The Best of Broadside, 1962-1988: Anthems of the American Underground from the Pages of Broadside Magazine (Smithsonian Folkways)

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

(Smithsonian Folkways)

There's no instrument for protestin' quite like an acoustic guitar -- cheap, portable, and always tuned to the American dream. Pick up the 5-CD Broadside box set, and the strum of the acoustic will haunt your dreams. A staple on the underground folk scene, New York City's Broadside rag published topical songs and accompanying editorials from 1962-1988, running on a shoestring budget and giving first exposure to such classics as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Ballad of Ira Hayes." Just in time for the next revolution, Smithsonian Folkways has issued a reliably comprehensive and beautiful box set, cataloging those 26 years of, um, strum und drang. There's Pete Seeger's jaunty "Do as the Doukhobors Do"; the dire rumble of Thom Parrot's My Lai lament "Pinkville Helicopter"; the country blues of F. D. Kirkpatrick's Watts-inspired "The Cities Are Burning"; the smart bounce of Peggy Seeger's plucky little empowerment rag "Gonna Be an Engineer." With 89 songs spread across five discs, The Best of Broadside is five solid hours of politics and guitar. Highlights come from folks famous (Bob Dylan's "Ballad of Donald White"; Phil Ochs' "We Seek No Wider War"), obscure (Richard Black's "A Very Close Friend of Mine"), and just plain angry (Jim Collier's incendiary "Burn, Baby, Burn"). A man can't be faulted if, every once in a while, he pines for a song about young love, corn liquor, or crawfish pie, but it won't be found on Broadside. There are no tight horn turnarounds to set the toes tappin', and there's nary a righteous Hammond B-3 riff in the set. What is righteous on The Best of Broadside is the fresh, hot smack of conviction. There's conviction all over this box, a heart on every sleeve; hell is raised on Broadside, in spades, both with a grin and without. From civil rights to Vietnam to labor laws to women's rights, it's a virtual almanac of the American left. It's nothing less than recorded history, a testament to populists, agitators, and all those who called bullshit on the status quo. Be forewarned: It can and does get heavy-handed at times. If the gift-getter on your list prefers music to message, you might do better with some Duke or Fats under the tree. But if your beloved marches to the beat of a different strummer, still keeping a fist clenched for the good old days, Best of Broadside fits the bill.