Sonic
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Rockument's collection of exotic folk songs for the Love Generation, by Tony Bove |
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These
songs represent a type of folk-rock for the Love Generation.
Inspirational
folk-rock, in which folk songs and themes are reinterpreted
with exotic instrumentation and a shimmering Summer of Love
vibe, had a profound influence on rock music in the U.S. and
the U.K.
Acoustic guitars were combined with organ, electric guitar, a heavier bass, and a drum beat, but the songs are essentially folk songs with hippie overtones. While true folk music can be almost any style, this is a strain of urban, perhaps "suburban" folk that is both protesting and uplifting. This type of folk music evolved into folk-rock anthems. In this show we jump from the Sixties to the late Eighties, covering a type of folk-rock that is still with us, still preaching about love and kindness. PlaylistYou
can purchase this music from
It was early 1964. Paul Simon had fled to London and Art Garfunkel was still finishing college, their folkie experiment as a duo called Simon & Garfunkel withering due to lack of attention even with a record contract with Columbia. The two had first started as a pop group named Tom and Jerry, and Simon had some experience as a songwriter in the Brill Building tradition, having penned "Red Rubber Ball" (covered by the Cyrcle at the height of Beatlemania) and other forgettable tunes. But
even as Garfunkel finished his college exams and Simon trolled
the streets of London's Kensington district hoping to hook up
with British Invasion pop stars, Simon's song "The Sound
of Silence" was released on an album of folk standards and
a few other originals (on the album
Wednesday Morning, 3 AM
Check out this fan site, Simon and Garfunkel-Song For The Asking, and Paul Simon's site and Art Garfunkel's site.
With songwriter and vocalist Reg Presley, Ronnie Bond on drums, Chris Britton on guitar, and Peter Staples on bass, the Troggs were perhaps the first to(Reg Presley) define what would eventually become punk. Known for their signature tune "Wild Thing" (covered by Jimi Hendrix at Monterey Pop) and this song, "Love is All Around" (covered, almost note for note, by R.E.M. in several concerts), the Troggs inspired a generation of proto-punk bands including Iggy Pop and the Stooges. This song suggests that the Troggs were capable of subtle folk-rock songs as well as proto-punk masterpieces.
R.E.M. has a unique but somewhat familiar style that combines bright pop melodies with a reverence for the early psychedelic music and somewhat equal doses of Patti Smith, the Velvet Underground, and the Beatles. One reason why R.E.M. follows the Troggs here is that the group covered at one time or another the major Troggs hits -- from "Wild Thing" and "Love is All Around" to "With a Girl Like You". R.E.M. played its first concert in Athens, Georgia, on April 19, 1980. The lineup consisted of four drop-outs from the University of Georgia -- Michael Stipe on vocals, Mike Mills on bass, Bill Berry on drums, and Peter Buck on guitar. The band has relied heavily on the harmonious guitar sound of the Byrds for inspiration, and count the early groovy folk rock as influential. Since then, the band has put out many hit albums, and recently Bill Berry resigned, leaving only the original three members. Check out the official R.E.M. site and the loaded-with-info U.K. R.E.M. fansite.
This song is a poem written by Idris Davies, set to music by Pete Seeger who found the poem in a Dylan Thomas book. The Byrds were credited with bringing the songs from the Sixties urban folk revival (mainly Dylan songs) into rock for the first time, influencing many artists. The Byrds, featuring Roger McGuinn (originally named Jim McGuinn) on guitar and vocals, Chris Hillman on bass, Gene Clark on tambourine and vocals, David Crosby on guitar and vocals, and Michael Clarke on drums, created the jangly, psychedelic folk-rock sound using folk songs and Bob Dylan songs, and ushered in a new era of folk-rock. The group's first hit, "Mr. Tambourine Man" (also by Dylan) was recorded with Los Angeles's finest studio session men, the fabled Wrecking Crew (former session men for Phil Spector), with Hal Blaine on drums, Larry Knechtal on bass, and Leon Russell on electric piano (and other keyboards, and possibly guitar as well). The rest of the album was recorded with the Byrds themselves on instruments (including this song). McGuinn had toured briefly as a folk artist with the Chad Mitchell Trio, and then in a more rock vein with Bobby Darin, before meeting David Crosby, who had also briefly dabbled ni folk, at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Clark came from the New Christy Minstrels, and Hillman from a bluegrass band in which he played mandolin. Clarke, on drums, was inexperienced at the time but learned fast. The group would eventually move on to a new sound that would be called country rock, with Hillman and Crosby-replacement Gram Parsons leading the transition. Check out the Byrdwatcher fan site and the original Byrds home page.
Written by folk songwriter Chet Powers (a.k.a. Dino Valenti, who later became a member of Quicksilver Messenger Service), this song became a folk anthem -- covered by groups as diverse as the Kingston Trio and the Jefferson Airplane -- before it became a hit single for the Youngbloods (Jesse Colin Young).
