On May 24, Bob Dylan turns 60 years old, a milestone not only in the world of rock, but of folk music. With Rhino's 3-CD survey of the genre (Washington Square Memoirs: The Great Urban Folk Boom 1950-1970) arriving in stores a couple of weeks later, the time is ripe for a reexamination of the evolution of the acoustic singer/songwriter.
Dylan took his cue from Woody Guthrie, who not coincidentally, opens the Washington Square box with "Hard Travelin'." Guthrie was a mythic character whose persona ´ plainspoken troubadour bumming his way across the country -- would've appealed to a young Robert Zimmerman growing up in Hibbing, Minnesota.
If the slogan he had blazoned on his instrument ´ "This guitar kills fascists" ´ left any doubt, Woody wore his politics on his sleeve, identifying with the underprivileged long before it was fashionable to do so. Through the end of the 1950s, consequences for siding with society's underdogs could be severe for entertainers, and folk artists like Guthrie and The Weavers were frequent victims of blacklists (though Dylan arrived in a more tolerant time, such early songs as "Talking John Birch Society Blues" also caused occasional run-ins with censors).
Guthrie, as Dylan would become, was also a prolific writer. The mainstay of folk musicians through the early 1960s were such venerable compositions as those found on Harry Smith's landmark Anthology Of American Folk Music compilations. It was as though the traditional values folk stood for could best be expressed by singing the traditional songs; performers were seen as conduits for these time-honored standards. Though his first album was largely comprised of such folk standards, by the time of 1963's Freewheelin', Dylan was primarily performing his own material (though his compositions often borrowed elements from earlier songs).
When Peter, Paul and Mary hit #2 with his "Blowin In The Wind," Dylan had become the poster boy for folk music. Much like The Beatles would soon make it seem fun to be part of a rock group, in the idealism of the early '60s New Frontier, playing folk music looked like a good way for young men and women to participate in the good fight. New York's Greenwich Village (and in particular its Washington Square) soon became a Mecca for earnest collegiate-type-types bearing guitars. This folk boom was primarily powered by individual performers; unlike The Beatles, most folk groups seemed rather anonymous; (how many of The Rooftop Singers or The Kingston Trio can you name?).
The personality and fun of rock made it seem rather trivial to the folk purists, so when Dylan "went electric" at 1965's Newport Folk Festival, it was considered apostasy. The rise of rock in the mid-'60s did sound the death knell for folk as a commercial force, but for those willing to read between the lines of Bob's increasingly-cryptic lyrics, an allegiance to truth and rejection of authority remained from his folk music days.
Such Dylan albums as John Wesley Harding and New Morning harkened back to the sound of traditional folk (and country) music. And by the late 1960s, acoustic music was back in tune with the times as singer/songwriters like Tim Buckley, Tom Rush, and Gordon Lightfoot (all heard on the final disc of Washington Square Memoirs) offered introspection in keeping with the coming Me Decade. Unlike the first folk troubadours, the wisdom they provided listeners was less something passed down from preceding generations than the personal insights of artists.
But the wisdom of solitary visionaries was challenged by the mid-'70s punk revolution, the disco craze, New Wave, hip-hop, grunge and various other musical movements. While the glory days of the singer/songwriters were over, the increasing confusion of the current pop scene sometimes makes the simple sounds of voice-plus-guitar a welcome alternative, and the success of such contemporary acoustic performers as Suzanne Vega, Tracey Chapman and even that old champion of the form, Dylan ´ now a Grammy and Oscar winner ´ continue to demonstrate the vitality of folk music. Happy 60th, Bob!
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