Folk and Folk Rock

Mus115 - 06. Folk and Folk Rock

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Around the same time as rock was developing, there was a counter-culture "protest" type of music called "folk". Dictionary.com says that folk music is "music that originates in traditional popular culture or that is written in such a style. Folk music is typically of unknown authorship and is transmitted orally from generation to generation." The traditional definition of folk music has nothing to do with seriousness, or protests, or championing "equal rights" or anything, just the words "originates in traditional popular culture". From this, I think we can surmise that "Rock and Roll" is not "traditional" popular culture music, as it was born of rebellion.

Still, "traditional popular culture" is kind of a loaded definition - who's to say whats traditional, and which culture are we considering when we say "popular culture"? These are just things to think about as we continue with the folk movement.

Starting at around the time of rock and roll, with writers like Pete Seeger, Woodie Guthrie, folk eschewed the standard rock and roll "boy-girl" or "dance" or other simplistic "teenage" themes and focused on serious issues of the late 50s and early 60s, like protests, police brutality, environmental issues, suspicion of technology, equal rights, and assassinations of John F. Kennedy (1963), youth heroes Robert F. Kennedy (1968) and Martin Luther King Jr (1968).

The 1960s were turbulent times, with pop music becoming the soundtrack to the events. Beatles, Stones, Bob Dylan, soul music, and acid rock all became part of the events themselves.

Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul, and Mary

It's impossible to to talk about folk music of the 1960s as discrete artists, because there was a lot of covering and song swapping.

Woodie Guthrie had probably his biggest hit with This Land is Your Land. This song was "[sung] all over this land" to quote another popular folk song.

• This Land is Your Land (Guthrie Version)

Pete Seeger had a multitude of hits, including "Where Have All the Flowers Gone", "If I had a Hammer", and "Turn! Turn! Turn!" being his biggest.

• If I Had a Hammer (Seeger Version)

You can hear the raw, unrefined aspect to this folk music. But then along came Peter, Paul, and Mary. This trio was put together by Albert Grossman in New York, in 1961. He had auditioned several singers for the group, and liked this combination. They rehearsed for a short while, then recorded their debut album Peter, Paul, and Mary in 1962, with popular songs "500 Miles", "Lemon Tree", "Where Have All the Flowers Gone", and probably the most popular song on the album "If I Had a Hammer".

• If I Had a Hammer (PPM Version)

The album spent seven weeks in the #1 position on Billboard, and sold over 2 million copies. This created their position as one of two new torch bearers of the folk music movement. For the most part, they kept their serious interpretation of folk music, but with exceptional musicianship.

• Three Ravens (old English folk ballad)

In general, they played off the fact that their music was more important than Rock music, and more sophisticated (you can hear a satirical send up of the children's song "Blue" here if you like. Or can skip).

But can you listen to this next song and not hear some rock influences? Paul really lets loose with a high note at 1:54:

• If I Had My Way

While they did record a lot of cover songs, and made their biggest hits with other people's music, they did write and record their own songs.

• Puff the Magic Dragon -

This really was a kids song, not a drug song, as the lyrics were taken from a poem written by one of Peter's friends in college about a child's loss of innocence as he grows up and enters an adult world.

• El Salvador

One of their later protest songs, written by Paul in 1982. This song actually got them booed on the last line 'Don't you think it's time we leave El Salvador?' for a while. But it later became a successful staple of their later live shows when they reunited in 1981.

Since I mentioned reuniting, I should mention that the group broke up in 1970. Like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Chuck Berry, Peter Yarrow got in trouble for having relations with an underage girl. He was convicted of making improper advances on a 14 year old girl:

'Yarrow pleaded guilty to taking “immoral and improper liberties” with a child... At a hearing, Yarrow contended Winter was a willing participant — a claim she denied then and continues to deny now. The judge also took issue with the claim, rereading aloud Winter’s statement that she had resisted.'

https://www.bishop-accountability.org/2021/05/a-famed-folk-singer-won-a-presidential-pardon-after-molesting-a-child-did-he-prey-on-others/

In February 2021, he was sued again for another incident that also took place in 1969. You can read more about it in the above article. But as a disturbing pattern is that if there's one incident that's come to light, there are likely more that we haven't heard of. Truly disturbing, and has sullied the memories of some of my fond childhood musical memories.

Bob Dylan

As I said before, I can't really talk about one folk group without talking about another. The other, and biggest name in folk, who really brought folk and rock together, was Robert Zimmerman, otherwise known as Bob Dylan. With nasally "sort of singing" vocal technique, he started out as another folk hero, known for his clever word play, song writing, and unique sound (complete with harmonica) that established the timbre (tone quality) for a whole genre of music.

Here's an early single, using a "talkling blues" style of singing (from the album Bob Dylan:

• Talkin' New York

Bob Dylan's next album contained one of his most important songs:

• Blowin' in the Wind (Dylan version)

Initially, this album didn't sell all that well, until Peter, Paul, and Mary covered it and turned it into a #2 hit.

Dylan had another hit with:

• The Times They Are a Changin'

...also covered by Peter, Paul, and Mary, along with others. One thing that kept Dylan at the forefront of the movement, however, was his dislike of being pigeon-holed (stereotyped) - he kept on changing styles. His next album, Another Side of Bob Dylan, he pulled back from the serious protest movement, and was more mellow.

The single "Subterranean Homesick Blues" didn't go very far, only #39 on the top 100, but it signaled the changes that were to come.

