CHAPTER 2: BANNED IN BOSTON
“Banned in Boston” was already a national punchline when rock & roll came crashing into town. Books, plays and movies had all offended the city’s self-appointed guardians of morality—but teenagers dancing to Black music presented an entirely different threat. Alan Freed brought his rock & roll circus to Boston, the Arena erupted, Frankie Lymon fled, and City Hall suddenly had a new menace to contain. Then came payola, congressional hearings and Boston DJs caught in the machinery that decided which records America heard. What looked like three scandals was really one story: who gets to control the culture? This September, Boston Babylon follows the money, the music and the moral panic inside the Motherlode Inner Room on Patreon.
INTRO
Hurricane Carol:
Swan Boat Time
Before Boston learned how to rock & roll, Hurricane Carol blew the roof off the joint.
CHAPTER 1
The MIT Riot:
The G-Clefs
Boston’s rock & roll revolution didn’t begin in a nightclub—it began when the kids knocked the stage down at MIT.
CHAPTER 2
Banned In Boston:
Blacklisted
Boston had been banning entertainment for generations; Alan Freed simply gave it something loud enough to ban.
CHAPTER 3
We Shall Overcome:
The Folk Singers
Before Cambridge became synonymous with computers, it was busy rewriting America with an acoustic guitar.
CHAPTER 4
Harvard Squares:
Leary & Alpert
Harvard set out to study consciousness and accidentally helped blow the doors off reality.
CHAPTER 5
The British Are Coming!:
The Invasion
The British came back to Boston in 1964, and this time the teenage girls opened the gates.
CHAPTER 6
The Birth of Americana:
Gram
Gram Parsons came to Harvard for an education and left with a new idea of what American music could be
CHAPTER 7
The Combat Zone:
Ground Zero
While Boston worried about what rock & roll was doing to its children, the Combat Zone was busy teaching the grown-ups how to misbehave.
CHAPTER 8
Dylan Goes Electric:
Newport '65
Dylan plugged in at Newport, Mel Lyman blew into his harmonica, and somewhere between them the folk revival stopped looking backward.
CHAPTER 9
The Velvet Underground:
Jesus Chrysler
The Velvet Underground came to Provincetown for a five-night stand and left having rattled the farthest edge of America.
