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The Folk Music Revival and the Counter Culture: Contributions and Contradictions

Author(s): Jens Lund and R. Serge Denisoff


Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 84, No. 334 (Oct. - Dec., 1971), pp. 394-405
Published by: American Folklore Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/539633
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JENS LUND
and R. SERGE DENISOFF

The Folk Music Revival and the CounterCulture:


Contributionsand Contradictions'

OBSERVERS OF THE SO-CALLED "COUNTER CULTURE" have tended to portray


this phenomenonas a new and isolatedevent. TheodoreRoszak,as well as numerousmusicand arthistorians,havecometo view the "counterculture"as a new
reactionto technicalexpertiseand the embourgeoismentof growing segmentsof
the Americanpeople.2This position,it would appear,is basicallyindicativeof the
intellectual"blindmen and the elephant"couplet,where a socialfact or event is
examinedapartfrom otherstructuralphenomena.Instead,it is our contentionthat
the "counterculture"or Abbie Hoffman's"WoodstockNation" is an emergent
realityor a productof all thatcamebefore,sui generis.Moresimply,the "counter
culture"canbestbe conceptualizedas partof a long historical-intellectual
progression beginningwith the "Gardenof Eden"imageof man.
The theme of man removedfrom the state of naturehas recurredthroughout
Judeo-Christian-Greco
thought.Rousseau,Hobbes,Locke,Calvin,and nearlyall
social philosophersand metaphysicianshave chosento idealizean existenceprior
to primordialman when all was well, and life was simple and free of the "social
nausea"ascribedto us by the existentialists.
Socratesurged the young to adopt an asceticstyle of life. This sentimentwas
repeatedby early Catholictheologians,particularlyFrancisof Assisi. The European Romanticists,in the wake of Rousseau,laudedthe "noblesavage."In North
America,JamesFenimoreCooperexhibiteda preoccupationwith the hero of the
of the mid-nineteenthcentury,Thoreauand
wilderness.The transcendentalists
Emerson,deifiedthe man behind the plow. The force of these argumentsled to
some action. For example, the writings of such GermanRomanticistsas Joseph
a movement
von Eichendorffand Nikolaus Lenauproducedthe Wandervoigeln,
1 This is a revised and expanded revision of a paper originally presented at the Ohio-Indiana
American Studies Association meetings at West Lafayette, Indiana, April 22-24, 1971.
2 Theodore Roszak, The Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society
and Its Youthful Opposition (Garden City, N. Y., 1969).

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THE FOLK MUSIC REVIVAL AND THE COUNTER CULTURE

395

which inspiredmany of Weimar Germany'syoung people to roam CentralEurope, begging for food, composingpoetry,and singing folk songs.3MarkTwain's
HuckleberryFinn, on a lesserscale,hada similarimpact,as did popularromanticizationof the cowboyand the hobo. The productsof John Steinbeck,and particularly, JackKerouac,Woody Guthrie,and Bob Dylan, have invited the young to
experience"the road."In a sense, the "counterculture"can be considereda successorto all of theseintellectualandliterarytrends.
Political thinkers, such as Marxists,anarchists,syndicalists,and even Social
Darwinists,all includedin their sociopoliticaltheoremsthe stateof nature.This
"stateof nature"colorationof man, reinforcedby Aldous Huxley's Savagein
Brave New World, was widely acceptedby left-wing radicals,particularlyafter
the successof the Bolshevikrevolution.AmericanCommunists,particularlythose
loyal to the Comintern,were no exception.During the late 1930s, the Communist
Party-U.S. A. idealizedthe Americanruralfolk as beingidentifiablewith the proletariat.The Okies and Arkies were seen as charactersfrom a Gorkyplay, and
ruralfolk musicwas declared"people'ssongs."4It was in this ideologicalframework that "folk music"came to town, to be nurturedand cherishedfor several
decadesby politicallyorientedintellectualsand the occasionalfolk musicbuff.5
After World War II the "people'sartists"trendwas interdictedby the advent
of the McCarthyeraand the applicationof the mediablacklistto folk-styledsingers, such as Pete Seegerand the Weavers.As membersof People's Artists, Inc.
were being summonedto testify before Congressionalsubcommittees,an artistic
and literaryfad which exploredthe traditional"road"conceptsof the American
experience came into existence in the bohemiancommunitiesof several large
metropolises.This movementwas called the Beat Generation,or by journalists
suchas Herb Caen,"beatniks."The beatsproclaimeddisaffiliationfromAmerican
societyand its institutions.In place of the ProtestantEthic,they adoptedthe posture of the "White Negro," a conceptcoined by Norman Mailer. The "White
Negro" idealized stereotypesof blackbehaviorand advocatedimitationof such
traits.Jazz, the musicof urbanblacks,becamethe languageof the Beat community, and the musicianthe ideal man.6Manyof the foundersof jazz, suchas Jelly
Roll Morton,had begun their careersas housemusiciansin Southern"redlight"
districts.They often affectedargot, dress,and life-stylesthat were ostentatiously
unconventional.'At firstthe jazzmenandtheirfollowersweregenerallyblack,but
as the music'spopularitywidened,it generatedan interracialsubculture.Fromthe
esoteric"bop"era of the late 1940s there emergeda highly definablesubculture
knownas the "jazzcommunity."sManyof the attitudesof this "community,"
such
German Romantic?" Journal of
3Irmgard Hunt, "Towards Soul: The American Hippie-A
Popular Culture, 3 (Spring, 1970), 736-749.
4See William Wolff, "Use Traditional Tunes for New Union Songs," Daily Worker, November
16, 1939, p. 7; and Marjorie Crane, "The Folksongs of Our People," Sunday Worker, September
21, 1941, p. 4 (section 2).
5 R. Serge Denisoff, Great Day Coming: Folk Music and the American Left (Urbana, Ill.,
i971).
6 Norman Mailer, "The White Negro," in The Beat Generation and the
Angry Young Men, ed.
Gene Feldman and Max Gartenberg (New York, 1959), 371-394.
7 Alan Lomax, Mister
Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and
"Inventor of Jazz" (New York, 1950), xi-xii.
8 Alan P. Merriam and R. W.
Mack, "The Jazz Community," Social Forces, 38 (1960), 211-222.

