November 6th & 7th
TADA! Youth Theatre 15 W. 28th St, between 5th and Broadway [Note: This presentation is not a production by TADA! Youth Theater. For information about the good folks at TADA! and their wonderful programs, please visit www.tadatheater.com.] |
Articulating the Arts:
Voices of and for the People Articulating the Arts is
Articulate Theatre Company's signature benefit event. It brings together our Company members and guest artists with unique works of art to use as a springboard and source of inspiration for new theatre works. Our first session focused on playwrights taking "one image" and giving us "a thousand words." The second session took the images "Off The Wall" and put them on the stage! For our third AtA, we decided to move from the visual arts to the musical arts, specifically Folk Music! To be kept in the loop of the development of this production, please sign up for our newsletter!
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Details about Songs and Artists
NOTES FOR PLAYWRIGHTS: Due to the nature of folk music, many of these songs have unknown or multiple artists attached to them. We've tried to list the names of the artists that were associated with the songs in the 60s or 70s, but there's no reason you can't learn about the other artists/versions and use that in your scenes. For more background info on the songs and artists, click on a song name. Note that because of limited space, the extra info won't constitute ALL the info available on the songs. Please feel free to do more of your own research - there's just no telling what kind of inspiration you might uncover!
- Remember to keep the members of the company in mind when you write your scene, as we will be casting primarily from the membership.
- Also keep production values in mind as well - elaborate costumes, set pieces and lighting needs will be hampered by our small budget.
Alice's Restaurant (Massacree) - Arlo Guthrie
This song has become a Thanksgiving anthem and is 18 minutes long. It is a "musical monologue" and inspired a short film by the same name. In the story, the singer is arrested for littering, put in jail with hardened criminals, and avoids being drafted into the Vietnam War because of his "record." In reality, the writer was helping to clean up after the renovation, but finding the town's dump was closed, they left the trash in an inappropriate place, for which the town fined them. The Alice in the story is Alice Brock, and the "restaurant" is actually a renovated church owned by her and her husband, where they often sponsored holiday dinners for friends and family.
LINKS:
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1616
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant
CONNECTIONS: draft, monologues, Thanksgiving dinners, illegal dumping, draft dodging, Richard Nixon, blind judge, seeing eye dog, movie-song combos.
Blowin' in the Wind - Bob Dylan. Covers: Peter, Paul & Mary; Sielun Veljet; Stevie Wonder; Dolly Parton; Joan Baez.
This song, supposedly written in 10 minutes, uses a series of questions to lead the listener to question what is important. Martin Scorsese did a documentary of Dylan, in which Mavis Staples discussed how accurately this young white man had captured the struggles of the black community. The melody for the song is connected to a spiritual called "No More Auction Block." Bob Cohen connects this song with Dylan's Jewish heritage, such as the teaching method of answering questions with questions. It was performed by Peter Paul & Mary during the "March on Washington," the same event that hosted Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
LINKS:
http://www.rightwingbob.com/weblog/how-blowin-in-the-wind-came-to-be/1277/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowin%27_in_the_Wind
CONNECTIONS: Ultimate Question - Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy; false plagiarism charge - Lorre Wyatt; Grammy Hall of Fame; How many roads?; impenetrably ambiguous; flying cannonballs, white doves
Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell. Other artists: Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Fairport Convention, Anne Murray, Frank Sinatra, Leonard Nimoy, Dion, Neil Diamond, Willie Nelson, Susan Boyle, Idina Menzel, and many others.
Inspiration for the song came from Henderson the Rain King, a 1959 novel by Saul Bellow, and the writer calls it "...a meditation on reality and fantasy." Mitchell was a single mother at the time of writing the song. It has been said that the song is about lost youth, about growing up. About recognizing that a child's way of looking at the world is often one dimensional, and that maturity brings new perspectives, both good and bad.
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Both_Sides,_Now
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=7968
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/summer-entertainment/joni-mitchell-both-sides-now/article12557726/
CONNECTIONS: ice cream castles, clouds, love, single motherhood, giving child up for adoption, on being a woman in the 60s.
By the time I get to Phoenix - Jimmy Webber, Sung by Glen Campbell. Other artists: Johnny Rivers, Issac Hayes, Nick Cave, Roger Miller, Dean Martin.
Grammy award winning song that Frank Sinatra called, "The greatest torch song ever written." Inspired by Webber's break up from his wife. Named the 3rd most performed song from 1940-1990. Issac Hayes did a 19 minute version that began with speaking, in one of the first "raps" recorded. The writer began his career at MoTown Records. The timeline of the song doesn't bear up under scrutiny, but the writer says it "...takes place in a twilight zone of reality."
LINKS:
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1958
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By_the_Time_I_Get_to_Phoenix
CONNECTIONS: Rap, Delta Blues, Country music, break-ups, MoTown, "covers,"
** City of New Orleans - Steve Goodman, Sung by Arlo Guthrie. Other artists: Willy Nelson
Goodman wrote the song while on a train ride, and then used it to help save the train from decommissioning. "Goodman seemed to know that his beloved Midwest was fading, and Guthrie captured perfectly the pathos of nameless trains, auto graveyards, and the rumbling gentle beat of a disappearing way of life that "still ain't heard the news." At the end of each verse comes the haunting and ironic chorus, with the City of New Orleans optimistically greeting the country and the new day knowing full well that it will be long gone when the "day is done," five hundred miles further on its inexorable journey "through the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea." [Linked from "Just a Song" blog] Many rural people depended on the rail system. Goodman died young (36) from lymphoblastic leukemia.
* Don't Think Twice, It’s Alright - Dylan
When Bob Dylan met Suze Rotolo at a folk concert in 1961, the chemistry was instant. Dylan says, “Cupid’s arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart and the weight of it dragged me overboard. Meeting her was like stepping into the tales of 1001 Arabian Nights.” Their whirlwind relationship
influenced Dylan’s music dramatically, as Rotolo’s artistic and political interests became enmeshed with his own. But life with Dylan proved unstable and overwhelming, and Rotolo finally ended the romance by extending a stay in Italy indefinitely. The 1964 breakup inspired several songs, some scathingly bitter, some desperately longing, but none so popular and poignant as Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright. Borrowing the melody from an old folk song "Who's Gonna Buy Your Chickens When I'm Gone," Dylan’s lyrics are his attempt to understand the experience from the point of view of the dumper, not the dumped. Dylan wrote: "A lot of people make it sort of a love song - slow and easygoing. But it isn't a love song. It's a statement that maybe you can say something to make yourself feel better. It's as if you were talking to yourself."
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Think_Twice,_It%27s_All_Right
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suze_Rotolo
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1822
CONNECTIONS: Breakups, moving on in life, whirlwind romance, mismatched couples, looking back on mistakes of the past, leaving The One, making sense of tragedy.
* Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) – Harry Belafonte
Though traditionally associated with Harry Belafonte’s famous rendition, the song actually originated as a traditional Jamaican folk song sung by banana boat workers. In contrast to Belafonte’s calypso version, the traditional version of the song had a slower, steadier beat intended to last workers through a long night of hauling fruits from trucks to boats. One worker would call out verses as the others sang a response, often with lyrics improvised on the spot. The song was discovered and brought to Belafonte by writers of the variety show “The Colgate Comedy Hour.” Unaware of Belafonte’s version, a group called The Terriers (featuring future actor Alan Arkin) released their own version of the song, causing RCA to rush-release Belafonte’s recording. The Terriers had the bigger hit, but it was Belafonte’s version that lasted the test of time.
