Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?

Subject: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 01:49 AM

What are the best books you've read on any aspect of traditional, rock, or original singer-songwriters from the middle-ish twentieth century in North America and England? I know that cuts a very broad swath, but I'd be interested in what you regard as stellar biographies, analyses and histories of genres, excellent interviews, etc. that shed new light and perspectives on important music and musicians of the time. I'm looking for some terrific reads for quiet evenings.

Thanks,

Elmer

PS: I'm currently reading "Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music," by Greil Marcus.

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/roc
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 02:28 AM

I guess I'd say Joe Klein's biography of Woody Guthrie.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: shepherdlass
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 04:45 AM

Colin Harper's "Dazzling Stranger" is much more than a biography of Bert Jansch - it paints a wonderful backdrop of the folk scene in Scotland and London. Bob Dylan's "Chronicles Vol I" is just brilliant - you don't get a definitive outline of any particular sequence of events but it's full of insight about what it was like to be part of the Village crowd in the early 60s. On the traditional side, there are the lovely bits towards the end of Bob Copper's "A Song for Every Season" where he describes what it was like for the family to go and take part in BBC recordings and the like. Ronald Cohen's "Rainbow Quest" is a thorough account of the US folk scene - it's so rich in detail that it sometimes feels overpowering. Then there's Fred Woods' "The British Folk Revival" and Laing, Dallas, Deneslow and Shelton's "The Electric Muse", which are quite succinct accounts of parts of the scene viewed from the 1970s - which means that sometimes they predicted the course of future folk in a way that doesn't fit in hindsight. You could also challenge your assumptions with Mike Brocken's "The British Folk Revival" and the last chapter of Georgina Boyes' "The Imagined Village", both of which will give you new information and wrestle with the underlying politics within the revival. And Sam Richards' "Sonic Harvest" has quite a few absolute gems of chapters on subjects like MacColl's songwriting and what is "tradition". If you want a look at the Scottish scene, there's Hamish Henderson "Alias McAlias" and Ailie Munro's book on the Scottish revival (can't see the book to get the exact title at the moment). I'm sure I've missed loads out, but these ones spring to mind at the moment.

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 05:03 AM

On British folk/rock you should probably include Brian Hinton & Geoff Wall's (authorised) biography of Ashley Hutchings - The Guv'nor and the Rise of Folkrock

Mick

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: IanC
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 05:11 AM

Thanks for atarting this thread. I'm keeping an eye on it so I can include your reviews in "The Basic Folk Library" when I get back to working on it.

:-)
Ian

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 05:18 AM

Shepherdlass,somebody recently advised me to read "The Folk Music revival in Scotland." are you talking about the same book?
This is a genuine request for information and not intended to be condescending.

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/roc
From: GUEST,Nicholas Waller
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 05:40 AM

"Revolution in the Head", a song-by-song analysis of the Beatles' output by Ian MacDonald, is a remarkable book that manages to be a bio of the 60s as well as a detailed and very readable look at each song from creative wellspring to production.

Lots of positive reviews here and unfortunately a Guardian obit of Ian MacDonald, who committed suicide, here.

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 05:52 AM

"Revolution in the Head " is indeed an excellent book (worth buying for the introduction alone) however MacDonald was prone ,in places, to both overanalysis & failing to distinguish between conjecture & fact.Nevertheless if you like the music of The Beatles this book is a "must read". If you don't like them MacDonald might just incite a Re-evaluation in your head.

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 02:33 PM

"Revolution in the Head" is an interesting book--an amazing piece of scholarship, although the author is off the mark on the origins/meaning of at least one song, "Across the Universe." I also bridle at his criticism and pronouncements of judgement on the songs--they seem out of place for what he is trying to accomplish.

Thanks for these recommendations. More, please!

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: shepherdlass
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 02:48 PM

Purple Foxx - yes, that was the book I was talking about. Now I think its full name is "The Democratic Muse ... the folk music revival in Scotland".

As for Ian MacDonald, you get some broader subject matter from his collection of rock/folk/pop journalism "The People's Music", some of which is absolutely brilliant, some of which is not that startling, and the last essay of which (on Nick Drake) feels like a clear signpost that he was about to commit suicide himself.

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: Purple Foxx
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 02:54 PM

Thanks for the tips shepherdlass.
Slightly off subject but did you see the thread about the Butler Border Library?
I think it may be of interest to you.

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: GUEST,TJ
Date: 10 Mar 06 - 10:12 PM

From the US end of things, if you're interested in the New York and Boston folk scene of the 1960s, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and the somewhat under-remembered Richard and Mimi Farina, I would highly recommend David Hajdu's book "Positively Fourth Street". For an encyclopedia-type book, the incredibly comprehensive thousand-page folk volume in the Music Hound "Essential Album Guide" series is, indeed, essential.

