Explosion of Deferred Dreams

Mat Callahan

Description

As the fiftieth anniversary of the Summer of Love floods the media with debates and celebrations of music, political movements, “flower power,” “acid rock,” and “hippies,”The Explosion of Deferred Dreams offers a critical reexamination of the interwoven political and musical happenings in San Francisco in the Sixties. Author, musician, and native San Franciscan Mat Callahan explores the dynamic links between the Black Panthers and Sly and the Family Stone, the United Farm Workers and Santana, the Indian Occupation of Alcatraz and the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and the New Left and the counterculture.

Callahan’s meticulous, impassioned arguments both expose and reframe the political and social context for the San Francisco Sound and the vibrant subcultural uprisings with which it is associated. Using dozens of original interviews, primary sources, and personal experiences, the author shows how the intense interplay of artistic and political movements put San Francisco, briefly, in the forefront of a worldwide revolutionary upsurge.

A must-read for any musician, historian, or person who “was there” (or longed to have been), The Explosion of Deferred Dreams is substantive and provocative, inviting us to reinvigorate our historical sense-making of an era that assumes a mythic role in the contemporary American zeitgeist.

Sujets

• Popular music
• Counter Culture
• Opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War
• Student activism
• Protest
• Sexual revolution

Informations

• Publié par: PM Press
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781629633244
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Author/activist/musician Mat Callahan was a red diaper baby lucky to be attending a San Francisco high school during the Summer of Love -he takes a studied approach (but with the eye of a revolutionary) describing the sociopolitical landscape that led to the explosion of popular music (rock, jazz, folk, R B) coupled with the birth of several diverse radical movements during the golden 1965-1975 age of the Bay Area. Callahan comes at it from every angle imaginable (Black Power, anti-Vietnam War, the media, the New Left, feminism, sexual revolution, et al.) with the voice of authority backed up by interviews with those who lived it. Finally, a scholarly look at music, sociology, and politics without pretense or pretentiousness. If I hadn t met the author before, I d be asking, Who the hell is this guy-the writing is devastatingly wonderful!
-Pat Thomas, author of Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power, 1965-1975
All too often, people talk about the 60s without mentioning our music and the fun we had trying to smash the state and create a culture based upon love. Mat Callahan s book is a necessary corrective.
-George Katsiaficas, activist and author of Asia s Unknown Uprisings
Something very special took place in San Francisco in the Sixties, generating waves of social and aesthetic motion that still ricochet around this planet. The Explosion of Deferred Dreams takes a clear-eyed, politically engaged view that separates truth from propaganda. Grasping why the time became legendary and how society dealt with the challenges it created is what Explosion is about-and it accomplishes this critical task with intelligence and clarity.
-Dennis McNally, author of A Long Strange Trip : The Inside History of the Grateful Dead and On Highway 61
In his landmark work The Explosion of Deferred Dreams , author Mat Callahan painstakingly braids disparate threads of the rich tapestry of San Francisco-music, politics, race, culture. In this vast, panoramic portrait, Callahan digs out social/political undercurrents that have never been more thoroughly explored.
-Joel Selvin, author of Summer of Love: The Inside Story of LSD, Rock Roll, Free Love and High Times in the Wild West

