How Barbara Dane Organized 1965 Anti-Vietnam War `Sing-In For Peace' Concert

U.S. Jazz, Blues and Protest Folk Singer Barbara Dane in 1970's

In a 1991 interview, 20th-century and 21st-century U.S. jazz, blues and folk singer Barbara Dane recalled how she organized the first large New York City antiwar movement concert that protested against the Vietnam War, a "Sing-In For Peace," which took place at Carnegie Hall on September 24, 1965:

"...I was in New York and I was living there and I had produced together with [then-Sing-Out magazine editor] Irwin [Silber] something called the `Sing-In For Peace', which was at Carnegie Hall.

"It was the first big, it was actually the first big anti-war demonstration because it was conceived of as a demonstration of singers and their public against the war. And nobody really had mounted a, you know, a big street demonstration or anything.

"So this, we, being the kind of plotters we are, we figured this thing out that.

"And it’s funny. It was right at the time of the newspaper strikes. Lot of newspaper strikes were going on. Two or three papers. I don’t know. It was very hard to get anything in the newspaper. And we had to do it all by quarter-sheets pasted on walls....

"I got some leaflets together and, you know, we got different organizations to leaflet their people and mail it out or whatever we did.

"But anyway, very quickly we saw that, well, sixty some odd performers wanted to be on the thing...I sent a letter to everybody. I coordinated the whole thing out of the Sing-Out magazine office basically (and home) and invited everybody, including a lot of traditional singers…" 

U.S. Jazz, Blues and Protest Folk Singer Barbara Dane in 20th-century

 

Newport Folk Festival's Exclusion Of Barbara Dane Revisited

 

U.S. Jazz, Blues and Folk Singer Barbara Dane in 1960 (wikicommons)

In a 1991 interview, 20th-century and 21st-century U.S. jazz, blues and folk singer Barbara Dane recalled how some commercially-oriented U.S. folk music festival producers--like then-Newport Folk Festival Producer George Wein--apparently failed to invite her to perform at most commercially-oriented U.S. folk music festivals during the 1960's; and during the 11 years that she devoted to recording other protest folk singers or singer-songwriters on non-commercially-oriented Paredon Records' vinyl albums.

"I was never invited back to Newport except once....I’ll give you some documentation about that because it’s kind of interesting.

"But it basically was I went to the festival because I loved the music and I loved the people who perform it.,,So I went several times and just soaked everything up and reconnected with a lot of old friends and all that. But I--outside of being asked to get up and jam on somebody’s set--was never invited back there to sing.

"...I got an invitation one day via Bernice Reagon to be on a workshop...She’d sort of taken note that the festival was getting further and further from its glory days, when everyone stands on the stage and sings `We Shall Overcome.' And now we’re, you know, two three years down the line and...it’s all sort of a sham.

"And so she decided to propose a political song workshop. And it was going to be a one hour workshop, out on the edge of the...You know, in the tent during the day. Not on the main stage and all that kind of stuff.

"But anyway I got a letter inviting me to be on that. And I decided to turn that down because I decided that it was a mockery of the whole deal...I decided that this was made to marginalize...to a one hour workshop....I mean we’re talking...mid-Sixties, later Sixties. And they were going to marginalize it out to that...

"Boil it all down and have a little token thing. And then they can sit back and say `well we did it. Now we did our thing. We had political singers here.' I decided I wasn’t going to be a party to that.

"So I made a big todo about it. I wrote a big long letter explaining why I wasn’t going to do it and sent it to the board. Which then included quite a lot of people in the folk music field. And kinda quite a lot of key people. And then I also sent it to the Village Voice and they printed it.

"And as a result I was never, for twenty years or more--well let’s say dating from the first festival--which was what ’59, the first Newport festival? I was never invited to sing on a major folk song festival. Zero. You know.

"So I began to realize that this was happening. These things sneak up on you. Like this is not blacklisting in the sense of the McCarthy black list. This is, that’s that only term I can think of, is marginalization. You know, you’re just sort of pushed further out..."

How Barbara Dane Protested Exclusion Of Pete Seeger By `Hootenanny' TV Folk Music Show In 1960's

In a 1991 interview, 20th-century and 21st-century U.S. jazz, blues and folk singer Barbara Dane recalled how she protested against the refusal of the producers of the April 1963 to September 1964 corporate media television folk music show, Hootenanny, to allow U.S. folk singer-songwriter Pete Seeger to appear on their show; and how her protest may have influenced the way some commercially-oriented U.S. folk music people treated her in the 1960's:

"... I was experiencing...in the mid-sixties, already this sense of marginalization from the folk music people because, after turning down [Albert] Grossman [Bob Dylan's then-manager], must have been the word was out. `Oh she’s not real serious about her career or something.'

"Because none of the other managers, entrepreneurs really seemed to want anything to do with what I was doing. And I think also in having--I don’t know--when that “Hoot-N-Anny” business was-- with turning down the “Hoot-N-Anny” show at the last minute. And I did it in a way that I forced them to have a lot of problems….

"But I, you know, once I knew that I wasn’t going to do it, I decided that I wouldn’t just tell them right away. I would wait until the last minute. And tell them so it would cause them a lot of trouble. Why not? If you can do it, do it big.

"So I think...the word went out I was a `troublemaker.' And I was `irresponsible.' Or I was--I don’t know what they would say...So I was feeling further and further marginalized...".

U.S. Jazz, Blues and Folk Singer Barbara Dane in 1960 (wikicommons)

 

Why Barbara Dane Did Not Sign Up With Dylan Manager Grossman In 1960's

U.S.Jazz, Blues and Folk Singer Barbara Dane in 1960 (wikicommons)

In a 1991 interview, 20th-century and 21st-century U.S. jazz, blues and folk singer Barbara Dane indicated why--unlike Bob Dylan--she did not agree to team up with hip capitalist manager Albert Grossman, during the early 1960's folk music boom:

"...Al Grossman was starting to build his stable of people and he brought me to, essentially brought me to the first Newport festival for the purpose of, sort of, you know, let’s see if it’ll fly here. And after that he proposed that I sign up with him. But he laid the cards right out there.

"He says, `look you know you got all this political stuff that you want to do, and you got your children, and you got your family life, and you got all this and you want a career besides.' But he says `you got to decide which it is you’re really gonna do. And, you know, if you make, if you decide it’s really gonna be the career, well, we can do business.'

" And I knew right then and there that we were not gonna be a team…."