Best ten songs of the 60's

Subject: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,Pete and John
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 08:48 AM

We have just been having a tete-a-tete between us on which songs from the 60's were most memorable. Whilst we can agree on a list of performers from that time (which is endless)we cannot agree on the songs

Tom Paxton
Bob Dylan
Watersons
Dransfields
Steeleye Span
Ewen McColl
Pete Seeger
Joan Baez
Judy Collins
Simon and Garfunkel

Can any catters suggest a list of ten best songs from that time

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,Pete and John
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 08:50 AM

That should read Best 10 Folk songs of the 60's

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,MtheGM
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 09:07 AM

When Peter Bellamy died in the early 90s I wrote his obituary in The Guardian, in which I expressed the opinion that his 'Farewell to the Land', based on his Norfolk farm childhood and set to a Copper Family tune, was the best original song to emerge from the Folk Revival. It can be heard on his 'Tell It Like It Was' album of 1975, but it had been written some years earlier [about the time, he told me once, of his 'Mainly Norfolk' album of 1968], and he had sung it at his gigs from about then onwards. So it will just about fit into your time-frame, Pete & John. And it is my nomination...   Michael

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Midchuck
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 09:49 AM

I would need to brood on that question for a good while before posting my list - and I will do both.

But my initial reaction is that the omission of Ian and Sylvia from your performer list is a fairly serious flaw.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: bobad
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 09:55 AM

How do you define folk song?

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,MtheGM
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 10:45 AM

Re last two posts:
Peter, as implied by my post I take it that the OPs are seeking UP TO 10 songs & do not require a full list from everyone; and that their performer-list merely suggests a basis and is not intended to be exhaustive.
Bobad: I take it they are after best original songs composed in the folk idiom; not, surely, the ten best folksong tracks of the decade, including traditional, where the sheer volume of numbers would surely make their quest chimerical.
They will doubtless confirm whether I am correct in these suppositions.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,Pete and John
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 11:02 AM

The list of performers from that decade are endless. We missed off

Ralph McTell
Dubliners
Rosie Hardman (Is she still singing (What a voice)
Judith Durham (But what was the group ?)
Corries
Donovan
etc etc

It is the folk songs that are difficult to agree on - there are so many -

We have agreed on our first two songs

Masters of War - Bob Dylan
This Land is your Land - Woody Guthrie

Only another eight to agree on

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,Michele Callaghan
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 11:44 AM

I think your list would have to include "We Shall Overcome" Pete Seeger. I would leave "This Land Is Your Land" off because it is from earlier than the 60s. "Blowing in the Wind" by Dylan could be another one.

Another question to ask in formulating the list is do you mean most influential--like the two I suggested--or best in sound/lyrics?

I will think about this and come up with more later!

Michele C.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 12:01 PM

Making this a ten best folk songs list doesn't help much. Folk songs aren't limited to a decade. Your favorite folk performers of the 60's makes more sense.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: M.Ted
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 12:18 PM

There are a lot of conflicts to resolve before this exploration can move forward--UK vs US being a biggie--a lot of what is important in one place is unknown in the other. Played and sung vs recorded is another,   we sang many songs that we never heard on record, and many of my favorite songs on record were never properly rendered "live"--and time of origin is another--with folk songs, many were most popular outside of their decade of origin(or even their century of origin), and of course, there's the "Donovan" issue--he probably inspired more to write, sing, and play, than most of the others, but in retrospect, most would prefer to say they were inspired by Martin Carthy or Doc Watson(who should be on your list above)--

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Arkie
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 12:26 PM

Judith Durham sang with the Seekers. Wonderful singer, great voice.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,The Folk Entertainer
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 04:01 PM

Leaving out the Kingston Trio is somewhat mindless.

Their version of "Where have All the Flowers gone" is basically the standard that the world knows and a true 1960s Folk classic.

Leaving out Peter, Paul, and Mary is another travesty.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 04:41 PM

Four strong winds
Universal soldier
Country roads..60's?

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,Chris Shaw
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 04:44 PM

Yesterday has gone. Cupids Insparation.

Different Drum. Linda & Stone Roses.

Mathew and son. Cat Stevens.

Let's stay together. Canned Heat.

Gimmie Shelter. Rolling Stones.

Sabre Dance. Love Sculpture.

Ohio. Neil Young.

The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse. Bonzo dog doda band.

The games people play. Joe South.

