1

Folk Music in the 1960’s

Gabrielle Mesko

HIS3206 12-9-15

“Folk music’s common nobility of spirit is rooted in its origins in the peoples of a

country and its landscape. The songs are carved from the contours of the land and the

primordial experiences of communities… It has always been the underground stream of

American musical culture: the rhythms of daily life, the tune and lyrics of unspoken

eloquence.”1

Folk music has been a part of America’s cultural DNA for centuries. Its eclectic

blend of cultures makes the genre as varied and colorful as America itself—as does the

almost casual, natural spread of folk songs from singer to singer. Earl Robinson says,

“The folk process…which all the great folk creators do, it’s simply picking up an idea,

and getting a tune from wherever, to fit it, and saying what you need to say about

something in the present time that bothers you.”2 Folk singers have been doing this for

years, borrowing tunes, adding lyrics of their own, and putting new twists on old songs. It

can be said that folk music is a shared experience, quite unlike any other genre in the

musical world. Just as America belongs to its people, so does its music.

In the early 1950’s, a revival spread across America. Far from the charisma and

leaden fire that characterized the First and Second Great Awakenings, this revival was

not religious in nature. It was a revival of music—folk music in particular—that changed

the face of American culture and music in the 20th century. Born out of an American

obsession with the Wild West in the 1930’s and 40’s, the folk movement arose out of a
1
David King Dunaway, Singing Out: An Oral History of America’s Folk Music Revivals
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 1.
2
Ibid, 14.
 2

need to get back in touch with American roots in the confused wake of World War II as a

broken world slowly stitched itself back together. The American folk revival had a

profound influence on American history in the 20th century through the musicians which

came out of it, its connections to the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, and the fact that

it drew attention to America’s roots at a time when Americans needed to be reminded of

them most—at the beginning of the Cold War.

The folk movement birthed many great musicians who are still recognized widely

by the musical world even today. Some have faded out slightly; others have continued to

be recognized by the wider American culture. Two of these stand out: Bob Dylan and his

idol, Woody Guthrie.

Guthrie was born in 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma, he had a normal childhood, at

least at first. However, the oil boom, which started when oil was discovered near the

town in 1920, soon came to an end when the oil ran out and economic distress ensued.

His mother, who had a profound influence on him, went insane and eventually died due

to Huntington’s chorea, a genetic disease she ended up passing to her son. His sister died

and the family fell into financial ruin after the stock market crash of 1929.

Guthrie left home in 1931 for Texas with nothing but a voice and a guitar. His

lifestyle, for a long time, consisted of hitchhiking from town to town, riding in freight

trains and singing for anyone who would listen. Finally, he got a job singing on the Los

Angeles KFVD radio and his popularity took off. However, true to his wandering

personality, Guthrie moved east and headed for New York City in 1940. “He was quickly

embraced for his Steinbeckian homespun wisdom and musical ‘authenticity’ by leftist
 3

organizations, artists, writers, musicians, and progressive intellectuals.”3 Guthrie became

close friends and collaborators with other folkies in New York, among whom were key

figures such as Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, and Josh White. They formed a “loosely knit folk

group” called the Almanac Singers, and they “took up social causes such as union

organizing, anti-Fascism, strengthening the Communist Party, peace, and generally

fighting for the things they believed in the best way they could: through songs of political

protest and activism.” Additionally, the Almanacs “helped to establish folk music as a

viable commercial genre within the popular music industry.” 4

As one of the primary songwriters for The Almanacs, Guthrie developed his

songwriting technique to an art form, and his songs, particularly “This Land is Your

Land” became anthems for the folk movement as it began later in the 1950s. The lyrics

emphasize the shared nature of American folk music and America itself. “This land is

your land/And this land is my land/From California to the New York island/From the

redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters/This land was made for you and me.”5 During

World War II, Guthrie composed “hundreds of anti-Hitler, pro-war, and historic ballads

to rally the troops.”6 As the 1950s began, he became increasingly aware of racial issues as

well in his songwriting.

Guthrie eventually was diagnosed with Huntington’s Chorea, the degenerative

nerve disease that had killed his mother, and was admitted to a hospital in New York,

where he lived out his final years, being cared for by his wife, children and friends.

