Re: [ARSCLIST] John Hammond discovered everybody, was Community Radio

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Cary Ginell wrote:

>
>
> In a message dated 7/17/2006 5:26:43 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
> dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
>
> John  Hammond was responsible for discovering Benny Goodman, Count Basie,
> Billie
> Holiday, Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin,  Pete
> Seeger,
> and Bruce Springsteen, among others.
>
> You can make credible arguments about just about all of the above,  except
> Seeger, which is a really ludicrous statement.

And Robert Johnson..unless we're referring to the LP reissues. Johnson was sort of
dead when Hammond wanted him for the Spirituals to Swing Concert.

> Seeger helped form the  Almanac
> Singers in the early '40s, some two decades before Hammond happened upon  him.
> Then he helped form the Weavers and had a whole other career in the early
> '50s before being snuffed out by the HUAC. So where was Hammond when Pete was
> blacklisted during the '50s???
>
> Cary  Ginell

I have nothing against Hammond, as opposed to my feelings about certain other
entrepreneurs, managers and producers who made sure their names were better known
than their "discoveries" and who claimed songwriting credits they weren't entitled
to. Actually, wasn't Hammond at Vanguard when the Weavers did the Carnegie Hall
Concert in 1955?

dl