More Favorite Folk Songs to Hear and Sing

Before I plough any further into this disarcane field of study, let me note that I am changing the rules in the middle of the game. Instead of five songs apiece in the two categories, I have decided to offer you half a dozen. I guess that means I owe my loyal readers one more traditional folk song before I press on with the modern stuff.

Ground small and dandy, then, for my 6^th traditional folk song, I give you another children's favorite: Polly Wolly Doodle. It was a favorite of my two nephews when they were younger, and maybe it still is. It's one of those children's songs you ought not to outgrow. If you find yourself hard-pressed to remember what the other five traditional folk songs on my list were, take heart; help is at hand.

That takes care of that, so now, it's time to take care of this. Here they are, in chronological order.

1. This Land is Your Land, Woody Guthrie, 1940

This may be the oldest of the "hippie" folk songs, but it is one of the finest songs in our entire folk lexicon. If you bother to sing all the verses of the song, you can get into some pretty confrontational territory.

For the many people who just know the first few verses, though, This Land is Your Land is a wonderful celebration of America.

I should mention that a classmate at Kenyon-whose name I forget-used to sing a parody of the song that began:

This land is my land,

It isn't your land.

Get off of my land.

Go find your own land.

Clever, but, all things considered, I'll take the original.

2. Turn! Turn! Turn!, Pete Seeger, 1959

What a wonderful idea for a song this turned out to be. Seeger took the words from the Book of Ecclesiastes, as set forth in the King James Bible. He added one line at the end, and interjected the phrase, "Turn, turn, turn!" at regular intervals, then put them to a stirring melody.

The best-known version of the song is by the Byrds, but a number of artists have covered it, in addition to Pete Seeger himself. Here is an excellent version of the song, in which Seeger contributes some harmony, but let's his partner do the heavy lifting.

I only got to sing this song once in public, and not at a piano bar. It was among a small group of singers, and we sang it at a memorial service for a mutual friend's mother. Somehow, that seems more fitting that the bar setting.

3. Four Strong Winds, Ian Tyson, 1961

On the other hand, I have yet to sing this wonderful song from north of the border in a public setting. Maybe someday, I'll get around to it. I don't necessarily rate this song as the best of the Canadian folk songs; that would be Gordon Lightfoot;s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. However, that song is very long, so it is not all that accessible as a singable folk song.

The duet, Ian and Sylvia, had their biggest hit with this song, and, while I liked their version, I also like another Canadian's take on Four Strong Winds

4. Puff the Magic Dragon, Peter Yarrow and Leonard Lipton, 1961

I did a tongue-in-cheek article about Puff the Magic Dragon, last year on AC. For all my good-natured ribbing of the song, it is a truly beautiful story about the price of growing up. The link I provided in that article, leading to Peter, Paul and Mary's rendition of the song has since dried up and blown away, so here is another.

5. Rivers of Babylon, Brent Dowe and Trevor McNaughton, 1972

Reggae music covers a vastly wide range, from the sublime to the truly awful. This particular song is, in my opinion, the most beautiful one ever to come out of that genre.

The composers were two of the three members of a reggae/ska group called The Meldoians, and they were the first to have a hit with it. Later, another excellent Reggae group, Bony M, would have another. Most recently Wylcef Jean included the song in the Haitian fundraising concert. Sinead O'Connor has also sung this song, along with any number of lesser-known groups and individuals.

Like the second song on my list, this one has a strong Biblical reference-in this case, Psalm 137.

The Melodians' version of Rivers of Babylon got featured on the soundtrack of the powerful Jamaican movie, The Harder They Come, starring Jimmy Cliff. See it, if you get the chance. When I did, the movie provided me with subtitles, for about the first reel, until my ear could get used to the English with a strong Jamaican lilt.

6. City of New Orleans, Steve Goodman, 1972

Folk songs, by their nature, do not aim to "cross over" to the Top-40 charts, but some of them do, as this one did. I think it may have been the finest song of 1972, of whatever sort.

The composer, Steve Goodman sang the song, while Arlo Guthrie made it into a hit. Sad to say Tom Lane has been known to inflict the song on the public from time to time. But, as excellent as those versions have been (particularly that last one), I must say, in all honesty, I like the one Willie Nelson recorded.

You knew I couldn't go through, even the modern list, without at least one train song, right? And this one is surely the best of the bunch.

Even expanding the group by an extra one, I was forced to leave out a huge number of fine modern folk songs, from the serious, such as the Chad Mitchell Trio's "Ain't No More Cane," to the lighthearted, such as the Kingston Trio's "The MTA." In addition, I could have and maybe should have included some of the best Negro spirituals, such as "When I Lay My Burden Down" and Down by the Riverside.

Perhaps there are even more that you may want to bring to my attention, for the amount of quality music the modern folk song movement produced was prodigious indeed.

Pac'e amore.

Sources

Wikipedia

YouTube

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