Maynard G. Krebs bump for the *real* roots of folk music.
Posted on 05/20/2003 5:56:39 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
There's a great scene in 1978's Animal House. Bluto Blutarsky (John Belushi) is walking down the stairway at his fraternity house when he encounters someone sitting on the stairwell while singing a folk song to a bunch of admiring coeds. Bluto, without missing a beat, grabs the folk singer's guitar and smashes it to pieces as the sound of "Louie, Louie" in the background overwhelms them.
The smashing of the folk singer's guitar was a seminal scene in American cinema that acknowledged what most of us already knew but dare not publicly admit---almost everybody HATES folk music. The humor in the scene comes from Bluto symbolically smashing the folk music idolatry that had a strange hold on America from the mid 1950s until its demise a decade later.
It is interesting that this Animal House scene took place in 1962, at precisely the time that folk music began its decline in popularity. What happened was that since college students (the primary folk music audience) of 1957/58 found Rock 'n' Roll as represented by Elvis Presley to be intellectually beneath them, they turned to the folk music of such groups as the Kingston Trio or The Highwaymen. However, by 1962 the new college students had already grown up with and accepted Rock 'n' Roll. With the end of this college student antipathy towards Rock came the decline of folk music popularity in favor of tunes like, well, "Louie, Louie."
At this point, folk music faded away at most colleges only to be resurrected with a hardcore leftist audience at schools such as Berkley or the Ivy League institutions. It was the era of the Free Speech Movement, Mario Savio, and the Civil Rights demonstrations. Rock 'n' Roll was still apolitical and upbeat folk groups like the Kingston Trio and the New Christy Minstrels were scorned as irrelevant by the new "message" folk musicians such as Peter, Paul, & Mary and, a short time later, by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.
The most ironic thing about these latter groups is that the very people they glorified in their songs shunned folk music like the plague. For example, Peter Paul, and Mary sang at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1963 when Martin Luther King gave his "I Have A Dream" speech. So how many people in the audience on the National Mall were folk music fans? Well, among the white bohemian types, quite a few. But what about the black people whose cause Peter, Paul, and Mary supported in their songs? The correct answer is NONE. I can confidently tell you that not one single black person (with the possible exception of Paul Robeson) who has ever been born on the planet has ever liked folk music. Think about it. Outside of Paul Robeson, have you ever heard of a black folk singer? You will also NEVER see black people in the audiences when viewing documentaries about the folk music era.
Folk musicians also sang about the struggle of workers fighting the bosses. One such folk singer, Joe Glazier, even made a specialty out of singing labor-oriented folk songs. The only problem is that in REAL LIFE white laborers, like the blacks, NEVER listened to folk music. You know what the average working stiff listened to? Country western songs about getting drunk and losing girlfriends in the bar. Subject matter that urban folk singers never touched. No way on earth would a folk song group call themselves The Cadillacs or sing a song about driving around in a Rocket 88.
I myself learned firsthand of the disdain of regular people towards folk music. Back when I was a student at St. Alban's School for Exclusive Boys, folk groups were very popular there, especially Peter, Paul, and Mary. Then when I went back to Tennessee for the summer to work on Dada's farm to build up a résumé as a real worker for a future presidential run, I sang "If I Had A Hammer" to the farm hands. You should have seen the blank looks of apathy on their faces. That apathy turned to antipathy when I followed up with "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore."
American folk music did originate in the Appalachian region including my native Tennessee which I rarely visited but that type of music, about whiskey jugs and killing cousins, was completely different than modern message-laden folk music. The real folk music of the Appalachians evolved naturally over generations from its Scotch-Irish roots. Modern folk music had a completely artificial conception as a device for promoting the cause of . . . the Communist Party.
Yes, now that I'm a humble movie reviewer I can finally admit that. In fact we can trace back to the very date that modern folk music began---March 3, 1940. It was on that day that Communist Party member, Pete Seeger, met fellow Communist, Woody Guthrie, at a "Grapes of Wrath" benefit concert and formed the Almanac Singers to spread the Bolshevik message all across the land from California to the New York island.
Now you would expect that the first songs of the Communist Almanac Singers would denounce fascism. Right? Wrong! Because that was still the era of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the first songs of the Almanac Singers denounced America's early attempt to oppose fascism with the Conscription Act.
Here is a sample of "Songs For John Doe" the first Almanac Singers album released in May, 1941:
Oh, Franklin Roosevelt told the people how he felt
We damned near believed what he said
He said, "I hate war, and so does Eleanor
But we won't be safe 'till everybody's dead."
Although this song and others on the album like it followed the strict Communist Party Line as set down by Joe Stalin, it proved to be an incredible embarrassment to the Almanac Singers a few weeks later when Germany invaded Russia and the Party Line changed 180 degrees. The following year, the Almanac Singers recovered enough to follow the new Party Line of supporting Roosevelt's war effort with these lyrics from "Dear Mr. President:"
Now, Mr. President
You're commander-in-chief of our armed forces
The ships and the planes and the tanks and the horses
I guess you know best just where I can fight
All I want to be is situated right
To do the most damage.
