Thursday, November 17th, 2005

1959 Was Their 1989: West Oakland’s R & B Scene In The 50s

The great Bay Area/Irish expat Billy Jam is now on the loose in Queens full time, but he recently returned to interview Buck, a West Oakland native, who discusses how 1959 was a crucial year for rhythm and blues, and why the destruction of West Oakland killed the scene.

You can hear Buck’s amazing story here on Billy’s new show on WFMU.

This is exactly the kind of local history–local knowledge for all you anthropologists–we all need in our lives. In other words, everything you need to know can be heard in the song, and the story about that song.

For photos, you can go here.

posted by Jeff Chang @ 11:49 am | 2 Comments

2 Responses to “1959 Was Their 1989: West Oakland’s R & B Scene In The 50s”

Danyel says:

November 21, 2005 at 1:11 pm

Billy’s in Queens, now? Wow.
Hummingbyrd says:

November 28, 2005 at 11:01 am

This totally deserves to be a documentary..in its own right….

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