McArthur park. Richard Harris.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,Joseph de Culver City
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 06:00 PM

Guest Chris Shaw   I can tell that you were around in the sixties for sure. My memory is not quite perfect, but, like you, I can remember the important stuff.


Jimmy Webb can sure write a good song. So can Mike Nesmith...

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 06:15 PM

Turn, turn, turn by Pete Seeger.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,Peace
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 06:21 PM

I think it'd depend on where ya were at the time. And what's meant by best.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Bobert
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 06:24 PM

Well, yeah, I was listenin' to folk music in the 60s but it wasn't my regular musical diet, so to speak, so I wouldn't put any folk song on my top 10 60s songs... Sorry... Hey, some of us were into rock and roll in a big way and I was one... Even played in a rock and roll band... So if this thread turns around toward all music I'll jump right back in but....

B~

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 07:13 PM

'You don't know me' by Ray Charles and 'On the Road Again' by Canned Heat,

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Janie
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 07:42 PM

What, no songs written by Leonard Cohen?

"Bird on a Wire"
"Suzanne"
"Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" would all be ones that I would think about, even if they didn't make the final cut.

Also Joni Mitchell's, "That Song About the Midway." She didn't really hit her stride until the early '70's, but there are certainly two or three from her early albums that would be in the running for my list.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 07:53 PM

I have decided that even the best of "best of" lists will inevitably fall short. Though the intent may be honorable, it is impossible to satisfy most people with them - it becomes an exercise in futility.
I didn't say they don't pique my curiosity from time to time, though.

By the way, my next door neighbor thinks Jim Croce's "Workin' At The Carwash Blues" ought to be considered....

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Peace
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 07:56 PM

"Locomotion" by Little Eva (?)

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Janie
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 07:56 PM

That's the fun of it, TJ. All the songs and artists listed by everyone jog memories!

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 08:03 PM

Best 10 Folk-type songs of the 1960s?

Turn, Turn, Turn...Byrds

Eve of Destruction...Barry McGuire

Colors...Donovan

Positively 4th Street...Dylan

Like a Rolling Stone...Dylan

You've Got to Hide Your Love Away...Beatles

The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down...The Band

If You Could Read my Mind...Lightfoot

Blowin' in the Wind...Peter, Paul, and Mary

Get Together...The Youngbloods

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Joe_F
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 08:13 PM

It seems they don't have to be folk. I found 18 on my Magical list. Whittling them down, I get

Both Sides Now
Dillan Bay
Grey Funnel Line
Here's to Cheshire, Here's to Cheese
Hobo's Lullaby
I Can't Help but Wonder
Liverpool Lullaby
My Love Comes Rolling Down
Rooty Toot Toot for the Moon
The Sloth

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Amos
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 08:29 PM

Don't Think Twice
Blowing in the Wind
Good Vibrations
Several Beatles songs have to be in there.
I Ain't Marchin' Anymore.
Girl from the North Country
Bridge Over Troubled Water

Too many, too many. It was a pure-dee hotbed decade, a fireworks of adolescent creativity, Roman Candles all over the map.


A

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 08:32 PM

I do think we ought to have two lists - non-electric and electric (to avoid the arguments about "what is folk").

Turn, turn, etc is surely ineligible. The words are the Book of Ecclesiastes. A bit pre-60s.

I also think that traditional songs are ineligible. What we receieved of them in the 60s were interpretations.

Now, of course, I don't know what to put on the two lists!

Acoustic:
We shall overcome
Streets of London
Anji (not a song, but a tune)
The Gipsy Boy and I
Anthem of the Rainbow
There but for Fortune
I shall be released
With God on our Side
Was "Tolpuddle Man" written in the 60s?
Is it called "Dancing in the Sky"? Jansch, I think.


Electric: (some of these may be a bit later)
The Fish Cheer
Price of Love (performed by Everlies)
Desdemona (performed by Marsha Hunt - or should I go for Walk on Guilded Splinters?)
Wheel's on Fire
Fire (Arthur Brown)
Let me Stand next to your Fire (Hendrix)
The End (Doors)
Great Balls of Fire
White Rabbit
My Generation


Hell, that is some hard choices!

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Bobert
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 08:32 PM

Yeah, Brucie, it was Little Eva... Hit #1 in 1962... Kinda a one hit wonder, though "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby" got some air time but never broke the Top Ten...

Actually, most of the Top Ten songs in the 60's weren't all that good... Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey", which in MHO is the worst song ever written, was #1 for several weeks in 1968??? That song has had me stuggling with my views of capital punishment ever since I heard the blasted thing...

