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Rumble, it influenced everything


T Bone

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No argument on the folk thing.

 

In fact, the 50s and early '60s were kinda interesting in how so many "folk" and "country" pickers by today's standards were making a shift into electric guitars and "rock" or "rockabilly" or even the jazz sorts of progressions that made inroads into electric country of the era.

 

Imagine a 19-year-old me playing Rumble on a classical guitar with a girlfriend playing rhythm on her classical guitar until deciding to stand up and dance... <grin>

 

Ah, youth, certainly too wonderful to be wasted on the young.

 

On a more serious side, I keep thinking that I'm a self-taught musician - but then being forced by more realistic memories to edit that belief by playing piano from age 4 until 4th grade, then trumpet in bands - and even a bit of music theory in college. Oops. So, is I, or isn't I? I dunno.

 

m

How about "Self Taught guitarist"? Can't even make that claim myself. Did Coronet for 2 years in Elementary school, then piano for 2 or 3. Tried traditional guitar lessons for a few months, but quickly bored with the method (Mel Bay?) that had me sight reading and playing "My Dog Has Fleas" and "La Cucaracha" etc. Wanted to learn chords, the ol' witch wouldn't deviate from the book one iota. Gave it up.

 

Then years later, a "hippy" (more or less) friend of my Sister's became my "teacher" for a year or so, teaching me basic chords, and songs by Simon & Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce and George Harrison. I think maybe he taught me Stairway to Heaven too, then we just decided to be buddies and jam, no more organized lessons. I actually ended up at one point teaching him a few things on electric I think. Stayed close friends for about 15 years (maybe 20) until he moved across the Country. Just connected with him again this year (first since around '97) on Facebook of all places (I hate Facebook, but this showed it has it's uses).

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Please enlighten me. By what definition is R&R folk music? I could possibly accept that some folk music might in some way qualify as soft rock.

Folk Music was simply music played by unschooled musicians, just as Folk Art is art that's made by unschooled artists. It has come to mean soft acoustic singer songwriter music.

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I think any form of American music is folk music. Blues, Rock, Country, Gospel, Bluegrass, all folk! Anything that comes from the USA is folk IMHO. Baseball is folk. Apple pie is folk. The Dukes Of Hazard are/were folk.....

 

Now, I don't think heavy metal and progressive music have anything to do with folk (well, folklore). Same goes for classical, Latin music (Flamenco, etc).

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I think any form of American music is folk music. Blues, Rock, Country, Gospel, Bluegrass, all folk! Anything that comes from the USA is folk IMHO. Baseball is folk. Apple pie is folk. The Dukes Of Hazard are/were folk.....

 

Now, I don't think heavy metal and progressive music have anything to do with folk (well, folklore). Same goes for classical, Latin music (Flamenco, etc).

That's pretty much how I use the word "Folk" as an adjective. It stems from the days of Royalty, anything made by regular folks was "Folk ____". If it wasn't coming out of the Royal Conservatory it was Folk Music. Over the years the definition has broadened.

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Just because you say something, that doesn't necessarily make it true. Though they may be related and have some commonalities, R&R has few characteristics shared with "Folk" music. And because folk music and R&R became part of the pop music landscape in the '50s,'60s, and part of the '70s, they are not part of the same genre.

 

Dictionary definition of Folk Music

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Just because you say something, that doesn't necessarily make it true. Though they may be related and have some commonalities, R&R has few characteristics shared with "Folk" music.

 

Dictionary definition of Folk Music

 

Well, maybe rock music and folk music have few in common when talking about the respective artists....Like what do Eddie Cochran and Bob Dylan have in common?

 

But I'm still backing up my statement that any form of American music is folk music.

 

Rock and roll is American. Folk music has had a huge impact on rock, blues, country, and other genres all the same.

 

America is a folk country, take it or leave it.

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R&R is not folk music... period. OK?

That's up to you, I'll not agree. Music is art, Rock and Roll is made by regular folks. That makes it Folk Art, or Folk Music. You can stick to one definition if you want, but dictionaries have multiple definitions for a reason. Enjoy your vocabulary.

{Edit} You do realize the term Folk Music has been around much longer than America.

 

{edit #2}Definition 6

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Ziggie...

 

I think we've got a bit of semantic difficulty going here. One I've been stuck with arguing on both sides for darned close to 50 years.

 

The problem is a definition not just of "folk music," but of "rock.

 

And there really was a lotta crossover with near-true folk music of all sorts along with "popular" music of all genres after the U.S. second Civil War - that of the 1860s - as there was increasingly significant population movement via rail and steamboat. A second burst of that came with recordings and radio.

 

For example, what is "Muleskinner Blues" that did rather well both as an early country blues, then bluegrass, then rock "hit?" In theory it's a Jimmy Rodgers-written piece, but bits of it, both words and melody, obviously have a longer history in a the "folk tradition."

 

Early "rock" - and the problem here likely is how one defines "rock" - had so many different kinds of music called "rock" that a lot of it really was modernized versions of true "folk."

 

And there were lots of guys doing folkie stuff. For example, creating one's own version of a blues one may have heard as a child and added one's own words and a bit of melodic change. Is that then "composed" or "art song," or is it the folk process?

 

I'll never forget one "folk festival concert" I played in during the fall of '65 at the college I was attending at the time, and as far as I can tell not one piece was "folk" in the true sense. Heck, even my "big deal piece" was San Francisco Bay Blues complete to kazoo and harmonica and Jesse Fuller wrote it. OTOH, one of his recorded versions is in the Smithsonian "folkways" collection.

 

And then there's a Schubert piece that somehow ended up being a "traditional old time fiddle tune" in my part of America and nobody I knew in the "old time fiddler" community had any idea...

 

As I said, I guess in ways I could take both sides of the "argument," but the problem is to me more one of semantics than some of the facts of provenance of the music itself.

 

m

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