Utah Phillips was fond of saying, "THE PAST DIDN'T GO ANYWHERE"!! It is still here with us. And those older, other ways of defining FOLK are all here with us for as long as we who went through it are here to keep new people from diluting our message and re-inventing history so it sells better to modern people! As long as Mudcat and the old books last, people will be able to find out what folk was all about to us who were there then.

No, rap wasn't there then. It was called signifying in the '60s. It was done by people on the street. Then Oscar Brown jr. took it and brought it to some major record labels, but he never had the success with it that he should've. Around Chicago, Roy Inman and Ira Rogers did it on the folk scene--in clubs too---but it wasn't rap yet---and you could make out the words easier even if you were white.

No, the past didn't go anywhere! It's hid again though. Say, maybe some of you ought to go to the Library Of Congress and bring back the old ARCHIVE OF FOLK SONG! It does seem that we need to start collecting work again!!

They say that history repeats. It's too bad it seems to cost three times as much every time around.

Art