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-O_%28The_Banana_Boat_Song%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Belafonte
http://www.post-gazette.com/environment/2005/11/27/The-Banana-Boat-Song-Daylight-come-and-me-wan-go-home/stories/200511270294
http://www.originals.be/en/originals.php?id=1264
CONNECTIONS: Passing time at work, co-opted indigenous culture, bananas, Jamaica, physical labor, making work fun, calypso, going home at sunrise after a night shift
Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash
Cash was inspired to write the song after seeing the movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison while serving overseas. Of the famous line “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die,” Cash said, “I sat with my pen in my hand, trying to think up the worst reason a person could have for killing another person, and that's what came to mind.” Cash eventually performed the song for prisoners at Folsom and San Quentin, where a young Merle Haggard was serving time for burglary. Haggard said of Cash, “He had the right attitude. He chewed gum, looked arrogant and flipped the bird to the guards—he did everything the prisoners wanted to do. He was a mean mother from the South who was there because he loved us. When he walked away, everyone in that place had become a Johnny Cash fan.”
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folsom_Prison_Blues
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/inmate-merle-haggard-hears-johnny-cash-play-san-quentin-state-prison
CONNECTIONS:Prison, murder, trains, lost souls, sociopathic evil, boredom, envy, longing for escape, outlaw cool, traps, mistakes of the past, Johnny Cash
* Freedom – Richie Havens
The first performer to set foot on the Woodstock stage, Havens was forced to stretch out his performance for nearly three hours, as most other bands were severely delayed due to standstill traffic. Having finally run out of material, Havens improvised a new song, Freedom, on the spot. Riffing on the traditional Negro spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” he infused the lyrics with a new fevered urgency and a cry for freedom. Havens explained the song as follows: "I'd already played every song I knew and I was stalling, asking for more guitar and mic, trying to think of something else to play – and then it just came to me. The establishment was foolish enough to give us all this freedom and we used it in every way we could."
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richie_Havens
http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2013/04/23/178470389/richie-havens-folk-singer-who-opened-woodstock-has-died
http://entertainment.time.com/2013/04/22/richie-havens-6-essential-performances
CONNECTIONS: Freedom, slavery, African-American history, orphans, parentage, improvisation, Woodstock, urgent longing, rising up against the establishment
Freight Train – Elizabeth Cotten
Though left-handed, 8-year old Elizabeth Cotten taught herself to play a right-handed guitar by holding the instrument upside-down. She wrote a wealth of songs using this unique style and sound, but put away the instrument to get married at 15 (due o the advice of her church deacon, who scorned “worldly music”). Over 40 years later, while working in a department store, she helped a lost little girl find her mother. The little girl was Peggy Seeger of the famous folk-singing Seeger family, and they returned the good deed by hiring Cotten as their housekeeper. Hearing her idly playing their gut-string guitar one day, the Seegers quickly recognized her unique genius. They recorded hours upon hours of her music in their home, and at the age of 62, Elizabeth Cotten released her first album. Her signature song Freight Train, recorded 50 years after she wrote it as an 11-year-old girl, was inspired by the sound of trains rolling down the track during her youth in NC. The song is now considered an essential part of folk music canon. She continued to perform until her death at 92, won several awards (including a Grammy at 90), and was named a "living treasure" by the Smithsonian Institution. Dana Klipp, who worked as Cotten’s accompanist in her final years, said of the folk legend: "She was pretty feisty. She had spirit… that’s what kept her going. Her hands became a problem, but she wanted to play. She loved to play.” In a way the song Freight Train is not so much about freight trains as much as it’s about the life story of this woman who just loved her music.
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freight_Train_%28folk_song%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Cotten
http://www.folkways.si.edu/elizabeth-cotten-master-american-folk/music/article/smithsonian
http://www.eclectica.org/v1n1/nonfiction/demerlee.html
CONNECTIONS: Trains, humble beginnings, African American folk music, undiscovered talent, child prodigy, unique artistry, rural America, artistic achievement in old age.
* House of the Rising Sun - The Animals
This is a traditional folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues." It tells of a life gone wrong in New Orleans; many versions also urge a sibling to avoid the same fate. Historians have not been able to definitively identify the inspiration for the song, but here are the two most popular theories: 1) The song is about a brothel in New Orleans of the same name. "The House Of The Rising Sun" was named after Madame Marianne LeSoleil Levant (which means "Rising Sun" in French) and was open for business from 1862 (occupation by Union troops) until 1874, when it was closed due to complaints by neighbors. 2) It's about a women's prison in New Orleans called the Orleans Parish women's prison, which had an entrance gate adorned with rising sun artwork. This would explain the "ball and chain" lyrics in the song.
LINKS:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Rising_Sun
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=439
CONNECTIONS:
*If I Had a Hammer - written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays. Trini Lopez
Written in 1949 in support of the progressive movement, it's almost childlike in its simplicity, which has made the song accessible to children. But, don't be fooled by this childlike quality - the lyrics, especially in their day, were a pretty radical declaration of allegiance to the pursuit of justice, equality, and peace. When Seeger and Hays wrote the song, it was a bit of anthemic support for the emerging progressive movement, which was focused heavily on labor rights, among other things. By the time Peter, Paul and Mary recorded it in 1962, the tune's meaning had evolved to fit the emerging civil rights movement. The hammer and bell symbols were still powerful images, but the more key line at this time was the refrain that sang about "love between my brothers and my sisters," and the final verse's "hammer of justice"/"bell of freedom" line.
LINKS:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_I_Had_a_Hammer
http://folkmusic.about.com/od/folksongs/qt/IfIHadaHammer.htm
CONNECTIONS: Anthems, hammers, bells, unions, civil rights, workers
Leaving On A Jet Plane - John Denver
This was written by a very young John Denver, who was then a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio before beginning his solo career in the 1970s. Denver wrote this in 1967 during a layover at Washington airport, "Not so much from feeling that way for someone, but from the longing of having someone to love
LINKS:
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1219
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaving_on_a_Jet_Plane
CONNECTIONS:
***Puff the Magic Dragon - Peter, Paul and Mary
As a 19-year-old college student, Leonard Lipton banged out a poem on a friend’s roommate’s typewriter just to get it out of his head, then forgot about it. Years later, the typewriter’s owner, Peter Yarrow (now of Peter, Paul and Mary fame), tracked down Lipton to ensure he got a lyrics credit for Puff the Magic Dragon, the song his poem inspired. Lipton receives royalties to this day. Though the song is frequently rumored to be a thinly-veiled metaphor for drug use, both Lipton and Yarrow insist that “It was really a pity because there never was a different meaning other than the obvious one. Puff the Magic Dragon is only about the loss of innocence in children.” "My poem was directly inspired by a poem called 'A Tale of Custard the Dragon,'" published by Ogden Nash in 1936. "Pirates and dragons, back then, were common interests in stories for boys. The Puff story is really just a lot like Peter Pan.”
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puff,_the_Magic_Dragon
http://www.laweekly.com/music/the-man-who-wrote-puff-the-magic-dragon-swears-its-not-about-drugs-5365040
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OiOlnoyljk
CONNECTIONS: Fantasy worlds, abandoning childhood games, loss of innocence, imaginary friends, 60’s drug culture, hidden meanings, forgotten dreams, connecting to the past
Runaway - Del Shannon
When Del Shannon and keyboardist Max Crook’s first studio recording ended in failure, their producer convinced them to rewrite an unrecorded song called Little Runaway to showcase Crook’s unique instrumentals. Crook’s invention, the Musitron, was a forerunner to keyboard synthesizers built out of a mishmash of parts including vacuum tube oscillators, TV tubes, and household appliances. The Musitron solo in Runaway (along with Shannon’s infectious falsetto hook) turned the song into a monster hit. Like many of Del Shannon’s songs, the lyrics focus on a failed relationship, and the deceptively cheerful melody belies the dark story of a man wailing for a lost love. Shannon claimed the song was about himself, as he was always running away from relationships. Despite the huge success of Runaway, none of his subsequent recordings achieved the same acclaim, and his career spiraled downward. In 1999, nine years after his death by self-inflicted gunshot wound, Del Shannon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_%28Del_Shannon_song%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Shannon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Crook
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1700
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/del-shannon-commits-suicide
CONNECTIONS: Breakups, electronic music, wondering why things didn’t work, one-hit wonders, being haunted by one big success, avoiding romantic commitment, hidden pain.