Guthrie died in 1967, leaving behind him almost 3,000 songs or song lyrics, two novels,
3
“Woody Guthrie’s Biography,” Woody Guthrie, accessed Dec. 9 2015,
http://woodyguthrie.org/biography/biography1.htm
4
Ibid.
5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
 4

artworks, poems, prose, letters—and a new generation of musicians who were fast

gaining popularity in Greenwich Village.

A second key influence on the folk movement, although he came later than

Guthrie and was heavily influenced by him, is Bob Dylan. Born Robert Zimmerman in

Duluth, Minnesota in 1941, he grew up in the mining town of Hibbing. His family was

middle class, his parents both children of Russian Jewish immigrants. Growing up, Dylan

listened to the radio, pulling in stations from Little Rock, Arkansas, Chicago, Illinois, and

even Shreveport, Louisiana. Howard Sounes says, “What these stations played was

mostly the blues…Bob had stumbled upon the basic forms of American popular music,

before the explosion of rock n’ roll, before Chuck Berry, Little Richard, or Elvis

Presley.”7

Bob was first attracted to folk music when he heard a record of Odetta singing in

her husky, incredibly mellow voice, accompanied by the bare sounds of a guitar. This

was during his time in Minneapolis, pretending to go to school at the University of

Minnesota to satisfy his parents while soaking up the small counterculture located in

Dinkytown. This was where he got his first professional start…and where he first became

besotted with Woody Guthrie’s music. Sounes calls it “the full, almost religious

revelation of Woody Guthrie,”8 and this is an accurate description because Bob’s life and

style of music changed completely once he started listening to Guthrie. Whereas his voice

had originally sounded “sweet,” under the combination of cigarette smoking and

Guthrie’s influence, it became hard, bitter and ancient—his distinctive sound. He

subsequently moved to New York in 1960 to join the folk community in Greenwich
7
Howard Sounes, Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan (London: Doubleday,
2001), 43.
8
Sounes, 76
 5

Village, and simultaneously changed his name to Bob Dylan, taking his new surname

from the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. One of Bob’s motives for moving to New York,

besides becoming a folkie, was to meet Guthrie himself, who was hospitalized at the

time. The two did eventually meet after much persistence on Bob’s part.

By playing in various coffeehouses around the Village, Bob gained quite a

reputation, even though his start was rocky. His performance in Gerde’s Folk City on

September 29, 1961 was what set the stage for his eventual fame and his first record deal.

Robert Shelton’s review in the New York Times helped to boost the singer’s popularity as

well. “Resembling a cross between a choir boy and a beatnik, Mr. Dylan has a cherubic

look and a mop of tousled hair he partly covers with a Huck Finn black corduroy cap…

Mr. Dylan’s voice is anything but pretty…All the ‘husk and bark’ are left on his notes

and a searing intensity pervades his songs.”9

That searing intensity is what would carry Bob Dylan into stardom with the

release of his second studio album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. The first track,

“Blowin’ in the Wind” became a chart topping hit with the Village-originating group

Peter, Paul and Mary. The entire album established Bob’s ability as a songwriter. From

there, his fame, especially as a protest singer, grew. His career was also helped along by

Joan Baez, the dark haired folk queen with a virginal, vibrato-filled soprano voice whose

popularity was already well established before Bob’s entry into the folk scene—the two

were lovers before Bob inexplicably detached himself from her and the protest movement

altogether. Bob “went electric” in 1965, appearing onstage at the Newport Folk Festival

with an electric guitar and an electric backing band. However, Dylan’s music survived

9
Robert Shelton, No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan (New York:
Ballantine Books, 1986), 342.
 6

the transition, and some of his best albums are widely regarded to be the first three he

produced.10 Folk remains a heavy influence on his musical career, however; in later years

he returned to making more obviously folk-influenced albums. Regarding his transition,

