When most people think of MRC, they think of videos or DVDs.  While moving images are undoubtedly the mainstay and most heavily used part of the MRC collection, they're not the only medium in which we traffick.  MRC also currently owns well over 3,000 audio titles on cassette and CD.  The MRC audio collection mainly comprises spoken word materials, from poetry readings, to interviews of notable people, to famous speeches.  There is also a smattering of music that has been included in the collection because of its political or social significance.  Some of those titles are described below:

American Industrial Ballads (Pete Seeger)Contents: Peg and awl -- The blind fiddler -- The buffalo skinners -- Eight-hour day -- Hard times in the mill -- Roll down the line -- Hayseed like me -- The farmer is the man -- Come all you hardy miners -- He lies in the American land -- Casey Jones -- Let them wear their watches fine -- Cotton mill colic -- Seven cent cotton and forty cent meat -- Mill mother's lament -- Fare ye well, old Ely Branch -- Beans, bacon, and gravy -- The death of Harry Simms -- Winnsboro Cotton Mill blues -- Ballad of Barney Graham -- My children are seven in number -- Raggedy -- Pittsburgh Town -- Sixty per cent. Sound/D 69

Sing for freedom: the story of the civil rights movement through its songs.

We are soldiers in the army -- Keep your hand on the plow -- This little light -- You better leave segregation alone -- Your dog loves my dog -- Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around -- I woke up this morning with my mind on freedom -- Keep your eyes on the prize -- Oh Pritchett, oh Kelly -- Up above my head -- This little light -- Brown baby -- Which side are you on? -- I'm gonna sit at the welcome table -- Mass meeting and prayer -- Guide my feet -- I'm on my way -- Rev. Ralph Abernathy -- Yes, we want our freedom -- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- Ninety-nine-and-a-half won't do -- Get on board -- No danger in the water -- Medgar Evans speaking -- Keep your eyes on the prize -- We shall overcome.  SOUND/D 118

 

The Best of Broadside 1962-1988  : anthems of the American underground from the pages of Broadside magazine

Phil Ochs, Peter La Farge, The Broadside Singers, Pete Seeger, Mark Spoelstra, Jim Page, Malvina Reynolds, Tom Paxton, Bob Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, The Freedom Singers, Janis Ian, Len Chandler, El Teatro Campesino, Paul Kaplan, Wes Houston, The New World Singers, Rev. F. D. Kirkpatrick, Jim Collier, Sammy Walker, Peggy Seeger.
Broadside was a small underground magazine filled with new songs by artists too radical for the establishment. These songs tell stories rooted in American history from 1962 through 1988 addressing such issues as warfare, nuclear threat, ethnic conflicts, immigrants' sufferings, unequal treatment of women, ecological devastation and social injustice. This extensively annotated 5 CD set includes 89 songs, some never commercially released, extensive notes, graphics from the original Broadside magazine and more.  SOUND/D 88

 

Project J, Justice: barbed wire and hip-hop

Sei sei doh-doh -- Democracy can be an illusion -- Memoirs of a watchdog -- Our family -- 9-o Double 6 -- Black hair -- One together -- Gambare -- Timeline -- We're dealing with ....
In order to increase teens' awareness of the injustices Japanese Americans faced during the wartime hysteria of WWII, this disc incorporates audio excerpts from the Los Angeles hearings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) with hip-hop, rap, and jazz music.  SOUND/D 195

 

Don't Mourn, Organize!: Songs of Labor (Joe Hill)

Contents: Joe Hill / Phil Ochs (Billy Bragg) -- Joe Hill's last will / Joe Hill (Utah Phillips) -- Joe Hill's ashes / Mark Levy (Mark Levy) -- The preacher and the slave / Joe Hill ("Haywire Mac" McClintock) -- Joe Hill / Alfred Hayes, Earl Robinson (Paul Robeson) -- Paper heart / Si Kahn, Charlotte Brody (Si Kahn) -- Casey Jones, the union scab / Joe Hill (Pete Seeger and the Song Swappers) -- Mr. Block / Joe Hill (Mats Paulson) -- Joe Hill listens to the praying / Kenneth Patchen (Joe Glazer) -- The tramp / Joe Hill (Cisco Houston) -- Joe Hill / Afred Hayes, Earl Robinson (Earl Robinson) -- The white slave / Joe Hill (Alfred Esteban Cortez) -- Narrative (Elizabeth Gurley Flynn) -- The rebel girl / Joe Hill ; arr. and adapted with original material by Hazel Dickens (Hazel Dickens) -- There is power in a union / Joe Hill (Entertainment Workers IU 630, I.W.W.). Sound/D 71

 

