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Top 100 folk songs
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Subject: Top 100 folk songs From: GUEST,Robert Date: 24 Nov 02 - 09:34 AM Where would I be able to find a reliable list of the top 100 folk songs played on the radio in the last 50 years. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: saulgoldie Date: 24 Nov 02 - 09:40 AM Robert, "Played on the radio" and "top 100" are not necessarily the same thing, not in my book, anyway. But perhaps you were looking for "most played" or "most copies sold." I am sure many 'Catters will offer their assistance. A large part of mine own lisht would include some that might even qualify as obscure. Do you care, or are you asking literally? |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: Nathan in Texas Date: 24 Nov 02 - 09:44 AM Don't know, but here are a few questions arising from yours. By "top 100" do you mean by number of times they were played? Number of records sold? Or by some less objective standard? And what do you mean by "folk" songs? Does that include songs by singer song-writers such as Bob Dylan? |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: GUEST,Robert Date: 24 Nov 02 - 09:50 AM I am looking for a list of music that would have been "Top 100 Played Folk Songs" in the last 50 years..... it might include, music by Peter, Paul and Mary, James Taylor, Arlo Guthrie, Gordon Lighfoot...., Cat Stevens......etc. It would include "Protest" music from the 60's by Joan Biaz....etc etc. Am I making sense? |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: GUEST,Robert Date: 24 Nov 02 - 09:51 AM Yes, definately Bob Dylan and Neil Young |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: Night Owl Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:00 AM welcome to Mudcats Robert. UMass. Boston radio just finished playing their top 100 folk performers for the last 20 years. Click wumb.org for more information. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: Jeri Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:01 AM Since there's is no universally accepted definition of "folk," I don't know that it's possible to track airplay. Someone might leave out one singer or group another list-compile would include and vice versa. I'm counting the seconds before someone decides to completely ignore your question in favor of arguing about whether the people you've mentioned fit their definitions. I'm cynical, though. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: saulgoldie Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:12 AM OK, then. But this will likely be difficult to properly document, being based on our memories, yes? Is that allright? Here are some of mine, in what order I cannot truthfully say: Blowing in the Wind (Dylan, but probably the PPM version) Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (by himself, El Gordo) If you Could Read My Mind (again) Early Morning Rain (and again) Marvelous Toy (Paxton, but probably PPM version) Puff (amazingly not actually about *that* "puff" by PPM) Banana Boat Song (Harry Belafonte--sp?) Jamaica Farewell (Kingston Trio?) This Land is Your Land (Guthrie; Weavers version, maybe? But without that "problem verse!") Not on the list: "How the hell could a country of presumably decent people allow so many genuinely caring folksingers and other artists to be denounced and hounded as 'enemies of the state'?" Oh, sorry. I let that slip out. That thought is inextricably intertwied with my on-topic thoughts. Yes, the list... Morningtown Ride (Seekers?) Never Find Another You (them, fer shur) You Were On My Mind (Sylvia Tyson, but the We Five version, I 'spect) Hobo's Lullaby (Hearing Unca Petey singing in my mind) Hard, Ain't it Hard (K-3o?) Oh, goodness, memory blanking. Let's see what the others contribute. Might trigger some other thoughts. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: mmb Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:17 AM Geri - - Or recordings by the true "roots" performers, vs. those by "revivalists," vs. those doing their own new-fangled interpretations. (Oops! That discussion was between a state folklore society and university academics, not here on MC. Or have I missed it here?) M. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: saulgoldie Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:34 AM As I and Nathan both asked, Robert clarified his request to be "those played most often played on the radio." That does not de-legitimize all the other important components of the folk music world. It was just his request, and he clarified that it was specific. The list of top 100 Sixteen Tons (Tennessee Ernie Ford) Sounds of Silence--sans drums, puleeze! (Simon and Garfarkel) Amazing Grace (Joan Baez?) Alice's Restaurant (Arlo) Fire and Rain (JT) Suzanne (Leonard Cohen) Both Sides Now (Joni, sung by Judy Collins) Circle Game (Joni) Will The Circle be Unbroken? (dunno hoo) Wedding Song (PPM) Give Yourself to Love (Kate Wolf) Mary Ellen Carter (Stan Rogers) |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: saulgoldie Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:38 AM Oopsie, I forgot that when I wrap something in "less than" and "greater than" it gets deleted. This: The list of top 100 "played on the radio" vs "the real top 100 most important" would likely differ as much as these two lists with regard to folk. Should have read: The list of top 100 "played on the radio" vs "the real top 100 most important" in (fill in any music genre) would likely differ as much as these two lists with regard to folk. Techno-shtuff...sheesh! |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: GUEST Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:43 AM Gee, what a question! Simon and Garfunkel's string of hits would surely have to be included, and a couple of my favourites from the sixties - Whistling Gypsey Rover by the Highwaymen and Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-To-Die Rag by Country Joe McDonald immediatlely come to mind. Great to see Nanci Griffith top that radio station's list. I await further responses with interest. Allan |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: GUEST,Robert Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:58 AM Thank you very much.....this has really helped more than you know. I realize there are many answers to my original question, but you have given me a great deal of info. I will continue checking your answers. I am trying to compile a list for a radio program. I am adding songs like "Good Night Irene", etc...some songs from the 40's, 50's.....many many from the 60's (just because there were sooooooo many great ones then (I am 52). Thank you again for your help, I really do appreciate it. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: Jeri Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:58 AM Didn't NPR compile a list in the past year or two? I vaguely remember a thread about Tom Dooley/Dula discussing their list. (I'm also assuming Robert is looking for US airplay statistics and not UK, Canadian, etc.) Mmb, I can't recall ANY 'roots' performers being exceptionally commercially successful! |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 24 Nov 02 - 11:00 AM Just curious - why do you ask? Well asuming you mean American commercial recordings.
