Break On Through To The Other Side

Looking through WFMU's invaluable MP3 blog, I discovered the "anti-Joan Baez". Ohio's Janet Greene released eight "red-baiting" songs between 1964 and 1966, with the assistance of the Christian Anti-Communist Crusade. WFMU sez,

"While there were a few other attempts at right-wing folk music during this period, most notably The Goldwaters, Greene was the darling of the anti-communist right during a period when leftist folksongs dominated the popular imagination. For a brief, shining moment, the right wing had its own raven haired troubador..."

Here is "Fascist Threat", which, as you might have guessed, is calypso:

I heard it said and it makes me fret
"America has a fascist threat"
Which organization can it be?
This is what perplexes me...

PLAY LOUD

You can perhaps see where this is going. The eight songs, including "Inch By Inch" and "Commie Lies" are available at WFMU, and a series of links from there will get you to this lengthy biography of Janet Green.

Thanks to WFMU, fellow extremist troubadours the Goldwaters, mentioned above, are also downloadable. Here is their "What Have You Done (Left Wing, Left Wing)":

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Much more Goldwaters information and streaming audio here.

These weren't quite marginal figures; both the Goldwaters and Greene performed at a 1964 Barry Goldwater rally emceed by a tag team of Ronald Reagan and John Wayne.

Finally, and not least, here is the mysterious Keith Everett's catchy 1966 song "Conscientious Objectors", once again harvested from WFMU and originally featured in Otis Fodder's 2003 365 Days Project.

PLAY LOUD

I, Mike of the London Fog, performed this research in the interest of helping Mitchievillians make the right choice in the civic election on October 10.