Broadside Magazine

"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, "Broadside" reflected the times. It was often controversial, and was even the subject of questions in one of Bob Dylan's many news conferences, as seen in the Martin Scorsese documentary on Dylan released in 2005.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-songwriters 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 zines 20 years later.

By the end of the 1970s, "Broadside" had basically ceased publication and 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 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.

Publication ended in the late 1980s. Microfiche of the entire collection of "Broadside Magazines" are available at many libraries. Complete sets or runs of the original printed "Broadside" are very hard to find. The largest number of issues for sale online is found at [http://www.VintageMusicBooks.com] .

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.

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.

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"…" ("Broadside Volume III", p.5) Among those whose careers began there, Silber listed Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs (a major "Broadside" contributor; see also "Songs 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…" ("ibid.") 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:
* Eric Andersen"Broadside Volume 2", cover]
* Len Chandler, Jr."Broadside Volume 1", cover]
* Bob Dylan
* Richard Fariña
* Tuli Kupferberg"Broadside Volume III", cover]
* Jonathan Kwitney
* Peter La Farge
* Julius Lester
* Ewan MacColl
* Ernie Marrs
* Matt McGinn
* Bernice Reagon
* Patrick Sky (also known as Patrick Skye)
* Mark Spoelstra
* Vanessa Redgrave

2007 Revival

As of 2007, Broadside Magazine is being revived online at [http://www.broadsidemagazine.com 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.

Notes and references

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* "Broadside Volume 1" (Oak Publications, 1964)
* "Broadside Volume 2" (Oak, 1968, ISBN 0-8256-0112-6)
* "Broadside Volume III" (Oak, 1970, ISBN 0-8256-0060-X

External links

* [http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/hattie-carroll.html "The Art of Bob Dylan's "Hattie Carroll"] , 1964 critique by Phil Ochs in Broadside Magazine.