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

[brandall10]

Originally Posted by Mirosh

"Great Folk Scare" is, as I see it, a sardonic title made in retrospect by those who lived through it.

Just doing a quick google, it seems like it might have originated by Judy Collins in her 2012 memoir? I say this as I can't find references to the term prior to that, but it certainly has been used since.

http://www.davidkerns.net/?p=1224

Edit: actually seems to be credited to Dave Van Ronk prior to this, but I'm having trouble locking down when he started using the term. It does seem to be in retrospect.

https://elijahwald.com/vanronk.html

[woodbox]

On a lighter note, the term “60’s Folk Scare” came to my ears in the mid/late 90’s from a couple who actually played in the 60’s.
They had been in countless bands over decades.. all acoustic I might add, no amps in sight .. and were the Hosts of our local Sunday afternoon music fest, called “The Hootennanny”, a term coined by Pete Seeger I’m told.

The phrase on the website, that was often used from the stage as an opening greeting, went something like this:

“ We welcome you to our revival of ‘The Great 60’s Folk Scare’, where today you’ll hear folks play folksongs they remember .. while they still can remember .. from the early days of the 1960’s. “

Because I knew that couple, and many of the players, I was invited to the stage to fill a time slot when someone didn’t show up one day.
Being younger than most of the players, I had to learn some songs in order to fit in.
As mentioned in previous posts, Kingston Trio and early Bob Dylan were acceptable, no Buddy Holly, Everly Brothers or Elvis allowed.
No “Country songs” were allowed either.
But it seemed someone played “Blowing in the Wind“, all 28 verses (yes, I’m kidding) at each HOOT.

The whole thing seemed to be a bit of a nostalgic inside joke, but the older crowd it drew .. to a coffee shop incidentally .. seemed to really enjoy the 2 hour show.
For me, it was fun for awhile, but the limited repertoire of what was acceptable got to be a bit tedious after awhile, and I quit going.

I’m told the local Hoot limps along, its audience dwindling.

[frankmcr]

Gotcher hootenanny music right here

[Doug MacPherson]

Some more "lightweight" stuff with Joan Baez. "With God on our side". Here come more death threats. What I call Folk Scare. Put your money where your mouth is. Do we have anything like this today?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDSGMlDCj18

[RP]

Television censors would not allow Pete Seeger to perform the song below on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, which was a rather left wing show for its time. My recollection is that he did perform it a week or so later...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waist_..._the_Big_Muddy

[rllink]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Having lived through the Folk Revival Era, I don't recall hearing the term "The Great Folk Scare" until maybe about a decade ago. Somehow, I missed the term way back when if it was around even though I attended concerts by Pete Seeger, The Kingston Trio, Son House, and Peter Paul and Mary from 1964 to 1967.

I grew up in rural Midwest in the 60s. We listened to all the folk singers that have been mentioned here on our transistor radios and on our black and white TVs. So we were quite familiar with them. Then came graduation from high school and everyone trying to avoid the draft, which I did by joining the Navy. But we still listened to most of the popular folk singers and got to know them through eight tracks, clubs, wherever there was music. The ship's radio station played a lot of them. They were not censored. I mean, they were blasting those songs all over the ship while we were launching air strikes. I bought a guitar at the PX and spent my spare time learning to play it. There were a number of us who got together in the evenings after flight ops and played. By the time I got out of the Navy the Viet Nam war was over and some of the folk songs were still being heard on the oldies stations. But I never heard that term "Great Folk Scare" before today.

[JimC1702]

Comedian Martin Mull has also been credited with coming up with the phrase "the great folk scare of the 60's ".

[Frostie]

I can’t find my copy of van Ronk’s book, Mayor of Bleecker Street, right now, but I’m pretty sure he referred to himself as the originator of the phrase, right after Tom Dooley became a radio hit. If I’m remembering aright, he was being sarcastic - his typical sardonic look at life.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Mirosh

"Great Folk Scare" is, as I see it, a sardonic title made in retrospect by those who lived through it.

EXACTLY - nobody was calling it that at the time. It is, as you succinctly put it, a sardonic title made in retrospect. And I think that those of us who lived through that folk music movement are the only ones who really get the joke.

It was, in fact a movement and not just a musical fad. It changed many people’s lives, mine among them.

It’s a phrase that I should probably stop using so much, though, even if I use it affectionately and not at all as a put down.

So I’ll try to stop using it nearly so often, because I don’t want anyone to think that I’m sneering at the movement or the impact it’s had both in acoustic music and on popular culture itself in the decades since.


whm

[RP]

Originally Posted by beatcomber

Phil Ochs had a thick file at the FBI...

I saw Phil Ochs perform at the Philadelphia Academy of Music in the late 60s. He walked on-stage holding his guitar and an approximately five-foot bomb like you'd see on the underside of an airplane. He did his set, left the stage and returned to loud applause. We thought he was going to do an encore. No, he just came back to retrieve his bomb. Different times for sure...

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by RP

I saw Phil Ochs perform at the Philadelphia Academy of Music in the late 60s. He walked on-stage holding his guitar and an approximately five-foot bomb like you'd see on the underside of an airplane. He did his set, left the stage and returned to loud applause. We thought he was going to do an encore. No, he just came back to retrieve his bomb. Different times for sure...

Well, that’s easy to do. I can’t COUNT how many large pieces of military ordnance I’ve absent-mindedly left behind onstage and had to go back to retrieve...


Wade Hampton “Ooops!” Miller

[skinnerb]

It must have been more of a regional thing. I grew up in the 50's-60's in Oregon, listened to all manner of "folk music", and never once heard the phrase.

[tbeltrans]

My memories of folk music in the Army were my first year, which was stateside before being shipped out. Guys sat around in the barracks singing these folk songs that were actually very old English songs. For some reason, at least among the East Coast crowd, these were more popular than a lot of the stuff Americans were writing and singing at the time.

Oddly, this was 1970, long AFTER the folk music era had passed.

One thing I remember in the 1960s is that it seemed everybody had an acoustic guitar. The local kids that impressed me the most were those I saw in high school (late 60s) who were playing (unknown to me at the time) in open tunings. That sound really stuck with me and sounded so different from everything else. It was truly captivating. I have no idea what tunings they used, but it was all instrumental.

I wish in hindsight I played back then. I completely missed the boat on that one.

Tony

[loco gringo]

I was born in '62, so I wasn't aware of the movement until after the fact. Last year I read Dave Van Ronk's book, " The Mayor Of MacDougal Street. I thought it was a pretty good read. What I really like about it was the mention of singers and songwriters that I wasn't familiar with. That book and Tidal Hi Fi streaming music service was a great combination. It was like I was doing work for extra credit.

[Fogducker]

Fall, 1958 at U of Mich---heard "Tom Dooly" by KT for first time. Was drafted in 1963 and watched "Hootanny" on TV in Army barracks, so I pretty much covered the whole thing. I never heard the phrase. The Beatles and British invasion wiped out the folk thing and I didn't hear a whimper.

Fog