Whenever I read or hear the words "Folk Revival" I have to chortle; what exactly was it supposed to have been revived from? Folk music has been around as long as there have been folk to sing it. From the first bards and minstrels singing the stories of the heroes of the great sagas of the Norse, Irish, and others long before we were writing our stories on the page.
How else were the original stories told if not to music? Look at examples of folk music throughout history and you will find that the songs are always about something. Whether it's a sad love story like "Barbara Allen" or a song commemorating a battle won or lost, folk musicians have a long history of being the raconteurs of both current and past events.
The only revival that folk music might have gone through in the 20th century was when the people who performed it were allowed to get on with their lives after spending most of the 1950's blacklisted, and stopped, from performing. The House Committee on Un American Activities under that champion of freedom and justice Joe McCarthy had stolen their right to sing because they had the nerve to sing the truth in their music.
Of course there has been a long history of the establishment doing its best to silence the voices that set the people's stories to song and music. Joe Hill is not just the name of a song; he was a singer and a songwriter in the early years of the 20th century who wrote about conditions in the mines and lumber camps of the west. For his troubles he was shot and killed by the Salt Lake City police force on a trumped up murder charge.
Telling the truth has always been a dangerous profession in our democratic society, especially if your truth differs from the official line that's offered in the textbooks and government records. According to those histories, the people who fought and died so that your children aren't forced to work in mine shafts for 18 hours a day and so you don't have to work 80 hour a week never existed or at best were agitators who the heroic Pinkerton employees had to put down in order to preserve democracy.
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Article comments
1 - JimCubb
I do not have the CD reviewed but I have the original LP versions of the songs. After you have listened to the CD go back to where you bought it and check out the rest of the Weavers' recordings that are available.
Listen closely to "The Banks Of Marble", "Which Side Are You On" and "Wasn't That A Time" among others. Sprinkled in among the Indonesian, Israeli, Spanish, Hindi (?) and other International songs and the Summer Camp war horses such as "On Top Of Old Smokey" and "Clementine" are some really powerful songs. While there was almost nothing subtle about their musicality, the programming was downright sneaky.
Just a couple of cents worth from one who remembers what it was like to be a folkie when rock and roll took control of the airwaves from pop.
Peace.