Friday, February 9th, 2024
Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.
— Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
MUS106 Lecture: folk music
Quiz 3 next Wednesday at the beginning of the class. 7 song samples. No comprehension questions.
- Four Lanes, 1964
- British invasion
- surf rock
- Motown
- Hootenanny: folk music TV program (ABC, 1964-64)
- folk music
- resurgence of popular interest in mid-20th century
- examples
- Delta blues
- cowboy songs
- spirituals
- what counts as folk music?
- transmission of music is done orally instead of through sheet music
- reflects national/regional culture
- performed for a long period of time (multi-generational and not owned by anyone)
- communal – anyone can do this
- ”God Bless America” by Irving Berlin (1918/38)
- borrowed melody from Carter Family (folk is communal)
- Woody Guthrie (1912-67)
- dustbowl, Great Depression
- socialist views sometimes reflected in his music
- contemporary: Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
- Newport Folk
- accused of contempt of Congress since he was unwilling to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (1961)
- Bob Dylan (b. 1941)
- Hibbing, Minnesota
- wanted to meet Woody Guthrie before his death
- 1961 – moves to NYC
- poet first, musician second (not super great at singing)
- signed by Columbia Records (big 6); big 6 all wanted to capture the resurgence of folk (?)
- Bob Dylan (1962)
- absolute commercial failure of an album
- $402 production cost
- signed by John Hammond from Columbia Records
- A&R: “Artists and Repertoire”—talent scout, artist development
- organized From Spiritual to Swing (Carnegie Hall, 1938), the one that tried to invite Robert Johnson after his death
- King of the Delta Blues Singers (1961)
- referred to by Columbia executives as “Hammond’s folly” since he seemed to be a failure
- lyrics as literature
- lyrics not intended to cater to commercial audience
- lyrics not written by professional lyrics writer
- lyrics that can be interpreted in multiple ways at multiple times
- ”Blowin’ in the Wind” (1963)
- very successful
- could be interpreted many ways
- Bob Dylan denied having wrote this for Civil Rights Movement — this is poetry that can be interpreted in anyway the listener/reader pleases
- sang at the same civil rights march where MLK gave the “I Have a Dream” speech
- ”Only a Pawn in Their Game”
- song about class conflict
- ”Only a Pawn in Their Game”
- Newport Folk Festival (1965)
- Dylan goes electric
- brought an electric guitar
- angered a lot of the audience since they are folk music purists, and they didn’t like the electric guitar
- the lyrics seemed it was going against the folk music establishment
- bringing It All Back Home (1965)
- produced by Tom Wilson
- A-side: electric
- B-side: acoustic
- Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
- “Desolation Row” (a long duration of 11:12)
- “Like a Rolling Stone” (> 6 min long)
- 20 page, 50-verse poetic range — “vomit”
- Al Kooper organ riff (actually never played organ before)
- Columbia was reluctant to release it due to the length, but got up to pop #2
- almost impossible that any radio stations play them since the songs are way too long