Before the Internet there was Calypso! Serving traditionally as a musical tradition to convey news, reviews, and culture, you can really learn what people were thinking about during various eras by hearing their songs. As I wound up the fall semester with our annual art show, I found my own curiosity returning to the topic of roots music. Maybe not as fantasy-fun as movie soundtracks, but interesting in terms of how music reflects society and expresses real human experience. I've been a doing a deep-dive into Bob Dylan's work, as well as other artists who came up through the folk and blues scene in the early 1960s. I even got to see Peter & Paul (of Peter, Paul & Mary) perform recently and was really struck by the authenticity, heart, and investment in seeing humanity come together. Coincidentally, Smithsonian Folkways is about to release a new set aptly titled The Social Power of Music. Refreshing in our era of auto-tune confections of sound and image. But back to Calypso! Spy Vibers might recall my many posts in the past about Calypso and Ska songs in the 1960s that addressed the Spy Boom in pop culture. Recently I came across an interesting piece about actual espionage by Mighty Sparrow. Sparrow (Slinger Francisco) is a Trinidadian who started out as a kid (then called "Little Sparrow") and found success by the mid-1950s. And as far as I can tell he's still going at 83! In the mid-1980s he recorded a song that responded to news that the KGB was using what became known as "Spy Dust" (Nitrophenyl pentadienal, NPPD, nitrophenylpentadienal), an invisible powder to track people. Although it had been detected in the early 1970s, it wasn't until the mid-1980s that KGB defectors provided more info about it. In 1985, when Might Sparrow released his song "Spy Dust" (A Touch of Class/B's Records BSR-SP-041), the US State Department protested the use of the chemical due to fears about its potential health impacts. Sparrow must have scanned the newspapers, like any great Calypso man would, and used his song to forward international anxieties to his listeners about how this Cold War Spy Dust might cause cancer and other maladies. Apparently it was later determined there was no real threat health-wise, but Mighty Sparrow's track remains an interesting time capsule. Check it out below. I'll post another Sparrow tune next. Spy Vibers, I also have a new book out (over 700 pages!) about one of America's great cartoonists. On other creative fronts, folks might not know that I began exhibiting as a fine art photographer in the late 1980s. I haven't shared that part of my life here much, but readers might like to see some of my work on Instagram. Enjoy!
Musician and activist Peter Seeger has been nominated for a Grammy Award for his new spoken-word album The Storm King. A collection of stories and poems from his life set to multi-genre music with percussionist Jeff Haynes, the album is great follow-up to two CDs he released last year- not bad for a 94-year-old! Seeger grew up in a family of musicians who fostered a dedication to activism and traditional music. Seeger had a profound impact on the culture of the 20th Century through his gift for bringing people together through song. His long career stretches back to collaborations with Woody Guthrie, the Weavers, and decades of touring and playing on radio and television. As a website dedicated to 1960s style, Spy Vibe would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the major influence Seeger had on the Folk Boom and on the political and spiritual climate of the decade. Even if you are not a fan of his style of music, Seeger represents a dedication to community and to nature that I hope will prevail for years to come. This Grammy nomination is his fifth (he has won four times!), in addition to winning the National Medal of Arts, a Kennedy Center Honor, the Harvard Arts Medal, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, the Felix Varela Medal, the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award, and the George Peabody Medal. Good luck, Pete, in this year's Grammy Awards! Seeger sadly lost his wife Toshi this year after a 70-year marriage. His brother Mike Seeger (New Lost City Ramblers) passed away in 2009. His sister Peggy Seeger lives in the UK and continues to perform, record and speak out as an activist for LGBT rights and other issues. Below is a rare photo of Pete Seeger with Woody Guthrie. See more at NPR here. Story continues below.
Recent related releases include Pete Seeger Remembers Woody and A More Perfect Union(with Emmylou Harris, Dar Wiliams, Steve Earle, and Bruce Springsteen), and a new documentary film called Greenwich Village: Music That Defined a Generation. Below is a rare poster for a benefit concert held in my backyard in Mill Valley, California in the late 1960s. Note the quote by John F. Kennedy. Other musicians supported Democratic candidate Phil Drath during the era, including the Grateful Dead and Joan Baez.