My favoites absolutley don't jive with Bill Boards...

I was into Ten Years After, Spooky Tooth, Climax Blues Band, Jethro Tull, etc., etc....

B~

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: pdq
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 08:48 PM

Candidates just from Jethro Tull:

"Nothing Is Easy"

"With You There To Help Me"

"To Cry You A Song"

"Nothing To Say"

"Inside"

"Time For Everything?"

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Janie
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 09:11 PM

Ain't got no list - just random flashes....

"We'll Sing in the Sunshine" Gale Garnett
Pick one of several from John Stewart's "California Bloodlines" I especially liked "Razor-back Woman", "The Pirates of Stone County Road", and "Some Lonesome Picker."
One year off - 1970, but I'm gonna list it anyway - "Daniel and the Sacred Harp" the Band.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: alanabit
Date: 11 Aug 09 - 09:39 PM

Er Bobert, where the Climax Blues Band even formed in the sixties?

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 12:57 AM

Since the list is completely subjective, here's some I first HEARD in the '60s:

Coal Tattoo
Springhill Mine Disaster
Sully's Pail
Turn, Turn, Turn
They Told Me Doncha Go Down To That City
Goodman and Schwerner and Chaney
Draft Dodger Rag
Talking Vietnam Blues
Sergeant, I'm A Draftee
Outside of a Small Circle of Friends
There but for fortune

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,MtheGM
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 01:13 AM

Radio Ballads --- Transmission Dates:

The Ballad of John Axon - 2 July 1958
Song Of A Road - 5 November 1959
Singing The Fishing - 16 August 1960
The Big Hewer - 18 August 1961
The Body Blow - 27 March 1962
On The Edge - 13 February 1963
The Fight Game - 3 July 1963
The Travelling People - 17 April 1964

& not a single song from any of them suggested so far. 30-ft-Trailer; Freeborn Man; Shoals Of Herring... What can be the matter with everybody!

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 02:29 AM

Been on the phone to Little Hawk about this, cos he is the expert and I ain't. He says it's awfully tough to narrow it down to 10 best folk songs of the 60's, but here's one possible list (in no [particular order):

Blowing in the Wind - Dylan

Four Strong Winds - Ian & Sylvia

Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell (and Judy Collins' recording of it was topnotch)

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - Dylan

Changes - Phil Ochs

Universal Soldier - Buffy Sainte-Marie (Donovan's recording of it was better known, but Buffy's version is the best, and she wrote it.)

The Times They Are A-Changing - Dylan

House of the Rising Sun - (by many performers, including Baez & Dylan)

Suzanne - Leonard Cohen

If You Could Read My Mind - Lightfoot


Those are 10 real good candidates, accordin' to LH, but that's just one quick look at it, and only in the more or less acoustic folk style category.

Now, some of these songs got played so much since then that people got tired of 'em. But don't forget the impact they had when they first came to people's notice...it was huge in every case, and with good reason.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,Pete and John
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 03:28 AM

Hi Michele - We agreed on This Land is your Land even though it came from an earlier period because it was so much around in the 60's - or at least in the Folk circle we moved in - it spoke to us so much of freedom.
Hi Amos - You are so right with your descrition of fireworks. When you look back at the 60's there were so many great performers and songs the mind just 'boggles.'

Another two songs we have agreed to be on our list would be

Diamonds and Rust - Joan Baez (Stunning looks with a voice that sent shivers down the spine)

Streets of London - Ralph McTell

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 03:31 AM

And here's a second round of possibilities in no particular order of importance:

Mr Tambourine Man - Dylan
There But For Fortune - Ochs
We Shall Overcome - ?
Bird On A Wire - Cohen
Me And Bobbie McGee - Kristofferson (recorded first by Lightfoot?)
Until It's Time For You To Go - Buffy Sainte-Marie
Summer Wages - Tyson
Song For A Winter's Night - Lightfoot
Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - Dylan
Pack Up Your Sorrows - Richard Farina (and Mimi Baez/Farina)

As to whose recording of these various songs you like best...well, that all depends on your taste, right? Joan Baez did sterling recordings of many of 'em, for instance....but only Buffy Sainte-Marie did "Until It's Time For You To Go" convincingly, and she's the one who wrote it and it came directly from her own life experience, so that figures. Elvis and many others recorded it too, but their versions were seldom convincing at all...usually verging on pure schlock. When Buffy does it, it's real and it's beautiful.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 03:33 AM

Diamonds and Rust is a stunner. Absolutely gorgeous...but it's from the 70s.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,MtheGM
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 04:22 AM

A few more from the Radio Ballads to be considered: Schooldays Over; The Gypsy Is A Gentleman [incomparably ironic]; The Fight Game...

