Zero to 180 – Three Minute Magic

Discoveries of a Pop Music Archaeologist

Category: Civil rights in popular music

Civil rights in popular music
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Jamil Nasser: Jazz in Russia

Penny Von Eschen‘s Satchmo Blows Up the World — observes Muneer Nasser in 2017’s Upright Bass:  The Musical Life and Legacy of Jamil Nasser (in the chapter entitled ‘Getting the Soviets to Swing’) — “reinforces the myth that [Benny Goodman] introduced jazz to the Soviet Union”: Benny Goodman became the first

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"H2O Gate Blues"
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“H2O Gate Blues”: DB Sound Studios — Silver Spring, MD

This piece updated 12/3/19 — scroll to “Lost 45?” appendix near the end This piece also updated 12/27/20 — Lillian Claiborne tribute appended at tail end As you may have already gathered, Zero to 180 has a soft spot for music history related to Silver Spring, Maryland.  We now know,

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"We the People" (1969)
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The Great (Musical) Experiment

Even less seems to be written about Allen Toussaint‘s final A-side for Bell, 1969‘s populist anthem, “We the People“: “We the People“ Allen Toussaint (1969) Imagine the magnitude of our collective output if we all directed our energies toward constructive ends instead of squabbling amongst ourselves.  Help me understand exactly

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"Tributo a Martin Luther King"
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Tribute to MLK: Eerily Prescient

Wilson Simonal‘s tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., a single that was released – eerily enough – the year before his assassination: “Tributo a Martin Luther King“     Wilson Simonal de Castro (1967) “Tributo a Martin Luther King” was the A-side of a single released in 1967, around the same

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"Don't Fake It"
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“Don’t Fake It”: Prophecy of a Black Presidency

As Martha Ross writes in The Mercury News/Contra Costa Times, cartoonist Morris “Morrie” Turner broke racial barriers in the 1960s when he became the first African-American to have a syndicated comic strip – Wee Pals – that still runs daily, despite Turner’s death this past January at the age of

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"This Old Town"
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“This Old Town”: Where Love is the Prevailing Order

In Wilson Pickett‘s town, universal respect for the humanity common to us all allows for an enlightened self-governance to rule the day. “This Old Town“ Wilson Pickett (1970) “This Old Town” from Pickett’s 1970 Atlantic album, Right On, was never to appear on a 45, which is a shame, since

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"Fire in the City"
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“Fire in the City”: Hendricks & The Dead

Not Jimi, but rather Jon — he of jazz vocal trio, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. In 1967 Jon Hendricks and The Grateful Dead composed music for the soundtrack of a Jerry Stoll documentary entitled, Sons and Daughters, in which students from the University of California at Berkeley march to the

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