Bob said,

“Certainly I haven’t turned my back on it or anything like that … Folk music is

the only music where it isn’t simple…It’s weird, man, full of legend, myth, Bible,

and ghosts. I’ve never written anything hard to understand, not in my head

anyway…What I’m doing now—it’s a whole other thing. We’re not playing rock

music. It’s not a hard sound…I can’t call it folk-rock…It’s a certain feeling, and

it’s been on every single record I’ve ever made. That has not changed.”11

The folk movement had strong connections to the Civil Rights movement. “There

were plenty of causes [to sing about], but none so immediate, authentic, and musical as

civil rights.”12 He adds that “Unlike earlier singing movements, such as the Almanacs’

union singing and Peoples’ Songs’ work on the picket lines, the civil rights movement’s

musicians did not bring in music from outside activist communities (except to generate

publicity for particular protest events).”13 The shared nature of folk music lent itself well

to diversity. Gillian Mitchell says, “The mosaic-like character was both reflected in, and

promoted by, the nature of those locales which served as its major venues during this

period; namely, urban coffee-houses and folk festivals…[both of these] were venues in

which a diverse group of people might…perform their own particular material, listen to
10
“Readers’ Poll: The Best Bob Dylan Albums of All Time,” Rolling Stone, last
modified September 12, 2012,
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/readers-poll-the-best-bob-dylan-
albums-of-all-time-20120912.
11
Dunaway, 152.
12
Ibid, 137.
13
Ibid, 137.
 7

one another, and discuss music and ideas.”14 For the first time, black and white singers

mingled together, finding common ground in their shared love of music in a genuine

fellowship that was not based on money or fame. Perhaps this can be best seen in the

popularity of “We Shall Overcome,” an old Negro spiritual that came to find new

significance in the civil rights era.

“The Old Left succeeded in boosting folk music from an esoteric genre meaningful to

academics and antiquarians into a genre of popular music familiar to ordinary

Americans. But it was never embraced by their rank-and-file constituents, especially

the African Americans they aspired to mobilize. The civil rights movement, in

contrast, had little interest in putting freedom songs on the charts. Even those that

eventually became universally known, such as “We Shall Overcome,” were never

commercial hits. But participating in the movement meant doing music. The impact

of “We Shall Overcome” and other freedom songs was less important for their mass

appeal than in the activity of blacks and whites joining arms and singing together.”15

It is interesting to note of the singers featured on the platform before Martin

Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech in 1963, most were folk singers born

out of the swirling folk haven that was Greenwich Village. Bob Dylan sang “When the

Ship Comes In,” accompanying himself on guitar and harmonica, with Joan Baez

providing vocal harmony. He followed this with “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” a song he

had written in response to black activist Medgar Ever’s recent murder. Joan Baez sang

“We Shall Overcome,” leading the crowd in singing the verses, and “Oh Freedom”—both

of these were classic black spirituals, adding to the traditional vibe of the event. Peter,
14
Gillian Mitchell, The North American Folk Music Revival: Nation and Identity in the
United States and Canada, 1945-1980 (Great Britain, MPG Books, 2007), 76.
15
“Social Movements, Identity, and Race,” Princeton.edu, accessed December 8, 2015.
 8

Paul and Mary sang “If I Had a Hammer,” and Dylan’s composition “Blowin’ in the

Wind.” Not only were there white performers featured, but also black performers.

Mahalia Jackson sang “How I Got Over.” Odetta sang “I’m On My Way.” The entire

performance was riveting, emphasizing the unity and diversity of America and its

music.16

Regarding this place of folk music in American history, David King Dunaway

writes,

“The music was neither academic nor commercial; it was not generated simply to

make a point. Nor was the singing of civil rights music intended for an audience

so much as for those who sang it. In contrast to the anti-establishment music of

white radicals, which was top-down and carefully constructed to sway an

audience, the music of the civil rights movement was rooted in spirituals and

slave songs; it came out of tradition, common experience, and generations of

resistance. There was no party line, no need to teach the activists what to feel or

think. Freedom song had no audience: the songs were songs that everybody knew

and everybody sang.”17

Folksinger Holly Near adds:

“I think the difference between being a working artist and one adding to that the

social change, activism, political—whatever words we want to use; we’ve never

come up with really great words to describe this—is that you’re not just doing a

16
“Dream Songs: The Music of the March on Washington,” The New Yorker, Last
modified August 28, 2013,
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/dream-songs-the-music-of-the-
march-on-washington.
17
Dunaway, 140.
 9

show, you’re holding the weight of the human experience; and you’re helping

people to do that. So you’re really more of a heart surgeon than an entertainer.”18