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JENS LUND and R. SERGE DENISOFF


396
as the use of marijuanaas a social drug and aversenessto conventionalfashion,
survivetodayin the "counterculture."It has also contributedmanytermsto the
contemporaryyouth culture,includingthe word "hippie"itself, whichwas originally derogatory.9For the Beat, the noble savageof the fifties was the blackjazz
musician,in timeto be replacedbythe folk singer.
During the time New York's GreenwichVillage was the EastCoast'sversion
of San Francisco'sNorth Beach,beatsencounteredthe remainingleftists and intellectualsinterestedin folk music.Varioussongfestswerestill held in the Village
as rent-partiesor fund-raisingevents to fight Pete Seeger'scongressionalcontempt citationor to help financethe shakySing Out! magazine.In time, these
sporadiceventswereroutinizedinto weeklyaffairsheld in the Village'sWashington SquarePark.
In GreenwichVillage, the beats and the folk-aficionadoscame into contact
with each other, resulting in a synthesisof attitudesand appearances.For the
neophytebeats, a loosely definedform of "folk music"took the place of jazz as
the dominantmusicalgenre. This was, in part,due to the increasingcommercialization of the music and the "CrowJim" attitudesof those jazz musiciansbeing
attractedto blacknationalism.The personinterestedin folk musicoften affected
the bohemian appearanceand life-style, and the blacklistedperformersthus
found themselveswith a new audience.Alan Lomax,the distinguishedfolklorist,
perhapsbest enunciatedthe life-style aspectin his paper, "The Folkniks-And
the Songs They Sing." Lomaxdeclared,"To be folk, you live folk. 10 Many collegiates and bohemianstook this dictum quite seriously.Time magazine,in its
profileof Joan Baez, made note of the life-styleassociatedwith the nonstudents
at Boston'sHarvardSquare:"Drifters,somewhatbeat,with Penguinclassicspro-

truding from their bluejeans . . . 'they just lie in their pads, smoke pot, and do
stupidthings like that.'"11 The fact that suchindividualsexistedas earlyas 1962

seemedto be a harbingerof what would lateroccuron campusesacrossthe nation


on a muchlargerscale.
The "folkniks"were,of course,still a veryesotericminority,while the majority
of popularmusic concerneditself over ninetypercentof the time with themesof
courtshipand everlastinglove.12 Even the ostensiblyoffensiveofferingsof Elvis
Presleyusuallyended in a vine-coveredcottage.The magic of the early Presley
yearswas soon dissipatedby the conscriptionof its namesake,publichostilityto his
black counterpartsand the misfortunesthat befell his imitators.For the "taste
culture"of this period,a vacuumwas createdwhichallowedfolk musicto capture
the attentionof the disgruntledrock-and-rollfan. This void was firstfilled by the
KingstonTrio. The KingstonTrio was originallya pop-calypsogroup organized
to cash in on the brief calypso fad generatedby Harry Belafonte in 1957. In
9 It has even been suggested that the word may have African origins. Paul Oliver, Savannah Syncopators: African Retention in the Blues (New York, 1970), 93, cites the Wolof word hipi, meaning "to have one's eyes opened."
to Alan Lomax, "The Folkniks-And the Songs They Sing," Sing Out! The Folk Song Magazine,
9 (Summer, 1959), 30-31.
11 "Folksinging: Sibyl with a Guitar," Time, November 23, 1962, p. 52.
12 Donald Horton, "The Dialogue of Courtship in Popular Songs," American Journal of Sociology, 62 (May, 1957), 569-578.

