Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Links On The Chain - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
2. Blowin' In The Wind - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
3. Paths Of Victory - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
4. The Ballad Of Ira Hayes - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
5. Ain't That News - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
6. The Times I've Had - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
7. Go Limp - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
8. Ding Dong Dollar - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
9. Mack The Bomb - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
10. The Civil Defense Sign - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
11. Let Me Die In My Footsteps - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
12. Hiroshima, Nagasaki Russian Roulette - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
13. What Have They Done To The Rain? - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
14. Ballad Of William Worthy - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
15. Train For Auschwitz - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
16. Do As The Doukhobors Do - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
17. Christine - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside
18. As Long As The Grass Shall Grow - Various Artists- Best Of Broadside

Disc 2:

1. John Brown
2. Take Me For A Walk
3. The Willing Conscript
4. Kill For Peace
5. Plains Of Nebrasky-O
6. Benny Kid Paret
7. What Did You Learn In School Today?
8. Changin' Hands
9. Welcome, Welcome Emigrante
10. Shady Acres
11. Lord, Hold Back The Waters
12. Ballad Of Donald White
13. Song For Patty
14. A Very Close Friend Of Mine
15. Long Time Troubled Road
16. Hard Rain's A-Gonna-Fall

Disc 3:

1. Mississippi Goddam
2. We'll Never Turn Back
3. Freedom Riders
4. Father's Grave
5. Baby I've Been Thinking
6. I'm Going To Get My Baby Out Of Jail
7. The Ballad Of Martin Luther King
8. Carry It On
9. Birmingham Sunday
10. The Migrant's Song
11. El Picket Sign
12. La Lucha Continuara
13. Contra La Por
14. Mrs. Clara Sullivan's Letter
15. If It Wasn't For The Union
16. More Good Men Going Down
17. Sundown
18. My Oklahoma Home (It Blowed Away)
19. Draglines
20. My Father's Mansion's Many Rooms

Disc 4:

1. Pinkyville Helicopter
2. Hell No, I Ain't Gonna Go
3. We Seek No Wider War
4. Waist Deep In The Big Muddy
5. Vietnam
6. Hole In The Ground
7. To Be A Killer
8. New York J-D Blues
9. Little Boxes
10. Not Enough To Live On But A Little Too Much To Die
11. The Faucets Are Dripping
12. Bizzness Ain't Dead
13. Business
14. Legal-Illegal
15. Brown Water And Blood
16. The Aberfan Coal Tip Tragedy
17. Lafayette
18. The Ballad Of Earl Durand
19. Plastic Jesus

Disc 5:

1. Burn, Baby, Burn
2. The Cities Are Burning
3. Nothing But His Blood
4. You're Just A Laughing Fool
5. Time Is Running Out
6. But If I Ask Them
7. Ragamuffin Minstrel Boy
8. Changes
9. Bound For Glory
10. Victor Jara
11. We Will Never Give Up
12. Inez
13. Gonna Be An Engineer
14. Don't Talk To Strangers
15. Catcher In The Rye
16. The Time Will Come

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #90383 in Music
• Model: SFW40130
• Released on: 2000-09-12
• Number of discs: 5
• Formats: Box set, Compilation
• Dimensions: 2.49 pounds

From Amazon.co.uk
Historically, a broadside was a song (without music) or poem printed on one side of paper, dealing with a topical issue, usually of a political nature. Broadsides were peddled by itinerant writers 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 of Broadside, a topical song magazine that would quickly help start a national movement in the US. After the Eisenhower Cold War 1950s, a social, cultural, and political revolution was in the air. Broadside began 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, Paxton, Pete Seeger and dozens more all had their songs first published in Broadside.

This five-CD set is a marvellously comprehensive document of the magazine's songs and songwriters, all of whom were recorded by Folkways Records. The lyric of each is printed and extensive information given about the context in which the song was created. Background material is provided on all the songwriters, as well.

The discs are compiled primarily around the main topics: Labour, Nuclear Weapons, Social Injustice, Vietnam, and Civil Rights. Eighty-nine songs in all are featured, most of which could loosely be termed "folk music" in style: basic rhythms, acoustic instruments, spirited singers. Listening to the songs and following the annotation are reminders 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.

Broadside was a small publication, primarily a labour of love, but its historic legacy looms large when all its material is brought together in a well-researched, well-presented compilation such as this one. --Wally Shoup