Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: Silas
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 01:16 PM

Roll on the day - NAFF!!!!??????


Its pistols at dawn matey!

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Jul 05 - 12:53 PM

Can anyone explain the difference between "naff" and "twee?"

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: GUEST,GGTRO
Date: 21 Jul 05 - 06:56 PM

I'll sing you one O!
Green grow the rushes O!

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 21 Jul 05 - 04:42 PM

It's terribly sentimental, but it's supposed to be. Hardly naff even if you hate it.

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Jul 05 - 10:56 AM

"Danny Boy"

a fine tune ruined forever

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: An Englishman Abroad
Date: 21 Jul 05 - 07:50 AM

Reminds me of titles of Country and Western songs.

all the best John

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: greg stephens
Date: 21 Jul 05 - 06:42 AM

It is interesting that every single item in this list is the product of a modern singer-songwriter or similar. Not one song, in fact, that would be classified as a folk song by a large number(perhaps a substantial majority) of Mudcatters. In fact I would suggest that it is virtually impossible for a folksong to be twee...in the process of becoming a folksong the tweeness will have been removed by the successive hands it has passed through on its way to actual "folk status".
    Before anyone points out a song such as "Strawberry Fair" as an example: yes , the Strawberry Fair some of us were taught at school was unbearably twee. But the tweeness lay in the delivery, which is a product of the teachers, and aslo in the words, which were not folk at all but a cleaned-up version prepared for young children.

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 11:07 PM

The Voyage and The Old Man, but that is my opinion on this side of the pond. Brits may have a different opinion.

Don Meixner

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: Chris Green
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 07:45 PM

Anything by Donovan.

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 11:59 AM

hmmmm.... 'Desire' wasn't bad I suppose.

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: Leadfingers
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 10:59 AM

I would nominate a couple by Alan Bell (Who HAS written some superb songs) but still manges TOTAL TWEE in a few .

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: Lowden Jameswright
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 10:47 AM

WHAT!!? - Bob Dylan! - ahead of, say, the Proclaimers - you're joking surely.

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 10:31 AM

Everything by Bob Dylan.

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: GUEST,Santa
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 10:28 AM

I think you are missing out what is of prime importance in any song: what the words mean. Roll on the Day is rather flat and colourless and simple, but think about what is being described. Being simple is sometimes appropriate - and certainly not easy.

You might have a point with the others, though.

Subject: RE: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: Lowden Jameswright
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 10:06 AM

Oh, and I forgot.... it helps if there are only 3 chords in the song, so folks find it easy to play.

Subject: Most Successful (NAFF) Folk Songs
From: Lowden Jameswright
Date: 20 Jul 05 - 09:43 AM

Having seen and heard the enormous response to one of the worst folk songs I've ever heard, I've come to the conclusion that the path to enlightenment lies in the performance of naff songs. This is a strange phenomenon. If you sing a dreary tune that is totally lacking in creativity, interest and variety, and add similarly colourless lyrics, you are guaranteed an enthusiastic audience - just as long as there is a chorus that the audience can easily grasp. This last ingredient is, of course, the key to it's success. It's got to be simple, endlessly repeatable, and mind-numbing.

My candidates for the naffest most successful folk songs include three I've suffered lately. They are:

1. Roll on the Day (Allan Taylor)
2. It's Good to See You (Allan Taylor)
3. I Wanna See the Bright Lights Tonight (Richard Thompson)

I would like to add at this point, that Allan Taylor and Richard Thompson are two of my favourite singer/songwriters.

.........and the worst folk song I've ever heard (well - one of them) - My Hands Were Covered in Blood by Ron Truman Border

Any additions to this list?

(Just a bit of fun)