A Century of Pop Music

Entering a new millenium provided an opportunity to look back at an era. Musical tastes and fashions provide a way to travel backwards to get a sense of what the past sounded like.

Joel Whitburn Presents A Century of Pop Music: Year-by-Year Top 40 Rankings Of The Songs & Artists That Shaped A Century provides such a century long overview. Joel Whitburn and his Record Research company have been assembling books ranking record singles and albums since 1970. All of Whitburn's earliest work was based on the weekly top record charts published in Billboard magazine. These famed record charts on came into existence in 1940. For earlier years Whitburn and his staff have relied upon periodicals like Talking Machine World and other reference sources.

There is no absolutely objective way to rank the popularity--the Billboard charts are only a sampling of buying behavior. The results in A Century of Popular Music are biased toward the longevity of time that song spent on the highest ranks on the charts rather than a composite of sales or radio airplay. Nevertheless this book presents a fascinating glimpse of American popular taste.

While it seems natural that The Beatles' "Hey Jude" is ranked the number one song of the 1960s, who would have guessed that "Theme from a Summer Place" by Percy Faith was number two? Or that the Paul Whiteman Orchestra had more ranked songs (78 of them over fourteen years) than the Jimmy Dorsey and Tommy Dorsey Orchestras combined. However, legends of American music like Louis Armstrong and Bob Dylan did not often reach the pinnacles of the singles charts and their work is under-represented here (there are listings for three songs by Armstrong and two by Dylan).

Joel Whitburn Presents A Century of Pop Music: Year-by-Year Top 40 Rankings Of The Songs & Artists That Shaped A Century: Compiled from America's Popular Music Charts, Surveys, And Record Listings 1900-1939, And Billboard's Pop Singles Charts, 1940-1999 (Record Research, 1999).

The Art of Rock - Graphic Sound in the 60's and Punk Graphics

The Art, Music and Recreation Center is presenting two small exhibits, Graphic Sounds In The 60's and Punk Graphics, through the end of November. These exhibits, consisting of images from our book collection, are located in a wall display case on the South wall opposite the atrium on the Fourth Floor of the Main Library.

Graphic Sound in the 60's

In the 1960’s San Francisco became home to a generation of people looking for a different way of life than those of their parents. They were known as hippies and valued free spirit, peace and harmony, and often alternative states of consciousness achieved by using hallucinogenic drugs. The music in San Francisco during this time was a reflection of this awareness. And in response, the posters promoting the musical groups took on a psychedelic edge. Art Nouveau images and Edwardian lettering provided inspiration as well. Many of these shows happened at the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium. Five of the best known poster artists, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin and Wes Wilson, became known as “The Big Five.”

Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley provided the images for many of the most popular rock artists of the 60’s; Grateful Dead, Big Brother and The Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger service, Steve Miller Band, to name a few. The skull and roses image has become one of the strongest images associated with the Grateful Dead. Mouse and Kelley were the artists.

Victor Moscoso also gained fame for his poster work in San Francisco on 1967. He went on to work for Zap Comix with Robert crumb in the San Francisco Underground Comix movement.

Rick Griffin grew up in Palos Verdes and participated in Ken Kesey's Acid Test. After seeing work by Moscoso and Kelley he moved up to San Francisco and started working on his graphic art. The music promoter Chet Helms liked his work and invited him to create posters for Family Dog and the Avalon Ballroom. Griffin, like Moscoso, was part of the Underground Comix movement.

Wes Wilson, born in 1937, is known for his "psychedelic" lettering that appeared to be melting or moving. He designed posters for Bill Graham and the Fillmore Auditorium during the 1960's.

Frank Kozik was not a part of the “Big Five” and actually became active in Austin, Texas in the late 1980’s but has been credited as reviving the art of the concert poster. Born in Spain in 1962, he moved to TX at the age of 14 and now works in San Francisco. He is well known in the music poster world and his work is quoted as “simulating the intensity of the rock scene he has long been affiliated with, his art acts as a pictorial introduction to the musical experience”. The book Man’s Ruin: The Poster Art of Frank Kozik offers a look into the artist’s process with notes written by Kozik and the artists he was friends with.