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THE FOLK MUSIC REVIVAL AND THE COUNTER CULTURE

397

1958 theyrearrangeda North Carolinaballad,"TomDula," whichbecamea phenomenalsuccessunderthe title, "Tom Dooley." This helped to set the stage for
the commercial"folk" boom of the sixties, but did not, as some have suggested,
causeit. Originally,the successof the Triowas not transferableto otherendeavors.
The sponsorsof the Newport (R.I.) JazzFestivalattemptedto stage similarproductions around the folk genre in 1959 and 1960. The first was an economic

failureand the secondnot successfulenoughto weatherthe conflictsthatappeared


in the wakeof the 1961 JazzFestivaldisturbances."Folkniks,"on the otherhand,
roundly condemnedthe Trio for their commercializationand for their use of
"Tom Dula" which had been gleanedfrom FrankProffitt,a North Carolinatraditional musician.This triggered,even at this earlystage, the firstvalue conflict
of the folk musicrevival.The conflictwas betweenthe "ethnics"or "purists"who
advocatedthe romanticideal of "traditional"music, as opposed to the faddish
Kingston Trio, Limeliters,and BrothersFour fans. For the "purists"in Greenwich Village and Cambridge,Berkeley,and othermajorcosmopolitanuniversity
communities,"folk music" was symbolic of much more than just the handclappingentertainmentthatthe popularizerswereimplementing.With the steady
acceptanceof folk-styledmaterialby increasingsegmentsof the record-buying
public, this one-sidedpolemicwas minimizedsince all tasteswere being served.
The popularizers,despitetheirddclasseposturein "folknik"circles,helpedto pay
for the less well-knownperformerson recordsand at folk-festivals.
With the infusion of the popularizers,the folk-festivals,particularlyNewport,
resumedin 1963 and helped to transformthe esoteric"folknik"subcultureinto
part of the popularculture.The "Hootenanny"crazeof 1963, centeredaround
the ABCtelevisionshow,was butone exampleof thisprocess.
Anotherresultof the growinginterestin folk musicwas the reemergenceof the
topical songwriterin the so-called "Seeger-Guthrie"tradition.13Most of these
individualshad begun by singing old-left songs, but many of them becameinvolved in the civil rights movement,which had its own songs of protest.Those
who went Southas volunteersfound themselvesinvolvedin confrontatorydemonstrationswith the forcesof authority,thus linking the idea of demonstrations
and
folksinging in the minds of both the participantsand the public. Most of the
protestsingerswere eventuallywritingoriginalmaterial.The topicalsongwriters,
especiallythose to be found in the pages of Broadside(NYC) were to be the
prophetsof protestwho would, in time, leave the fold for the moreexciting and
rewardingpasturesof Rock.The Dylans,Paxtons,Skys,Chandlersand othersdid
not subscribeto the socialistmodels of the past. Rarelydid the word "we" enter
their lyrics.This was in juxtapositionto the well-knownsongs of the civil rights
movementwith whichmanyNew York "folk-singers"identified.Moreandmore,
the singular"I" predominated."HattieCarroll,""Mastersof War," and "With
God on Our Side"were individualstatementsnot conduciveto
groupsinging. In13
Compare Gordon Friesen, "Something New Has Been Added," Sing Out!, I3 (OctoberNovember, 1963), 12-23. For the scholastic aspect of the revival see Dick Reuss, "So You Want
to be a Folklorist?," Sing Out!, 15 (November, 1965), 40-42; Donald M. Winkleman and
Ray
B. Browne, "Folklore Study in Universities," Sing Out!,
I4 (September, 1964), 47, 49; and Irwin
Silber, "Traditional Folk Artists Capture the Campus," Sing Out.!, 14 (April-May, 1964), 8-14.

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JENS LUND and R. SERGE DENISOFF

