1920-2016
Oscar Brand
1920-2016
Oscar Brand
Oscar Brand was a Canadian-born American folk singer-songwriter and author. Oscar Brand was born on February 7, 1920, to a Jewish family in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He developed a love for writing and performing at an early age stating “since I first learned that words had meaning and that they could be communicated via the printed page, I have wanted to be a writer. I've also had a love affair with the stage -- since the day in 1924 when I was admitted free into the Pantages Theatre in Winnipeg.” In 1927, Brand moved with his family to Minneapolis, bouncing to Chicago, and then New York City. Oscar lived in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and graduated from Brooklyn College with a BS in psychology. It was here where Brand immersed himself in the burgeoning folk music scene, meeting and playing alongside legends like Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Paul Robeson, Josh White Sr., Pete Seeger, Jean Ritchie, Theo Bikel, and Alan Lomax.
In 1945, while continuing the pursuit of his songwriting and performing career, Brand began hosting the WNYC public radio show Oscar Brand’s Folksong Festival, which included appearances by Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul & Mary, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Harry Chapin, Arlo Guthrie, and many others. His half-hour show became very popular, and Brand remained the show’s host for 70 years. Today, the show now just Folksong Festival continues to be broadcast weekly and has become the longest-running program in the history of American radio. As a performer, Brand played guitar and banjo, and was known for songs like ‘Charlotte The Harlot’, ‘Blinded By Turds’, ‘Seven Old Ladies Locked In A Lavatory’, and ‘The Money Rolls In’. Brand's music spanned across a number of genres, a touched on a wide range of topics anywhere from novelty songs to serious social commentary. In 1952 Brand had two No. 1 hits with Doris Day’s recording of “A Guy Is A Guy” and “Burgundian Carol” recorded by the Weavers. A year later Brand wrote the lyrics to the song "Shlub-a-Dubba-Dub" which became a minor hit for Mitch Miller. His piece “When I First Came To This Land” also became popular among folksingers and the text has appeared as a children’s book.
“““Eiusmod exercitation veniam in anim adipisicing culpa excepteur esse quis id magna nostrud amet excepteur minim.”” ”
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OscarBrand
Brand was known for composing catchy and themed folk songs, including the theme song "Something to Sing About", which is also one of Canada's national songs, to his television show Let's Sing Out. This was a program Brand hosted in the 1960s broadcasted from Canadian university campuses featuring Canadian artists Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot among others. Brand was also a frequent performer at the Mariposa Folk Festival during this period, including performances in 1962, 1968, 1969, and 1987, as well as the 50th anniversary in 2010.He also co-wrote two Broadway shows with Paul Nassau, A Joyful Noise and The Education of Hyman Kaplan. His musical Thunder Bay based on Robert Ardrey’s play Thunder Rock also had a run in 1979 at the White Barn Theater in Connecticut, and The Kennedy Center 1976 musical Sing America Sing was written and directed by Oscar who also performed in the show alongside John Raitt and other stars.
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Brand’s passions expanded beyond music, he was a long-standing supporter of civil rights. He told stories of buying food for Lead Belly when the two traveled together in segregated areas and participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. In addition, he had strong political views, his score for the 1968 Off-Broadway show, How to Steal An Election sent up the social belief that charisma would help a candidate win the presidency. Oscar Brand was also one of the original organizers of the Newport Folk Festival which began in 1959, and in the 1960s he served as a board member of the Children's Television Workshop and participated in the development of Sesame Street, there has been speculation that the character “Oscar the Grouch” is loosely based on Brand who had some policy issues. Brand also is well known for his work as a writer, he has written a number of short stories, and various books on the folk song 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. Brand continued writing, broadcasting, and performing throughout most of his life, he died of pneumonia on September 30, 2016, at the age of 96.
Brand accumulated a number of accomplishments throughout his career, including the Peabody Award for broadcast excellence in 1982 for his broadcast The Sunday Show, and was awarded the Personal Peabody Award in 1995. He was also the founding director and long-time board member of the National Academy of Popular Music and Songwriters’ Hall of Fame and has received its Board of Directors' highest award for distinguished service. His career spanned over 70 years, during which he composed at least 300 songs and released nearly 100 albums