Finally, the folk movement provided a look at America’s roots at a time when

Americans needed to be reminded of them most—at the onset of the Cold War. “The

Allied victory in World War II reduced the threat of fascism, but by the late forties,

dreams of wartime prosperity had given way to national shortages of jobs, houses and

schools. Visions of united nations had disintegrated into an escalating fear of

annihilation.”19 America was, in a sense, falling apart in the confused wake of World War

II and the threat of war with Russia. The folk Left, although constituted partially of

singers with Communist sympathies such as Pete Seeger and the Almanacs, was

instrumental in protesting the irrational fear that permeated American society, thus

bringing Americans together in spite of differences. Seeger in particular was seen as un-

American for his Communist beliefs; but according to Andrew Cohen, the opposite was

actually the case. “I think the opposite was true. I think he loved America so much that he

was particularly offended and disappointed when it strayed, as it so often has, from the

noble ideals upon which it was founded. I don't think that feeling, or the protests it

engendered, were anti-American. I think they were wholly, unabashedly American.”20

David Graham adds, “The early folk movement was overtly and radically political,

reaching across class boundaries and celebrating of common people. The participants

were preserving what seemed to them to represent an important part of the American

18
Dunaway, 148.
19
Dunaway 76.
20
David A. Graham, “Pete Seeger’s All-American Communism,” The Atlantic, last
modified January 29, 2014,
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/pete-seegers-all-american-
communism/283444/.
 10

identity, a part that was in danger of disappearing under pressure from the modern world.

The class consciousness of that movement easily (perhaps inevitably) led to socialist and

communist politics.”21 So, even though it may seem as though the political sentiments of

many members of the folk movement were anti-American, they actually seem to be as

American as possible. It was a time of searching, of figuring out who America was to be;

the folkies were no exception. Again, regarding Seeger, Graham says, “Seeger’s beliefs

sometimes led him to grievously wrong conclusions, but it’s not un-American to be

wrong, and that same politics is what also led him to stand up to McCarthyism, fight for

the environment, and march with labor unions, too.”22

In conclusion, the folk movement, sandwiched as it was “between the beatniks

and the hippies,” was short-lived—it reached its peak at the beginning of the 1960’s and

was tapering off by the end of the decade. “As the integrationist dream began to

disintegrate and blacks within the movement began to shake off white leadership for the

sake of self-determination, the situation became more complex…The gentle, idealistic

world of folk music and the integrationist world of civil rights cratered at the same

time.”23 However, this still does not diminish its power and its mark on American history.

Folk music will live forever in the American consciousness; its ebb and flow does not

determine its bearing on society. It has always been from the beginning of American

history, and so it will always be.

21
Ibid.
22
Ibid.
23
Dunaway, 145.
 11

Bibliography

“Dream Songs: The Music of the March on Washington.” The New Yorker. Last

modified August 28, 2013.

 12

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/dream-songs-the-music-of-the-

march-on-washington.

Dunaway, David King. Singing Out: An Oral History of America’s Folk Revivals. New

York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Graham, David A. “Pete Seeger’s All-American Communism.” The Atlantic. Last

modified January 29, 2014.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/pete-seegers-all-

american-communism/283444/.

Mitchell, Gillian. The North American Folk Music Revival: Nation and Identity in the

United States and Canada, 1945-1980. Great Britain, MPG Books, 2007.

Shelton, Robert. No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan. New York:

Ballantine Books, 1986.

Sounes, Howard. Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan. London: Doubleday,

2001.

“Social Movements, Identity, and Race.” Princeton.edu. Accessed December 8, 2015.

http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s9210.pdf

“Readers’ Poll: The Best Bob Dylan Albums of All Time.” Rolling Stone. Last modified

September 12, 2012. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pictures/readers-

poll-the-best-bob-dylan-albums-of-all-time-20120912.

“Woody Guthrie’s Biography.” Woody Guthrie. Accessed Dec. 9 2015.

http://woodyguthrie.org/biography/biography1.htm