From Folk to Folk-Rock

The Times They Are A-Changing

Roots of the folk revival

Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Leadbelly (black guitarist, singer-songwriter)

Folk music of the 50s: The Weavers formed by Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert, Fred Hellerman in 1948. Leadbelly’s ‘Irene Goodnight’ = huge N° 1 hit in early 50s. Seeger & other left-wing folksingers blacklisted during McCarthy era.

Urban folk scene in late 50s

Urban folkies, esp. In Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village, NYC, & elsewhere: Dave Van Ronk (subject of Coen Bros. Inside Llewyn Davis), Mike Seeger & New Lost City Ramblers

Kingston Trio’s version of murder ballad ‘Tom Dooley’ n° 1 hit in 1958

Newport Folk Festival (Rhode Island) allows students & urban folkies to discover ‘roots’ music: Doc Watson, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, etc.

Joan Baez gets lots of media attention at end of 50s

Bob Dylan

Was Dylan Always Dylan?

Robert Allen Zimmerman b. May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota

Early influences: blues, country, rock ‘n’ roll heard on the radio. Performed rock ‘n’ roll in high school

Enrolled in U. of Minnesota in 1959. Attracted to folk music. Dropped out at end of freshman year

Dylan in NYC

Moves to NYC in Jan 61. Begins performing at clubs in Greenwich

VillageVisits his idol Woody Guthrie in East Orange,

NJLegendary producer John Hammond signs

Dylan to Columbia Records in Oct 61First Columbia album Bob Dylan (1962)

Blowing in the Wind

First performed April 1962, recorded July 1962Used the tune of ‘an old spiritual’ (‘No More

Auction Block’)Claimed to have written it ten minutes (he did

write the first two verses quickly, the last took longer)

Once said: ‘This here ain’t a protest song or anything like that, ‘cause I don’t write protest songs…’ (C. Heylin, Revolution in the Air: the songs of Bob Dylan vol 1: 1957-73)

Made famous by Peter, Paul & Mary in 1963.

Folk or oral poetry

Describe the poetic form/structure of ‘Blowing in the Wind’

Is this a protest song?

The Times…

With God on Our Side

Released on 1964 album The Time’s They Are A-Changing

Mocks mainstream history told from the side of the winners

Denounces ‘My country right or wrong’ mentality and justification of war through reference to God

Refers to Cold War and nuclear weapons Influential song for the budding anti-Vietnam

War movement

Poetic form

9 verses, each ending with a variant of ‘God on + poss. Adj + side’ (but pattern changes in last verse, for dramatic effect, surprise ending)

No full chorus (or refrain), but the last line of each verse works like a mini-chorus

Rhyme scheme: abcb defe (where ‘e’ rhymes with "side"). (but cf. verse 3: memorize/side)

Phil Ochs

Phil Ochs

Singer-songwriter, b. 1940, Texas. d. 1976. Studied journalism, became political activist.

Wrote many topical protest songs. Personal problems (bipolar disorder,

alcoholism) led to his suicide at age 35. Listen to ‘There But For Fortune’ (Joan Baez

version)

There But For Fortune

Worldwide hit for Joan Baez in 1965The ‘luck of the draw’: would you be the same

person today if we had been born somewhere else?

Cf. Philosopher John Rawls’ thought experiment (A Theory of Justice): Where would you choose to be born if you had no idea beforehand of the circumstances of your birth (the country, social class, whether or not you would be disabled, etc.)?

Not an overt protest song, but an awareness-raising almost philosophical song

Folk-rock

‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’Released in 1965, first as a single, then as

first track on Bringing It All Back Home album.

Influenced by Woody Guthrie & Pete Seeger song ‘Taking it easy’ & Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business".

Title may have also been influenced by Jack Kerouac's novel The Subterraneans.

Taking It Easy (Seeger/Guthrie)

Mama’s in the kitchen preparing to eatSister’s in the pantry lookin’ for some yeastPapa’s in the cellar mixin’ up the hopsBrother’s at the window, he’s watchin’for the

cops(cf. Weavers’ version on You Tube) Inspired by oral tradition, cf. children’s rhymes. Cf. ‘talkin’ blues’ tradition & origins of rap (the

dozens, verbal dueling in Afr-Am community)

Mr. Tambourine Man

Inspired by Rimbaud (cf. Jim Morrison) & Beat Generation (Allen Ginsberg)

Interpreted as an allusion to drugs, esp. LSD (Dylan introduced the Beatles to pot in 64, and had dropped acid)

But probably broader meaning, about artistic creation, a muse

Notice alliteration, rhyme, verbs of movement

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man

The Byrds

Folk-rock band formed in 1964 with Jim McGuinn (g, voc), David Crosby (g, voc)

‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ became n° 1 in US/UK in summer 1965 (shorter version than Dylan’s)

Had hit with Pete Seeger’s ‘Turn Turn Turn’ based on Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes

Hello darkness my old friend…

Simon & Garfunkle

Paul Simon & Art Garfunkle schoolfriends from Queens, NY. Influenced by the Everly Brothers, formed group Tom & Jerry in 1957.

First album as Simon & Garfunkle, released in 1964, was a flop, but contained ‘The Sound(s) of Silence’

Producer Tom Wilson added electric guitars, bass & drums while Simon and released it as a single in 1965. Became n° 1 on pop charts beginning of 1966.

For What’s It’s Worth

Buffalo Springfield

Buffalo Springfield formed in 1966, with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Richie Furay, Jim Messina.

‘For What It's Worth’ written Nov. 1966 by Stephen Stills, to protest about police action against a crowd that had gathered on Sunset Bd LA to protest against the closing of a nightclub.

Lyric reflects the growing violence in the US (riots in black urban centers) and abroad (the escalation of the war in Vietnam), but also seems to anticipate the violence of the late 60s

What a day for a daydream

More to Explore

Cantwell, Robert. When We Were Good: the folk revival. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.

Dylan, Bob. Chronicles, vol. 1. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.

Rotolo, Suzy. 2008. A Free-wheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties. New York: Broadway Books.

Van Ronk, Dave (with Elijah Wald). The Mayor of MacDougal Street: a Memoir. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005.

Movies

Martin Scorsese, Bob Dylan: No Direction Home (2005)

Todd Haynes, I’m Not There (2007) (uses 6 different characters to portray various facets of Dylan)

Coen Bros. Inside Llewyn Davis