Educate me on the "Big Folk Scare of the 1960s"

[DesertTwang]

I keep reading this term, and perhaps because I didn't grow up in the US and/or I wasn't around in the 1960s, I have trouble understanding what it means.

I get the idea that there was a big folk music resurgence at that time, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan and the whole nine yards, but why do people refer to it as a "scare?"

What's so scary about folk music?

[pbla4024]

It was a word play on Great Red scare
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Red_Scare

[Wade Hampton]

Right, plus it was concurrent with the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Civil Rights movement. If I remember correctly John F. Kennedy had folksingers at his Presidential Inauguration - can you imagine folksingers being invited to sing at an Inauguration today?

The Folk Music Revival was also the source of some of the first organized opposition to the Vietnam War: my sister and I used to gleefully sing Tom Paxton’s “Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation” and Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changing,” which were definitely and defiantly challenging the status quo.

And we were grade school children. My sister got her first guitar when she was in the fifth grade, in 1963, but we were singing the songs well before that - heck, they were on the radio....

So when I use the phrase “the Big Folk Scare” it’s a joke, but I’m also kind of kidding on the square, as we say back home: using humor to make a point.

Because they WERE tense times, and the folk music of the period not only reflected that but played kind of a leadership role in communicating many forward-thinking ideas.

It was part of the turmoil of those years.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[PHJim]

I've seen this term credited to both Utah Phillips and Dave Van Ronk, two of my musical heroes in the sixties and later. I've definitely heard them both use it, and I often use it myself.
Although there were folk performers around long before, the Great Folk Scare probably began in 1958 with the Kingston Trio's release of Tom Dooley. Hearing them was what peaked my interest in learning the guitar and was many folkies introduction to folk music. By the early sixties, the city of Hamilton where I grew up, and nearby Toronto had many coffee houses presenting folk music and I suspect it was the same in cities all over.

[PHJim]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

If I remember correctly John F. Kennedy had folksingers at his Presidential Inauguration - can you imagine folksingers being invited to sing at an Inauguration today?

Wade Hampton Miller

Not today, but in 2009, Barack Obama invited Odetta, one of the heroes of the Great Folk Scare to sing at his inauguration. Unfortunately, she passed away before the inauguration day and Aretha Franklin stepped in and took her place. (...and what a wonderful job she did.)
Kennedy had Harry Belafonte (Who made at least one live LP with Odetta during the Great Folk Scare) at his inauguration.

[Wade Hampton]

I never got a chance to hear Dave Van Ronk in performance, but I did get to hear U. Utah Phillips a couple of times. So maybe I got the phrase from him.

It’s basically just a folk musician’s in-joke. Use it around folkies and you’ll usually get knowing chuckles.


whm

[Wade Hampton]

Okay, I was confusing JFK’s inauguration with the March On Washington, where there were some heavyweight folksingers performing: Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary, Odetta, and the Freedom Singers.

JFK’s Inauguration had Jimmy Durante and Frank Sinatra. A bit different...

Seriously, though, the March On Washington was a huge event, with hundreds of thousands of people, both black and white, in attendance. It’s the event where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I Have A Dream” speech.


whm

[catdaddy]

Most of the salient points have been raised, but it's also worth mentioning that in the 60's folk music started appearing on the top 40 Pop Charts with artists like The Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul & Mary, Barry Maguire, The Limeliters and The New Christie Minstrels which may have been pretty scary for the usual suspects that tended to dominate those charts back in the day.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

And then Dylan & The Beatles had a baby and called it The Byrds.

[Tadmcd]

sinatra hosted an inaugural party and harry belafonte was there (just coincidentally, this was mentioned in a PBS show i watched last night about sammy davis, jr. belafonte was a controversial invite because he was married to a white woman, as was SD,Jr...but Sammy had been disinvited due to his marriage to...wait for it...a white woman. Davis said it was the most hurtful thing in his life (he was a Rat Packer, of course)).



Sinatra bought all the tickets and closed both shows for the night. His most painful concession was allowing close friend Sammy Davis, Jr. to be disinvited over his recent marriage to white actress May Britt. Kennedy feared the interracial union would tarnish his image with Southern Democrats and wouldn't be swayed by Sinatra's protests.

https://calendar.songfacts.com/january/19/18868

Also:

“JFK: The Lost Inaugural Gala.” The program is a one-hour documentary about the parade of showbiz A-listers who threw a big bash for the then-incoming President on Jan. 19, 1961.

There had been previous star-filled inaugural galas, but nothing quite like this one. Led by Frank Sinatra, the evening featured Nat King Cole, Laurence Olivier, Harry Belafonte, Ethel Merman, Jimmy Durante, Gene Kelly, Milton Berle, Janet Leigh, Tony Curtis, and Bette Davis.

https://variety.com/2017/biz/news/jo...bs-1202446449/

[J Patrick]

....those were the early days for me but as I recall it was the “corruption” of American youth that was most concerning to the political establishment....the free thinking that came out of the Beat Generation combining with a new social consciousness wrapped up in the innocence of traditional folk idioms was a perceived threat to the American way of life....turned out it was all of that and a bit more....

[Sequimite]

With reference to the Red Scare, the grandfathers of 60's folk, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger were both blacklisted. Even before that the FBI branded Woody as seditious. After the McCarthy era, into the 60's, Pete Seeger's Weavers were banned from TV because they would not sign a loyalty oath.

[zombywoof]

I was raised right in the middle of it. The neighborhood I lived in in the 1950s and 1960s was already known as "Commie Hill". John Reed, Max Eastman, Alexander Bittelman and others had and still lived there. If you watch the movie "Reds" a good portion of it is set in the town in which I lived. In the 1960s I actually worked for Lee Hays who sang bass with the Weavers. Just doing some odd jobs but mostly keeping Lee company. He would spend hours telling me stories and pulling out various radio scripts, photos and such he had saved.

If you want to get a real idea of the connection between folk music and radical politics look up what has become known as the Peekskill Riot. The town of Peekskill was maybe 15 miles down the road.

https://www.historytoday.com/archive...ill-riots-1949

[robey]

Originally Posted by DesertTwang

I keep reading this term, and perhaps because I didn't grow up in the US and/or I wasn't around in the 1960s, I have trouble understanding what it means.

I get the idea that there was a big folk music resurgence at that time, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan and the whole nine yards, but why do people refer to it as a "scare?"

What's so scary about folk music?

The best account of this time is Dave Van Ronk's "The Mayor of MacDougal Street".

[tnvol]

Best movie ever!!