Punk Graphics

The punk poster was designed for the moment.

The graphic artist, more than occasionally one of the band members, would create the music visuals and Xerox as many as he/she could afford or finagle. Flyers and handbills were taped to club walls, stapled to telephone poles and papered the streets. This art was left to be covered by the next shows’ flyers, to fade in the elements and rot in the rain. They were quickly made, bold, B&W blasts, created to spread the word of the band and then left to become trash.

Different than their 60s and early 70s psychedelic predecessors which used technology to evoke the “pretty” aesthetics of the Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau movements, the punk poster aesthetic was different. It was typically satirical or political and was almost always emotionally raw. As Devo is quoted, “the more technology you have, the more primitive you can be. With synthesizers you can express guttural sounds, bird noises, brain waves, blood flow.” Similarly, punk posters evoked a primitivism.

Just as Raymond Pettibon, the graphic artist for Los Angeles’ Black Flag, went on to international acclaim as a highly-collectible visual artist, the Bay Area punk movement also launched careers. Pepe Moreno is best known for his DC Comic creation, Batman: Digital Justice, as well as video and arcade games such as HellCab. An Rafferty remains a freelance artist, having worked for Thrasher, Warner New Media and Klasky-Csupo, among others. Edwin Heaven, designer and promoter for The Tubes and The Nuns, continues to mold popular culture through advertising slogans, creative writing and novelty inventions. Patrick Miller, Minimal Man creator, worked in Hollywood as a set designer and dresser.

Other artists might be forgotten if not for archivists Peter Belsito, Bob Davis, Marian Kester and the local publisher Last Gasp. Their books Streetart: The Punk Poster in San Francisco 1977-1981, and Hardcore California: A History of Punk and New Wave offer a comprehensive look at the posters of the time.

Nervous Gender by An Rafferty (used by permission of the artist)

Bibliography

Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion by Paul Grushkin & Dennis King; foreword by Wayne Coyne (Chronicle Books, 2004).

The Art of Rock: Posters from Presley to Punk by Paul Grushkin; artworks photographed by Jon Sievert (Abbeville Press, 1987).

The Blues Album Cover Art, edited by Graham Marsh & Barrie Lewis (Chronicle Books, 1996).

Cover Art By: New Music Graphics designed, written & edited by Adrian Shaughnessy (Laurence King, 2008).

Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album by Matthew Robertson; foreword by Tony Wilson (Chronicle Books, 2007).

Fly: The Art of the Club Flyer by Nicola Ackland-Snow, Nathan Brett, and Steven Williams (Watson-Guptill Publications, 1997).

Freehand: The Art of Stanley Mouse by Stanley Mouse, with joint works by Alton Kelley; introduction by Joel Selvin; foreword by Mickey Hart; essay by Walter Madeiros (SLG Books, 1993).

The Greatest Album Covers of All Time by Barry Miles, Grant Scott and Johnny Morgan (Collins & Brown, 2005).

High Art: A History of The Psychedelic Poster by Ted Owen, Denise Dickson (Sanctuary, 1999).

In The Groove: Vintage Record Graphics, 1940-1960 by Eric Kohler (Chronicle Books, 1999).

Man's Ruin: The Posters & Art of Frank Kozik by Frank Kozik (Last Gasp, 1995).

Mouse & Kelley by Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley (Dell Pub. Co., 1979).

Modern Dog: 20 Years of Poster Art (Not Canine-Related) by Robynne Raye, Michael Strassburger; introduction by Steven Heller; interviews by Rick Valicenti and James Victore (Chronicle Books, 2008).

Off The Wall: Psychedelic Rock Posters from San Francisco compiled by Amélie Gastaut and Jean-Pierre Criqui (Thames & Hudson, 2005).

100 Best Album Covers: The Stories Behind The Sleeves compiled and written by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell; design by Richard Evans, et al. (DK Pub., 1999)

Punk on 45: Revolutions on Vinyl 1976-79 by Gavin Walsh; text by Paul A. Woods (Plexus, 2006).

