Tue November 6, 2018
Jesse Jarnow / Wasn't That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America
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Booksmith hosts Jesse Jarnow (Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America) for his new book Wasn't That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America. Please join us!
Following a series of top 10 hits that became instant American standards, the Weavers dissolved at the height of their fame. Wasn’t That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America details the remarkable rise of Pete Seeger’s unlikely band of folk heroes, from basement hootenannies to the top of the charts, before a coordinated harassment campaign at the hands of Congress’s House Un-American Activities Committee and the emergent right-wing media saw them unable to find work and dropped by their label while their songs still hovered on Billboard’s lists.
Featuring quotes about the Weavers’ influence from David Crosby, the Beach Boys’ Al Jardine, and the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn, Wasn’t That a Time explores how the group’s innocent-sounding harmonies might be heard as a threat worthy of decades of investigation by the FBI -- and how the band’s late ’50s reformation engendered a new generation of musicians to take up the Weavers’ non-violent weaponry: eclectic songs, joyous harmonies, and the power of music.
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Jesse Jarnow is the author of Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock and Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America. His writing on music, technology, and culture has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Relix, Wired.com, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn, New York and hosts the Frow Show on the independent Jersey City radio station, WFMU.
show less
Following a series of top 10 hits that became instant American standards, the Weavers dissolved at the height of their fame. Wasn’t That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America details the remarkable rise of Pete Seeger’s unlikely band of folk heroes, from basement hootenannies to the top of the charts, before a coordinated harassment campaign at the hands of Congress’s House Un-American Activities Committee and the emergent right-wing media saw them unable to find work and dropped by their label while their songs still hovered on Billboard’s lists.
Featuring quotes about the Weavers’ influence from David Crosby, the Beach Boys’ Al Jardine, and the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn, Wasn’t That a Time explores how the group’s innocent-sounding harmonies might be heard as a threat worthy of decades of investigation by the FBI -- and how the band’s late ’50s reformation engendered a new generation of musicians to take up the Weavers’ non-violent weaponry: eclectic songs, joyous harmonies, and the power of music.
--
Jesse Jarnow is the author of Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock and Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America. His writing on music, technology, and culture has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Relix, Wired.com, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn, New York and hosts the Frow Show on the independent Jersey City radio station, WFMU.
Booksmith hosts Jesse Jarnow (Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America) for his new book Wasn't That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America. Please join us!
Following a series of top 10 hits that became instant American standards, the Weavers dissolved at the height of their fame. Wasn’t That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America details the remarkable rise of Pete Seeger’s unlikely band of folk heroes, from basement hootenannies to the top of the charts, before a coordinated harassment campaign at the hands of Congress’s House Un-American Activities Committee and the emergent right-wing media saw them unable to find work and dropped by their label while their songs still hovered on Billboard’s lists.
Featuring quotes about the Weavers’ influence from David Crosby, the Beach Boys’ Al Jardine, and the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn, Wasn’t That a Time explores how the group’s innocent-sounding harmonies might be heard as a threat worthy of decades of investigation by the FBI -- and how the band’s late ’50s reformation engendered a new generation of musicians to take up the Weavers’ non-violent weaponry: eclectic songs, joyous harmonies, and the power of music.
--
Jesse Jarnow is the author of Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock and Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America. His writing on music, technology, and culture has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Relix, Wired.com, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn, New York and hosts the Frow Show on the independent Jersey City radio station, WFMU.
read more
Following a series of top 10 hits that became instant American standards, the Weavers dissolved at the height of their fame. Wasn’t That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the Soul of America details the remarkable rise of Pete Seeger’s unlikely band of folk heroes, from basement hootenannies to the top of the charts, before a coordinated harassment campaign at the hands of Congress’s House Un-American Activities Committee and the emergent right-wing media saw them unable to find work and dropped by their label while their songs still hovered on Billboard’s lists.
Featuring quotes about the Weavers’ influence from David Crosby, the Beach Boys’ Al Jardine, and the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn, Wasn’t That a Time explores how the group’s innocent-sounding harmonies might be heard as a threat worthy of decades of investigation by the FBI -- and how the band’s late ’50s reformation engendered a new generation of musicians to take up the Weavers’ non-violent weaponry: eclectic songs, joyous harmonies, and the power of music.
--
Jesse Jarnow is the author of Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock and Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America. His writing on music, technology, and culture has appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Relix, Wired.com, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn, New York and hosts the Frow Show on the independent Jersey City radio station, WFMU.
show less
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