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Urban Folk Trend

in contrast to authentic backwoods country folk, this music was produced by sophisticated, well-educated college students, usually in urban centers. Early groups included ...

• the Brothers Four ("Greenfields;" #2 in 1960)
• the Highwaymen ("Michael" [#1, 1961] and "Cotton Fields" [#13, 1961])

The Kingston Trio

1957--3 college students (Dave Guard, Bob Shane, & Nick Reynolds) formed the Kingston Trio

• same year as Belafonte's "Jamaica Farewell" & "The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)"
  • note Jamaican influence on the group's name
• recall Belafonte as an influence in the development of the folk trend

the Kingston Trio's first hit actually fit the definition of an authentic folk song

• based on the 19th C. folk tune "Tom Dula"

Tom Dooley

(#1, 1958)

serious song compared to other songs of the time

• topics of the lyrics include murder, questionable justice, & hanging
• note the irony of this subject matter set to such beautifully harmonized music!!

Kingston Trio clearly fit the description of the Urban folk music trend

• white, clean-cut college boys, short hair, button-down shirts, & dress slacks (Ivy-league)

eventually placed 10 songs in the Top 40, though no single after "Tom Dooley" reached higher than #8

their albums sold very well:

• 6 of their first 7 albums hit #1
• every one of their first 17 albums (through 1963) made the Top 20!!

   

spoof on protest songs (forerunner of more serious protest songs of the 60s) ...

M.T.A.

(1959) - Metropolitan Transit Authority

Peter, Paul, & Mary

1961 - trio met in Greenwich Village & were encouraged by Albert Grossman to join forces

• Peter Yarrow - moderately successful folk singer
• Paul Stookey - stand-up comic with experience in HS rock band; "The Wedding Song"
• Mary Travers - HS chorus, folk singer, and chorus for a Broadway flop (The Next President)

provided the next stage in the development of the folk-music trend

• hint of the intellectual-revolutionary "folknik" message of the hardcore protest singers, but presented in in a softer, more commercial version appropriate for popular consumption (compare PP&M with Dylan)

music not for teenyboppers, but for the more thoughtful college student and young adult

• discovered that being active in politics wasn't only the business of old men in D.C. (JFK elected in 1960 as youngest president ever)
• new sociopolitically conscious youth wanted music with a message; coffeehouse performances & poetry readings (not music to dance to, but to think to!!)
• social disobediance as a means of protest (racial prejudice & war to freshman dormitory hours)

self-titled debut album spent 7 weeks at #1 in 1962

• included "Lemon Tree" (#35) and a tune by Pete Seeger ...

If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)

(#10, 1962)

"love between the brothers and the sisters all over this land"

• higher love, not merely romantic love

this song helped bring folk music and protest consciousness to the mainstream

• Peter, Paul, & Mary's debut album stayed on the Hot 100 album chart for 3½ years!!

toured college campuses & played at rallies

• always deeply involved with the issues they sang about
• marched w/Martin Luther King
• Yarrow helped organize the March on Washington in 1969

unlike many of their predecessors, produced an impressive list of hit singles

• the first to bring commercial success to Bob Dylan ("Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," #2 in 1963) and:

Blowin' in the Wind (live performance)

(#2 in 1963)

Note the optimism inherent in the title hook line ...

"The answer, my friend, is Blowin' in the Wind,
The answer is Blowin' in the Wind."

Important: not only did music of the folk rock era reflect the thinking & attitudes of the young generation, it served to spread these same thoughts & attitudes to others who could be inspired to "join the cause" (i.e., the youth revolution)

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

[discussion of Dylan postponed ‘til later (Chapter 8)]

Musical Characteristics of the Folk Trend

generally, pleasant voices singing clearly on pitch with good vocal control

lyrics were clearly enunciated

• after all, the words provided the "message"

harmonies were simple & diatonic (homophonic)

• avoiding the 12-bar blues typical of R&B and mainstream rock
• also avoided the I-vi-IV-V progression of pop & soft rock

rhythmically subdued with none of the forceful rhythm or backbeat of R&B, mainstream, or rockabilly

• in folk ballads, rhythm was very much in the background
• uptempo songs relied on strummed guitar or banjo chords, with the string bass reinforcing the basic beat

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