Music/Society Modern Wrld (W4)
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FolkMusicandLeft.pptxAmerican Folk Music and the Left-Wing
Political Positions
Left
Socialism
Communal ownership of means of production
Universal healthcare
Support Labor Unions, workers’ rights
Often socially ‘liberal’
Examples: Karl Marx, FDR (somewhat), Bernie Sanders (Somewhat)
Right
Capitalism, free market
Private property, private industry
No government oversight of industry
No public services
Against labor unions
Often socially ‘conservative’
Examples: Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Trump
Woody Guthrie (1912-1967)
Born Okemah, OK; 1920 oil boom, then bust; town also devastated by ‘dust bowl’; led to cynicism – anti-capitalism
What is “Do Re Mi”? Dust Bowl? Fascist? Hist. Context
Most famous song? Themes?
Radio host in LA, KFVD, w/ “Lefty Lou” (Maxine Crissman); performed “old time” music, also political music; film, bio
Moves to NYC in 1940 (writes “This Land is Your Land”)
Grapes of wrath (steinbeck)
Named after woodrow wilson; lived in poverty
Film – 8:20, 2mins or so
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“This Land is Your Land” (1940) Woody Guthrie
These are the verses that most Americans know…what do they communicate to you?
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters This land was made for you and me
As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me
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“This Land is Your Land”, cont.
These are verses that are less well known…
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
This land was made for you and me
In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?
Analysis: Guthrie is questioning capitalism (private property); he is aligning with people at the ‘relief office’ (unemployment office), with those marginalized by capitalism; Guthrie is aligning with socialism; this song has been used for many labor protests and other Leftist protests. Does this change your perspective on this classic American folk song?
Woody’s (Leftist) Political Songs
March 30, 1940 “Grapes of Wrath” benefit; Dust Bowl; 1st folk revival “begins”
“1913 Massacre” (about Italian Hall Disaster in Calumet, MI; labor strike; false fire during Christmas party; 73 men, women, children died)
What is a “scab”? Person who breaks the picket line and takes jobs of striking workers
Lumpen proletariat? (criminals) Petty bourgeoisie? (small business owners)
“Union Maid” (with Almanac Singers)
Resonance with contemporary times and place (MI)?
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Leadbelly (1888-1949)
b. 1888 Mooringsport, LA; Huddie Ledbetter
Family farm, performed in Shreveport, LA
1915 imprisoned; Harrison County chain gang
Escaped, then captured in 1918; 1925 (film)
1930-34 back in prison; met Alan Lomax, recordings; help pardon and brought to NYC
1940s - Part of folk revival (Seeger, Guthrie, etc.)
“The Bourgeois Blues” (1939) (bourgeoise – capitalist class; proletariat – working class)
Pete Seeger (1919-2014 )
Son of Charles Seeger, musicologist
Played banjo, and ukulele from young age
Scholarship to Harvard
Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (2007); film
Almanac Singers
Guthrie, Lee Hays, Millard Lampell
Aligned with Popular Front – socialist ideals, anti-fascist
Songs for John Doe (1941)
Political message? Why was it ill-timed?
Pop front – alliance of liberal organization incl. CPUSA (est. 1919); religious and racial equality; fight fascism, promote unions
Included folk music; before not significant part of mvmnt.
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Almanacs cont.
“Talking Union” (July 1941), audio
“Dear Mr. President” (1942); audio
Compared to ‘songs for John Doe’?
Why change?
People’s Songs, Inc.
1940s - Collection of songwriters, organizers, singers, not necessarily folk artists (some jazz and pop); but led by folk artists (Seeger, Hays); produced songbooks, workshops, concerts
Later People’s Artists; published Sing Out!
Second Wave Folk Revival & Counter Culture
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End of an Era
The Weavers (1948-52); perception?
Distinction from Almanacs?
Seeger’s departure
In 1950s folk music went underground, why?
Red Scare, McCarthyism, anti-communist, anti-Left movement in US gov. at the time, targeting folk musicians; Pete Seeger was under CIA, FBI surveillance bc was suspected communist
November 1948 by Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman, and Pete Seeger – 1955 testified HUAC; found guilty later acquitted;
Mccarthyism, red scare; Beat generation; jazzman as noble savage, romantic; House Un-American activities committee
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Second Wave Revival
Kingston Trio “Tom Dooley” (1958-59); Limelighters; Peter, Paul and Mary, The Bros. 4; The New Christy Minstrels ; Hootenanny (ABC TV show) difference from previous folk music?
