15.01 Introduction

Overview

The 1960s saw a revival of folk music. Following the model of an earlier generation of folk musicians such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, many folk musicians in the 1960s used their music to promote left-wing social causes. The Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War protests, and protests for women’s rights were all places where folk music could flourish. Bob Dylan shattered the folk music aesthetic in 1965 when he played an electric set at the Newport Folk Festival. After this performance, the lines between folk music and rock were blurred. Dylan’s influence paved the way for many different folk and folk rock artists during the 1960s, including the Byrds, the Mamas and the Papas, and Simon and Garfunkel.

Objectives

Identify two important figures in early American folk music, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie
Recall why Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie were inspirational figures in the folk revival of the 1960s
Examine the music and career of Bob Dylan
Recall why Bob Dylan's electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival was so upsetting to folk music purists
Recall the many stylistic and generic reactions to Dylan "plugging in," namely, the rise of the genre of folk rock

Introduction

Pete Seeger

The 1950s saw a revival of folk music that had been popular in earlier decades. Following the model of earlier folk musicians such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, many folk musicians in the 1960s used their music to promote left-wing social causes. The Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War protests, and protests for women’s rights were all places where folk music and protest songs flourished. Although folk music’s message was appropriate to the 1960s protest aesthetic, its acoustic musical language left much to be desired.

Bob Dylan shattered the folk music aesthetic in 1965 when he played an electric set at the Newport Folk Festival. After this performance, the lines between folk music and rock were blurred. Dylan’s influence paved the way for many different folk and folk rock artists during the 1960s, including the Byrds, the Mamas and the Papas, and Simon and Garfunkel. As we will see, Dylan influenced many musicians, not just those in the folk music scene.

“Bob Dylan was the source of pop music's unpredictability in the Sixties. Never as big a record-seller as commonly imagined, his importance was first aesthetic and social, and then as an influence.”

-Jon Landau

“Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music.”

-Lyle Lovett

Woody Guthrie became part of the mass migration of dust bowl refugees known as "Okies." Without food or money, Woody hitchhiked, rode freight trains, and even walked to California, developing a love for traveling on the open road -- a practice he would repeat often.

Songfacts