Oscar Brand
Encyclopedia
Oscar Brand is a folk singer, songwriter, and author. In his career, spanning over 60 years, he has composed at least 300 songs and released nearly 100 albums, among them Canadian and American patriotic songs. Brand's music runs the gamut from novelty songs to serious social commentary and spans a number of genres.
He has also written a number of short stories, including:
.
In his long career he has played alongside such legends of folk music as Leadbelly
, Woody Guthrie
, Josh White
, The Weavers
and Pete Seeger
. He wrote various books on the folk song and folk song collections including The Ballad Mongers: Rise of the American Folk Song, Songs Of '76: A Folksinger's History Of The Revolution and Bawdy Songs & Backroom Ballads, the latter comprising four volumes.
Brand is well known for writing catchy, themed, folk songs, including the eponymous theme to his CBC
television show "Let's Sing Out" and the Canadian patriotic song "Something to Sing About
" (actual title: "This Land of Ours"), which is one of Canada's national folk songs.He collaborated on a number of musicals, most notably The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N (a musical version of Leo Rosten
's stories on the fictional character Hyman Kaplan
), and A Joyful Noise
.
He has been hosting the radio show Oscar Brand's Folksong Festival every Saturday at 10 p.m. on WNYC
-AM 820 in New York City, now going into its 66th year. The show has run more or less continuously since its debut on December 10, 1945, making it the longest-running radio show with the same host, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The show celebrated its 60th anniversary on December 10, 2005. Over its run it has introduced such talents to the world as Bob Dylan
, Joan Baez
, Woody Guthrie
, Arlo Guthrie
, Huddie Ledbetter, Joni Mitchell
, Peter, Paul & Mary, Judy Collins
, Kingston Trio, Pete Seeger
and The Weavers
. In order to make sure that his radio program could not be censored he has refused to be paid by WNYC for the past 65 years.
Although Brand was anti-Stalinist and was never a member of the Communist party, the HUAC committee referred to his show as a "pipeline of communism", because of his belief in the rights under the First Amendment of blacklisted artists to have a platform to reach the public. Accordingly, in June 1950, Brand was named in the premier issue of Red Channels
as Communist sympathizer, along with Paul Robeson
, Josh White
, Burl Ives
and Pete Seeger
.
In the early 1960s, Brand brought his substantial connections in the worldwide folk music community home to his native Canada with his CTV
television program Let's Sing Out
. The program was staged at and broadcast from university campuses across Canada and both revived the careers of long-forgotten pioneers of the folk music movement such as Malvina Reynolds
, the Womenfolk, The Weavers
and others and introduced then-unknown Canadian singers such as Joni Mitchell
and Gordon Lightfoot
. His score for the 1968 Off-Broadway show, How to Steal An Election sent up the current belief that charisma would help a candidate win. Songs included "Charisma" (sung by Calvin Coolidge
) and "Down Among the Grassroots". The album cover was decorated with election buttons including the 1968 Nixon campaign.
Brand has been awarded the Peabody Award
for broadcast excellence in 1982 for his broadcast The Sunday Show on National Public Radio, and was awarded the Personal Peabody Award in 1997 (shared with Oprah Winfrey
).
Brand was on the original board that created the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), which was the genesis of the creation of the Sesame Street
television show. He maintains that the organization has never achieved its original purpose, which was to reach inner-city children. His demeanor led to the creation of Oscar the Grouch
. This was confirmed on March 4, 2010, by Brand's son, Jordan Brand, who was appearing on Jeopardy!
, in response to a question by Alex Trebek
.
On January 18, 2010, WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour celebrated Brand's upcoming 90th birthday and the 65th anniversary of his radio career before an audience from Lexington, Kentucky
, where host Michael Johnathan and guest Josh White, Jr. performed with Brand and talked with him about his life. On February 7, 2010, CBC Radio
's "Sunday Edition" celebrated Brand's life on the occasion of his 90th birthday.
He has also written a number of short stories, including:
- "The Miser's Gold," about two young brothers who dare each other to spend the night in an allegedly haunted house - only to discover that "allegedly" is inapplicable. The boys encounter the ghost of a wealthy but lonely man; greatly amused by their reasons for being there, he names them as heirs to his considerable fortune.
- "The Hitchhiker," about a young man who, on the way home from a party, picks up a beautiful young woman who turns out to be much more than she seems.
Life and Career
He was born into a Jewish family in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada but he moved to New York as a young man where he studied at Brooklyn CollegeBrooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
.
In his long career he has played alongside such legends of folk music as Leadbelly
Leadbelly
Huddie William Ledbetter was an iconic American folk and blues musician, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced....
, Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
, Josh White
Josh White
Joshua Daniel White , better known as Josh White, was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names "Pinewood Tom" and "Tippy Barton" in the 1930s....
, The Weavers
The Weavers
The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, and selling millions of records at the height of their...
and Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
. He wrote various books on the folk song and folk song collections including The Ballad Mongers: Rise of the American Folk Song, Songs Of '76: A Folksinger's History Of The Revolution and Bawdy Songs & Backroom Ballads, the latter comprising four volumes.
Brand is well known for writing catchy, themed, folk songs, including the eponymous theme to his CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
television show "Let's Sing Out" and the Canadian patriotic song "Something to Sing About
Something to Sing About
"Something to Sing About" is a patriotic song written by folk singer Oscar Brand that sings the praises of the many different regions of Canada...
