It's pretty much a dead genre now. That's kind of inevitable since the songs are all traditional, non-copywrited, or public stuff. No producer wants to spend much recording or publishing them. It wasn't that way in the middle 60s. There was huge cadre of folk trained musicians that had a chance to go from starving folkie to wealthy rocker, based on performance pay. It's one of the hidden reasons that this was such a creative, productive period in American music: the performers got the cash.
In my musical journey this is where I started.
Let Me Inhttp://youtu.be/9-WB-Ip_37c this version didn't make it past the censors, can you tell me why?
Let Me In Live performance, censors no longer cared, http://youtu.be/DiGq22ZnF0Y a year later
Folk rock was a happy blend of socially conscious protest and a good back beat. Folk music could be awfully whiny and even distressing, but folk-rock at least had a good rhythm and often more interesting harmony than the back-country arrangements that folk used. Finally though its hybrid nature killed it: the folk purists hated its musical innovations and the rock purists hadn't listened to the word as a message anyway.
I thought I was pretty much normal when I was in fifth and sixth grade. I listened to top forty music on the radio. That was 61/62 the music was Chubby Checker, Del Shannon, Everly Brothers,. Runaway was a favorite,
as was Locomotion (Little Eva) - strong backbeat I-IV-V stuff. I learned the Twist.
Green Onions and
Telstar the next year. Typical.1963 was more of same for seventh grade.
Louie, Louie ,
Surf City
and Surfing USA I didn't think so but it was all music made by a formula. It's purpose was to make money. Content didn't matter as long as the censors didn't flip-out. Fun stuff but it's hard to be passionate about.
Eighth grade was a little better starting with
I Want to Hold Your Hand and
Twist and Shout , familiar songs but the performance was better. Then at the end of the year
it started with the Kinks, You Really Got Me This was a raw performance, harmonically interesting, if predictable in content. (love sick boy)
Next year much better.
The Beatles were good, but the Stones played real music. Here's a sample there was real depth that year . So far, I found out commercial rock wasn't rock and roll at all.
66-67 (14-16)
Started hearing something really different at at church dances (we had live music every other month in those days, mostly high school kids in a band). Got to know some of them. They were talking about other bands performing in the area but getting no radio time. I started buying vinyl.
Great Society
Great Society (you get a star if you knew the song title without looking before the halfway break)
Steve Miller
Jefferson Airplane
Country Joe & The Fish
I snuck out to a few performances that summer
Sons of Champlin
Frumious Bandersnatch
The Golliwogs
Santana Blues Band First seen in a store parking lot on a semi-trailer! (this recording is 2 years later)