1959 Newport Folk Festival; 1963
Comparison to first wave?
Second wave was more young intellectuals, middle class, concerned more with civil rights (race, gender), than labor rights
More commercialized
More focus on anti-war
Counter culture? What is it countering? Film
Who was part of it? Subculture group? Characteristics?
Distinction from other subcultural groups?
Political and philosophical positions?
the Brothers Four, Peter, Paul and Mary, The Limeliters, The Chad Mitchell Trio, The New Christy Minstrels (A Mighty Wind)
New Left – young intellectuals, not working-class; not about ‘we’ more self-centered; not so concerned with labor, more with civil rights, anti-war; decline of Communism; Herbert Marcuse; see ourselves in our possessions;
Film - Festival 1:04:10
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The Beats
Inspired 1960s counter-culture
1950s, group of poets: Jack Kerouac On the Road (1957); Allen Ginsberg America (1956), about hypocrisy of America; refers to Native American genocide, war, anti-capitalism, glorified sex & drugs
Moved from NY to SF in 1950s
What were the values/philosophy of the Beats? Drew inspiration from where?
Counterculture: against the Establishment (gov., corporations) and the expectations of society (suburban middle class lifestyle, white picket fence, 2 kids, etc.)
Against capitalism
But for: individual freedom/expression, emotions/feelings, avant-garde, visceral/the body, sex, drugs, rock, jazz, peace, pacifism,
Inspired by: Existentialism (Kierkegaard, Sartre, Camus), Zen Buddhism and Eastern religion/thought, cool jazz and bebop
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The Early 1960s
1961 JFK takes office of president - represented hope, a new generation, optimism, change, civil rights, equality
Civil Rights reached a peak - passive resistance, i.e. sit-ins, boycotts (bus), freedom rides
1960 - release of birth control pill, fueled sexual revolution
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Bob Dylan (b. 1941)
Born Robert Allen Zimmerman; raised in MN
Attended U of MN for one year
Idolized Guthrie; “disciple”
Moved to NYC, Greenwich Village in 1961
1962, self-titled debut album (Columbia)
Mostly covers of folk and blues songs
Sold only about 5,000 copies
Changed name to Dylan (after poet Dylan Thomas)
1963 The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
Blowin’ in the Wind (Dylan)
Based on tune of “No More Auction Block (for me)” – Spiritual
How many roads most a man walk down Before you call him a man? [reference to civil rights protest] -How many seas must a white dove sail Before she sleeps in the sand? [peace] -Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly, Before they're forever banned? -The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind, the answer is blowin' in the wind.
[What does it mean that the answer is blowing in the wind?]
Dylan, Baez and the Social Revolution
The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1964)
Spoke of social change that was sweeping the country; civil rights and generational shift
Later that year, sang at March on Washington on August 28, w/Joan Baez
Joan Baez (b. 1941), sang in coffeehouses around Harvard, mostly covers, 1959 Newport Folk Festival, gained popularity, helped Dylan gain recognition, sang and was briefly romantically involved with Dylan
“ Strangest Dream ” - anti-war protest song
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Dylan Disillusioned
Assassination of JFK, Nov. 1963, depressed Dylan and rest of country
Dylan gained national exposure after Peter, Paul and Mary scored #2 hit w/ “Blowin’ in the Wind”
He rejected fame and protest image, “songs can’t save the world,” he said; more personal w/album Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)
Then did something controversial for some fans (changed sound, went electric)
Bringing It All Back Home (1965), hinted at electric sound, “Mr. Tambourine Man”
Highway 61 Revisited (1965) - electric sound, “Like a Rolling Stone”
1965 Newport Folk Festival, booed offstage for electric sound, some considered him a sell-out to corporate right-wing
“Maggie’s Farm” (covered by Rage Against the Machine); what is this song protesting? Fame? Fans expectations? Government? Capitalism? All?
