Battle of Berkeley Talking Blues

Annotation — Civil Rights Songs

This record (# FSM 004LP) included songs written by students about the Free Speech Movement (FSM) and its activities in October 1964 at the University of California, Berkeley (check out the FSM Digital Library). A dispute broke out between the Faculty and the students over the right to politically organise on campus - over issues like the Vietnam War and Civil Rights. Various sit-ins took place. This helped kick off the anti-war movement on the campuses. Also see the spoken word record Is Freedom Academic? A Documentary of the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley - Fall 1964. A narrator goes through the chronology of the events, in between speeches, songs, and sounds. Listen to the whole thing at UC Berkeley Library Social Activism Sound Recording Project: The Free Speech Movement and Its Legacy. Most of the songs are played to Bob Dylan melodies. The first song, "Battle of Berkeley Talking Blues", by David Mandel, made humorous references to the October demonstrations, including the "traffic problem" on campus, which the Dean of the school had used to describe the protesters. Other songs were called "Free Speech Demonstration Talking Blues", and "Lessons…

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Notes

Free Speech Movement FSM-4. Side A: the Sproul Hall sit-in, the arrest of Jack Weinberg and speeches from the top of the police car; side B: songs by FSM students.

Themes

Civil Rights · Demonstration

In collections

Civil Rights Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]