deed, they took many liberties with the traditionalistic values of the "folkniks."
Nevertheless, the topical songwriters, by the summer of 1964, were the vanguard
of the folk music revival. The significance of this quasi resurrection of the
"people's singer" was the injection of political ideology into the revival. The topical writers of this period were certainly not akin to the Almanacs or their successors, but they did suggest yet another criterion for evaluating singers and their
material-their dedication to civil rights and antiwar causes. Bob Dylan changed
all of this in the summer of 1965 when he adopted the techniques and styles of
rock-and-roll. For many this was heresy. For others it signaled the end of the folk
music revival.1The birth of the "counter culture" has been correlated with the emergence of
the so-called "hippie" phenomenon that stressed a casual ideology of human love,
respect for life, and the experiential tenets of hallucinogenic drug use. Large selfconscious groups of young people identified as "hippies" first began to appear
on the streets of New York and San Francisco about 1965-1966. They learned
about the experimental use of hallucinogens and eagerly sought the experience for
themselves. They were also faithful followers of the trends that had given new
vitality to popular rock-and-roll, in particular Bob Dylan's use of this music as a
vehicle for personal statement (he had already abandoned political protest), and
the fresh musical innovations of such English groups as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The large-scale appearance of an LSD black market in some urban
areas and the open advocacy of its use by former Harvard researchersand some
avant-garde intellectuals gave the movement sacraments and even demagogues.
The first "hippies" were by-and-large apolitical, much to the distress of the
mentors of folk music and protest songs.
Irwin Silber, for nearly fifteen years the editor of the influential folk music
magazine Sing Out!, originally perceived the blossoming of the "counter culture"
with trepidation. In a piece subtitled "Concerning Marshall McLuhan, Al Capp,
Timothy Leary, Joan Baez, the CIA, and the End of the World ..." he wrote:
"Give them just enough room to be as 'kooky' as they can imagine, harass them
enough to let them feel they're an 'underground' and that you're really worried
about them, and let nature (and acid) take its course."''5Silber restated his "opiate
is the religion of the people" position on several occasions. In yet another column
entitled "Fan the Flames" (an old IWW slogan), he indicated: "One does not
call love into being by mesmerizing oneself with a sound or a cube of sugar. If
you think that you can wish love into being by changing your mind with trying
to change-and, if necessary, destroy-the disease-rackedsociety which has killed
love, then your love will be an illusion.""6
Silber's antipathy toward the "counter culture" did not reflect the dominant
mood of many of Sing Out! readers. More importantly, he did not survive an editorial board disagreement and was ousted. Nonetheless, Silber did represent the
14 Compare Happy Traum, "The Swan Song of Folk Music," Rolling Stone, May I7, 1969, pp.
7-8; Ed Budeaux, "The Spectacle Moves On," Sing Out!, i7 (August-September, 1967), 11-14;
and R. Serge Denisoff, "Folk-Rock: Covert Protestor Commercialism ?," Journal of Popular Culture,
3 (1969), 214-230.
15 Irwin Silber, "Fan the Flames," Sing Out!,
17 (April-May, 1967), 33.
16 Irwin Silber, "Fan the Flames," Sing Out!, 18 (March-April, 1968), 39.

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thinking of a number of folk music enthusiasts, especially those with an Old Left
tradition. For a time Pete Seeger included in his vast repertory an antidrug song,
"Bag on the Table," which was directed at the "counter culture." On the other
hand, Sing Out! itself was not averse to courting the drug culture by printing the
words and music of a blatantly pro-drug song, David Peel's "Have a Marijuana,"
complete with praises for "a new party to take the place of the Republican Party
and the Democratic Party-the Pot Party." This song, with a small drawing of a
Cannabis plant sprouting the word "Salvation" appeared in Sing Out! late in
1968.17 Ideologically, then, the folk music revival and the "counter culture" exhibited several links, though highly contradictory and selective. This mixed relationship is further evidenced in the structural differences and interrelationships
between the two phenomena. B. A. Botkin, in his oft-quoted piece, "The Folk
Song Revival: Cult or Culture?" landed in the middle of his rhetorical title. He
acknowledged that the revival possessed many of the qualities of a religious cult
with "conversion, salvation, mass hysteria, and fanaticism. There are also rituals
and festivals, notably the Sunday afternoon singing and strumming in Washington Square Park."'s Moreover, the revival, for Botkin, was a take-off point toward
a greater political and intellectual awareness, particularlyby the young. Given the
perspective of 1964, the folklorist was not far off the mark in saying, "Every revival contains within itself the seed not only of its own destruction ... but also
of new revivals."
Despite the arguments of some critics the folk music revival was not a totally
political phenomenon. Protest was only one avenue of concern. The other major
component was the so-called "ethnic" or "purist" strain. The "ethnics" had generally been introduced to material of traditional origin by nontraditional performers. Pete Seeger's role in carrying on the leftist folk-revival also served to
popularize actual traditional songs, singing styles, and instrumental styles. Second
generation "folk-singers," such as Joan Baez, needed only to provide guitaraccompaniment to a Child ballad to make it acceptable on the coffeehouse circuit.
The first performing group in the urban "folk" scene to specialize in material
of traditional rural origin was the New Lost City Ramblers.19They were organized
in 1958 by Mike Seeger, youngest son of the famous ethnomusicologist Charles
Seeger; John Cohen, Yale-educated photographer; and Tom Paley, a New York
mathematician and photographer. The earlier literary organs of the folk movement took an ambivalent attitude towards the music of the white South,
extolling
it when it could be used for progressive social purposes, but denigrating the recorded examples of "hillbilly" music. This was unfortunate because most of the
"hillbilly" records of the twenties and thirties were genuine folk songs of a far
greater authenticity than anything heard at the early urban "folk-festivals." Furthermore, a number of the early "hillbilly" artists were still performing to a rather
esoteric audience within the country and western genre, and many others were
17 Sing Out!, 18 (December, 1968-January, 1969), 6-7.
A. Botkin, "The Folk Song Revival: Cult or Culture?," in The American Folk Scene:
Dimensions of the Folk Song Revival, ed. David A. DeTurk and A. Poulin, Jr. (New
York, 1967),
95.
19 Jon Pankake, "Ten Years in New Lost
City," Sing Out!, i8 (October-November, 1968),
30-31, 73, 75, 78.
18s B.