Salty Dog Blues – Mississippi John Hurt. Other recordings: Papa Charlie Jackson, Lead Belly, the Morris Brothers, Johnny Cash, The Kingston Trio
Mississippi John Hurt, born in 1893, taught himself to play guitar when he was 9. He spent most of his life as a farmhand, occasionally playing at parties. In 1927, he and a fiddler friend were spotted by a scout and recorded for Okeh Records. Hurt says, “It was really something. I sat on a chair, and they pushed the microphone right up to my mouth and told me that I couldn't move after they had found the right position. I had to keep my head absolutely still. Oh, I was nervous, and my neck was sore for days after. “ The record was a commercial failure, and Hurt returned to farm work, where he stayed for most of his life. Years later with the folk revival of the 50’s and 60’s, some obscure regional recordings (including Hurt’s) were included in a popular folk music anthology. In '63, folk musicologist Tom Hoskins managed to track down Hurt to his farm in Avalon, MS due to this lyric: “Avalon, my home town, always on my mind.” Like many long-forgotten folk musicians of his generation, Hurt was humbled to suddenly find himself playing to a national audience in his old age, on stages such as the Johnny Carson show. Salty Dog Blues, one of his most popular tunes, was not written by Hurt but was a folk standard of unknown origin. Like many folk songs, the lyrics can vary greatly in different versions. Even the meaning of the “salty dog” itself seems to vary widely amongst the artists who’ve recorded the song. The song is traditionally thought to present a simple request to be a romantic partner, but “salty dog” can also be taken to mean a sexual partner (or even specifically a “libidinous sailor”). It is also the name of various regional foods & drinks. John Garst says, "I think that I recall Ramblin' Jack Elliot… saying that a Salty Dog was something sold at the concessions on Coney Island, some sort of hot dog on a stick. If this is so, then you can take it from there." According to banjo picker Jack Hatfield, "It don't mean nuthin', it's a novelty song."
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salty_Dog_Blues
http://www.mattesonart.com/history-of-salty-dog-blues.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salty_dog_%28slang%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_John_Hurt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_folk_music_revival
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/mississippi-john-hurt-mn0000424019/biography
CONNECTIONS: Humble beginnings, tracking down a forgotten artist, sexual innuendo, asking someone out, food and drink of rural America, finding success late in life, someone with humble roots exposed to the flashy entertainment industry.
See See Rider – Ma Rainey. Also known as "C.C. Rider" in some cover versions. Covers: The Animals, Lead Belly, Mississippi John Hurt, Elvis Presley, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Peggy Lee, Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, The Kingsmen, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, and many, many more.
See See Rider is a traditional folk song first recorded and popularized by Ma Rainey (aka The Mother of the Blues). The song is "one of the most famous and recorded of all blues songs. (Rainey's) was the first recording of that song, giving her a hold on the copyright, and one of the best of the more than 100 versions." The version most widely known to modern audiences is likely The Animals’ 1966 version. The “see see rider” of the title is synonymous with “easy rider” or a person of loose sexual mores. The song tells the story of a man or woman whose sexual promiscuity has ruined a relationship. The Animals’ version is overtly about a hypersexual woman. Ma Rainey’s original recording appears to refer to a cheating man, but a popular theory interprets the lyrics to refer to a female prostitute, with the “man” of the lyrics being her pimp. Rainey was famous for her “moaning” tone which infused her lyrics with an earthy sexuality. “Ma Rainey's blues were simple, straightforward stories about heartbreak, promiscuity, drinking binges, the odyssey of travel, the workplace and the prison road gang, magic and superstition—in short, the southern landscape of African-Americans in the Post-Reconstruction era." Ma Rainey’s lyrics often included overt references to lesbianism and bisexuality. As her song “Prove it on Me” puts it: “They said I do it, ain't nobody caught me. Sure got to prove it on me. Went out last night with a crowd of my friends. They must've been women, cause I don't like no men.” Rainey was frequently in trouble with the law for her homosexuality, and was once arrested for taking part in an orgy with her chorus girls. See See Rider has seen a wide variety of arrangements, from Rainey’s slow longing to The Animals’ driving passion. Filmmaker Martin Scorcese credited Lead Belly’s version of See See Rider for inspiring his passion for music. “I listened to it obsessively. Lead Belly's music opened something up for me. If I could have played guitar, really played it, I never would have become a filmmaker."
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_See_Rider
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Rainey
http://www.biography.com/people/ma-rainey-9542413
http://rockhall.com/inductees/ma-rainey/bio/
http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/Bentley/QueersinJazz.html
http://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/Ma%20Rainey.pdf
CONNECTIONS: Popular adaptations of traditional music, female sexuality, infidelity, sexual promiscuity, facing ruin due to sexual mistakes, abandonment by a lover, persecuted homosexuality, obsession.
Study War No More (Down By the Riverside) – Pete Seeger. Other versions: Lead Belly, Elvis Presley, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Peter, Paul and Mary, Willie Nelson, many more.
The song is a traditional Negro spiritual dating back to before the American Civil War, originally sung by slaves as a work song. The song uses Biblical imagery to describe a laying down of arms on a riverside and embracing peace (either in one’s personal life, or on a worldwide scale). There are wide variety of lyrics; traditional versions refer to a laying down of a sword and shield, while Pete Seeger’s well-known 60’s version updates the abandoned weapon to an atomic bomb. The image of the river is commonly thought to be a reference to baptism, as well as ascending to heaven after death. The refrain “ain’t gonna study war no more” is a reference to the Biblical passage Isaiah 2:4: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” The song became a popular anti-war anthem during the Vietnam War, thanks to the synchronicity of the folk music revival in pop culture which peaked around the same time as 60’s anti-war counterculture. Historian Daniel R. Katz reports: “Down By the Riverside, once rarely heard outside black churches, was suddenly being sung by millions of white middle class college students.”
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_by_the_Riverside
http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/articles/down-by-the-riverside-history.html
http://www.vmusic.com.au/lyrics/pete-seeger/down-by-the-riverside-lyrics-2814696.aspx
https://books.google.com/books?id=drWHp9XS-UgC&pg=PA155&dq="down+by+the+riverside"
CONNECTIONS: War and peace, traditional Negro spirituals, slavery in the American South, baptism, swords to plowshares, a violent person changing his ways, antiwar politics, an end to global conflict, Vietnam protests, religious conversion.
* Suzanne - Leonard Cohen
Written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen in the 1960s. First published as a poem in 1966, it was recorded as a song by Judy Collins in the same year, and Cohen himself recorded it for his 1967 album Songs of Leonard Cohen. Many other artists have recorded versions including a young Bruce Springsteen in his band the Castiles, and it has become one of the most-covered songs in Cohen's catalogue. On an early video, Leonard casually mentions that the rights for the song were stolen from him (see YouTube video).
LINKS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_(Leonard_Cohen_song)
http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/verdal.html
http://www.americansongwriter.com/2010/01/behind-the-song-suzanne/
Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan
Who was "Mr. Tambourine Man"? Many of Bob Dylan's listeners assumed the song was about a drug experience, as the Tambourine Man puts the singer in a spell and takes him on a trip through an exotic, poetic landscape. But in 1985, Dylan insisted it was inspired by Bruce Langhorne, the folk musician who accompanied him on guitar during the recording of the song. "He had this gigantic tambourine," Dylan remembered. "It was as big as a wagon wheel. He was playing, and this vision of him playing this tambourine just stuck in my mind." Other interpretations can be found via Wikipedia link below. Dylan began writing and composing "Mr. Tambourine Man" in February 1964, after attending Mardi Gras in New Orleans during a cross-country road trip with several friends, and completed it sometime between the middle of March and late April of that year after he had returned to New York. Nigel Williamson has suggested in The Rough Guide to Bob Dylan that the influence of Mardi Gras can be heard in the swirling and fanciful imagery of the song's lyrics.