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Like a rolling stone, transient value of wealth and materialism,
“All the News that’s Fit to Sing”: Topical Song Movement
Phil Ochs – (b. 1940 TX, d. 1976) moved a lot, Columbus OH; clarinet prodigy; military academy as teenager
OSU, journalism; met Jim Glover
“Singing Journalist” moved to NYC
1962
There But for Fortune (film)
Major figure in anti-Vietnam war
movement;
c. 8min to 23min (kennedy)
Medgar Evers
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Folk Rock
The Byrds - combined Dylan and Beatles sound, “Turn, Turn, Turn”
The Turtles, “It Ain’t Me Babe”; Sonny and Cher - “I Got You Babe”
Simon and Garfunkel “ The Sound of Silence ” (1966)
Call to activism, critical of those who are passive in the face of injustices, unwilling to speak truth to power
Other Major S&G hits, “Homeward Bound,” “I am a Rock,” “Scarborough Fair,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “Bridge Over Troubled Waters”
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Haight-Ashbury & the Hippies
White, middle-class, educated, voluntarily poor (like Buddha, Christ), centered in San Francisco (Haight-Ashbury neighborhood)
Reactionary against conservative values (of 1950s and before), rejected parents’ lifestyle, anti-materialism/commercialism, sexual freedom (the pill); anti-bourgeois; individuality, freedom of expression; similar to philosophy of the Beats; peace & love, less tech., recapture lost innocence, communal/non-competitive living, alternative society
Took drugs - LSD, marijuana, other hallucinogens
Timothy Leary, ex-Harvard psych. Prof. advocated LSD use for expansion of consciousness, spiritual enlightenment, “Turn on, Tune in, Drop out”
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Acid Rock
Quintessential hippie band…
Grateful Dead - founded by Jerry Garcia in 1965 in SF, inspired by Beats and folk music (Dylan, Baez, bluegrass) (Bob Weir, Mickey Hart)
Played Ken Kesey’s (beat poet/author, One flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) Acid Tests, Trips Festival, series of psychedelic parties
Known for extended improvised “Jams”, mixing blues, jazz, folk and reggae music; “ Dark Star ” – countering the expectations for pop/rock music to be short and highly commercial and contrived
Fans called “Deadheads” and often follow the band on tour; set up temporary communities along the way; live bootleg recordings
Notable albums: The Grateful Dead (1967),Live/Dead (1969), Working Man’s Dead (1970), American Beauty(1970), Europe ‘72 (1972), In the Dark (1987)
(Later inspired Jam Bands such as Dave Mathews Band, Umphrey’s McGee…)
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What genre of contemporary rock did they inspire? Who are some of the major bands/artists?
Jefferson Airplane
Formed by singer Marty Balin, Paul Kantner (gt) in 1965, SF; also inspired by folk music
1967 album Surrealistic Pillow “Somebody to Love” (1967 was the ‘summer of love’)
“ White Rabbit ” inspired by Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” (1865), Through the Looking Glass (1871); strange, dreamlike imagery; became anthem for the drug fueled psychedelic movement; expressed anti-parental control
Members broke off to later form Jefferson Starship then Starship in mid 70s; hit songs incl. “Count On Me”, “With Your Love” and “Runaway”
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One pill makes you larger, one pill makes you small; and the ones that mother gives you don’t do anything at all;
Feed your head…
The Doors
Named after Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception (1954), chronicle of mescaline trip;
Formed in L.A., 1965, included singer/poet Jim Morrison
The Doors debut album (1967) “ Light My Fire, ” ; controversy on Ed Sullivan Show, “higher” ; “Break on Through (to the other side)” alluded to drug use;
1967, 2nd album Strange Days, “People are Strange”
1968 Waiting for the Sun, “Hello, I Love You” (resembled Kinks’ All Day and All of the Night)
Morrison, known for alcohol and drug use, stage antics, death in 1971
The Doors by Oliver Stone; doc. Film 1991; 2010 doc. People are Strange
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Other albums - ･1969 ﾐ The Soft Parade･1970 ﾐ Morrison Hotel･1971 ﾐ L.A. Woman･1971 ﾐ Other Voices･1972 ﾐ Full Circle･1978 ﾐ An American Prayer
The Psychedelic Beatles
Revolver (1966) "Tomorrow Never Knows", lyrics Lennon drew from Timothy Leary's The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead; “Yellow Submarine” “Taxman” “Eleanor Rigby”
“Strawberry Fields” and “Penny Lane” (released as a single)
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band - the Beatles “Masterpiece”; George Harrison, sitar, “Within You, Without You,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
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Video Time - 1:13:45
Slotted, Plastic People (counter-culture)
“Brown Shoes Don’t Make It” – Frank Zappa, Mothers of Invention (1967)
“Plastic People” – Zappa (1967)
“Plastic Fantastic Lover” – Jefferson Airplane
Countering the fakeness of some people; countering stereotypical lifestyle, mainstream social expectations (for marriage, kids, job, beauty, etc.); rejection of the status quo, chemicals, processed food, etc.
Politics of self; rejection of phony (catcher, 1951); status quo, leaders,
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