Broadside Magazine
Encyclopedia
Broadside Magazine was a small mimeographed publication founded in 1962 by Agnes "Sis" Cunningham
and her husband, Gordon Friesen
. Hugely influential in the folk-revival, it was often controversial. Issues of what is folk music
, what is folk rock
, and who is folk were roundly discussed and debated. At the same time, Broadside nurtured and promoted important singer-songwriter
s of the era.
The mixture of hand-drawn musical notation
, typewriter text, and the occasional hand-drawn illustration or photocopied news story anticipated a look that would be more common in zine
s 20 years later.
By the end of the 1970s, Broadside had basically ceased publication.
Several of the songs recorded for Broadside Magazine over its lifetime were released in 2000 as The Best of Broadside as a 5-CD boxed set, which is the only way most of the recordings are available. The magazine was the subject of questions in one of Bob Dylan
's many news conferences, as seen in No Direction Home
, the Martin Scorsese
documentary on Dylan released in 2005.
Each volume featured a foreword, the first by Cunningham, the second by Friesen, and the third by Irwin Silber
.
, Phil Ochs
(a major Broadside contributor; see also Sings for Broadside (Folkways, 1976) and The Broadside Tapes 1
(Folkways, circa 1980), Buffy Sainte-Marie
, Janis Ian
(originally under her real name, Janis Fink), and Arlo Guthrie
.
Other, more established songwriters also contributed to Broadside, some of them (in Silber's words again) with "songs which commercial publishers didn't know what to do with…" Among these, Silber lists Pete Seeger
, Nina Simone
, Billy Edd Wheeler
, and Malvina Reynolds
.
Cunningham herself published a number of songs in Broadside. Other contributors to Broadside included:
In his parody song, "Vaguely Reminiscent of the Sixties", Charlie King
captured the era of singer/songwriter and social movements that had helped to bring about many social changes. Music was a firm part of these movements and was frequently included in meetings, protests, seminars, teach-ins and other activities.
Broadside in the 1980s, edited by Jeff Ritter, a musician and graduate student at the time, covered multiple movements and songwriters including Arlo Guthrie
, Billy Bragg
, Michelle Shocked
, Charlie King, Holly Near
and more. The revival of the Newport Folk Festival
coincided with this era and many singer-songwriters who began at this time continued their involvement with the music industry.
The August, 1985, issue #165, guest edited by Charles Ipcar, focused on housing and other neighborhood organizing songs. Songwriters included Langston Huges, Charlie Ipcar & Maxine Parshall, Dale Cohen & Hugh McGuinness, Bob Norman, Mark Charles & Sheila Ritter, Peter Berryman, Elyse Crystall, Sandee Swantek, Martha Koester, Paul Emery, Tony Heriza, Judith Levine & Laura Liben, Mike Rawson, Bev Grant, and Luci Murphy.
Publication ended in the late 1980s.
Sis Cunningham
Agnes Cunningham was an American musician, best known for her involvement as a performer and publicist of folk music and protest songs...
and her husband, Gordon Friesen
Gordon Friesen
Gordon Friesen and wife Agnes Sis Cunningham were the founders of Broadside, the political song magazine that first published many of the most popular songs of the folk revival, including Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs.Friesen and Cunningham were also members of the Almanac Singers during the 1940s, a...
. Hugely influential in the folk-revival, it was often controversial. Issues of what is folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, what is folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
, and who is folk were roundly discussed and debated. At the same time, Broadside nurtured and promoted important singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
s of the era.
The mixture of hand-drawn musical notation
Musical notation
Music notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols.-History:...
, typewriter text, and the occasional hand-drawn illustration or photocopied news story anticipated a look that would be more common in zine
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
s 20 years later.
By the end of the 1970s, Broadside had basically ceased publication.
Several of the songs recorded for Broadside Magazine over its lifetime were released in 2000 as The Best of Broadside as a 5-CD boxed set, which is the only way most of the recordings are available. The magazine was the subject of questions in one of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's many news conferences, as seen in No Direction Home
No Direction Home
No Direction Home is a documentary film by Martin Scorsese that traces the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on 20th century American popular music and culture. The film does not cover Dylan's entire career; it concentrates on the period between Dylan's arrival in New York in January 1961 and his...
, the Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
documentary on Dylan released in 2005.
Books
During the 1960s, Broadside put out three folio-sized trade paperback songbooks, Broadside Volume 1 (Oak Publications, 1964), Broadside Volume 2 (Oak, 1968, ISBN 0-8256-0112-6), and Broadside Volume III (Oak, 1970, ISBN 0-8256-0060-X). Each contained slightly under 100 songs, photo-reproduced from the original magazine. The first volume had a sewn binding, though the latter two used the glued binding more common for trade paperbacks.Each volume featured a foreword, the first by Cunningham, the second by Friesen, and the third by Irwin Silber
Irwin Silber
Irwin Silber was an American journalist, editor, publisher, and political activist.-Early years:Irwin Silber was born October 17, 1925 in New York City to ethnic Jewish parents....
.
Contributors to Broadside Magazine
As Irwin Silber wrote in his foreword to Broadside Volume III, "A whole generation of song-writers, some of whom have become household names in the America of the 1960s, made their first appearances in Broadside…" Among those whose careers began there, Silber listed Tom PaxtonTom Paxton
Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...
, Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
(a major Broadside contributor; see also Sings for Broadside (Folkways, 1976) and The Broadside Tapes 1
The Broadside Tapes 1
The Broadside Tapes 1, alternatively known as Broadside Ballads, Vol. 14, was a compilation of demo recordings done by Phil Ochs for Broadside magazine in the early-to-late 1960s. Of the sixteen songs that appeared, ranging from the humorous to the depressing , all were new to listeners...