" (actual title: "This Land of Ours"), which is one of Canada's national folk songs.He collaborated on a number of musicals, most notably The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N (a musical version of Leo Rosten
Leo Rosten
Leo Calvin Rosten was born in Łódź, Russian Empire and died in New York City. He was a teacher and academic, but is best known as a humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism and Yiddish lexicography.-Early life:Rosten was born into a Yiddish-speaking family in what is now...
's stories on the fictional character Hyman Kaplan
Hyman Kaplan
Hyman Kaplan, or H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N as he habitually signs himself, is a fictional character in a series of well-received, humorous stories by Leo Rosten, under the pseudonym "Leonard Q...
), and A Joyful Noise
A Joyful Noise
A Joyful Noise is a musical with a book by Edward Padula and music and lyrics by Oscar Brand and Paul Nassau. The 1966 Broadway production was a flop but introduced choreographer Michael Bennett in his Broadway debut....
.
He has been hosting the radio show Oscar Brand's Folksong Festival every Saturday at 10 p.m. on WNYC
WNYC
WNYC is a set of call letters shared by a pair of co-owned, non-profit, public radio stations located in New York City.WNYC broadcasts on the AM band at 820 kHz, and WNYC-FM is at 93.9 MHz. Both stations are members of National Public Radio and carry distinct, but similar news/talk programs...
-AM 820 in New York City, now going into its 66th year. The show has run more or less continuously since its debut on December 10, 1945, making it the longest-running radio show with the same host, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The show celebrated its 60th anniversary on December 10, 2005. Over its run it has introduced such talents to the world as Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
, Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
, Huddie Ledbetter, Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
, Peter, Paul & Mary, Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
, Kingston Trio, Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
and The Weavers
The Weavers
The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, and selling millions of records at the height of their...
. In order to make sure that his radio program could not be censored he has refused to be paid by WNYC for the past 65 years.
Although Brand was anti-Stalinist and was never a member of the Communist party, the HUAC committee referred to his show as a "pipeline of communism", because of his belief in the rights under the First Amendment of blacklisted artists to have a platform to reach the public. Accordingly, in June 1950, Brand was named in the premier issue of Red Channels
Red Channels
Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television is an anti-Communist tract published in the United States at the height of the Red Scare...
as Communist sympathizer, along with Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
, Josh White
Josh White
Joshua Daniel White , better known as Josh White, was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names "Pinewood Tom" and "Tippy Barton" in the 1930s....
, Burl Ives
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures. Music critic John Rockwell said, "Ives's voice .....
and Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
.
In the early 1960s, Brand brought his substantial connections in the worldwide folk music community home to his native Canada with his CTV
Canadian television
Canadian television may refer to:*Television in Canada - general information about the Canadian television industry*CTV Television Network - a specific Canadian TV network; CTV is sometimes interpreted as "Canadian Television"...
television program Let's Sing Out
Let's Sing Out
Let's Sing Out was a Canadian music television series which aired on CTV from 1963 to 1966, then on CBC Television until 1968.-Premise:This series, patterned after the American Hootenanny show, featured contemporary folk music hosted by folk musician Oscar Brand...
. The program was staged at and broadcast from university campuses across Canada and both revived the careers of long-forgotten pioneers of the folk music movement such as Malvina Reynolds
Malvina Reynolds
Malvina Reynolds was an American folk/blues singer-songwriter and political activist, best known for her song-writing, particularly the songs "Little Boxes" and "Morningtown Ride".-Early life:...
, the Womenfolk, The Weavers
The Weavers
The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, and selling millions of records at the height of their...
and others and introduced then-unknown Canadian singers such as Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
and Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...
. His score for the 1968 Off-Broadway show, How to Steal An Election sent up the current belief that charisma would help a candidate win. Songs included "Charisma" (sung by Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
) and "Down Among the Grassroots". The album cover was decorated with election buttons including the 1968 Nixon campaign.
Brand has been awarded the Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
for broadcast excellence in 1982 for his broadcast The Sunday Show on National Public Radio, and was awarded the Personal Peabody Award in 1997 (shared with Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
).
Brand was on the original board that created the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), which was the genesis of the creation of the Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
television show. He maintains that the organization has never achieved its original purpose, which was to reach inner-city children. His demeanor led to the creation of Oscar the Grouch
Oscar the Grouch
Oscar the Grouch is a Muppet character on the television program Sesame Street. He has a green body , has no nose , and lives in a trash can. His favorite thing in life is trash; evidence for this is the song "I Love Trash". A running theme is his compulsive hoarding of seemingly useless items...
. This was confirmed on March 4, 2010, by Brand's son, Jordan Brand, who was appearing on Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
, in response to a question by Alex Trebek
Alex Trebek
George Alexander "Alex" Trebek is a Canadian American game show host who has been the host of the game show Jeopardy! since 1984, and prior to that, he hosted game shows such as Pitfall and High Rollers. He has appeared in numerous television series, usually as himself...
.
On January 18, 2010, WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour celebrated Brand's upcoming 90th birthday and the 65th anniversary of his radio career before an audience from Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
, where host Michael Johnathan and guest Josh White, Jr. performed with Brand and talked with him about his life. On February 7, 2010, CBC Radio
CBC Radio
CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...
's "Sunday Edition" celebrated Brand's life on the occasion of his 90th birthday.