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JENS LUND and R. SERGE DENISOFF

living in retirementor semiretirementstill quite willing to play "the old songs"


for anyonewho caredto listen.
The New Lost City Ramblersplayed fiddles, mandolins,guitars,and banjos
in careful imitationof the early Southernrecordingartists,alwayscreditingthe
craze,the Ramblers'audience
originsof eachsong. Comparedto the "hootenanny"
remainedquite esoteric,and their ugly blackalbumson the Folkwayslabel sold
at $5.95 back when most popularalbumscould be had for $2.98 monauralor
$3.98 in stereophonic.But the Ramblersappearedat Newportin 1963, theirreputationalreadyestablishedby numbersof concertsat New York City'sTown Hall.
The Ramblerscharacterized
their type of musicas "old timey,"after the name
to
rural
assigned early
recordingsby the recordcompaniesduringthe 192os. Altheir
music
was
though
generally apolitical,they attemptedto satisfy the folk
revival'ssocial consciousnessby identifying themselveswith the Depressionin
ruralAmerica.One of their most successfulrecordalbumswas Songs of the Depression,which provideda commongroundon whichthe "ethnic"and "protest"
folkniks couldmeet. Speakingof the earlyfolkniks,John Cohenof the Ramblers
wrote, "Thereis an elementin youngpeople todaywhich feels a yearningfor the
thirtiesas a desireto havea clearand humanecauseto fightfor."20 EarlyRamblers
concertswere sometimesadvertisedwith the Blue Eagle of the N.R.A., and the
slogan,"I amlost. Takeme backto 1935.'"21
Aside from "old timey" music, anotherform of rural, traditionallyderived
musiccameto the attentionof the "ethnic"folkniks,namely,bluegrass.Bluegrass
musicwas a type of commercialcountrymusicwhich appearedduringthe 1940s.
It was a reactionagainst electrificationand the cowboy image which by then
permeatedthe countrymusic industry.Originatedby Bill Monroe, a Kentucky
mandolinist,it becamepopularin the urban"hillbilly"ghettosof the North.22 Its
soundwas dominatedby the five-stringbanjo,especiallyas playedby EarlScruggs.
The firstcollege bluegrassconcert,the OsborneBrothersat OberlinCollege,was
a smashingsuccess,and the promotionof the five-stringbanjo by the Starday
RecordCompanyput countryalbumsinto the collectionsof numerouscollegiate
folk-musicbuffs.23Home-grownbluegrassgroupswere organizedat collegesand
bohemianenclavesin the North and West. At manyuniversities,notablyHarvard
andYale, the folk subculturebecamecompletelyenrapturedwith bluegrass.Yale's
Grey Sky Boys, Harvard'sCharlesRiver Valley Boys, and GreenwichVillage's
and "in-group"
GreenbriarBoyswerea fixtureat bothcommercial"hootenannies"
Flatt
and Scruggs
southern-authentic
The
most
successful
band,
bluegrass
parties.
and the Foggy MountainBoys, were double-billedwith Joan Baez at Carnegie
Hall in 1963. Even more remarkably,northerncollegiategroups enteredmusicians' conventionsin the Southand capturedprizes. A namelessGreenwichVil20 John Cohen, in liner notes to Folkways Records FH 5264, Songs of the Depression by the
New Lost City Ramblers.
21 Mike Seeger and John Cohen, eds., The New Lost City Ramblers Songbook (New York,
1965), 245.
22 Russel B.
Nye, The Unembarrassed Muse: A History of the Popular Arts in the United States
(New York, 1970), 346-347.
23 Neil V. Rosenberg, "Don Pierce: The Rise and Fall of Starday and the Perplexing Patriot
Problem," Bluegrass Unlimited, i (May, 1967), 5.

