CHAPTER 9: EXPLODING PLASTIC INEVITABLE LANDS
In the summer of 1966, while the rest of America was still deciding what rock & roll was allowed to become, the Velvet Underground carried the Factory experiment to Provincetown. Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Moe Tucker set up inside the Chrysler Art Museum, bringing New York’s collision of music, film, art, sexuality and beautiful noise into a town that had been welcoming cultural outsiders for generations. Provincetown wasn’t simply an unlikely stop on the itinerary—it was exactly the kind of place where the Velvet Underground made sense. And what happened there connects Warhol’s underground, Boston’s emerging counterculture and the strange new world about to take shape at the Boston Tea Party. This September, Boston Babylon follows the Velvet Underground from the end of Cape Cod back into the heart of Boston 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.
