VIA PRESS RELEASE | Fantagraphics Books and Pat Thomas author of the book Listen, Whitey! The Sights & Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975 announced today the release of 1960s-70s counterculture icon Did It! Jerry Rubin: An American Revolutionary on August 30 2017. Fans can pre-order the book here.
Did It! Jerry Rubin: An American Revolutionary is an oral and visual history of the infamous and ubiquitous Rubin – the first ever biography of the co-founder of the Yippies, Anti-Vietnam War radical, Chicago 8 defendant, New Age/Self Help proponent, and social-networking pioneer. Entire chapters chronicle bizarre interactions with Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, John Lennon, and Mick Jagger are described via interviews and diaries – some found in Rubin’s personal archives and published for the first time – along with photographs and correspondence with Yoko Ono, Norman Mailer, Eldridge Cleaver, and the Weather Underground. Also explored is the oft-misunderstood relationship between Rubin and his partner-in-crime Abbie Hoffman.
“America hasn’t lost its way, just its sense of humor and the sound of Jerry Rubin’s laughter, as captured in Pat Thomas’ excellent book Did It! Jerry Rubin: An American Revolutionary,” said Rex Weiner, author of The Woodstock Census and The Adventures of Ford Fairlane. “Thomas’s writing combines a true fan’s enthusiasm and curiosity with an aficionado’s deep knowledge of music, politics, and pop culture, not to mention the kind of intellectual’s wiseass skepticism that would have made Lester Bangs a kindred spirit.”
75 of Rubin’s co-conspirators were interviewed for the book including fellow Chicago 8 Defendants, participants in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement; Paul Krassner, Judy Gumbo, Nancy Kurshan, John & Leni Sinclair (of the White Panthers & MC5), Rennie Davis, Country Joe McDonald and dozens more reveal in their own voice – vibrant stories of the era. Often left out in histories of the radical sixties, twenty women speak out in their own voice!
Pat Thomas is the author of Listen, Whitey! The sights & sounds of Black Power 1965-1975 and the co-curator of Invitation to Openness: The Jazz & Soul Photography of Les McCann 1960-1980 (both published by Fantagraphics). He has appeared on the BBC and NPR as the author of Listen, Whitey! and was a consultant to the PBS documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.
As a music reissue producer, Pat Thomas has compiled a 3-CD Allen Ginsberg box set (featuring Bob Dylan): The Last Word on First Blues. He has also curated CD and LP reissues of Public Image Limited, Watts Prophets, Judee Sill, Dream Syndicate, The Shaggs, Terry Reid, Michael Chapman, Jon Hassell & Brian Eno, Tim Buckley, Pearls Before Swine, and many more.