LINKS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Tambourine_Man
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/mr-tambourine-man-bob-dylan
** Teach Your Children – Crosby, Stills & Nash
Graham Nash said in an interview that the inspiration for the song came from a famous photograph by Diane Arbus, “Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park.” The image, depicts a child with a grimace, holding a toy hand grenade. It caused Nash to think about the messages we give our children. Graham Nash wrote this. The lyrics deal with the often difficult relationship he had with his father, who spent time in prison. "The idea is that you write something so personal that every single person on the planet can relate to it. Once it's there on vinyl it unfolds, outwards, so that it applies to almost any situation. 'Teach' started out as a slightly funky English folk song but Stephen (Stills) put a country beat to it and turned it into a hit record."
LINKS
http://genius.com/Crosby-stills-and-nash-teach-your-children-lyrics#note-4186059
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3274
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teach_Your_Children
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down – The Band. Notable covers: Joan Baez, Johnny Cash
Though Robbie Robertson of The Band is a half Mohawk Indian/half Jew hailing from Canada, you would never guess his non-Dixie origins listening to his rich portrait of the late days of the American Confederate South. The song drips with such lived-in authenticity that it feels passed down from 1865. Robertson conceived of the song while traveling through the South as a stranger in a strange land. He says of the experience, “These old men would say, 'Yeah, but never mind, Robbie. One of these days the South is going to rise again.' I didn't take it as a joke. I thought it was really touching, that these people lived this world from the standpoint of a rocking chair.”
LINKS:
http://theband.hiof.no/articles/dixie_viney.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_They_Drove_Old_Dixie_Down
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1106
CONNECTIONS: Lost causes, the Confederate flag, American history, the Civil War, holding onto the
past, life-changing disaster, the costs of war, the human experience of past times
*The Only Living Boy in New York - Simon & Garfunkel
Simon wrote this as a thinly veiled message to Art Garfunkel, referencing a specific incident where Garfunkel went to Mexico to act in the film Catch-22. Simon was left alone in New York writing songs for Bridge over Troubled Water, hence the lonely feelings of "The Only Living Boy in New York." Simon refers to Garfunkel in the song as "Tom", alluding to their early days when they were called Tom and Jerry, and encourages him to "let your honesty shine . . . like it shines on me." The background vocals feature both Garfunkel and Simon recorded together in an echo chamber, multi-tracked around eight times.
LINKS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Only_Living_Boy_in_New_York
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2552
The Sound of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel
The song's origin and basis remains unclear, with multiple answers coming forward over the years. Many
believe that the song commented on the John F. Kennedy assassination, as the song was released three months after the assassination. Simon stated in interviews that the song was written in his bathroom, where he turned off the lights to better concentrate. "The main thing about playing the guitar, though, was that I was able to sit by myself and play and dream. And I was always happy doing that. I used to go off in the bathroom, because the bathroom had tiles, so it was a slight echo chamber. I'd turn on the faucet so that water would run (I like that sound, it's very soothing to me) and I'd play. In the dark. 'Hello darkness, my old friend / I've come to talk with you again'." According to Simon, Garfunkel originally wrote the lyric as "Aloha darkness, my old friend." Garfunkel once summed up the song's meaning as "the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly internationally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other."
LINKS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Silence
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=796
CONNECTIONS:
This Land Is Your Land - Woody Guthrie – COVERS: Peter, Paul and Mary, Carter Family, Bob Dylan, the Kingston Trio, Billy Bragg, The Weavers
Guthrie wrote the lyrics in 1940 and based the melody off a Baptist gospel hymn. He wrote it in response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” which he found “unrealistic”. One of the most famous songs ever recorded, its been sung and adapted by folk singers, reggae bands, Chinese schoolchildren political parties and even the Manchester United Football Club. With many different interchangeable verses the message of the song can be conveniently skewed to your personal agenda
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Land_Is_Your_Land
http://www.npr.org/2000/07/03/1076186/this-land-is-your-land
CONNECTIONS: Americana, Nature, Private Property, Hunger, fiddle tunes, "sampling," politics
** Turn! Turn! Turn! - The Byrds/Pete Seeger, King Solomon – COVERS: Dolly Parton, Nina Simone, Bruce Springsteen, Amy Grant
The lyrics from this song are torn “word-for-word from Chapter 3 of the Book of Ecclesiastes, set to music and recorded in 1962.” The lyrics can be interpreted in many ways but are most often associated with the anti-war and civil rights movements in the 60’s & 70’s.
LINKS:
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=246
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/byrds/turnturnturn.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn!_Turn!_Turn!\
CONNECTIONS: Scripture, world peace, perspective, King Solomon/5th Century BC, tolerance, rally cry
Unchained Melody – music by Alex North, lyrics by Hy Zaret. Notable versions: Righteous Brothers, Todd Duncan, June Valli, Harry Belafonte, Les Baxter, Al Hibbler, Roy Hamilton, Elvis Presley, LeAnn Rimes, Cyndi Lauper.
Originally written for - and rejected by - Bing Crosby in 1936, the song languished on a shelf untitled and unrecorded for almost 20 years. The song finally saw the light of day when songwriter Alex North was paired with lyricist Hy Zaret to write a theme song for the 1955 prison film Unchained. (The title “Unchained Melody” is just a reference to the movie title, equivalent to “Top Gun Anthem” or “Theme from Titanic”.) Lyricist Zaret makes no overt reference to chains or prison in the song, choosing instead to focus on someone who has not seen a lover in a “long, lonely time.” The song was nominated for an Oscar, has been recorded by over 500 artists, and has enjoyed several resurgences of popularity (most notably with the seminal Righteous Brothers version and the 1990 blockbuster film Ghost). The song didn’t gain its massive popularity until the Righteous Brothers recorded it in ’65. This classic reached even bigger audiences as part of the soundtrack to the greatest movie of all time (about ghosts), Ghost in 1990 (the song also appeared on the Goodfellas soundtrack in 1990).
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unchained_Melody
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1928
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXfxUVjHFl0
http://www.metrolyrics.com/unchained-melody-lyrics-the-righteous-brothers.htmlCONNECTIONS: Pining for a lost love, prison, ghosts, movie themes, unappreciated greatness, slow passage of time, hungering for physical touch, Pottery wheels, cinematic romance, longing, waiting, jukeboxes
CONNECTIONS: Pottery wheels, cinematic romance, longing, waiting, jukeboxes
What Did You Learn in School Today? - Tom Paxton – COVERS: Pete Seeger, Chad Mitchell
Tom Paxton’s career as a folk singer/songwriter started in Greenwich Village in 60’s playing at the Gaslight Café on MacDougal Street. His musical catalogue ranges from the political to cultural to satirical as it is with “What Did you Learn in School Today?” which mocks our ideology of the education system. This not so subtle jibe struck a cord with the counter-culture movement happening in NYC and the country as a whole at the time.
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Paxton
http://schugurensky.faculty.asu.edu/moments/1964paxton.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VucczIg98Gw
CONNECTIONS: Counter-culture, anti-government, anti-war, Beat Poets, banjo-pickin’
* Where Have all the Flowers Gone - Pete Seeger – COVERS: Peter, Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio, Marlene Dietrich, Roy Orbison, Joan Baez, Lester Flatt & Earl Skruggs, Dolly Parton, Olivia Newton-John
Pete Seeger wrote the song in 1955 and Joe Hickerson added the final 2 verses and gave it a circular structure in ’60, making it a staple for anti-war protests. Seeger was inspired by a novel about Czarist Russia and the soldiers leaving for the army. Seeger served in the Army in the 40’s and his band, The Weavers, was blacklisted during the McCarthy Era after Seeger and Lee Hays were identified as Communists.
