The Rise of Folk Rock

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

The Rise of Folk Rock

The Byrds

In 1965, a fledgling California-based rock group called the Byrds was building a career by recording rock versions of folk songs. They recorded a cover of Dylan’s "Mr. Tambourine Man ♫," and their recording went to number 1 on the popular music charts. The Byrds’ "Mr. Tambourine Man ♫" is considered the first folk rock hit. The instrumentation includes an electric twelve-string guitar, an electric six-string guitar, bass, and drums.Although the original Dylan version of the song was in verse-chorus form with many verses, the Byrds only included a single one of the original verses in their cover version.

This version is very short, but it had to be only two minutes long in order to accommodate the AM radio formula of the time.

It is important to note that the Byrds’ version of "Mr. Tambourine Man ♫" actually charted before Dylan performed his electric set at the Newport Festival. However, "Mr. Tambourine Man ♫" did appear on the electric side of Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home, which was released on March 22, 1965. The Byrds released their cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man ♫" on April 12, 1965. Dylan performed his electric set at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965. The closeness of these events reveals how quickly folk rock was becoming popular with American listening audiences, and it also lays to rest any accusations that the Byrds had stolen any glory from Dylan or vice versa.

The Byrds continued to have success in the 1960s with their rock versions of folk songs. "Turn, Turn, Turn ♫" was a cover of a Pete Seeger song and went to number 1 on the American pop charts. The Byrds’ first two albums contained a number of Pete Seeger and Dylan tunes. As Dylan began to write and record his own folk rock music, however, the Byrds were no longer able to cover Dylan’s music. They also wrote their own songs, perhaps most notably "Eight Miles High ♫" from 1966. "Eight Miles High ♫" was an early example of psychedelic rock, and we will return to this song and to the Byrds in a subsequent lesson.

“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

Fun Facts