handful of appropriate tracks from other sources as well as a sprinkling of previously unreleased numbers. The likes of Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs are well represented and there are a number of fascinating contributions from the young Bob Dylan - but even more valuable are the songs by artists whose works would be hard to come by elsewhere, such as Sammy Walker, Len Chandler, the Rev Kirkpatrick, Thom Parrott and even Sis Cunningham herself. This box set is a worthy, loving and superbly produced tribute to Broadside magazine. And as a slice of American social history that captures the spirit of the times, it is absolutely indispensable - both on its own, and as a companion volume to the exhaustive (but less affordable) Songs For Political Action. Don't think twice - just get a-hold of it!

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing achievement - worth 10 stars if possible., September 18, 2000

By 

Charles Maiorana "Lifelong Learner" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Best of Broadside 1962-1988 (Audio CD)

This is one of the classic box sets of all times and is most definitely a "celebration of songwriters and their songs." It is thoroughly researched, contains a stellar collection of the classic songs that defined the times, and is presented in a wonderfully creative format that captures the spirit of the Broadside magazine. The 89 cuts on the 5 CD's are a treasure trove of songs by all the well-known and lesser known folk heroes of this very special time. Be prepared to spend many enjoyable hours listening to some of the finest early recordings from Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, and many others.

I ordered this set sight unseen, and I was not really expecting to be blown away by it. I currently own a number of Bear Family box sets and other Smithsonian sets. If I arranged all these sets by quality, this set would not only be at the top, but would be a good distance beyond that. The couple of friends I have shown it to have echoed my feelings. In fact, I am seriously considering ordering two more sets before they go out of print in order to stash them away for my future grandchildren.

Even if this set were selling in the $100+ range, this set would still be a phenomenal bargain!

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Altogether Beautiful Package, September 18, 2000

By 

"tom926" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of Broadside 1962-1988 (Audio CD)

Box sets can be like Christmas presents. Some of them are like that great new book you have been wanting. Or that video game. Or really cool and unusual stocking stuffers. And some are just like socks. Or underwear. Sort of practical, but nothing you wanna write a thank you card about. This box set definitely falls into the treat category.

I grew up with an Irish mother who hummed traditonal folksongs while she worked around the house. Maybe that is why I felt right at home listening to these indispensible songs. Sure, some of the lyrics are completely, shall we say, emeshed in their time, some almost border now on kitsch, but taken as a whole, the music here is a powerful testimony to the ability to use songs as something more than fodder for product-pushing. There is power and compassion and passion and grit and resignation and tenacity and a whole thesaurus more of emotions and feelings crammed into these five disks. I love humming some of these songs at work under my breath, while I grit my teeth and earn my daily bread. Good way to keep sane.

And the packaging! A good many box sets are somewhat tarnished by their disappointing packaging (the Emmylou Harris box comes to mind; stupendous music, anorexic liner notes). But the Smithsonian has done its usual superb job of putting together a package to write...well, if not home, about, at least a review in Amazon. The Amazon review details all the goodies, but the package itself should be commended for its thoroughness and sheer cunning ingenuity (it opens like a Broadside magazine). I predict at least two Grammy nominations if not outright trophies for the liner notes and the packaging.

I have enjoyed the Harry Smith boxes previously put out by The Smithsonian Folkways people tremendously. If you liked them, I can highly recommend this. The two packages compliment each other nicely.

Now, if only we could get the Britneys and Christinas and Hokus and boybands and all the teenyboppers who are currently ruling the airways to listen to this, then they would know that the power of music is not in the number of units pushed but in the passion and commitment of the artist and his/her song.

Thanks Smithsonian for yet another treat.