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Have_All_the_Flowers_Gone%3F
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3483
http://genius.com/Pete-seeger-where-have-all-the-flowers-gone-lyrics
http://performingsongwriter.com/pete-seeger-flowers-gone/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weavers
http://www.jeffersonstarshipsf.com/weavers/weav1.htm
http://www.infozine.com/z9804/acdpete.shtml
CONNECTIONS: The circle of life and death, soldiers, flowers, graveyards, anti-war protests
This song has become a Thanksgiving anthem and is 18 minutes long. It is a "musical monologue" and inspired a short film by the same name. In the story, the singer is arrested for littering, put in jail with hardened criminals, and avoids being drafted into the Vietnam War because of his "record." In reality, the writer was helping to clean up after the renovation, but finding the town's dump was closed, they left the trash in an inappropriate place, for which the town fined them. The Alice in the story is Alice Brock, and the "restaurant" is actually a renovated church owned by her and her husband, where they often sponsored holiday dinners for friends and family.
LINKS:
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1616
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant
CONNECTIONS: draft, monologues, Thanksgiving dinners, illegal dumping, draft dodging, Richard Nixon, blind judge, seeing eye dog, movie-song combos.
Blowin' in the Wind - Bob Dylan. Covers: Peter, Paul & Mary; Sielun Veljet; Stevie Wonder; Dolly Parton; Joan Baez.
This song, supposedly written in 10 minutes, uses a series of questions to lead the listener to question what is important. Martin Scorsese did a documentary of Dylan, in which Mavis Staples discussed how accurately this young white man had captured the struggles of the black community. The melody for the song is connected to a spiritual called "No More Auction Block." Bob Cohen connects this song with Dylan's Jewish heritage, such as the teaching method of answering questions with questions. It was performed by Peter Paul & Mary during the "March on Washington," the same event that hosted Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
LINKS:
http://www.rightwingbob.com/weblog/how-blowin-in-the-wind-came-to-be/1277/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowin%27_in_the_Wind
CONNECTIONS: Ultimate Question - Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy; false plagiarism charge - Lorre Wyatt; Grammy Hall of Fame; How many roads?; impenetrably ambiguous; flying cannonballs, white doves
Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell. Other artists: Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Fairport Convention, Anne Murray, Frank Sinatra, Leonard Nimoy, Dion, Neil Diamond, Willie Nelson, Susan Boyle, Idina Menzel, and many others.
Inspiration for the song came from Henderson the Rain King, a 1959 novel by Saul Bellow, and the writer calls it "...a meditation on reality and fantasy." Mitchell was a single mother at the time of writing the song. It has been said that the song is about lost youth, about growing up. About recognizing that a child's way of looking at the world is often one dimensional, and that maturity brings new perspectives, both good and bad.
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Both_Sides,_Now
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=7968
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/summer-entertainment/joni-mitchell-both-sides-now/article12557726/
CONNECTIONS: ice cream castles, clouds, love, single motherhood, giving child up for adoption, on being a woman in the 60s.
By the time I get to Phoenix - Jimmy Webber, Sung by Glen Campbell. Other artists: Johnny Rivers, Issac Hayes, Nick Cave, Roger Miller, Dean Martin.
Grammy award winning song that Frank Sinatra called, "The greatest torch song ever written." Inspired by Webber's break up from his wife. Named the 3rd most performed song from 1940-1990. Issac Hayes did a 19 minute version that began with speaking, in one of the first "raps" recorded. The writer began his career at MoTown Records. The timeline of the song doesn't bear up under scrutiny, but the writer says it "...takes place in a twilight zone of reality."
LINKS:
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1958
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By_the_Time_I_Get_to_Phoenix
CONNECTIONS: Rap, Delta Blues, Country music, break-ups, MoTown, "covers,"
** City of New Orleans - Steve Goodman, Sung by Arlo Guthrie. Other artists: Willy Nelson
Goodman wrote the song while on a train ride, and then used it to help save the train from decommissioning. "Goodman seemed to know that his beloved Midwest was fading, and Guthrie captured perfectly the pathos of nameless trains, auto graveyards, and the rumbling gentle beat of a disappearing way of life that "still ain't heard the news." At the end of each verse comes the haunting and ironic chorus, with the City of New Orleans optimistically greeting the country and the new day knowing full well that it will be long gone when the "day is done," five hundred miles further on its inexorable journey "through the Mississippi darkness rolling down to the sea." [Linked from "Just a Song" blog] Many rural people depended on the rail system. Goodman died young (36) from lymphoblastic leukemia.
* Don't Think Twice, It’s Alright - Dylan
When Bob Dylan met Suze Rotolo at a folk concert in 1961, the chemistry was instant. Dylan says, “Cupid’s arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart and the weight of it dragged me overboard. Meeting her was like stepping into the tales of 1001 Arabian Nights.” Their whirlwind relationship
influenced Dylan’s music dramatically, as Rotolo’s artistic and political interests became enmeshed with his own. But life with Dylan proved unstable and overwhelming, and Rotolo finally ended the romance by extending a stay in Italy indefinitely. The 1964 breakup inspired several songs, some scathingly bitter, some desperately longing, but none so popular and poignant as Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright. Borrowing the melody from an old folk song "Who's Gonna Buy Your Chickens When I'm Gone," Dylan’s lyrics are his attempt to understand the experience from the point of view of the dumper, not the dumped. Dylan wrote: "A lot of people make it sort of a love song - slow and easygoing. But it isn't a love song. It's a statement that maybe you can say something to make yourself feel better. It's as if you were talking to yourself."
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Think_Twice,_It%27s_All_Right
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suze_Rotolo
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1822
CONNECTIONS: Breakups, moving on in life, whirlwind romance, mismatched couples, looking back on mistakes of the past, leaving The One, making sense of tragedy.
* Day-O (The Banana Boat Song) – Harry Belafonte
Though traditionally associated with Harry Belafonte’s famous rendition, the song actually originated as a traditional Jamaican folk song sung by banana boat workers. In contrast to Belafonte’s calypso version, the traditional version of the song had a slower, steadier beat intended to last workers through a long night of hauling fruits from trucks to boats. One worker would call out verses as the others sang a response, often with lyrics improvised on the spot. The song was discovered and brought to Belafonte by writers of the variety show “The Colgate Comedy Hour.” Unaware of Belafonte’s version, a group called The Terriers (featuring future actor Alan Arkin) released their own version of the song, causing RCA to rush-release Belafonte’s recording. The Terriers had the bigger hit, but it was Belafonte’s version that lasted the test of time.
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-O_%28The_Banana_Boat_Song%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Belafonte
http://www.post-gazette.com/environment/2005/11/27/The-Banana-Boat-Song-Daylight-come-and-me-wan-go-home/stories/200511270294
http://www.originals.be/en/originals.php?id=1264
CONNECTIONS: Passing time at work, co-opted indigenous culture, bananas, Jamaica, physical labor, making work fun, calypso, going home at sunrise after a night shift
Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash
Cash was inspired to write the song after seeing the movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison while serving overseas. Of the famous line “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die,” Cash said, “I sat with my pen in my hand, trying to think up the worst reason a person could have for killing another person, and that's what came to mind.” Cash eventually performed the song for prisoners at Folsom and San Quentin, where a young Merle Haggard was serving time for burglary. Haggard said of Cash, “He had the right attitude. He chewed gum, looked arrogant and flipped the bird to the guards—he did everything the prisoners wanted to do. He was a mean mother from the South who was there because he loved us. When he walked away, everyone in that place had become a Johnny Cash fan.”
