Subscribe to theBut I Was Cool: Oscar Brown Jr.
Original Airdate: June 4th, 2005
This week on Night Lights we honor the memory of singer-songwriter and activist Oscar Brown Jr., who died on Sunday, May 29 at the age of 78. Brown, the son of a well-to-do South Side Chicago businessman, participated in the labor movement and progressive politics of the 1950s before trying his hand at composing and performing. He wrote a musical, Kicks and Co., and co-wrote We Insist! The Freedom Now Suite with Max Roach (you can hear Abbey Lincoln performing “Freedom Day” on the Night Lights program Juneteenth Jamboree and “Driva Man” on The Hawk Heads Home). Brown was a master of hip comedic narrative as well as social protest, often mingling the two together; this show features examples of his early-1960s work from Sin and Soul, In a New Mood, Tells It Like It Is, and Mr. Oscar Brown Jr. Goes to Washington.
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