One Year: 1942 | 3. The Day the Music Stopped

Slow Burn

Slate Podcasts

News, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Politics

4.6 • 25.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On Aug. 1, 1942, the nation’s recording studios went silent. Musicians were fed up with the new technologies threatening their livelihoods, so they refused to record until they got their fair share. This week, Evan Chung explores one of the most consequential labor actions of the 20th century, and how it coincided with an underground revolution in music led by artists like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. One Year is produced by Evan Chung, Sophie Summergrad, Sam Kim, and Josh Levin. Derek John is senior supervising producer of narrative podcasts and Merritt Jacob is senior technical director. Slate Plus members get to hear more about the making of One Year. Get access to extra episodes, listen to the show without any ads, and support One Year by signing up for Slate Plus for just $15 for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, this is Josh Levine, the host of one year. I hope you're enjoying our season on
0:04.4	1942. This week we have a story from senior producer Evan Chung.
0:10.6	In the final days of July 1942, as American factories were ramping up production, one industry was busier than ever.
0:19.0	Recording studios were booked solid for days and nights too.
0:23.0	Producers and performers were working around the clock,
0:26.0	churning out future hit after future hit.
0:29.0	Like this wartime classic,
0:31.0	recorded on July 28th by Spike Jones and his city slickers.
0:34.5	When the fewer says, we is the master race, we hire, hire.
0:39.8	Right in the fewer space not to love. The next day, Connie Boswell was in the studio tracking a romantic owed to rationing.
0:48.4	Saving all the can for also fans, yes ma'am, what I'm saving my love for. Not every song made in this recording frenzy was propaganda.
0:56.5	Not every song made in this recording frenzy was propaganda.
0:59.8	The bells are ringing for me and my gale.
1:06.3	The week began with sessions by Judy Garland and Gene Kelly.
1:10.0	There were recordings by Cab Calloway and Count Bacy.
1:14.3	Benny Goodman was cutting records that week too.
1:16.8	So were Bink Crosby and Dinah Shore.
1:19.5	Ella Fitzgerald got in on the act on July 31st, along with Lester Young, Woody Herman, and Harry James.
1:26.6	And then on August 1st, nothing. Every recording studio in America went silent.
1:36.0	They stayed silent the next day, and the next.
1:40.0	The music didn't start up again the following week, the following month, or the following year.
1:47.0	This wasn't because of wartime austerity.
	...

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