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folsom_Prison_Blues
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/inmate-merle-haggard-hears-johnny-cash-play-san-quentin-state-prison
CONNECTIONS:Prison, murder, trains, lost souls, sociopathic evil, boredom, envy, longing for escape, outlaw cool, traps, mistakes of the past, Johnny Cash
* Freedom – Richie Havens
The first performer to set foot on the Woodstock stage, Havens was forced to stretch out his performance for nearly three hours, as most other bands were severely delayed due to standstill traffic. Having finally run out of material, Havens improvised a new song, Freedom, on the spot. Riffing on the traditional Negro spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” he infused the lyrics with a new fevered urgency and a cry for freedom. Havens explained the song as follows: "I'd already played every song I knew and I was stalling, asking for more guitar and mic, trying to think of something else to play – and then it just came to me. The establishment was foolish enough to give us all this freedom and we used it in every way we could."
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richie_Havens
http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2013/04/23/178470389/richie-havens-folk-singer-who-opened-woodstock-has-died
http://entertainment.time.com/2013/04/22/richie-havens-6-essential-performances
CONNECTIONS: Freedom, slavery, African-American history, orphans, parentage, improvisation, Woodstock, urgent longing, rising up against the establishment
Freight Train – Elizabeth Cotten
Though left-handed, 8-year old Elizabeth Cotten taught herself to play a right-handed guitar by holding the instrument upside-down. She wrote a wealth of songs using this unique style and sound, but put away the instrument to get married at 15 (due o the advice of her church deacon, who scorned “worldly music”). Over 40 years later, while working in a department store, she helped a lost little girl find her mother. The little girl was Peggy Seeger of the famous folk-singing Seeger family, and they returned the good deed by hiring Cotten as their housekeeper. Hearing her idly playing their gut-string guitar one day, the Seegers quickly recognized her unique genius. They recorded hours upon hours of her music in their home, and at the age of 62, Elizabeth Cotten released her first album. Her signature song Freight Train, recorded 50 years after she wrote it as an 11-year-old girl, was inspired by the sound of trains rolling down the track during her youth in NC. The song is now considered an essential part of folk music canon. She continued to perform until her death at 92, won several awards (including a Grammy at 90), and was named a "living treasure" by the Smithsonian Institution. Dana Klipp, who worked as Cotten’s accompanist in her final years, said of the folk legend: "She was pretty feisty. She had spirit… that’s what kept her going. Her hands became a problem, but she wanted to play. She loved to play.” In a way the song Freight Train is not so much about freight trains as much as it’s about the life story of this woman who just loved her music.
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freight_Train_%28folk_song%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Cotten
http://www.folkways.si.edu/elizabeth-cotten-master-american-folk/music/article/smithsonian
http://www.eclectica.org/v1n1/nonfiction/demerlee.html
CONNECTIONS: Trains, humble beginnings, African American folk music, undiscovered talent, child prodigy, unique artistry, rural America, artistic achievement in old age.
* House of the Rising Sun - The Animals
This is a traditional folk song, sometimes called "Rising Sun Blues." It tells of a life gone wrong in New Orleans; many versions also urge a sibling to avoid the same fate. Historians have not been able to definitively identify the inspiration for the song, but here are the two most popular theories: 1) The song is about a brothel in New Orleans of the same name. "The House Of The Rising Sun" was named after Madame Marianne LeSoleil Levant (which means "Rising Sun" in French) and was open for business from 1862 (occupation by Union troops) until 1874, when it was closed due to complaints by neighbors. 2) It's about a women's prison in New Orleans called the Orleans Parish women's prison, which had an entrance gate adorned with rising sun artwork. This would explain the "ball and chain" lyrics in the song.
LINKS:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Rising_Sun
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=439
CONNECTIONS:
*If I Had a Hammer - written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays. Trini Lopez
Written in 1949 in support of the progressive movement, it's almost childlike in its simplicity, which has made the song accessible to children. But, don't be fooled by this childlike quality - the lyrics, especially in their day, were a pretty radical declaration of allegiance to the pursuit of justice, equality, and peace. When Seeger and Hays wrote the song, it was a bit of anthemic support for the emerging progressive movement, which was focused heavily on labor rights, among other things. By the time Peter, Paul and Mary recorded it in 1962, the tune's meaning had evolved to fit the emerging civil rights movement. The hammer and bell symbols were still powerful images, but the more key line at this time was the refrain that sang about "love between my brothers and my sisters," and the final verse's "hammer of justice"/"bell of freedom" line.
LINKS:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_I_Had_a_Hammer
http://folkmusic.about.com/od/folksongs/qt/IfIHadaHammer.htm
CONNECTIONS: Anthems, hammers, bells, unions, civil rights, workers
Leaving On A Jet Plane - John Denver
This was written by a very young John Denver, who was then a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio before beginning his solo career in the 1970s. Denver wrote this in 1967 during a layover at Washington airport, "Not so much from feeling that way for someone, but from the longing of having someone to love
LINKS:
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1219
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaving_on_a_Jet_Plane
CONNECTIONS:
***Puff the Magic Dragon - Peter, Paul and Mary
As a 19-year-old college student, Leonard Lipton banged out a poem on a friend’s roommate’s typewriter just to get it out of his head, then forgot about it. Years later, the typewriter’s owner, Peter Yarrow (now of Peter, Paul and Mary fame), tracked down Lipton to ensure he got a lyrics credit for Puff the Magic Dragon, the song his poem inspired. Lipton receives royalties to this day. Though the song is frequently rumored to be a thinly-veiled metaphor for drug use, both Lipton and Yarrow insist that “It was really a pity because there never was a different meaning other than the obvious one. Puff the Magic Dragon is only about the loss of innocence in children.” "My poem was directly inspired by a poem called 'A Tale of Custard the Dragon,'" published by Ogden Nash in 1936. "Pirates and dragons, back then, were common interests in stories for boys. The Puff story is really just a lot like Peter Pan.”
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puff,_the_Magic_Dragon
http://www.laweekly.com/music/the-man-who-wrote-puff-the-magic-dragon-swears-its-not-about-drugs-5365040
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OiOlnoyljk
CONNECTIONS: Fantasy worlds, abandoning childhood games, loss of innocence, imaginary friends, 60’s drug culture, hidden meanings, forgotten dreams, connecting to the past
Runaway - Del Shannon
When Del Shannon and keyboardist Max Crook’s first studio recording ended in failure, their producer convinced them to rewrite an unrecorded song called Little Runaway to showcase Crook’s unique instrumentals. Crook’s invention, the Musitron, was a forerunner to keyboard synthesizers built out of a mishmash of parts including vacuum tube oscillators, TV tubes, and household appliances. The Musitron solo in Runaway (along with Shannon’s infectious falsetto hook) turned the song into a monster hit. Like many of Del Shannon’s songs, the lyrics focus on a failed relationship, and the deceptively cheerful melody belies the dark story of a man wailing for a lost love. Shannon claimed the song was about himself, as he was always running away from relationships. Despite the huge success of Runaway, none of his subsequent recordings achieved the same acclaim, and his career spiraled downward. In 1999, nine years after his death by self-inflicted gunshot wound, Del Shannon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_%28Del_Shannon_song%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Shannon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Crook
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1700
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/del-shannon-commits-suicide
CONNECTIONS: Breakups, electronic music, wondering why things didn’t work, one-hit wonders, being haunted by one big success, avoiding romantic commitment, hidden pain.