My eye on the early-mid 1960s has been particularly fascinated lately with the folk and blues boom. Not only is it interesting to see how youth culture embraced players like Pete Seeger, the music itself was powered by deep storytelling, humor, history, and topical concerns of the era. Pete Seeger was blacklisted during the McCarthy era, so maybe to that paranoid establishment, this was REAL "spy music." Spy Vibers might enjoy the video clips below of Pete Seeger. The Power of Song illustrates Seeger's commitment to bettering the world through music and captures some of the larger issues of the early 1960s. His song, Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, was performed on the Smothers Brothers show in 1967, but cut from broadcast by the censors. A campaign by the brothers pressured the network to finally air the footage, and Seeger was able to share a tune that showed his patriotism, empathy for those facing combat, and a larger questioning of war at the height of Vietnam. Written on his banjo were the words. "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender." Another way to appreciate this area of music is to remember how important it was to the development of other styles. To stretch a quote by the great blues composer Willie Dixon, folks like Dylan, Seeger, Guthrie, Muddy Waters, Skip James, Lightnin' Hopkins, Sonny Terry, Lonnie Donegan, New Lost City Ramblers, etc were "the roots", and The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Kinks, Led Zeppelin, and Miles Davis were "the fruits". Traditional folk and blues performers might not have made a big splash with rebellious fashion and attitude (though Muddy Waters and Lightnin' Hopkins were certainly sharp dressers), but they sure had something to say. Sometimes the deepest messages come in plain wrappings. One of the most memorable moments I've ever seen on TV was Pete Seeger on Hugh Hefner's Playboy's Penthouse (1959). Pete had a great talent for getting a crowd singing, and it was sweet to see a room of sophisticates huddled around him singing along. Hefner, a huge music fan himself, sat close to Pete and joined in. The guests were movers and shakers of the new cultural revolution, but unified in curiosity and humanity by that banjo. Spy Vibers interested in seeing another side of the early-mid 1960s should check out the great documentary, The Power of Song (about Pete Seeger).Although I played in a bluegrass band in high school, and have played mainly blues guitar all my life, my listening curiosity never really pulled in this direction until now. It's great to discover 'new" areas of culture when a fresh context or perspective open us up to the experience. Groovy organ soundtracks transcend time for me because they bring a sense of adventure and playfulness to the day. The spirit of Seeger and the poetry of Bob Dylan's songs transcend time because they embody universal, human emotion and experience. I was playing banjo recently in the Spy Vibe lair! It was quite fun to pick out blues and folk tunes. I've also discovered that the instrument can double as a shamisen for traditional Japanese melodies. I encourage all Spy Vibers to spend some time with characters like Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Alan Lomax. Dive into the Smithsonian Folkways site. Listen to traditional music from around the world and discover your inner folkie. Pete Seeger Appreciation page here. Below is a rare photo of 2-year-old Pete with his musical family. Thanks to archivist and pal Rich Remsberg for inspiring this post today!
My eye on the early-mid 1960s has been particularly fascinated lately with the folk and blues boom. Not only is it interesting to see how youth culture embraced players like Pete Seeger, the music itself was powered by deep storytelling, humor, history, and topical concerns of the era. Pete Seeger was blacklisted during the McCarthy era, so maybe to that paranoid establishment, this was real "spy music." Spy Vibers might enjoy these clips of Pete Seeger. The Power of Song illustrates Seeger's commitment to bettering the world through music and captures some of the larger issues of the early 1960s. His song, Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, was performed on the Smothers Brothers show in 1967, but cut from broadcast by the censors. A campaign by the brothers pressured the network to finally air the footage, and Seeger was able to share a tune that showed his patriotism, empathy for those facing combat, and a larger questioning of war at the height of Vietnam. Written on his banjo were the words. "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender." Pete Seeger Appreciation page here. Smithsonian Folkways site here. Another way to appreciate this area of music is to remember how important it was to the development of other styles. To stretch a quote by the great blues composer Willie Dixon, folks like Dylan, Seeger, Guthrie, Muddy Waters, Skip James, Lightnin' Hopkins, Sonny Terry, Lonnie Donegan, New Lost City Ramblers, etc were the roots, and The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Kinks, Led Zeppelin, and Miles Davis were the fruits. Traditional folk and blues performers might not have made a big splash with rebellious fashion and attitude (though Muddy Waters and Lightnin' Hopkins were certainly sharp dressers), but they sure had something to say. Sometimes the deepest messages come in plain wrappings. One of the most memorable moments I've ever seen on TV was Pete Seeger on Hugh Hefner's Playboy's Penthouse (1959). Pete had a great talent for getting a crowd singing, and it was sweet to see a room of sophisticates huddled around him singing along. Hefner, a huge music fan himself, sat close to Pete and joined in. The guests were movers and shakers of the new cultural revolution, but unified in curiosity and humanity by that banjo.
Spy Vibers interested in seeing another side of the early-mid 1960s should check out the great documentary, The Power of Song (about Pete Seeger).
Although I played in a bluegrass band in high school, and have played mainly blues guitar all my life, my listening curiosity never really pulled in this direction until now. It's great to discover 'new" areas of culture when a fresh context or perspective open us up to the experience. Groovy organ soundtracks transcend time for me because they bring a sense of adventure and playfulness to the day. The spirit of Seeger and the poetry of Bob Dylan's songs transcend time because they embody universal, human emotion and experience. I'm playing banjo these days in the Spy Vibe lair! It's quite fun to pick out blues and folk tunes. I've also discovered that the instrument can double as a shamisen for traditional Japanese melodies. I encourage all Spy Vibers to spend some time with characters like Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Alan Lomax. Dive into the Smithsonian Folkways site. Listen to traditional music from around the world and discover your inner folkie.
