Customer Reviews

Presidential Campaign Songs: 1789 - 1996

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a long-time Oscar Brand fan, I was delighted to hear that he and Folkways\Smithsonian Records had issued on CD a new version of his vinyl tribute to that now nearly obsolete form of popular culture, the Presidential campaign song. Now that I have actually listened to it, I have no grounds for disappointment. Brand has recorded a song for nearly every U.S. President, some well-known, some fairly obscure for this excellent collection. I deny it a five-star rating only for a couple of factual errors in the liner notes and an extremely mild ideological bias, alas, all too typical of the folk-singing community (why is the song for President Reagan by far the shortest in the collection?) Still, highly recommended, if for no other reason than it is, to my knowledge, only the second CD on the subject released as of this date!

Campaign election songs, particularly Presidential campaign election songs are a vital part of American history. They are funny, vicious, accurate and inaccurate, and mmsically delightfull. Oscar Brand's CD of these classic songs is a treasure.
They don't sing songs like "Get On the Raft With Taft" anymore. (It's an interesting analogy; Taft weighed over 300 pounds!) And Oscar Brand's voice amazes me. He sounds the same as he did on the "Bawdy" ballads we listened to in college forty years ago!

James B. Saunders

This is an excellent collection of campaign songs. I teach US government in a high school in Philadelphia, and I use these songs in my class to help commemorate some presidential birthdays. It's quirky, but the students enjoy it, and learn about the presidents, their campaigns, and the times. I recommend this to any history or govt teacher.

With the electgions upon us, this is a great album to get you into the mood. I enjoy the history of the elections and the songs that were.

I can't give this a top rating as Oscar's voice is not what it used to be, but the enthusiasm of this very young old man still shines through.