Pete Seeger, continuing with his Party Line leftist messenger service, later formed The Weavers in 1950. Five years later, Seeger refused to testify about his Communist Party activities to Congress. True, many of the Communists he was protecting were actively engaged in espionage and subversion against America but I, as a liberal Democrat, will always denounce that attempt to protect this country as a Witch Hunt. Alger Hiss? Okay, maybe he did pass top secret State Department papers via his courier, Whittaker Chambers, to Stalin but I declare Hiss to have been a victim of McCarthyism (even though he was exposed long before McCarthy came on the scene). This is the mythology of that era that I will continue to cling to despite any evidence to the contrary. Of course, any Al Qaeda members who do not supply information about their terrorist activities must remain quarantined in Guantanamo Bay prison but another standard needs to be applied to folks who enabled the subversion of the Communist Party and their agents.
With the onset of the "I Like Ike" 50s, Far Left activities and Bolshevik Balladeering fell out of favor. As mentioned earlier, Folk music wasn't revived until the feel-good Kingston Trio made the entertainment scene with songs no more controversial than about hopping rides aboard railroad freight cars. But the Kingston Trio ride on the popularity wave, along with similar groups as The Highwaymen and the Four Freshmen was rather brief---no more than five years. The "message" folk musicians that followed the Kingston Trio and their ilk enjoyed an even shorter ride on the popularity bandwagon. By 1964, with all kinds of college circuit gigs, Hootenanny appearances on TV, and as the balladeers of the Civil Rights movement, the future looked bright for the "serious" folk music folks. Yet within a year, their world came crashing down.
The "Jump The Shark" moment for Folk Music ("serious message" variety) came ironically at the hands of the leading person in that genre, Bob Dylan. This occurred in March, 1965 when Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home album was released where he committed the folk music "sacrilege" of playing electric guitar (although many people believe Dylan's first use of that instrument was at his July 25, 1965 Newport Folk Festival appearance). At almost precisely the SAME MOMENT, the last great Civil Rights demonstration in the South, the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama took place. Thereafter, deprived of its Civil Rights struggle theme, and with Dylan's switch to electric guitar, folk music lost most of its steam.
The Vietnam War inspired new protest music but most of that took place in "Rock" (sans the flighty "'n' Roll") music although folk music desperately tried to hold on for a few more years fighting against the Counterculture (and "Acid Rock") tide. However, by 1970 it was pretty much all over for folk music. Young people who used to listen to Joan Baez in earnest were groovin' to the bluesy sounds of Janis Joplin.
Other than that one scene in I referred to in Animal House, little note was taken later of folk music in popular culture . . . until now with the release of A Mighty Wind, a mockumentary about folk music. A Mighty Wind starts out with the death of Irving Steinbloom, a folk music promoter from the 1960s who arranged the concert performances of many of the most popular groups back then. In order to honor the memory of Steinbloom, a folk music concert is organized by his son, Jonathan Steinbloom (Bob Balaban) to be broadcast live by the Public Broadcasting Network. Three folk music groups are to participate. The incredibly commercial New Main Street Players (based on the equally commercial New Christy Minstrels), The Folksmen (based on Peter, Paul, and Mary) and Mitch and Mickey (which many think were based on Sonny & Cher but to me seem more like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez who were once romantically involved).
If you see A Mighty Wind you will wonder how I concluded that the Folksmen who are all men played by an Amish-bearded Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, and Christopher Guest (who played Alan Barrows, with name based on Peter Yarrow) could possibly be a parody of Peter, Paul, and Mary since there is obviously no Mary in the group. The answer my, friend, is Blowin' in the Wind. It is also revealed, hilariously, at the end of the movie and you wouldn't want me to spoil the surprise?
Although it is folk musicians who are being parodied in A Mighty Wind, the two funniest characters in the movie are non-musicians. One is Fred Willard as the incredibly shallow bleached blonde manager of the New Main Street Singers, Mike LaFontaine. At one time he was involved in a sitcom that had the catch phrase of "Wha Happened?" and LaFontaine never ceases to use it at every opportunity. The other funny character is Ed Begley Jr. as the Swedish born president of the Public Broadcasting Network, Lars Olfen. Olfen attempts to ingratiate himself with Jonathan Steinbloom by peppering his talk with Yiddish words with ever increasing frequency so that by the end of his shpiel (oy, it's catching) even Isaac Bashevis Singer wouldn't know what the hell he was talking about.