Salty Dog Blues – Mississippi John Hurt. Other recordings: Papa Charlie Jackson, Lead Belly, the Morris Brothers, Johnny Cash, The Kingston Trio
Mississippi John Hurt, born in 1893, taught himself to play guitar when he was 9. He spent most of his life as a farmhand, occasionally playing at parties. In 1927, he and a fiddler friend were spotted by a scout and recorded for Okeh Records. Hurt says, “It was really something. I sat on a chair, and they pushed the microphone right up to my mouth and told me that I couldn't move after they had found the right position. I had to keep my head absolutely still. Oh, I was nervous, and my neck was sore for days after. “ The record was a commercial failure, and Hurt returned to farm work, where he stayed for most of his life. Years later with the folk revival of the 50’s and 60’s, some obscure regional recordings (including Hurt’s) were included in a popular folk music anthology. In '63, folk musicologist Tom Hoskins managed to track down Hurt to his farm in Avalon, MS due to this lyric: “Avalon, my home town, always on my mind.” Like many long-forgotten folk musicians of his generation, Hurt was humbled to suddenly find himself playing to a national audience in his old age, on stages such as the Johnny Carson show. Salty Dog Blues, one of his most popular tunes, was not written by Hurt but was a folk standard of unknown origin. Like many folk songs, the lyrics can vary greatly in different versions. Even the meaning of the “salty dog” itself seems to vary widely amongst the artists who’ve recorded the song. The song is traditionally thought to present a simple request to be a romantic partner, but “salty dog” can also be taken to mean a sexual partner (or even specifically a “libidinous sailor”). It is also the name of various regional foods & drinks. John Garst says, "I think that I recall Ramblin' Jack Elliot… saying that a Salty Dog was something sold at the concessions on Coney Island, some sort of hot dog on a stick. If this is so, then you can take it from there." According to banjo picker Jack Hatfield, "It don't mean nuthin', it's a novelty song."
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salty_Dog_Blues
http://www.mattesonart.com/history-of-salty-dog-blues.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salty_dog_%28slang%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_John_Hurt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_folk_music_revival
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/mississippi-john-hurt-mn0000424019/biography
CONNECTIONS: Humble beginnings, tracking down a forgotten artist, sexual innuendo, asking someone out, food and drink of rural America, finding success late in life, someone with humble roots exposed to the flashy entertainment industry.
See See Rider – Ma Rainey. Also known as "C.C. Rider" in some cover versions. Covers: The Animals, Lead Belly, Mississippi John Hurt, Elvis Presley, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Peggy Lee, Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, The Kingsmen, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, and many, many more.
See See Rider is a traditional folk song first recorded and popularized by Ma Rainey (aka The Mother of the Blues). The song is "one of the most famous and recorded of all blues songs. (Rainey's) was the first recording of that song, giving her a hold on the copyright, and one of the best of the more than 100 versions." The version most widely known to modern audiences is likely The Animals’ 1966 version. The “see see rider” of the title is synonymous with “easy rider” or a person of loose sexual mores. The song tells the story of a man or woman whose sexual promiscuity has ruined a relationship. The Animals’ version is overtly about a hypersexual woman. Ma Rainey’s original recording appears to refer to a cheating man, but a popular theory interprets the lyrics to refer to a female prostitute, with the “man” of the lyrics being her pimp. Rainey was famous for her “moaning” tone which infused her lyrics with an earthy sexuality. “Ma Rainey's blues were simple, straightforward stories about heartbreak, promiscuity, drinking binges, the odyssey of travel, the workplace and the prison road gang, magic and superstition—in short, the southern landscape of African-Americans in the Post-Reconstruction era." Ma Rainey’s lyrics often included overt references to lesbianism and bisexuality. As her song “Prove it on Me” puts it: “They said I do it, ain't nobody caught me. Sure got to prove it on me. Went out last night with a crowd of my friends. They must've been women, cause I don't like no men.” Rainey was frequently in trouble with the law for her homosexuality, and was once arrested for taking part in an orgy with her chorus girls. See See Rider has seen a wide variety of arrangements, from Rainey’s slow longing to The Animals’ driving passion. Filmmaker Martin Scorcese credited Lead Belly’s version of See See Rider for inspiring his passion for music. “I listened to it obsessively. Lead Belly's music opened something up for me. If I could have played guitar, really played it, I never would have become a filmmaker."
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_See_Rider
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Rainey
http://www.biography.com/people/ma-rainey-9542413
http://rockhall.com/inductees/ma-rainey/bio/
http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/Bentley/QueersinJazz.html
http://www.loc.gov/programs/static/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/Ma%20Rainey.pdf
CONNECTIONS: Popular adaptations of traditional music, female sexuality, infidelity, sexual promiscuity, facing ruin due to sexual mistakes, abandonment by a lover, persecuted homosexuality, obsession.
Study War No More (Down By the Riverside) – Pete Seeger. Other versions: Lead Belly, Elvis Presley, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Peter, Paul and Mary, Willie Nelson, many more.
The song is a traditional Negro spiritual dating back to before the American Civil War, originally sung by slaves as a work song. The song uses Biblical imagery to describe a laying down of arms on a riverside and embracing peace (either in one’s personal life, or on a worldwide scale). There are wide variety of lyrics; traditional versions refer to a laying down of a sword and shield, while Pete Seeger’s well-known 60’s version updates the abandoned weapon to an atomic bomb. The image of the river is commonly thought to be a reference to baptism, as well as ascending to heaven after death. The refrain “ain’t gonna study war no more” is a reference to the Biblical passage Isaiah 2:4: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” The song became a popular anti-war anthem during the Vietnam War, thanks to the synchronicity of the folk music revival in pop culture which peaked around the same time as 60’s anti-war counterculture. Historian Daniel R. Katz reports: “Down By the Riverside, once rarely heard outside black churches, was suddenly being sung by millions of white middle class college students.”
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_by_the_Riverside
http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/articles/down-by-the-riverside-history.html
http://www.vmusic.com.au/lyrics/pete-seeger/down-by-the-riverside-lyrics-2814696.aspx
https://books.google.com/books?id=drWHp9XS-UgC&pg=PA155&dq="down+by+the+riverside"
CONNECTIONS: War and peace, traditional Negro spirituals, slavery in the American South, baptism, swords to plowshares, a violent person changing his ways, antiwar politics, an end to global conflict, Vietnam protests, religious conversion.
* Suzanne - Leonard Cohen
Written by Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen in the 1960s. First published as a poem in 1966, it was recorded as a song by Judy Collins in the same year, and Cohen himself recorded it for his 1967 album Songs of Leonard Cohen. Many other artists have recorded versions including a young Bruce Springsteen in his band the Castiles, and it has become one of the most-covered songs in Cohen's catalogue. On an early video, Leonard casually mentions that the rights for the song were stolen from him (see YouTube video).
LINKS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_(Leonard_Cohen_song)
http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/verdal.html
http://www.americansongwriter.com/2010/01/behind-the-song-suzanne/
Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan
Who was "Mr. Tambourine Man"? Many of Bob Dylan's listeners assumed the song was about a drug experience, as the Tambourine Man puts the singer in a spell and takes him on a trip through an exotic, poetic landscape. But in 1985, Dylan insisted it was inspired by Bruce Langhorne, the folk musician who accompanied him on guitar during the recording of the song. "He had this gigantic tambourine," Dylan remembered. "It was as big as a wagon wheel. He was playing, and this vision of him playing this tambourine just stuck in my mind." Other interpretations can be found via Wikipedia link below. Dylan began writing and composing "Mr. Tambourine Man" in February 1964, after attending Mardi Gras in New Orleans during a cross-country road trip with several friends, and completed it sometime between the middle of March and late April of that year after he had returned to New York. Nigel Williamson has suggested in The Rough Guide to Bob Dylan that the influence of Mardi Gras can be heard in the swirling and fanciful imagery of the song's lyrics.
