My parents were into the folk movement, not surprising for New York at the time. Lots of Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Clancy Brothers as well as stuff from the Great American Folk Anthology like Jimmy Crack Corn, Wabash Cannonball. On top of that my mom made sure to sing lots of German children songs. My dad liked to sing Italian Opera on Saturday mornings. My grandparents loved to sing songs from the forties and put on big band albums and also Al Jolson. My grandfather loved to sing me to sleep with Irish songs like tora lora lora…
The comment kind of brings together what I was struggling to write now about the essence of folk music. I don’t mean folk music as a record store genre. I’m looking for something broader than that, like…
Italian Opera sang by an Irish man in his underpants is folk. But if that same Irish man took the 7 train in to sing at the Met, well that’s not folk.
To define it? I don’t know. How about this? The farther you can take music from money and class, the closer you get to folk.
It’s a stab anyway, one that I already find painful. You try.
Let’s take a look at folk as a record store genre. A terrific thing to take away is the anonymity of the songs and the ease with which these artists mixed their own work with others, demonstrating humility. A music supposedly without need for copyrights.
I’m torn on the way copyrights affect music on the whole, whether it’s for the most part good or for the most part bad. Really it affects so much creativity that sometimes it makes me sad.
For instance last night I was watching American Psycho with the director’s commentary track. Mary Harron’s commentary is full of trivia about all the stuff they couldn’t use or say because of permissions. For example they had to change the line “don’t touch the Rolex” to “don’t touch the watch.”
From what I know about the making of this movie, I know Ms. Harron was holding back too. That is so sad. But then American Psycho is in part a commentary on the ridiculousness of brands and their affect on us, so it is fitting that the movie is actually affected by them.
So are we talking about a properly functioning piece of art here or aren’t we?
Anyway that wasn’t really off subject but it was distracting so sorry about that. What I’m here to tell you about is an old comp put out on vinyl in the latter part of the Organized Death Century by Ralph Records. It’s called Potatoes and it’s Ralph Records answer to the question, what is folk music?
Helping Ralph come to a conclusion about folk music are some innovative musicians of that time which, by the way, is the time of folk anti-heroes like Mr. Ronald Reagan and American Pscyho‘s Patrick Bateman. The original list of artists include Renaldo and the Loaf, the Residents, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Negativland.
Re-interpretation of old songs and anonymity is a part of this late 80′s revaluing of folk music. Nothing of the earlier East Coast folk movement is examined though. The record actually has a southern tone to it, like its kid’s music counterpart Goobers.
On that note, it makes me wonder if the Residents’ covering Hank Williams’ I’m So Lonesome I could Cry and Terra Incognita’s rendition of the bluegrass standard, Rank Stranger, had any part in the Alt Country movement that soon followed.
Terra Incognita’s Rank Stranger certainly had an impact on me. This version inspired me towards putting together Texas Guinness Lovers. The song itself is perhaps my favorite song of all time. It is the song anyway that I could play every time I hit a stage. I love to sing this song.
Really folk music had already been re-aligned and heatedly discussed by then, particularly when Bob Dylan re-aligned himself with rock. Then, as we all know, Men Without Hats said “the folk of the 80′s is the folk of the city. The folk of the 60′s was the folk of the country.”
This really changed the music landscape and people started saying that Men Without Hats are the new Men with hats. So the men who did not have hats stopped playing their synthesizers and started dancing around in a medieval village with a circus freak show.
Potatoes was originally only released on vinyl. I bought my copy at Half-Price Books in the Village for 99 cents (that is such a folkie thing to do). A few months ago I did an online search for Potatoes and found nothing. In the mean time the folks at WFMU put it on the internets (a totally folkie thing to do). From there I learned that the comp was re-released the following year on CD with loads of extra tracks all of which are download-able from the WFMU blog.
Songs
Potatoes – Download the whole friggin’ thing but I’d like to hear what you have to say about these three tracks in particular…
Terra Incognita – Rank Stranger
Negativland – Perfect Scrambled Eggs (the perfect 80′s interpretation of folk and useful breakfast cooking advise all in one)
Mark Mothersbaugh – My Home Town (an original song from Devo mastermind)
For all you parents out there, you can also download the Ralph Records children’s album, Goobers. I’ve listened to it. It’s strange. I don’t think it will freak your kid out or anything. But I’d be surprised if it held their attention, not even Tiny Tim’s version of the Chicken Dance.
If your kid dances to that, you might have something special on your hands.
I read this last night and enjoyed it Kilian. I will download t he tunes today.
you and the lady should do one of those “what would my baby look like if these two people were my parents” pictures. You know how Conan O’brian does it with Richard Gere and Sean Young or some such.
The lady looks great. When is the big day?
baby due in January, tail end.
Okay, re: the Mark Mothersbaugh song my home town for those who would do it. Listen to it and check out the lyrics.