Rock Art: CDs, Albums & Posters by Spencer Drate; foreword by Roger Dean (PBC International, 1993).


To search the catalog for similar books enter the following Subject Headings:

Advertising flyers
Rock music -- Posters
Sound recordings -- Album covers

To browse the shelves, go directly to these key Call Numbers:

741.6
741.66
741.6709
741.674

How to Listen to and Understand Great Music

Die Symphonie (detail) by Moritz von Schwind, from Schwind: Eine Auswahl aus dem Lebenswerk des Meisters in 114 Abbildungen. (Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt,1922).

Robert Greenberg is a composer and music scholar who lectures extensively throughout North America and Europe. He attended Princeton where he earned a B.A. and continued his education at the University of California Berkeley, receiving his Ph.D. in music composition in 1984. His music has been performed in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, England, Ireland, Italy, Greece and the Netherlands. He was a professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for 20 years and was the creator, host, and lecturer for the San Francisco Symphony’s “Discovery Series.” He is also Music Historian-in-Residence with San Francisco Performances, where he has lectured and performed since 1994.

Dr. Greenberg’s energetic, involving lectures on classical music, and composers have been captured by the Teaching Company on CD and video. The San Francisco Public Library owns the series How to Listen to and Understand Great Music and the Great Masters series on individual composers. Though these talks are packed with information--listening a couple of times is a good idea for the beginner--the lively presentation makes them very entertaining as well.

The Art, Music and Recreation Center also has scores and parts for two works written by Robert Greenberg:

Breaths, Voices and Cadenze for string quartet. (Fallen Leaf Press, 1982).

By Various Means for clarinet quartet [clarinet, violin, viola and 'cello]. (Fallen Leaf Press, 1983).

Kimono Display

In Japan, kimono is a generic word that literally means “thing to wear”. While this could cover a wide range of garments, it is usually used to describe the full-length robe that people associate with Japanese attire.

In earlier times, Japanese clothing closely resembled Chinese-style robes. “During the Nara period (AD 710-794), however, garments resembling the kimono began to appear, and after Japan suspended contact with China. . . a style began to emerge that became uniquely Japanese” (Jenni Dobson. Making Kimono and Japanese Clothing. London: Batsford, 2008).

Through October 19, the Art and Music Center will display a contemporary art style kimono designed by Northern California fiber artist Sharon Cahn. Colorful reproductions of book covers from books about kimono are displayed as well.


For further reading, the following books may be of interest:

The Book of Kimono by Norio Yamanaka. (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1986).

Fashioning Kimono by Reiko Mochinaga Brandon and others. (Milan: 5 Continents, 2005).

Kimono as Art by Itchiku Kubota. (London: Thames & Hudson, 2008).

Kimono: Fashioning Culture by Liza Crihfield Dalby. (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1993).

Kimonos by Sophie Milenovich. (New York: Abrams, 2007).

Knit Kimono by Vicki Square. (Loveland, Colo.: Interweave Press, 2007).

When Art Became Fashion by Dale Carolyn Gluckman. (Calif.: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1992).

Splendid Survivors

View of downtown taken from Telephone Co. building, August 1, 1951 from the San Francisco History Room's Historical Photograph Collection.

Splendid Survivors: San Francisco's Downtown Architectural Heritage is perhaps the most meticulously prepared book to date on the history of San Francisco's buildings. This book was created with a purpose of documenting the City's downtown architecture with an aim of taking stock of what deserved preservation.

The authors compare their mission of preservation with environmental conservation: "a broader and more sophisticated understanding of environmental quality [should] encompass natural and man-made factors that make up our environment." They lay stress on preserving a "sense of place" and "cultural continuity." They also maintain that in most cases, older buildings were better constructed and better suited to the native climate.

Splendid Survivors is primarily an inventory of 790 buildings in San Francisco's Financial District, South of Market, Union Square and Market Street districts. This inventory includes the address, the name of the building, the date of its construction and when available the architect(s). Most entries include a paragraph about the building and a photograph. They also
rate the buildings on a scale from A to D - the "A" buildings having "outstanding qualities of architecture, historical values and relationship to the environment."