As for Mitch (Eugene Levy) & Mickey (Catherine O'Hara), they were a bit of a letdown. Although both Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara are graduates of absolutely the FUNNIEST comedy show in the history of television, SCTV, they didn't really seem to click that well in this movie. Mitch's decline from a popular folk musician to an institutionalized drug crazy is chronicled in this movie via a series of funny album covers but his role just wasn't that funny. Too bad since Levy did an INCREDIBLE job playing another musician back on SCTV, the jaded and heavily bejeweled singer, Bobby Bittman who once sang a calypso tribute song about the Falkland (or as he pronounced, "Fackland") Islands War. O'Hara was a little better as Mickey in this movie but her role paled in comparison to her SCTV portrayal of glitzy singer Lola Heatherton ("I want to BEAR your children!")
The climax of A Mighty Wind comes at the tribute concert. The New Main Street Singers lead off with an upbeat rendition of exactly the same song that The Folksmen were planning to start with. Already detesting the New Main Street Singers for their overt commercialism, happy face singing style, and bright yellow and blue uniforms, The Folksmen are even more angry at them for undercutting their act. Meanwhile, Mitch waiting in the wings to go onstage with Mickey, disappears. As Jonathan Steinbloom (whose brother in the audience hates all the acts) desperately searches for the missing Mitch, The Folksmen are urgently requested to stretch out their performance until Mitch can be found. Okay, this might not have been all that funny. Even worse, as we watch these antics, we are forced to listen to folk music which, even though presented in a parody movie, is still painful to hear.
At the end of A Mighty Wind, Mike LaFontaine gets the New Main Street Singers in a sitcom pilot playing Supreme Court Justices. Mickey ends up singing and playing the autoharp at a booth operated by her dull husband at medical supplies convention. And The Folksmen are performing at a bowling alley. Oh, and the mystery of how they are REALLY like Peter, Paul, and Mary is finally solved.
On my Chad Rating Scale of one to ten chads with ten chads being best, I give A Mighty Wind, seven chads. There were funny moments in this movie but there were also a lot of letdowns, particularly Levy's overacted portrayal of Mitch which was really more annoying than funny. Another problem with A Mighty Wind was having to listen to all that folk music. No wonder few people are nostalgic for that sound. Folk music really does suck. Fortunately it lasted only a brief time on the national stage.
This is the NEW Al Gore keepin' it real with this review and keepin' the sounds of folk music far from the green, green grass of home. And speaking of green grass, time for me to light up a . . . . Oops! Never mind.
Odetta, Josh White, Mississippi John Hurt were marketed as folk singers in the early 60's. Although they probably thought of themselves as "Blues" singers.
Ditto for "Irene Goodnight" Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter).
Depends what is meant by the term. A lot of what I'd call folk music goes back to the nineteenth or even eighteenth centuries. I really doubt communism was even remotely a consideration then.
Maynard G. Krebs bump for the *real* roots of folk music.
I heard Odetta perform once in the mid-60s and about five years ago (!)...she was very, very tired, but very effective.
She's a valid folk singer who did a marvelous job preserving and presenting the historic ballads she knew so well. It was a wonderful experience to "revisit" a concert from the mid-60s and realize how much of what she presented had affected me.
I think Al Gore meant MODERN message-laden folk music which is different than the REAL folk music of the Appalachian region with its Scotch-Irish roots going back many generations. BTW, Al Gore also wrote a review of Songcatcher which was about the REAL folk music.
I respectfully disagree. Buffee Sainte-Marie did a marvelous job singing about indian issues...she really educated a generation about that. Folk singers in the '60s chronicled times that were very confusing and very controversial. They were the poets of the time. We could use a little of that now; it might get people thinking about stuff, instead of the narcisstic junk that passes as music today.
Rereading the article more carefully, I observed that it did indeed say precisely that.
Depends what is meant by the term. A lot of what I'd call folk music goes back to the nineteenth or even eighteenth centuries. I really doubt communism was even remotely a consideration then.
I will concur. Maybe the prominent element of 20th Century American folk had a root in communism/socialism, and maybe that element was promoted so heavily by the latter... but the entire genre cannot be so accused.
For a number of years now at Seattle's Northwest Folklife Festival I've performed with a group (that's me way out there on the Right *\;-) singing centuries-old waulking (beating new tweed by hand) songs -- in Gaelic. Some of these highly traditional songs go back many hundreds of years. Some even combine fragments of older, forgotten songs but such is tradition that the total disconnect between the situations related by the various fragments is preserved verbatim. For generations. Things political don't appear at all in these songs, unless it's perhaps about Bonnie Prince Charlie or the next clan over.
Traditional folk, from my observation, tends to be conservative, even once a teaching tool, though it's been for too long co-opted by the Left. And though I'm an unabashed "folkie," at folk music festivals I avoid the worst ("feminist 1920s lesbian labor song workshop"), enjoy the best (apolitical), and sometimes even discover new genres (like the Chinese koto).
The Left does not own "folk music" though they've worked very hard to hijack and pervert it, and in some arenas they've pretty much succeeded. But I think if you look carefully at "folk music" in its entirety, you'll find that at its core, at its roots, and through most of its undiseased branches, it belongs to us.
You just can't make this stuff up. Well, on second thought, maybe you can.
True. It's impossible to dance to Folk Music.
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