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lage bluegrassband took the grand prize at the Union Grove, North Carolina,
Fiddler'sConventionin 1964 afterquicklydubbingitself the New YorkRamblers
for want of a bettername. To this day the annualUnion Grove and Galax,Virginia, Fiddlers'Conventionshave attractedmobs of Northerndevotees,manyof
whom have appearedin full counter-cultural
regaliato the amazementand bewildermentof the localpeoplein thosetwo communities.24
In manywaysthe bluegrassexplosionon campuswasno less a fad thangoldfishIt did producea numberof verytalented
swallowingor telephone-booth-stuffing.
musicians-talented enough to compete successfullywith people raised on the
music in the South. It also producedsome valuablefolk-musicscholars,notably
Ralph Rinzler, formerGreenwichVillage GreenbriarBoy, who now directsthe
annualFestivalof AmericanFolklife for the SmithsonianInstitution.When the
folk revivalmergedwith the new rock,a numberof formerbluegrassmusicians
went along, affectingmuchof the countryflavorof suchrockgroupsas the Byrds.
In New York City, an organizationknown as the Friendsof Old Time Music
brought"old timey"to Town Hall in New York, where they experiencedbrief
periods of celebritywith their new urbanfans.25Their contactwith the "beatniks" was often less than pleasant.Singerand banjoistRoscoeHolcombwas reportedlyhoundedat his home in EasternKentuckyby college girls offeringhim
wine and conversation,and he has since withdrawnin bewildermentfrom the
campusand folk-festivalcircuit.26D. K. Wilgus told an AmericanFolklore Society seminaraboutan embarrassing
partywhichhe attendedat which two southern bluegrassmusicianswere obviouslysufferingfrom acuteself-consciousnessin
the midst of a raciallyintegratedgroupof college liberals.27Bluegrassoriginator
Bill Monroe was reportedlyinfuriatedby the audienceat his first Newport appearancein 1963, but he has since takena verytolerantattitudetowardshis new
fans, possiblybecausehis selectionto the CountryMusicHall of Famewas largely
effectedby the appearanceof a new audiencefor his music. On the otherhand,
bluegrassbanjoistEarl Scruggs'rapportwith the "counterculture"reachedthe
point where he actuallyperformedat a MoratoriumMarchon Washingtonprotestingthe VietnamWar.Sucha case,however,is highlyunusual.
The campusbluegrassrevivalis, of course,over on a large scale, but vestiges
of it still survive.HarvardUniversity'sBoston Area Friendsof Old Timey and
BluegrassMusic still packs the FreshmanUnion Auditoriumwith its monthly
concertsfeaturingmostly southernbluegrassbands.Bill Monroe'sannualBean
BlossomFestivalin southernIndianadrawsa large shareof its crowdfrom universitiesand hippie ghettos.One of the authorsof this paperwalkedthroughthe
parkinglot of the 1968 Berryville,Virginia,BluegrassFestival,and lost countof
the numberof carsbearingeitherMcCarthyor Wallace stickers,but nothing in
between.The amountof fraternizationbetween"freaks"and "rednecks"at these
24 Perry Deane Young, "Let Us Now Praise the Old-Time Fiddlers at Union
Grove," Rolling
Stone, July 22, 1971, pp. 28-32.
25 "The
Friends of Old Time Music," Sing Out!, ii (February-March, 1961), 63.
26 John Cohen, "Roscoe Holcomb at Zabriskie Point-Some Twentieth Anniversary Thoughts,"
Sing Out!, 20 (September-October, 1970), 20-21.
27 D. K. Wilgus, quoted in "Discussion From the Floor," following D. K. Wilgus, "CountryWestern Music and the Urban Hillbilly," JOURNALOFAMERICAN
FOLKLORE,
83 (I970), 183-184.

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JENS LUND and R. SERGE DENISOFF

events is truly remarkable. In an interview for Newsweek magazine last summer,


Bill Monroe remarked, "My hippie fans know when the music is played right.
And the college kids are my biggest audience."28Indeed, the college audience for
Bill Monroe's music is even mentioned in the inscription on the plaque placed in
his honor at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame.29
Somewhat later in the folk music revival an infatuation with the blues appeared
among the "ethnic" faction. In many ways this was more justifiable philosophically
than were the "old timey" and bluegrass crazes, as blues has primarily been a music of social dissatisfaction. This is not to suggest that white country music does not
contain this factor as well, but the blues makes dissatisfaction a more central concern. It was perhaps easier for many of the "folkniks" to romanticize rural blacks
than rural whites, thus avoiding the problem of dealing with the thorny questions
of prejudice and reaction except from the morally superior position of the black.
In any event, by 1964 country blues had "come to town." A few blues artists,
such as Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter and Josh White had been prominent in
the old-leftist folk music circles, and injustice against blacks had always been a
social ill to which the Communist Party-U. S. A. called attention. A number of
English jazz enthusiasts, including Paul Oliver and Brian Rust, had rediscovered
the blues of the old "race records" during the fifties. This developed into an
English blues following complete with periodicals, clubs, and specialized record
stores. The American blues revival, however, came as part of the general folkmusic revival. Part of this was undoubtedly due to field trips to the South by
northern white folklorists, record producers, and general enthusiasts who were
seeking to rediscover lost rural talent or perhaps even to find an artist that had
never before been noticed out of his own county. Mississippi John Hurt, Mance
Lipscomb, Son House, and Bukka White were among the many southern blacks
brought to northern folk festivals, colleges, and coffee houses. The identification
with a stereotypical image of the black which had occurred during the jazz-beatnik
years experienced a rebirth among urban-collegiate white blues singers. "To be
folk, you live folk," acquired new meaning among middle-class guitarists, some
of whom imitated black southern dress and speech patterns. In an article sharply
satirical of the new "white Negroes," Ken Spiker sarcastically wrote, "consider
the question of image at this point. It is of great advantage to your status if you
can carry off a consistent and plausible image . . you must think, feel, live, be
like ... a Southern Negro, . . . or whatever ... But don't go too far; you may
limit your vocabulary to the point where you will no longer be able to communicate."'30
One of the major controversies of the folk-music revival years, almost rivalling
"ethnic" versus "protest," was the problem of whether or not white folksingers of
comfortable middle-class background had the right to imitate poor, rural, black
musicians. The fact that the former often made more money doing so than the
28