This book also includes an excellent essay by Michael R. Corbett entitled "Historical Background" that traces the architectural history of downtown San Francisco. It also details the buildings that survived the 1906 earthquake and fire buildings.

In light of the construction boom that took place in San Francisco in the late 1990s and early 2000s the work that went into this book probably played a role in preserving San Francisco's architectural character. It also documents the City as it was before this transformation.

Strolling with this book through San Francisco's downtown, one can truly develop an appreciation for the layers of historic and the dynamics of change on the City's streets.

Splendid Survivors: San Francisco's Downtown Architectural Heritage, prepared by Charles Hall Page & Associates, Inc., for the Foundation for San Francisco's Architectural Heritage,text by Michael R. Corbett. (California Living Books, 1979).

Punk Passage and Punk Penelope

The band Crime photographed by Ruby Ray

Don't forget to check out two new exhibits at the San Francisco Public Library.

Punk Passage: San Francisco First Wave Punk 1977-1981 in the Jewett Gallery on the Lower Level of the Main Library is an exhibit of photographs taken by Ruby Ray for the magazine Search And Destroy. In addition to the striking photography there is are also 'zines, flyers, posters and other ephemera, including material from the Art, Music and Recreation Center Collection.

Additionally, in the Lower Cafe Exhibition Case opposite the Jewett Gallery the library is presenting Punk Penelope. This is a small display includes original artwork, albums, lyric sheets and other ephemera from Penelope Houston's days with The Avengers.

Both exhibits will be on display from September 12 through December 6, 2009. Visit the library's web page for related events.


A booklist for the San Francisco / Bay Area punk scene

Dead Kennedys: The Unauthorized Version edited by f-Stop Fitzgerald; written by Marian Kester. (Last Gasp of San Francisco, 1983).

Gimme Something Better by Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor [on order]. (Penguin Group USA, 2009).

Hardcore California: A History of Punk and New Wave by Peter Belsito and Bob Davis. (Last Gasp of San Francisco, 1983).

Loud 3D: Hardcore Rock'n'Roll by Gary Robert, Rob Kulakofsky, and Mike Arredondo. (IN3D, 1984).

Music For Vagabonds: The Tuxedomoon Chronicles by Isabelle Corbisier. (OpenMute, 2008).

Punk '77: An Inside Look at The San Francisco Rock'n'Roll Scene, 1977 by James Stark,
with an introduction to reprint by V. Vale. (RE/Search Publications, 1999).

Search & Destroy #1-6: The Authoritative Guide to Punk Culture (Complete Reprint) edited by V. Vale. (V/Search Publications, 1996).

Search & Destroy #7-11: the Authoritative Guide to Punk Culture (Complete Reprint) edited by V. Vale. (V/Search Publications, 1996).

Streetart: The Punk Poster in San Francisco, 1977-1981 by Peter Belsito, Bob Davis and Marian Kester. (Last Gasp of San Francisco, 1981).

Weird Angle by f-Stop Fitzgerald. (Post Contemporary Productions: Last Gasp, 1982).

We're Desperate: The Punk Photography of Jim Jocoy: SF/LA 78-80, photos by Jim Jocoy, interview by Thurston Moore, prose by Exene Cervenka, and intro by Marc Jacobs. (powerHouse Books, 2002).

X-capees: A San Francisco Punk Photo Documentary by Raye Santos, Richard McCaffree, f-Stop Fitzgerald and Howie Klein. (Last Gasp of San Francisco, 1981).


The following titles contain interviews, discographies and or related performance information on various local punk performers:

Cinderella's Big Score: Women of The Punk and Indie Underground by Maria Raha. (Seal Press, 2005).

Real Conversations. No. 1, Henry Rollins, Billy Childish, Jello Biafra, Lawrence Ferlinghetti Interviews By V. Vale. (Re/Search Publications, 2001).

Unknown Legends of Rock'n'Roll: Psychedelic Unknowns, Mad Geniuses, Punk Pioneers, Lo-Fi Mavericks & More by Richie Unterberger. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 1998.