The Explosion of Deferred Dreams: Musical Renaissance and Social Revolution in San Francisco, 1965-1975
Mat Callahan
2017 PM Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be transmitted by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-62963-231-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016948149
Cover by John Yates / www.stealworks.com
Interior design by briandesign
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PM Press
PO Box 23912
Oakland, CA 94623
www.pmpress.org
Printed in the USA by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan.
www.thomsonshore.com
For my children, Entelechy and Shannon, born amidst great turbulence
and
For their mother, Sandy, with whom I shared these years
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
-Langston Hughes
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PERSONAL INTRODUCTION
FOREWORD
CHAPTER 1 Portals of the Past, or Why San Francisco?
CHAPTER 2 Children of the Future
CHAPTER 3 Making Music to Change the World: Diversity, Unity, and Liberation
CHAPTER 4 Making Music to Change the World: Authority and Authenticity
CHAPTER 5 If You re Going to San Francisco: What One Song Tried to Usurp
CHAPTER 6 Songs of Innocence and Experience: Music s Rivalry with the State
CHAPTER 7 The Underground Is on the Air: Radio, Recording, Innovation, and Co-optation
CHAPTER 8 1968 and Beyond: Culture, Counterculture, and Revolution
CHAPTER 9 Power to the People: Nations, Classes, and Listening to the People
CHAPTER 10 Humanhood Is the Ultimate: Women, Music, and Liberation
CHAPTER 11 The Future Foreclosed: Counterrevolution and Defeat
APPENDICES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
NOTES
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
INDEX
Acknowledgments
W riting this book was a collaborative effort in more ways than one. Aid and encouragement came from friends and colleagues, some of whom I ve known since we worked and played together in the Sixties. But far more than good will was involved. Excavating decades-old memories, rescuing important data from oblivion, and revisiting bitter controversies some might prefer forgotten, could only be achieved with the assistance and corroboration of active participants. The many books, essays, films, and recordings I consulted could not replace the testimony, often absent from the historical record, contained in the interviews conducted for this book. The interviews are, in fact, a crucial component of this project, precisely because, taken together, they confirm a basic premise, namely that the history of the Sixties has been woefully misrepresented. While the many individuals I spoke with hold diverse views on substantive issues, they nonetheless share an unrepentant spirit regarding the struggle to change the world. In this sense, the interviews are really parts of a large conversation, crossing generations and continuing unabated to this day. I am indebted to each and all who participated, but must thank Barry Flast, in particular, for making available to me interviews he d conducted for his Artists Archives project. Sadly, Barry passed away in 2013, before this book was completed, so he never saw the fruits of his dedicated labor, above all, his ability to ask the right questions.
While my gratitude extends to dozens who helped along the way, there are three people whose contributions were especially noteworthy, in that they were largely responsible for me deciding to write this book in the first place: David Rubinson, who offered advice from the outset, as well as little known but vital information regarding the music of the period, the evolution of the recording process, and the role of the music industry; Joel Selvin, who provided access to archival material, especially from the San Francisco Chronicle , as well as insights based on years interacting with some of the key figures in this story; finally, Lincoln Cushing, who, as curator of the Michael Rossman poster collection, offered invaluable assistance compiling the visual images appearing in this book. The Rossman collection is made up of over twenty-five thousand posters Rossman himself collected over the span of four decades. Lincoln produced a book, All of Us or None , presenting not only representative posters from the collection but an analysis of their artistic and historical significance. This, in turn, provided crucial evidence and inspiration for my own effort.
The Interviews
Over the course of two years, 2009 and 2010, I conducted more than one hundred hours of interviews with a wide range of artists, journalists, technicians, and political activists. All were participants in the events described in this book. Their contribution is incalculable, not only in providing eyewitness accounts or anecdotal curiosities but also for the thoughtfulness and reflection they bring to the subject of the Sixties. While the arguments advanced in this book are my own, I have endeavored to faithfully convey what each person who so graciously gave their time and insights intended.
Peter Albin (interview conducted by Barry Flast)
Donna James Amador
Marty Balin (interview conducted by Barry Flast)
Frank Bardacke
Bruce Barthol
Bill Belmont
Fred Catero
Bill Champlin
Ron Davis
Joe Ellin
Fat Dog
Barry Finnerty
Jon Fromer
Pete Gallegos
Steve Ginsberg
Paul Harris
Joan Holden
Billy X Jennings
Ken Kessie
Mark Kitchell
Saul Landau
Taj Mahal
Claude Marks
Joe McDonald
Dennis McNally
Barry Melton
Doug Norberg
Tom Powell
Julia Rosenblatt
David Rubinson
Joel Selvin
Nina Serrano
Jerry Slick (interview conducted by Barry Flast) Roger Strobel
Paul Stubblebine
Greg Tate
Pat Thomas
Richie Unterberger
Ricky Vincent
Finally, I need to thank the people who undertook the reading of this book from its first to its final drafts. Thomas Powell made the first attempt and helped immeasurably in corroborating particular experiences he and I shared, as well as focusing the questions that needed to be answered for the general reader. Aaron Leonard, whose own project of excavation was underway at the same time I was researching this book helped me distinguish what were necessary data from the myriad of interesting, but less important, minutiae in which any researcher can become buried. My editor Romy Ruukel s patient and thorough reading of the manuscript brought to light many important questions of fact and interpretation. Clarification of these points greatly improved this book. Last but not least, the unflagging support and insightful questions of Yvonne Moore, my life partner, kept me going through all the trials and travails encountered along the way.
Thank you all.
Personal Introduction
I was hanging around with my buddies in the schoolyard. Herbert Hoover Junior High in San Francisco, to be exact. It was Monday morning, February 10, 1964. What we were wearing said as much about us as anything: Ben Davis or Levi jeans, Pendletons or work shirts, Keds or Converse sneakers, the basic look of kids into sports, cars, and girls. For a couple of us, this meant surfing. Though we lived in San