Bill Monroe, quoted in "Pickin' and Singin'," Newsweek, June 29, 1970, p. 10o.
i.
30 Ken Spiker, "A Study in the Interpersonal Dynamics of a Subculture Structured on Traditional
Music--or: Folkmanship in Berkeley, California," in American Folk Music Occasional Number One
,964, ed. Chris Strachwitz (Berkeley, Calif., 1964), 44.
29 Cover
photograph on Bluegrass Unlimited, 5 (December, 1970),

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THE FOLK MUSIC REVIVAL AND THE COUNTER CULTURE

403

latter did, purveyingthe genuine item, made the imitationeven less flattering.
Two articlesin Sing Out! in 1964 illustratethe point well. The first,by PaulNelson, titled "CountryBlues Comesto Town," began with a seriesof biographical
capsulesof suchwhite folksingersas John Hammond,Jr., Dave Ray, Dave Van
Ronk,andothers.It concluded,in termsmildlysuggestiveof NormanMailer,with
a philosophicalexplanationof the white middle class's new blues infatuation,
completewith logical justificationsfor this contradictoryspectacleand heaps of
praise for the new performers'musicianshipand spirit.31The secondarticleappearedtwo months later. It was written by the black,militant folksingerJulius
Lesterand titled, "CountryBlues Comesto Town?: The View From the Other
Side of the Tracks."32In somewhatoverstatedterms, he castigatedthe Nelson
article for its presumptuousness,referringparticularlyto a statementby Barry
Hansen of The Little SandyReview ("it seems inevitablethat by 1970 most of
the bluesworthhearingwill be sung by white men") thatNelson had quotedand
Lesterpointedout manyof the fallaciesof assumingthatwhitemiddleaccepted.""
classyoungsterscould "be like" poor, ruralblacks.He also bitterlycalled attention to the exploitationinherentin the financiallyprofitableimitationof the folk
musicof peoplewho receivelittle or no profitfor theiroriginalexpressions.
As with any lengthy infatuation,fads within a fad appearedon the "folkscene."Therewas a brief periodof interestin whatwas called "jugbandmusic."
Some of the traditional jazz material of the
192os and 1930s jugbands was re-

vived as part of this craze,but it was generallyjust an excusefor "old timey"/


bluegrass"ethnics"to cooperatewith blues "ethnics"in groupmusicmaking.As
the protestsingersdriftedinto the new rock,manyof the blues enthusiasts,such
as JohnHammond,Jr., and RichardFarifia,rediscoveredand canonizedas
"genumusic that had spawnedearlyrock-and-roll.By
ine" folk, the rhythm-and-blues
experimentingwith rhythm-and-bluesforms, many white blues "folksingers"
were making the transitionfrom folk to rock which would add considerable
vitalityto the later"newrock"bands.The breakingof the tabooagainstelectrified
instrumentsallowedmany"old timey"bluegrass"ethnics"to begin to appreciate
a broaderspectrumof white countrymusic.Many of the musicians
amongthem
actuallylearnedto play country-and-western
music, thus giving countrymusic a
backdoorof its own into the "newrock."
The popularityof JohnnyCash,and now Merle Haggard,
amongthe "counter
culture"can be tracedbackto some of the attitudesprominentin the folk music
revival. Indeed, Cash'sfamilial tie to the CarterFamily,and
Haggard'sstylistic
similarityto the "SingingBrakeman,"JimmieRodgers,bestowedthe mantleof
traditionupon both. Haggard'scurrentpopularitywithin the "counterculture,"
while providinga historicallink to the revival,also underscoressome of the contradictionsand conflictsbetween the two. Merle Haggard'sclaim to urbanand
collegiate fame is partly based upon his controversial song "Okie From Musko-

20,

31 Paul Nelson, "Country Blues Comes to Town," Sing Out!, 14 (July, 1964), 14-15, 17,
1923-24.

32 Julius

Lester, "Country Blues Comes to Town?: The View From the Other Side of the
Tracks,"
Sing Out!, 14 (September, 1964), 37-39. Also see LeRoi Jones, Blues People:
Negro Music in
White America (New York, 1963).
33Nelson, 23; and Lester, 37.