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 11 Mar 06 - 02:20 AM

I thought "Positively Fourth Street" was full of facts but devoid of understanding. As someone put it, "Hajdu just didn't get it." Why he was so intent on putting down the people he was writing about is beyond me. He failed completely to capture the spirit of the time and the special roles that Dylan, Baez and Richard Farina played in them. He had a few kind words for Mimi Farina. It seems he found her personality more likable and equated that with being a more laudable person.

Elmer

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: 12-stringer
Date: 11 Mar 06 - 04:01 AM

"Baby Let Me Follow You Down" (very nostalgic for me, as I've never been within 300 miles of Boston but I used to listen to the old WBZ Hootenanny every Sunday night on the radio, so all the names and venues were old and familiar)

"The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock" (story of the Austin-based Texas folk-rock scene of the early 70s)

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: johnross
Date: 11 Mar 06 - 08:57 PM

Ritchie Unterberger's two books on the transition from folk music to folk-rock are excellent: "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "Eight Miles High," both published by Backbeat Books.

For an inside view of the folk revival as it evolved in Greenwich Village, look for Dave van Ronk's "The Mayor of MacDougal Street."

"Bringing It All Back Home: Twenty-Five Years of American Music at Folk City," by Robbie Woliver covers a lot of the same territory, but without van Ronk's insights.

There have been several books on the American Folk Revival that track it from the days when folk music was a political organizing tool for the left, through the Folk Scare of the sixties:

"Romancing the Folk: Public Memory & American Roots Music," by Benjamin Filene

"Rainbow Quest: The Folk Music Revival & American Society," by Ronald D.Cohen

"Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined," edited by Neil V. Rosenberg

"When We Were Good: The Folk Revival," by Robert Cantwell

And two excellent biographies (along with the Joe Klien book on Woody Guthria mentioned earlier) offer detailed information about essential participants in the revival:

"Lonesome Traveler: The Life of Lee Hays," by Doris Willens

"How Can I Keep From Singing: Pete Seeger," by David King Dunaway

The most extensive description of the early days of the revival I have seen is in the book that accompanies the Bear Family 10-CD set called "Songs For Political Action."

If you can find them, two old paperbacks from the Sixties both provided contemporary views of the Folk Scrare as it was happening:

"Freedom In The Air: Song Movements of the 60's," by Josh Dunson

"The American Folk Scene: Dimensions of the Folksong Revival," edited by David A. DeTurk and A. Poulin, Jr.

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 12 Mar 06 - 01:33 AM

Thanks. looks like a fantastic list. I've only read "Rainbow Quest" from it.

E.

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/roc
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 12 Mar 06 - 06:40 PM

Ed Cray's 2005 book on Woody Guthrie, Ramblin' Man, was a good one.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 12 Mar 06 - 07:40 PM

Ailie Munro's book was originally published as The Folk Music Revival in Scotland (Norwood Editions, 1985) and reissued, updated and expanded, as The Democratic Muse: Folk Music Revival in Scotland (Scottish Cultural Press, 1996). I haven't seen the second edition, but the first was very good.

Fred Woods' Folk Revival: The rediscovery of a national music (Blandford Press 1979), on the other hand, tends not to be very well thought of; it should be on any comprehensive reading list, but may need to be treated with caution.

Subject: RE: Review: yer fave books on mid-20th c. folk/rock?
From: johnross
Date: 12 Mar 06 - 08:08 PM

Oh, I almost forgot. Two more useful reference books:

"Folksingers and Folksongs in America" by Ray M. Lawless, and
"Folk music: More than a song," by Kristin Baggelaar & Donald Milton (published in England as "The Folk Music Encyclopaedia."

Both are long out of print, but scondhand copies should be relatively easy to find.

The Lawless book was first published in 1960, with an enlarged second edition in 1965. It covers most of the important singers who were active just before the Folk Boom, along with others who never became prominent. It's an excellent snapshot of the folk music scene at the time, but like the Baggelaar& Milton book, it misses some important West Coast performers.

The English title of "The Folk Music Encyclopaedia" is misleading, but the Baggelaar & Milton book does include entries about most of the important folk musicians up to the time of its publication in 1976, IF they had made records for major labels or if they had been regulars on the East Coast concert and festival circuit in the early Seventies. So, for example, there are no entries for Larry Hanks, Walt Robertson or Harry Tuft, or for many important UK singers and groups like the Ian Campbell Folk Group, Shirley Collins or Isla Cameron. Most of the entries read like they were taken from liner notes or official bios supplied by the musicians' booking agencies.