`The Harry Smith' Of Left Vinyl Records--Conclusion

An interview with `An Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels' Author Josh MacPhee

In a recent email interview for Protest Folk Magazine readers, New York City-based designer, artist and archivist Josh MacPhee responded to some questions related to the third edition of An Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels, that he authored. MacPhee is also a founding member of both the Justseeds Artists' Cooperative and Interference Archive, a public collection of cultural materials produced by social movements.

Why do you think most of the vinyl records produced by the labels you describe in your encyclopedia have never received much airplay on U.S. radio stations, either historically or currently?

JOSH MACPHEE: First, a significant portion of the labels in the book released music in languages other than English, which almost immediately means no radio play outside of a small number of small stations like college and community radio.

Second, many of the records were released for specific political purposes, and don't make a lot of sense outside of their original context. For instance, a 7" released by the Italian Communist Party to get a specific politician elected in 1969 is not going to make much sense in the U.S. at that time, never mind twenty years later. Often the goal is not so much "timeless good music" but sounds that mobilize specific people in specific places during specific periods of time.

And finally, a large portion of music that is politically charged also takes challenging sonic qualities. A huge amount of jazz music in the 1960s and 70s by players like Archie Shepp, Max Roach, and dozens and dozens more was never played on the radio, even though it was released by major corporate labels.

One thing that's interesting about the third edition of your encyclopedia is that you chose to, as you write, be "ecumenical" and include labels that were self-defined as either anarchists, socialists, communists and anti-imperialist revolutionary left nationalists--rather than just describing labels that only self-defined themselves as anarchists, for example. Why did you decide to be so "ecumenical"?

JOSH MACPHEE: I'm interested in how music is used and distributed through social movements, and very few movements have a unified ideological position. This is part of why I wanted to focus on the apparatus around music, rather than its sonic qualities.

While many musicians are highly politicized, few are political organizers, so often it is the structure around them that provides political context as much as the music itself. Hugh Masekela, the South African trumpet player, was a huge advocate for the African National Congress, but I have no doubt that his music was popular with supporters of other factions of the anti-apartheid movement, and likely even with white South Africans who supported apartheid.

Why did you decide to focus on smaller, independent labels (like Paredon, etc.) and not include major corporate labels in your encyclopedia?

JOSH MACPHEE: As said above, the structure around the music is as interesting to me as the music itself, and I was really interested in how large groups of mobilized people—movements—were engaging with, producing, and distributing vinyl records.

While there is no question that Bob Dylan's records were very important to many politicized people in the U.S. and beyond, it would be a stretch to say they were organizing tools. This is in clear contrast to someone like Victor Jara in Chile, who not only played concerts for Salvador Allende's socialist election campaign, but recorded the election theme song, and worked with a group of like-minded musicians to create the DICAP (Discoteca Del Cantar Popular) record label, which was started by communist youth at the end of the 1960s, and by the fascist coup in 1973, had become one of Chile's most popular labels.

How can U.S. working-class music fans and U.S. university libraries and U.S. public libraries who wish to obtain a copy of the third edition of An Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels purchase a copy of your great, groundbreaking reference book? And how can they go about obtaining copies of some of the vinyl records mentioned in An Encyclopedia of Political Record Labels?

JOSH MACPHEE: The book is available from my publisher Common Notions (https://www.commonnotions.org/encyclopedia-of-political-record-labels), or should be easy for any local bookstore to order. As for the records, that can be a little more challenging.

Political records pressed by U.S. labels like Folkways, Rounder, and Paredon can often be found in used bins in shops across the country, but much of the international stuff is much harder to find. Online, Discogs.com is a great resource, sort of like mixing eBay with Wikipedia, but with only music content. Many international shops and record sellers are on there, and many are more than happy to make deals for clutches of political records that aren't that popular in their shops. While there are some really amazing political gems that are bursting with both musical and contextual richness, there is also plenty of political vinyl that is much more interesting as an object of a moment than as free-standing music. (end of article).