CHAPTER 7: THE COMBAT ZONE
By the mid-1960s, downtown Boston had an officially tolerated underbelly glowing just blocks from the Common: strip joints, burlesque houses, adult theaters, hustlers, sailors, politicians and neon that stayed lit long after respectable Boston went home. But the Combat Zone was also a working music district, where show bands and soul singers ground through set after set for some of the toughest rooms in town. Roger Pace worked the major strip clubs, part of a parallel Boston music scene that existed far from Harvard Square, the British Invasion and the psychedelic ballroom. Follow the musicians through those doors and the Zone becomes something more than Boston’s notorious red-light district—it becomes another piece of the city’s musical DNA. This September, Boston Babylon turns on the neon and goes downstairs 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.