Dust Bowl Ballads (Woody Guthrie)

Contents: The great dust storm (Dust storm disaster) -- Talking dust bowl blues -- Pretty Boy Floyd -- Dusty old dust (so long it's been good to know yuh) -- Dust bowl blues -- Blowin' down the road (I ain't going to be treated this way) -- Tom Joad, Part 1 -- Tom Joad, Part 2 -- Do re mi -- Dust bowl refugee -- I ain't got no home -- Vigilante man -- Dust can't kill me -- Dust pneumonia blues -- Talking dust bowl blues (alternate version). Recorded in New York City, Apr. 26, 1940 and May, 3, 1940. SOUND/D 72

 

Presidential Campaign Songs, 1789-1996

Free elections (In General) (0:27) -- Follow Washington (George Washington) (1:01) -- Adams and liberty (John Adams) (1:36) -- For Jefferson and liberty (Thomas Jefferson) (1:51) -- Huzzah for Madison, huzzah (James Madison) (1:22) -- Monroe is the man (James Monroe) (1:29) -- Little know ye who's coming (John Q. Adams) (1:58) -- Jackson and Kentucky (Andrew Jackson) (2:10) -- Rockabye, baby (Martin Van Buren)(1:24) -- The Harrison yankee doodle (William H. Harrison) (1:12) -- Tippecanoe and Tyler, too (John Tyler) (1:15) -- Jimmy Polk of Tennessee (James K. Polk) (1:37) -- Rumadum dum (Zachary Taylor) (1:19) -- The union wagon (Millard Fillmore) (1:41) -- Pierce and king (Franklin Pierce) (1:36) -- Buchanan and John Breckenridge (James Buchanan) (1:12) -- Lincoln and liberty (Abraham Lincoln) (2:09) -- Just before election, Andy (Ulysses S. Grant) (1:27) -- For Hayes and Wheeler,too (Rutherford Hayes) (1:20) -- If the Johnnies get into power again (James A. Garfield) (1:45) -- Democrats, good Democrats (Grover Cleveland)(1:38) -- He's all right (Benjamin H. Harrison) (1:20) -- Marching with McKinley (William McKinley) (2:04) -- Roosevelt the cry (Teddy Roosevelt) (1:14) -- Get on a raft with Taft (William H. Taft) (1:34) -- Wilson, that's all (Woodrow Wilson) (1:51) -- Harding, you're the man for us (Warren G. Harding) (1:21) -- Keep cool and keep Coolidge (Calvin Coolidge) (2:17) -- If he's good enough for Lindy (Herbert Hoover) (1:35) -- Franklin D. Roosevelt's back again (Franklin D. Roosevelt) (1:49) -- I'm just wild about Harry (Harry S. Truman) (0:47) -- I like Ike (Dwight D. Eisenhower) (0:40) -- Marching down to Washington (John F. Kennedy) (1:03) -- Hello, Lyndon (Lyndon B. Johnson) (1:03) -- Buckle down with Nixon (Richard M. Nixon) (1:17) -- I'm feeling good about America (Gerald R. Ford) (1:22) -- Why not the best? (Jimmy Carter) (2:29) -- California, here we come (Ronald W. Reagan) (0:37) -- This land is your land (George Bush) (1:29) -- Don't stop thinking about tomorrow (William J. Clinton) (2:19) -- The same merry-go-round (Third party) (1:42) -- Song of the presidents (all of them) (4:25).

Oscar Brand, guitar and vocals; John Foley, guitar and vocals; Jordan Brand, bass and vocals; Jonathan Pickow, banjo, synthesizer, and vocals. Sound/D 80

 

 Songs for Political ActionDisc one, The leftist roots of the folk revival. Disc two, Theatre and cabaret performers, 1936-1941.  Sound/D 75-79

 

We Have Fed You All a Thousand Years

Traditional tunes from the "Little Red Songbook," published by the I.W.W. labor union in the early 20th century. Contents: The boss (0:19) -- We have fed you all a thousand years (1:59) -- Sheep and goats (1:02) -- The timberbeast's lament (1:41) -- Dump the bosses off your back (4:15) -- The lumberjack's prayer (1:48) -- Mr. Block (4:27) -- The preacher and the slave (4:12) -- The popular Wobbly (2:04) -- Casey Jones ; the union scab (2:57) -- Where the Fraser River flows (2:53) -- Bread and roses (2:56) -- Joe Hill (4:14) -- Union burying ground (3:31) -- The two bums (1:02) -- Hallelujah, I'm a bum (5:28) -- Solidarity forever (4:19) -- There is power in a union (3:42). Performer: Utah Phillips, vocals and guitar. 1993. Sound/D 100