The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #75294 Message #1321575
Posted By: PoppaGator
09-Nov-04 - 12:34 PM
Thread Name: popular songs in 1965
Subject: RE: popular songs in 1965
All respondents seem to have assumed -- correctly -- that the original question asked what folksongs were most often performed *in the UK* in '65.
It's a different question, surely, but it makes me wonder what the answer(s) would be for the US folk scene at the same time?
The Dylan stuff mentioned above would be about the same, although the then-new "Mr. Tambourine Man" caught on very quickly hereabouts and would probably merit a mention for already being played widely in 1965.
There were always plenty of banjo virtuosos playing "Orange Blossom Special."
And there would undoubtedly be more representation of The Blues on the part of the guitar players. I'm not sure what specific songs would be most likely to be heard -- undoubtedly some Mississippi John Hurt as well as some more hard-core Delta-style pieces. Wherever anyone present might have been *able* to play MJH's "Candy Man," he'd be sure to show it off (just like those banjo characters with "Orange Blossom").
You'd probably hear something popularized by Dave Van Ronk -- "St. Louis Tickle," another "show-off" piece, or maybe "Green Rocky Road," "Duncan & Brady," etc.
Jesse Colin Young's blues-ish "Four in the Mornin'" was wildly popular in the North/Central New Jersey scene where I was an underaged and undertalented lurker. That may have been '64 or maybe even late '63, but so many players were so deeply invested in learning to play it that I sure it was still being heard in '65.
Any more thoughts on what American folkies were up to at that same time?