Recorded on Oct. 12, 1965 by the Beatles, "Norwegian Wood" encapsulates the transition that John Lennon, in particular, went through after hearing Dylan songs. Lennon incorporated a folk sound for this song, and George Harrison, as an afterthought, grabbed the sitar to see if it would add something that the song seemed to be missing. According to the Beatles Anthology video documentary, Harrison had recently purchased the sitar from some music shop in London, after hearing Ravi Shankar for the first time. He really did not know how to play it, but he found the melody for this song and added it at the last minute to the take immediately preceding the final, released take. (The first take with the sitar is rough and in a different key; the very next take is absolutely perfect and is the version you hear on Rubber Soul.) The result of this impromptu folk-sitar arrangement is one of the most endearing and exotic songs from the Beatles canon. (The song is supposed to be about an extramarital affair, according to Lennon himself as published in various interviews. One might even speculate that, given Lennon's flair for amusing wordplay as demonstrated in his two books, In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works, he made up the term "Norwegian Wood" to stand for the phrase "Knowing she would". Try the substitution yourself!) Check out the Beatles rockumentary for news, anecdotes, and links.
Donovan Leitch earned his folk chops playing with other folk musicians in St. Albans, north of London, a folk enclave that included Maddy Prior and Mick Softley. His first recorded songs were by Tim Hardin ("London Town") and Buffy Sainte-Marie ("Codine"). His first top 10 hit in Britain was "Catch the Wind", a folk song written about Linda Lawrence (Rolling Stone Brian Jones's girlfriend at the time), who is now Donovan's wife. While many compared him to Dylan, Donovan was moving into new territory in 1965 with the single "Sunshine Superman (for John and Paul)" and, in 1966, with the album of the same name, which combined classical, folk, jazz, and rock styles a year before the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper came out.
This song was featured in the movie The Graduate. It was also played in tribute in 1999 when Joe DiMaggio passed away. Check out this fan site, Simon and Garfunkel-Song For The Asking, and Paul Simon's site and Art Garfunkel's site.
During this transition period Stills also recorded his first solo album, released in 1970. Guests on this fantastic album include Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Crosby, Nash, Booker T. Jones, Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuels, and John Sebastion and Rita Coolidge on backup vocals. This song features Stills alone on guitar, percusssion, and vocals.
Cat Stevens (his given name: Steven Dimitri Georgiou) started his musical career as a British pop star, virtually unknown in the U.S., with three British hit singles, "I Love My Dog", "Matthew & Son" and "I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun". He released several albums including Matthew And Son and New Masters, and his songs "Here Comes My Baby" and "The First Cut Is the Deepest" were covered by the Tremeloes and P.P. Arnold respectively by mid-1967 (the latter by Rod Stewart in the Seventies). Then, suddenly, he contracted tuberculosis and was virtualty sidelined from the industry for almost two years, and during his recovery he wrote new songs with a radically different sound -- he had been trying to add a more classical element to his folk melodies -- and the result was Mona Bone Jakon, followed by Tea For the Tillerman (both in 1970), produced by Paul Samwell-Smith (a founder of the Yardbirds). His career soared in both the U.K. and America, and released Teaser and the Firecat (1971) and Catch Bull At Four (1972), and hits such as "Moonshadow" and "Peace Train". He even scored a film, Paramount's Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon starring black comedy, Harold and Maude (1971). Eventually Cat Stevens left the music industry disillusioned with the business and, seeking a higher meaning for his life, adopted the Muslim faith in 1977 and changed his name (once again) to Yusuf Islam.
Jethro Tull, named after an eighteenth century English agricultural pioneer who invented the seed drill, started in 1967 in the U.K. as part of the second, heavy blues influenced British Invasion force, and one of many bands that would go on to play what is now called "art rock". Called by various named until March 1968, when the band was renamed Jethro Tull and started a residency at the famed Marquee in London, Tull built a following as the new face of the blues-based British underground music scene. At the time of these songs (from the third album), the band consisted of founder Ian Anderson on flute, guitar, and vocals, founder Glen Cornick on bass guitar, Martin Barre on electric guitar (who replaced the original guitarist, Mick Abrahams), and Clive Bunker on drums, with guest John Evan on keyboards (Martin Barre and Ian Anderson remain in the band today). Jethro Tull were extremely innovative in its early days and the band remains quite idiosyncratic and unique today. As Ian Anderson says on the official Web site, "The really big changes [in music] were back in the early years of the mid-to-late sixties and the early seventies. The introduction of musical influences from many diverse world cultures and historical periods provided for a rapidly evolving and richly creative musical environment. Folk, Classical, Blues, Jazz and Asian motifs and forms broadened the scope of American-derived pop and rock. Tull were a part of that evolution."
A lot of early R.E.M. songs, especially those on Chronic Town (such as "Gardening at Night") sound like early Fairport Convention, and some songs, like "Sweetness Follows", sound like some cross between the hard rock sound of Jethro Tull and the soft folk sound of Fairport. Which is why the song appears here. Check out the official R.E.M. site and the loaded-with-info U.K. R.E.M. fansite.
Fairport Convention was formed by Ashley Hutchings (Steelye Span) in 1967, and originally featured Richard Thompson. The other founding member was Simon Nichol, and the band took its name from that of Nichol's house. Original vacalist Judy Dyble was replaced in 1968 by Sandy Denny. The band has featured many well-known artists, including Ian Matthews of Matthews Southern Comfort and Dave Pegg of Jethro Tull. Check out the official Fairport Convention site.
Check out Rockument's History of the Grateful Dead, Rockument's Haight-Ashbury page, and the Official Grateful Dead page.
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The
Byrds [Box Set]
