And They All Sang
The Great Musicians of the 20th Century Talk About Their Music

Oral historian Studs Terkel hosted a daily radio programme in Chicago, presenting listeners with his take on music from classical, opera, and jazz to gospel, blues, folk and rock. This book features more than forty of his conversations from the programme with various musicians. It also offers us a portrait of various musical genres.x

Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, Pulitzer Prize-winning oral historian Studs Terkel hosted a legendary daily radio programme in Chicago - presenting listeners with his singular take on an eclectic range of music from classical, opera, and jazz to gospel, blues, folk and rock. "And They All Sang" features more than forty of Terkel's inimitable conversations from the programme with some of the greatest musicians of the past century. Among the many highlights include: a 22 year-old Bob Dylan tells how he came to write "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"; Janis Joplin, in a rare interview, recalls her teenage years in Texas spent listening to old Leadbelly and Bessie Smith records; and, Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie talk about their sense of kinship with fellow jazz geniuses Joe Oliver and Charlie Parker. Perhaps the biggest revelation, though, is Terkel himself - whose brilliant insights reflect his profound understanding, and appreciation, of the affinities between all forms of music. Terkel offers us a remarkable collective portrait of the full spectrum of musical genres.