The Best of Broadside 1962-1988
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 ofBroadside, 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.Broadsidebegan 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 inBroadside.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.Broadsidewas 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