My home town
Is the greatest in the land
The people all there
They treat you all square
And give you a place to stand
My home town
It’s more than a town you know
It’s my home town
It’s my home town
It’s Akron, Ohio!
My home town
It’s a special kind of place
Hard working folks
With chips on their shoulders
People crammed in sub-human space
My home town
It’s more than a town to me
It’s more than plain
It’s a city of pain
It’s one big factory!
Repeat Chorus
And re-write it for your hometown. Whether that be where you live right now or where you’re from.
If you’re from Pasa-get down-dena you probably don’t have to change a thing.
And if you don’t do it well I think you have entirely too much time off your hands.
wow. that was exciting. glad I came in and cleaned the paint thinner off for all these comments.
kidding, actually I’m well aware that this site doesn’t work very well as an activity board.
anyway here is my rewrite…
My home town
Is the greatest in the land
The people all there
They treat you like a square
unless you give them a place to stand
My home town
It’s more than a town you know
It’s my home town
It’s my home town
It’s Southside Chicago!
My home town
It’s a special kind of place
Hard working folks
With chips on their shoulders
People crammed in sub-human space
My home town
It’s more than a town to me
It’s more than plain
It’s a city of pain
It used to be one pig factory!
Repeat Chorus
What is the origin of the insertion of the phrase “get down” between “Pasa” and “dena?” Wikipedia thinks that it comes from Moby, but I don’t want to believe that.
I think Moby actually did use that phrase. Yuck.
I don’t know about that but Moby is something you might insert fra due asini*.
*That last part should be sung in your underwear.
Defining folk music is an interesting topic kilian. maybe i’ll come back to discuss it more, but for now between Justin and my post for tomorrow i’m a little worn out. I will say this, it seems the definition of folk has been redefined in recent years under the ‘outsider art’ perspective. which has to do more with the social context in which the art/music is created and less with anything strictly musical/visual about it (your operatic singer example points to that same redefinition). This shift to me is problematic in various ways, beyond the fact that it has little reference to the music being made.
There are some very uncomfortable issues with appropriation and recontextualization that just reek. for example, we only know about the opera guy cause justin mentioned it. But what would it have been like to hear a record of the guy. who would’ve recorded it? justin? what about taking the guy and recreating his living room, young justin stand in and all, and putting it in lincoln center and then having him sing there wihtout him being fully aware of whats going on? And if he is aware, does it then loose its ‘folkiness’? so then one is left with defining folk music in the most narrowly regional way. something like that…
gotta get back to my post it’s chock full of home town!
I think the shift in question has more to do with social context than anything else really. The idea of folk has changed as much if not more so than the music.
Now that any old country bumkin can get himself a guitar and Garage Band, why not consider his musical doings folk?
The opera guy in question is actually my pop. It’s from a comment I left on Justin’s post.
What I was saying there is that this guy is not a trained singer, he’s not doing it for money and he’s not doing it in a high-culture center. If he was going to the Met to sing, he would be all of the above.
It’s a stretch I agree. I could go on but I won’t.
Do go on with your post. Look forward to it.
So is Beck still folk?
Was he ever folk?
Is this a question of context?
Does an acoustic guitar make it folk?
Discuss.
That is tricky about Beck. I would say if his concert costs fifty bucks that wouldn’t be folk. But also Beck’s lyrics are so odd, like some sort of post-modern commentary that I have trouble finding it folk on any level.
I think the Negativland Perfect Scrambled Eggs track is folk and it doesn’t have any acoustic guitar.
Anyway I don’t want this topic discussed. I want you to put it back on the internet please.
Had touble logging on. I remember that music “critics” considered Beck a folk artist before “Loser” launched his career. I was just wondering where to draw the lines. Is it wholly derived from lyrical content? Honestly, I don’t know much about folk music.
In the early days, Beck would’ve considered himself Anti-Folk.
Thanks for the clarification. My musical vocabulary is less than stellar.
Yes Baleen that is how I feel too. I don’t think you have to come to a conclusion about it either.
When I think about the times I have come together with my peers around a campfire or at a wedding or maybe at the bar after close – a time when everybody just spontaneously sings. Well what do we sing? The answer, whatever it else it is, would be folk music. The other answer is Journey, the Go Go’s, Iron Maiden, Prince, etc…
What is karoake?
What do you want folk to be? What do you want anti-folk to be?
Don’t answer that. My head is spinning as it is from too much engagement here. I better go read Carlos’ post.
btw, by “here” I meant nap, not this post. I really don’t expect anything from this post and actually do feel like my head is spinning from interaction with this site. And from the fact that painting a garage by oneself leaves one lots of time to ponder stuff like this.
And I actually appreciate the spinning, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Unless of course I’m up on a ladder or something. I did almost fall today.
I do plan to read Carlos’ post today but as it turns out it won’t be right this moment. Work beckons.
This is Max from Terra Incognita, lo these many years hence. Thanks for noticing our version of Rank Stranger. For more info, go to http://www.eohippus.com/arts/music_ti.html.