(Folkways, circa 1980), Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC is a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire includes...
, Janis Ian
Janis Ian
Janis Ian is an American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction author. Ian first entered the folk music scene while still a teenager in the mid-sixties; most active musically in that decade and the 1970s, she has continued recording into the 21st century...
(originally under her real name, Janis Fink), and Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
.
Other, more established songwriters also contributed to Broadside, some of them (in Silber's words again) with "songs which commercial publishers didn't know what to do with…" Among these, Silber lists Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
, Nina Simone
Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...
, Billy Edd Wheeler
Billy Edd Wheeler
Billy Edward "Edd" Wheeler is an American songwriter, performer, writer and visual artist. He has written songs performed by over 90 different artists including Judy Collins, Jefferson Airplane, Bobby Darin, The Kingston Trio, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Kenny Rogers, Hazel Dickens, and Elvis Presley...
, and Malvina Reynolds
Malvina Reynolds
Malvina Reynolds was an American folk/blues singer-songwriter and political activist, best known for her song-writing, particularly the songs "Little Boxes" and "Morningtown Ride".-Early life:...
.
Cunningham herself published a number of songs in Broadside. Other contributors to Broadside included:
- Eric AndersenEric AndersenEric Andersen is an American singer-songwriter.-Biography:In the early 1960s, Eric Andersen was part of the Greenwich Village folk scene in New York...
- Len Chandler, Jr.
- Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
- Larry Estridge
- Richard FariñaRichard FariñaRichard George Fariña was an American writer and folksinger.-Early years and education:Richard Fariña was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Cuban and Irish descent. He grew up in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn and attended Brooklyn Technical High School...
- Tuli KupferbergTuli KupferbergNaphtali "Tuli" Kupferberg was an American counterculture poet, author, cartoonist, pacifist anarchist, publisher and co-founder of the band The Fugs.-Biography:...
- Jonathan Kwitney
- Peter La FargePeter La FargePeter La Farge was a New York-based folksinger and songwriter of the 1950s and 1960s...
- Julius LesterJulius LesterJulius Lester is an American author of books for children and adults, and taught for 32 years at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is also a photographer, as well as a musician who recorded two albums of folk music and original songs.-Early life and family:Born on January 27, 1939, in...
- Ewan MacCollEwan MacCollEwan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...
- Ernie Marrs
- Matt McGinnMatt McGinnMatt McGinn was a Scottish folk singer-songwriter and poet.Matthew McGinn was born in Ross Street at the corner of the Gallowgate in Calton, Glasgow in 1928, one of a family of nine. At the age of 12 he was sent to an approved school for two years...
- Bernice Reagon
- Patrick SkyPatrick SkyPatrick Sky is a musician, singer and songwriter of Irish and Native American ancestry...
(also known as Patrick Skye) - Mark SpoelstraMark SpoelstraMark Warren Spoelstra was an American singer-songwriter and folk and blues guitarist.He was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. He began his musical career in Los Angeles in his teens and migrated around to wind up in New York City in time to take part in the folk music revival of the early...
- Gil TurnerGil TurnerGil Turner was an American folk singer-songwriter, magazine editor, Shakespearean actor, political activist, and for a time, a lay Baptist preacher...
- Vanessa RedgraveVanessa RedgraveVanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
1980s revival
The magazine was revived, around 1982, by Norman Ross of Clearwater Publishing (a microfiche publication and distribution company) as a part of the upswing in folk and political music of the times.In his parody song, "Vaguely Reminiscent of the Sixties", Charlie King
Charlie King (folksinger)
Charlie King is a folksinger and activist. He was born and raised in Brockton, Massachusetts in 1947 and cites the folk music revival of the 1960s, the American Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War era as his as musical influences...
captured the era of singer/songwriter and social movements that had helped to bring about many social changes. Music was a firm part of these movements and was frequently included in meetings, protests, seminars, teach-ins and other activities.
Broadside in the 1980s, edited by Jeff Ritter, a musician and graduate student at the time, covered multiple movements and songwriters including Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
, Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
, Michelle Shocked
Michelle Shocked
Michelle Shocked is the stage name of Michelle Karen Johnston, an American singer-songwriter.-History:Shocked received her first international exposure in Europe, particularly Britain, with her debut album The Texas Campfire Tapes .Her first U.S...
, Charlie King, Holly Near
Holly Near
Holly Near is an American singer-songwriter, actress, teacher, and activist for social change.-Early years:...
and more. The revival of the Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
coincided with this era and many singer-songwriters who began at this time continued their involvement with the music industry.
The August, 1985, issue #165, guest edited by Charles Ipcar, focused on housing and other neighborhood organizing songs. Songwriters included Langston Huges, Charlie Ipcar & Maxine Parshall, Dale Cohen & Hugh McGuinness, Bob Norman, Mark Charles & Sheila Ritter, Peter Berryman, Elyse Crystall, Sandee Swantek, Martha Koester, Paul Emery, Tony Heriza, Judith Levine & Laura Liben, Mike Rawson, Bev Grant, and Luci Murphy.
Publication ended in the late 1980s.
2007 revival
As of 2007, Broadside Magazine is being revived online at broadsidemagazine.com. New articles are being featured by contributing writers and past editors, and all previous issues of the magazine are available for free download in PDF format.External links
- The Art of Bob Dylan's "Hattie Carroll", 1964 critique by Phil OchsPhil OchsPhilip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
in Broadside Magazine - 'Broadside Collection', Southern Folklife Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillThe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
- Sounds to Grow On, Episodes #8: Broadsides (Podcast)