LINKS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Tambourine_Man
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/mr-tambourine-man-bob-dylan
** Teach Your Children – Crosby, Stills & Nash
Graham Nash said in an interview that the inspiration for the song came from a famous photograph by Diane Arbus, “Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park.” The image, depicts a child with a grimace, holding a toy hand grenade. It caused Nash to think about the messages we give our children. Graham Nash wrote this. The lyrics deal with the often difficult relationship he had with his father, who spent time in prison. "The idea is that you write something so personal that every single person on the planet can relate to it. Once it's there on vinyl it unfolds, outwards, so that it applies to almost any situation. 'Teach' started out as a slightly funky English folk song but Stephen (Stills) put a country beat to it and turned it into a hit record."
LINKS
http://genius.com/Crosby-stills-and-nash-teach-your-children-lyrics#note-4186059
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3274
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teach_Your_Children
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down – The Band. Notable covers: Joan Baez, Johnny Cash
Though Robbie Robertson of The Band is a half Mohawk Indian/half Jew hailing from Canada, you would never guess his non-Dixie origins listening to his rich portrait of the late days of the American Confederate South. The song drips with such lived-in authenticity that it feels passed down from 1865. Robertson conceived of the song while traveling through the South as a stranger in a strange land. He says of the experience, “These old men would say, 'Yeah, but never mind, Robbie. One of these days the South is going to rise again.' I didn't take it as a joke. I thought it was really touching, that these people lived this world from the standpoint of a rocking chair.”
LINKS:
http://theband.hiof.no/articles/dixie_viney.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_They_Drove_Old_Dixie_Down
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1106
CONNECTIONS: Lost causes, the Confederate flag, American history, the Civil War, holding onto the
past, life-changing disaster, the costs of war, the human experience of past times
*The Only Living Boy in New York - Simon & Garfunkel
Simon wrote this as a thinly veiled message to Art Garfunkel, referencing a specific incident where Garfunkel went to Mexico to act in the film Catch-22. Simon was left alone in New York writing songs for Bridge over Troubled Water, hence the lonely feelings of "The Only Living Boy in New York." Simon refers to Garfunkel in the song as "Tom", alluding to their early days when they were called Tom and Jerry, and encourages him to "let your honesty shine . . . like it shines on me." The background vocals feature both Garfunkel and Simon recorded together in an echo chamber, multi-tracked around eight times.
LINKS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Only_Living_Boy_in_New_York
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2552
The Sound of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel
The song's origin and basis remains unclear, with multiple answers coming forward over the years. Many
believe that the song commented on the John F. Kennedy assassination, as the song was released three months after the assassination. Simon stated in interviews that the song was written in his bathroom, where he turned off the lights to better concentrate. "The main thing about playing the guitar, though, was that I was able to sit by myself and play and dream. And I was always happy doing that. I used to go off in the bathroom, because the bathroom had tiles, so it was a slight echo chamber. I'd turn on the faucet so that water would run (I like that sound, it's very soothing to me) and I'd play. In the dark. 'Hello darkness, my old friend / I've come to talk with you again'." According to Simon, Garfunkel originally wrote the lyric as "Aloha darkness, my old friend." Garfunkel once summed up the song's meaning as "the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly internationally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other."
LINKS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Silence
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=796
CONNECTIONS:
This Land Is Your Land - Woody Guthrie – COVERS: Peter, Paul and Mary, Carter Family, Bob Dylan, the Kingston Trio, Billy Bragg, The Weavers
Guthrie wrote the lyrics in 1940 and based the melody off a Baptist gospel hymn. He wrote it in response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” which he found “unrealistic”. One of the most famous songs ever recorded, its been sung and adapted by folk singers, reggae bands, Chinese schoolchildren political parties and even the Manchester United Football Club. With many different interchangeable verses the message of the song can be conveniently skewed to your personal agenda
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Land_Is_Your_Land
http://www.npr.org/2000/07/03/1076186/this-land-is-your-land
CONNECTIONS: Americana, Nature, Private Property, Hunger, fiddle tunes, "sampling," politics
** Turn! Turn! Turn! - The Byrds/Pete Seeger, King Solomon – COVERS: Dolly Parton, Nina Simone, Bruce Springsteen, Amy Grant
The lyrics from this song are torn “word-for-word from Chapter 3 of the Book of Ecclesiastes, set to music and recorded in 1962.” The lyrics can be interpreted in many ways but are most often associated with the anti-war and civil rights movements in the 60’s & 70’s.
LINKS:
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=246
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/byrds/turnturnturn.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn!_Turn!_Turn!\
CONNECTIONS: Scripture, world peace, perspective, King Solomon/5th Century BC, tolerance, rally cry
Unchained Melody – music by Alex North, lyrics by Hy Zaret. Notable versions: Righteous Brothers, Todd Duncan, June Valli, Harry Belafonte, Les Baxter, Al Hibbler, Roy Hamilton, Elvis Presley, LeAnn Rimes, Cyndi Lauper.
Originally written for - and rejected by - Bing Crosby in 1936, the song languished on a shelf untitled and unrecorded for almost 20 years. The song finally saw the light of day when songwriter Alex North was paired with lyricist Hy Zaret to write a theme song for the 1955 prison film Unchained. (The title “Unchained Melody” is just a reference to the movie title, equivalent to “Top Gun Anthem” or “Theme from Titanic”.) Lyricist Zaret makes no overt reference to chains or prison in the song, choosing instead to focus on someone who has not seen a lover in a “long, lonely time.” The song was nominated for an Oscar, has been recorded by over 500 artists, and has enjoyed several resurgences of popularity (most notably with the seminal Righteous Brothers version and the 1990 blockbuster film Ghost). The song didn’t gain its massive popularity until the Righteous Brothers recorded it in ’65. This classic reached even bigger audiences as part of the soundtrack to the greatest movie of all time (about ghosts), Ghost in 1990 (the song also appeared on the Goodfellas soundtrack in 1990).
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unchained_Melody
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1928
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXfxUVjHFl0
http://www.metrolyrics.com/unchained-melody-lyrics-the-righteous-brothers.htmlCONNECTIONS: Pining for a lost love, prison, ghosts, movie themes, unappreciated greatness, slow passage of time, hungering for physical touch, Pottery wheels, cinematic romance, longing, waiting, jukeboxes
CONNECTIONS: Pottery wheels, cinematic romance, longing, waiting, jukeboxes
What Did You Learn in School Today? - Tom Paxton – COVERS: Pete Seeger, Chad Mitchell
Tom Paxton’s career as a folk singer/songwriter started in Greenwich Village in 60’s playing at the Gaslight Café on MacDougal Street. His musical catalogue ranges from the political to cultural to satirical as it is with “What Did you Learn in School Today?” which mocks our ideology of the education system. This not so subtle jibe struck a cord with the counter-culture movement happening in NYC and the country as a whole at the time.
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Paxton
http://schugurensky.faculty.asu.edu/moments/1964paxton.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VucczIg98Gw
CONNECTIONS: Counter-culture, anti-government, anti-war, Beat Poets, banjo-pickin’
* Where Have all the Flowers Gone - Pete Seeger – COVERS: Peter, Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio, Marlene Dietrich, Roy Orbison, Joan Baez, Lester Flatt & Earl Skruggs, Dolly Parton, Olivia Newton-John
Pete Seeger wrote the song in 1955 and Joe Hickerson added the final 2 verses and gave it a circular structure in ’60, making it a staple for anti-war protests. Seeger was inspired by a novel about Czarist Russia and the soldiers leaving for the army. Seeger served in the Army in the 40’s and his band, The Weavers, was blacklisted during the McCarthy Era after Seeger and Lee Hays were identified as Communists.
LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Have_All_the_Flowers_Gone%3F
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3483
http://genius.com/Pete-seeger-where-have-all-the-flowers-gone-lyrics
http://performingsongwriter.com/pete-seeger-flowers-gone/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weavers
http://www.jeffersonstarshipsf.com/weavers/weav1.htm
http://www.infozine.com/z9804/acdpete.shtml
CONNECTIONS: The circle of life and death, soldiers, flowers, graveyards, anti-war protests