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404

JENS LUND and R. SERGE DENISOFF

gee," a strong denunciation of the counter culture, campus protest, mod fashions,
and, particularly, the use of drugs. The song opens with the line, "We don't
smoke marijuana in Muskogee, we don't take our trips on LSD ... ." The followup to "Muskogee" was the "Fightin' Side of Me," a song which took an even
more militant stance against dissenters. Both songs received extensive underground airplay. Arlo Guthrie and Phil Ochs use "Okie From Muskogee" in their
concert performances. Merle Haggard has been the subject of a feature article in
Sing Out!, hardly a conservative journal.34The "folk freaks," as they are now
called, sing many of Haggard's songs such as "Mama Tried," "Swinging Doors,"
and "Working Man Blues." This practice, not unexpectedly, has generated considerable criticism from those still adhering to the "Seeger-Guthrie" tradition.
Haggard, himself, has shown a typical entertainer's perception of how to avoid
alienating a disparate audience. When interviewed by the press, he avoids utterances which could be construed as hostile to his "counter culture" fans. In a recent
Look magazine interview, he even went as far as to say, "If I were to come out
with another song like 'Okie' or 'Fightin' Side', I'd be jeopardizing my career."35
Broadside (NYC) has been most articulate and outspoken in criticism of the
"folk freaks' " interest in country and western singers. Gordon Friesen, in several editorial statements, has roundly condemned the relationship of the "topical
song movement" to Cash and Haggard. Friesen outlined his position in a critique
of Sing Out!: "The sad disintegration of the magazine can be seen in recent issues,
with laudatory articles about Johnny Cash, who supports Nixon's blood and
slaughter, and Merle Haggard, writer of inciting Birch-type songs against war
dissenters."36 While this was only one of many such pieces directed at performers
who have supported the war, gone to the White House, or transgressed in some
way against the antiwar movement, it did hit upon a rather tender nerve for the
politically involved, both in the revivalist days and contemporarily.37 The fact
that most country and western singers supported George Wallace or Richard
Nixon was conspicuously ignored by the folk revivalists in both 1964 and 1968.38
Indeed, the racial policies of the rural South, so decried in the songs of New York
folksingers were rarely, if ever, associated with southern performers.
Folklorist and labor historian Archie Green has for some years argued that the
relationship of northern political protesters to country music has been a most
curious one, considering the fundamentally conservative and, at times, racist
nature of the music and its proponents. At a recent lecture at the University of
Chicago Folk Festival titled "Politics and CountryMusic," Professor Green played
a tape of a number of politically oriented country songs. Included was a "coon"
song, a World War II anti-"Jap" song, Haggard's "Okie From Muskogee," and
a number of songs expressive of a more contemporarily acceptable protest, in4 Alice Foster, "Merle Haggard," Sing Out!, 19 (March-April, 1970), 11-17.
35 Merle Haggard, quoted in Christopher S. Wren, "Merle Haggard: He Sings for the Folks

Who Fought World War II," Look, July 13, 1971, p. 37.
36 Gordon Friesen, "Editorial," Broadside (NYC), 107 (June, 1970), ro.
7 See Irwin Silber, "An Open Letter to Bob and Evelyne Beers, Folksingers," Broadside (NYC),
104 (January, 1970), 5; "An Open Letter to Irwin Silber," Broadside (NYC), io6 (April-May,
1970)," 5-6; and Gordon Friesen, "Editorial," Broadside (NYC), io8 (July-August, 1970), 10o.
38
'Name' Artists Come To the Aid of the Party," Billboard, November 16, 1968, p. 30.

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cluding Fiddlin' John Carson's"The FarmerIs the Man." The reactionof the
predominantlycollegiate-"hippie"audienceto some of these songs was one of
extremediscomfort.39
The counterculture,while subsumingaspectsof the folk revival such as the
outdoor festival, gatheringof the committed,and the like, is a much broader
phenomenon.It is not one-dimensionalor focused at a specificgenre of music,
politics, fashion,or ideology.As Roszaknotes: the counterculture"findsits own
identityin a nebuloussymbolor songs that seemsto proclaim.., .we areoutward
boundfrom the old corruptionsof the world."40As such,the countercultureper
se exhibitslitle interestin promulgatinga specificmusicalform or politicalideology. The countercultureis eclecticin bothtasteandpolitics,and time bound.One
day found them at Woodstockor Altamont,the next at the WashingtonMonument protestingthe expansionof the Indo-Chinawar or celebratingthe adventof
Earth Day. The folk revival was a public group of interestedindividualswith
commonfoci of attention,and almosta subculturein the sense that it constituted
a quasiculturewithin a culture.41The notion of an alternativecultureis a far cry
from just popularizinga musical genre in an existent culture.Interestin folk
music did not numericallyaffectan entiregeneration.Folknikswere by-and-large
politicallyreformist,believingin the possibilityof socialchange.Conversely,those
in the counterculturelackthis singularityof purpose,resolve,or the belief in the
efficacyof change.Theirsis a questfor a new style of life: a stateof natureonly
suggestedby the revivalists.
Bowling GreenStateUniversity
Bowling Green,Ohio
Archie Green, "Politics and Country Music," lecture delivered at University of Chicago Folk
39
Festival, January 31, 1971.
40 Roszak, 49.
41 J. Milton Yinger sees the "counter culture" as in conflict with the dominant
society, while a
"subculture" is "separate and different" but not in opposition. See "Counter Culture and Subculture," American Sociological Review, 25 (October, 1960), 625-635.

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