Coney Island Calling: Radio Program

Subject: Coney Island Calling: Radio Program
From: Rain Dog
Date: 05 Jan 12 - 05:01 AM

Cam across the following program whihc might be of interest to some of you here. Not had a chance to listen to all of it yet.

Coney Island Calling: a mega mix of song and sound

Annie Hall lived under the roller coaster; Lou Reed and Spike Lee celebrated both its glitz and grit and, in the 1940s, American folk hero Woody Guthrie called it home. Since the Civil War, Coney Island on the shores of Brooklyn in New York has been famous for its Cyclone roller coaster ride, freak shows, mix of immigrants, hot dog eating contests and annual Mermaid Parade. This documentary explores Coney Island through music.

Known as the 'People's Playground', Coney Island is a faded coastal fairground, drawing crowds of working class families, New York eccentrics and hipsters, every summer. It is classic New York and it's served as an inspiration for countless musicians and artists.

Playing the songs which pay homage to this special place, we explore Coney Island with residents, past and present, who have a musical connection to Coney Island. We go dancing on the boardwalk, which every Saturday becomes a disco at dusk, with some of NY's legendary house DJs providing the soundtrack for dancers. We sift through Woody Guthrie's archive of unrecorded music searching out the many songs he wrote about Coney Island in the 1940s, and we hear a rare recording of a historic concert at Coney Island in 1986 featuring an unlikely encounter between experimental jazz composer Sun Ra and avant-garde composer John Cage.

Producer: Sashka Koloff
Sound engineer: Russell Stapleton

Playlist and details of how to listen to it can be found here:

Coney Island Calling: a mega mix of song and sound