We Owe You Nothing: Punk Planet, the Collected Interviews by Daniel Sinker. (Akashic Books, 2001).


The 4th Floor Art, Music and Recreation Desk has reference vertical files related to Penelope Houston (Avengers), Club Foot Orchestra, The Contractions, Dead Kennedys, Dils, Flipper, The Mutants, The Nuns, Tuxedomoon and Dirk Dirksen.

Special bonus: Guitar Hero. 3, Legends Of Rock: Songbook (Hal Leonard, 2008) includes an authentic guitar transcription of Holiday in Cambodia by the Dead Kennedys.

Purge and Plunder: Art Under The Third Reich

Allied Monuments Officers Recovering and Safeguarding Stolen Art (source: website for the 2006 documentary film The Rape of Europa)

It started with a simple reference question. A person needed to write a report on Nazi degenerate art. He asked if I had heard of it and if the library had any books on it. When I replied in the affirmative, he looked relieved. “I’ve been to many bookstores” he said “and you wouldn’t believe the strange looks I’ve been getting with this request”.

Coincidentally, I was currently embroiled in a novel at home that also dealt with the Nazis and art entitled Pictures at an Exhibition. Written by local author Sara Houghteling, the story masterfully weaves in historical figures of the Paris art world of the 1930’s and 1940’s while focusing on the Nazi’s systematic looting of French museums, art galleries and private art collections. I realized that I was being introduced to a whole new perspective on the history of the Third Reich and of World War II.

Before World War I, avant-garde German art was at the forefront of the 20th century modern art movement. Despite an encouraging atmosphere for German contemporary artists, there was also a growing opposition movement of conservatives that viewed their art as “degenerate.”

The move to rid Germany of all its modern art began in earnest when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor-President in 1933. He passed laws dictating what art forms were acceptable. He believed that it was the state’s responsibility to prevent people from being driven to madness by purging those things that he viewed as corrupt and degenerate. German artists, art dealers and museum officials were given four years to comply with the new standards of what was acceptable.

Artwork that was not in compliance was confiscated by the Gestapo. Confiscated art was then sold to support the Third Reich or dismembered, defaced, destroyed or buried. Many avant-garde artists fled the country; those who stayed were not allowed to work. Art that met Hitler’s standards became at risk as well, as he and some of his officers began to collect and acquire artifacts for their personal collections.

In her book The Rape of Europa, Lynn H. Nichols writes: “When the German occupation of Poland, France, the Low Countries, and finally Italy began, a colossal wave of organized and casual pillage stripped entire countries of their heritage as works of art were subjected to confiscation, wanton destruction, concealment in damp mines, and perilous transport across combat zones.” All of Europe’s cultural treasures were at risk of becoming lost forever.

In the years following the end of World War II, an international corps of “Monuments Officers” worked tirelessly to sort through the huge Nazi cache of stolen art and return the works to their rightful homes. To this day, thousands of artifacts remain missing. Museum officials continue to work with governments and individuals to recover the treasures that were looted by the Nazis.

The San Francisco Public Library offers many books for the reader who wants to learn more about this unique time in cultural history:

Art, Culture and Media Under The Third Reich by Richard A. Etlin, ed. (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2002)

Art of The Third Reich by Peter Adam. (Abrams, 1992)

Art Under A Dictatorship by Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt. (Oxford Univ. Press, 1954)

The Battle of The Louvre: The Struggle to Save French Art in World War II by Matila Simon. (Hawthorn Books, 1971)

“Degenerate Art”: the Fate of The Avant-garde in Nazi Germany by Stephanie Barron. (Abrams, 1991)

The Linz File: Hitler’s Plunder of Europe’s Art by Charles De Jaeger. (Webb & Bower, 1981)

The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal The World’s Greatest Works of Art by Hector Feliciano.

The Rape of Art: The Story of Hitler’s Plunder of The Great Masterpieces of Europe by David Roxan. (Coward-McCann, 1964)

The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War by Lynn H. Nicholas. (Alfred A. Knopf, 1994)

Second National Exhibition of the Words of Art Recovered In Germany: Catalogue by Rodolfo Siviero. (Sansoni, 1950)