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,HipflaskAndy
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 04:35 AM

PDQ's ''Candidates just from Jethro Tull''....

"Nothing Is Easy" - from 'Stand Up', released 1969

But...
"With You There To Help Me", "To Cry You A Song"
"Nothing To Say", "Inside", "Time For Everything?"

...all from 'Benefit', released 1970 - not meeting the thread criteria, then.

But these Tull tunes are all in my 'Fave top ten Tull tunes!!!
Right from my 'era'! Cheers! - Duncan

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 07:59 AM

My old band used to do Tull's "New Day Yesterday", which IMO was one of their finest.... Also loved "Don't Want To Be A Fat Man"...

Okay, maybe the Climax Blues Band came out in early 70's... I'll have to find my old LPs (remember them) and see...

John Stewarts "California Bloodlines" makes my Top Fifty.... Great song...

B~

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 08:14 AM

Ahhhhh, "Mother Country" to be more specfic...

B~

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Mick Woods
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 08:59 AM

Pete & John - Steeleye Span were formed December 1969 first album was june 1970 hardly makes them a 60's band!

Chris Shaw How can you say that "let's stay together - canned Heat" is one of your favourite 60's songs? The song is called "Let's WORK together" and was released in 1970, as was Neil Young's Ohio. Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse is an album title - not a song!

Streets Of London was also a 70's song

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 09:05 AM

Doesn't a decade START (like a century) with the first year -- 1961, in this case? It would then end on 1/1/71.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,MTHEGM
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 09:14 AM

Depends if your approach is mathematical [the decade 1-10] or semantic ['the sixties']. The decade started in 61 & continued till 70; but 'the sixties' started in 60 and lasted till 69. — think about it. I should say one should be flexible enough to accept either definition.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 09:39 AM

The Trashmen : Surfin' Bird (1963)

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,Chris Shaw
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 09:59 AM

One I forgot to list for the sixties was The Casuals, Jesamine. Sooner rather than later someone will list the best top ten of the seventies, this selection below has to be considered.


Ronnie Lane. The Poacher.

Jimmy Webb. The Highwayman.

Brian Protheroe. Pinball.

Steeleye Span. Gaudete.

Cat Stevens. Sad Lisa.

The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald. Gordon Lightfoot.

Jim Croce. Time in a Bottle.

Harry Nilsson. Without You.

Bridge over Troubled Water. Simon & Garfunkel. (Released on January 26, 1970).

Kevin Johnson. Rock and Roll I Gave You the Best Years of My Life.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: Songbob
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 12:09 PM

Actually, the social events that mark '60s "Folk Music" mean that the 60s run from 1958 or so to about 1966, and the 70s take over by 1968. Think about it. Dylan going electric and the rise of folk-rock, which morphed into rock quickly means that what we think of as Folk Music (note the capitalization) only existed from the Kingston Trio till the Beatles hit it big. And the early Beatles were 1963-4 or so, right?

So let's divide it up.

Folk Era:

Tom Dooley (not Frank Proffit's version)
Don't Think Twice
Last Thing On My Mind
Blowin' in the Wind
Turn, Turn, Turn
Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
Suzanne
Catch the Wind
Thirsty Boots
Colors
Chimes of Freedom

And probably many others named above or hidden in my failing memory (it's no coincidence that Macca's latest(?) CD is called, "Memory Almost Full").

The other category is

Folk Rock / Rock

Hard Day's Night
Desolation Row
Like a Rolling Stone
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Satisfaction

and so forth. I'll come back to this later -- I have to attend to some other matters here at work.

Bob

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,jeff
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 12:10 PM

That was 'Different Drum' sung by Linda Ronstadt as part of a studio group called the Stone Ponys not the Stone Roses. Great song, though.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 12:34 PM

"Streets of London" first appeared on a 1969 LP by Ralph McTell BUT it was well known - via the folk process - at least a year before that.

Subject: RE: Best ten songs of the 60's
From: GUEST,John Hartford
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 04:52 PM

hi

Guthrie was surely earlier than the 60's ??

More like the 40's.

cheers

John