• Subterranean Homesick Blues

Dylan's next album Bringing It All Back Home used electric instruments on half of the songs, sounding suspiciously like rock music. At the 1965 Newport Folk Fesitval, he plugged in and caused a near-riot, with booing and hissing from the audience expecting acoustic, folk Dylan, and getting electrified, folk-rock Dylan. Many of his followers thought he had sold out.

And thus was born the new sub-genre folk rock.

**Folk Rock**

The Byrds also helped usher in this era with a cover of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man".

• Mr. Tambourine Man (Dylan) - folk style
• Mr. Tambourine Man (Byrds) - folk rock style

But to really seal the deal, Dylan released the song "Like a Rolling Stone" as his first real big, major hit. Basically rock music with folk lyrics.

• Like a Rolling Stone - folk rock

In the summer of 1966, at the height of his career (right around the end of the Beatles' live concerts, as well), Dylan was in a serious motorcycle accident.  He released a new album in 1968, but it lacked the drive and edginess of his previous albums. Much more surrealistic, and hard to decipher. His last album of the 1960s was the 1969 album Nashville Skyline, with a completely new sound:

• Lay, Lady, Lay - folk rock

The Byrds

A study in what could have been - the Byrds were on the cusp of super stardom after their previously mentioned single "Mr. Tambourine Man". They recorded the Pete Seeger tune "Turn! Turn! Turn!" in 1965, which shot to number 1.

• Turn! Turn! Turn!

In mid-1966, they released their most adventurous single, "Eight Miles High" after one of their founders, Gene Clark, left the group.. Unlike "Puff the Magic Dragon", this one is most definitely thinly veiled song about drugs.

• Eight Miles High

In 1967, the Byrds fired Michael Clarke and David Crosby, and changed into more of a Country Rock group. David Crosby rebounded quite well with the group Crosby, Stills, and Nash (and occasionally Young).

The Mamas and the Papas

After The Byrds and Dylan, many many folk groups electrified and became folk-rock groups. One that made it out of the hordes was The Mamas and The Papas. They tended towards a softer rock style, and from 1966 - 1968, they were top of the charts. Their first singles, "California Dreaming" and "Monday, Monday" hit the top 10 and were huge hits for them.

• California Dreaming
• Monday, Monday

There was a lot of familiy drama in this band. John and Michelle Phillips, one each of the Papas and Mamas respectively, had been a married couple, but got divorced in 1970, after success had faded, and also long after affairs and other issues had long since torpedoed the group.

There seems to be a pattern here. The groups of the early 1960s had very short, but very bright careers. The Beatles making hits from 1963 - until their breakup in 1970. Dylan was active from 1962 - 1970, had one album in 1975, then switched to contemporary gospel until he returned to his roots in 1997. Peter, Paul, and Mary were active in 1961-1969, then broke up in 1970, only to reuinte in the early 1980s. The Byrds were popular for 2 years. The Mamas and the Papas had basically 2 years of stardom before it all imploded.

Simon and Garfunkel

The final folk rockers for this post are another short-lived group, Simon & Garfunkel, two friends who met when they were 15 in 1957, and finally got an album published in 1964, called Wednesday Morning, 3a.m.

This was in the standard "folk-singing duo" style, and flopped. The main single, "The Sounds of Silence", went nowhere.

• The Sounds of Silence (original) - folk style

Then the folk-rock revolution was in full swing in 1965, and the producer of their album added electric bass, electric guitars, and drums to their single, and the new "Sounds of Silence" rocketed to number 1 on Jan 1, 1966

• The Sounds of Silence (electrified) - folk rock style

Quickly they capitalized and released a new folk-rock album called The Sounds of Silence (confusing, right? The song is on two albums, in two different versions). This spawned two more hits. Here is one of them:

• I Am a Rock

The lyrics to all of these show Paul Simon's lyrical prowess - with the cleverness and poignancy also found in Bob Dylan's songs, but sometimes more relatable. Things moved fast, and in 1967 their popularity started to wane, but the remarkably popular film The Graduate featured their music and spawned another number 1 hit:

• Mrs. Robinson

Interesting note - the film features Dustin Hoffman "driving to Santa Barbara", but shows him driving through the Gaviota freeway tunnel, which is only on the side of the freeway that heads away from Santa Barbara.

Anyway, Simon & Garfunkel had an "experimental" type album Bookends which has tracks like "Voices of Old people", and both starts and ends with the "Bookends Theme", similar to how The Beatle's Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album started and ended with the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (if you don't count the final final track of "A Day In The Life").

They followed that up with 1970s Bridge Over Troubled Water album, which yielded three more singles, including the title track.

• Bridge Over Troubled Water

This song was recorded in part on the East Coast, and then finished on the West Coast studios.

Just like the rest of our folk-rockers, this duo broke up in 1970 at pretty much the height of their success. Paul Simon, with his clever turn of phrase and songwriting, had some hits in the 70s, but returned to prominence in the 80s with his South African infused album called Graceland, and a follow up South American influenced Rhythm of the Saints in 1990. Since I already have 25 listening examples on the playlist already (not counting a few that are linked from paragraphs here), I will leave you with just two more.

• Diamonds on the Souls of Her Shoes

(from Graceland) - this is opened by the group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Here the same song on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I_T3XvzPaM&ab_channel=PaulSimonVEVO

I would recommend watching the video to get an idea of the Zulu Isicathamiya style dancing style.

• The Obvious Child (from Rhythm of the Saints)

This song was composed after the drum pattern was recorded in a town square in Salvador, Brazil. The rest of the album has less of this kind of drumming, and switches to more African and other South American styles.

Here is a video link to get an idea about the drumming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HKNAhAxMAk&ab_channel=PaulSimonVEVO