Mat Callahan Knihy

Enslaved individuals used music as a powerful tool for resistance, escape, and rebellion, with songs that celebrated liberty and revolutionary heroes. These compositions, often misunderstood as mere laments, were vibrant calls for freedom, including the Haitian Revolution. Mat Callahan uncovers both long-forgotten slave songs and abolitionist anthems, revealing their historical significance and the urgent demand for justice and equality. Featuring lyrics and context for fifteen slave songs and fifteen abolitionist songs, this work challenges prevailing misconceptions and highlights the songs' militant spirit against slavery.

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.

"Working-class heroes is an organic melding of history, music, and politics that demonstrates with colorful evidence that workers everywhere will struggle to improve their conditions of life. And among them will be workers who share an insight: in order to better our lot, we must act collectively to change the world. This profusely illustrated treasury of song sheets, lyrics, photographs, histories, and biographical sketches explores the notion that our best hope lies in the capacity of ordinary working people to emancipate ourselves and all of humanity. Featuring more than a dozen songwriters, from Joe Hill to Aunt Molly Jackson, Working-class heroes delivers a lyrical deathblow to the myth that so-called political songs of the 20th century were being written by intellectuals in New York. The songs collected here have a striking relevance to current affairs and invite us to explore the historical conditions that inspired their creation: systemic crisis, advancing fascism, and the threat of world war. These working-class songwriters showed courage and heroism that is immortal, and such heroes and their work should be celebrated still today."--Adapted from page [4] of cover

Die Existenz von Sklavenliedern, insbesondere Spirituals, ist bekannt, doch ihr Charakter wird oft missverstanden. Diese Lieder waren nicht nur Klagen über Leiden, sondern riefen ausdrücklich zum Widerstand gegen die Sklaverei auf. Mat Callahan präsentiert in seinem Werk kürzlich entdeckte Lieder von versklavten Menschen, die bereits ab 1784 entstanden und bis zur Zeit des Bürgerkriegs reichen. Zudem werden lange verschollene Lieder der Abolitionisten-Bewegung vorgestellt, die von geflohenen Sklaven und freien Schwarzen verfasst wurden, wodurch gängige Missverständnisse über die Abolitionisten widerlegt werden. Das Buch enthält die Texte von fünfzehn Sklavenliedern und fünfzehn Abolitionistenliedern, die im richtigen historischen Kontext präsentiert und der breiten Öffentlichkeit zugänglich gemacht werden. Diese Lieder drücken nicht nur Empörung über die Sklaverei aus, sondern rufen auch zu militanten Widerstand und zur Zerstörung des Sklavensystems auf. Ihr Ziel ist klar: die Abschaffung der Sklaverei, die Emanzipation der afroamerikanischen Bevölkerung und die unbestreitbare Forderung nach Gleichheit und Gerechtigkeit für alle Menschen. Eine analytische Studie, die eine neue Perspektive auf die lange vergessenen Lieder des Widerstands bietet.