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: GUEST,Robert Date: 24 Nov 02 - 11:07 AM Night Owl....thank you.....that web site is great.... Guest.Gargyole.....Thank you also....these are the things I am looking for. You are helping me sooooo much. You have given me more information here in the last hour than I have received in the last month. I appreciate it to no end..... |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: Jeri Date: 24 Nov 02 - 11:10 AM I don't believe Grammy awards are based on airplay (?) over a 50 year time period. I was wrong about the NPR Top 100 list is here, but it's the "The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century." It's also the results of a listener survey as is the WUMB list, not a list of musical works with the greatest amount of airplay. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: saulgoldie Date: 24 Nov 02 - 11:21 AM Joe Hill (dunno hoo wrote or sung the popular version--perhaps Joan Baez, like at Woodstock?) Kumbaya (again, dunno who wrote or sung) Turn, Turn, Turn (as sung by The Byrds, no doubt--was it written by Unca Petey?) If I Had A Hammer (as sung by PPM, of course) Battle of New Orleans (who wrote/sung?) Tom Dooley (As sung by K-3o) Universal Soldier (Buffy Saint-Marie) M.T.A. (K-3o) Pack Up Your Sorrows (Mimi and Richard Farina) It Takes a Worried Man (who wrote/sung?) Mr. Bojangles (Jerry Jeff Walker, but sung by who?) Freight Train (Elizabeth Cotten) Last Thing On My Mind (Tom Paxton) Ramblin Boy (Tom Paxton) Wonder Where I'm Bound (Tom Paxton) Goodnight Irene (Weavers) Violets of Dawn (Eric Andersen) Walk Right In (Rooftop Singers) Got to admit that I copied many of these right off the discography of the Vanguard Roots of Folk CD set. But I am confident that these songs have all received enough airplay to qualify. But what order? I am still waiting for others to get out of the gate and *contribute some songs*. Then we can order them. Oh, goody! Oh, and can't forget: Country Roads (sung by John Denver; written by Bill Danoff) Oh, oh, another vignette arising...Yes, Bill and Taffy (then, still married) played that song at a McGovern for President rally in Columbia, MD in 1972. I stood on the stage right *next to him* with his designated delegate slate from Anne Arundel County, along with Mom, one of two "family acts" in that election. That was the last time I voted for a presidential candidate I truly believed in. Can't leave that song off of *any* list, even if it is over-played and over-requested! (Oh, and there are a couple of lines never recorded that I will share when I find them again among my papers.) Hey, they left Bryan Bowers off'n that list, among other notables! Why can't "they" *ever* get the lists right?!! ;-) Next? |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: greg stephens Date: 24 Nov 02 - 11:30 AM Well taking this thread literally its probably asking about American folksongs played on American radio., but I'll try to give a Brit perspective. I have no statistics to hand on radio play, but I would guess that the most radio-played American folk songs in Britain in the last fifty years would be Rock Island Line, Cumberland Gap, Amazing Grace, Tom Dooley and Iko Iko. If you use a broad definition and include contemporary writers who have been influenced by folksong then Blowing in the Wind is bound to be near the top. If you want to throw in British/Irish folk song as well, then Wild Rover,Black velvet Band and Whisky in the Jar will pop into the frame. If you want to inlude Bahaman folksong, I wouldnt be surprised if The Sloop John B doesnt beat them all, given the consistent popularity of the Beachboys for 40 years. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: Jeri Date: 24 Nov 02 - 11:34 AM Hard to put them in any order other than popularity without statistics. Gotta be numbers somewhere out there! It may be possible (but a lot of work) to find listings of top 100 records for each year and then select the folk recording. It's also possible that a magazine has done a "top 100 of all time" listing. I think I once (years ago) saw a listing like that in Rolling Stone, and it was broken down into top 100 R&B, top 100 country, top 100 folk, etc. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: greg stephens Date: 24 Nov 02 - 11:42 AM All the ones I quoted made the charts, by the way( as we are talking commercial/airplay success rather than value judgements as to song quality). However, I reckon they are all brilliant songs. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: saulgoldie Date: 24 Nov 02 - 12:17 PM Four Strong Winds (Ian & Sylvia) |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: Peter T. Date: 24 Nov 02 - 01:18 PM We have had many threads on this theme. You should check the Forum search. yours, Peter T. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: Rick Fielding Date: 24 Nov 02 - 01:20 PM Wow...a thread that is both hilarious AND informative. Been a while for that on Mudcat. Thank you GG for those charts. Fascinating to see what the mainstream considers the best of folk, Gospel etc. So here's my suggestion, instead of saying "Folk Songs" let's just say "songs without drums"!! Cheers Rick |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: Little Hawk Date: 24 Nov 02 - 01:48 PM Also by Ian Tyson: Summer Wages, 24 Hours From Tulsa, Navajo Rug, and numerous others. Also by Buffy Sainte-Marie: Piney Wood Hills, Cripple Creek, etc... Also by Leonard Cohen: Bird On A Wire, etc... And Kris Kristofferson: Me And Bobbie McGee, Help Me Make It Through The Night, Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down, and numerous others. And Willie Nelson: On The Road Again, You Were Always On My Mind, Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground, and NUMEROUS others. It's really endless. - LH |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: Don Firth Date: 24 Nov 02 - 02:01 PM Here we go, trying to nail Jell-O to the wall again. Another excellent example that the term "folk music" has become totally meaningless. Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: saulgoldie Date: 24 Nov 02 - 02:15 PM Well, Don (and not meaning to start a fistfight like I just witnessed on another thread) can we start by suggesting that if it is played by a sax-a-mo-phone, vibes, and an anorexic pastey white guy wearing a beret singing obscure poetry, that it is likely not folk? How 'bout a 120-piece orchestra that has to read its music from pages and be led by a conductor? Or how about if there're three or four barely-dressed (and also anorexic) men with lots of body piercings and paint prancing wildly 'round the stage and projected by 2 dozen of the biggest Marshall stacks? (I may have that number wrong; I don't know Marshall stacks from bung stacks. I just remember hearing the term from some rockers, is all.) Would that not probably *not* be folk to most of us? I concede that a very tight and workable definition is allusive. But I also assert that it is possible to have a general sense of it. And I think that most of what has been suggested fits. So how do *you* give meaning to the term "folk music?" No, seriously. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: greg stephens Date: 24 Nov 02 - 02:50 PM Well I'm with Don.i tried to list songs that would be generally agreed to be folksongs by the consensus of Mudcatters. cant say many of those listed so far would fit that description. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: saulgoldie Date: 24 Nov 02 - 03:23 PM I am not trying to be argumentative, but I am truly wondering, now. I thought I had an idea, but perhaps I really don't. What might it be about the songs that disqualify them as "folk songs" and on what basis do you suggest that other 'Catters would also disqualify them? Is it who wrote it? The circumstances of how, when, where, and for what reason it was written? Is it a question of who sings it and how much money they make, or if they are in it for the "wrong" reason? Does having it played on the radio make it *less* of a folk song? Does Is it a question of what instruments are used or specifically excluded? If it has the blessing of some academic entity, does that disqualify it as a tru folk song? Is it a matter of where it is played and under what circumstances? Flip side: what constitutes a "legitimate" folk song? Anyone else? If the songs I listed are not folk songs, than I have to seriously rethink my life. Didn't really mean to devolve into this, as it is not really (I think) what Robert was asking, and it has probably already been beaten pretty well to death and beyond in other threads that I have not searched for yet. But it came up here, so I am going with it. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: GUEST,Robert Date: 24 Nov 02 - 03:48 PM |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: GUEST,Robert Date: 24 Nov 02 - 03:55 PM You have all given me the answers I need. I have received more answers than I had ever hoped for. I will compile all of it and let you know what I came up with. I am trying to put together the top 100 best recognized "folk" songs from the last 50 years. As I myself am 52, I think of the songs from the 60's...the Joan Biaz, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter, Paul and Mary, Judy Collins, Simon and Garfunkel, Arlo, etc. Thank you sooooo much....keep it coming..... |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: mmb Date: 24 Nov 02 - 04:01 PM Jeri - - Re: your 10:28 AM posting - the only "roots" performance(s) I can think of as commerically successful in recent times is those on the Sound Track of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". I heard interviews on NPR with an elderly man whose version of one of the songs was used, and also with the young girls who have learned all of their singing directly through their family tradition. Sorry I don't have the CD, and can't recall the names. It was really enlightening to see Saulgoldie's posting mentioning the "Vanguard Roots of Folk CD." I didn't look to see "how many seconds passed" before the thread drifted, but thanks to those who contributed additional info. Now, off to Springsteen in Tampa. (Would any of his acoustic material make the list?) M. |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: GUEST,lardingo Date: 24 Nov 02 - 05:58 PM My old buddy Max Hunter used to say, If you write me a folk song, I'll make you an antique." |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: Hrothgar Date: 25 Nov 02 - 03:30 AM Those Grammy awards cast a wide net, don't they? Can we turn this around into a discussion of what is folk music? Running, faster and faster .... |
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Subject: RE: Top 100 folk songs From: GUEST,Arkie Date: 25 Nov 02 - 11:34 AM Ran on to this a little late, but would like to add a few more titles I do not recall seeing in the above lists - On Top Of Old Smoky Lavender's Blue Tennessee Stud Long Chain On Blue Tail Fly Sloop John B. In the Jailhouse Now House of the Rising Sun |
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