Customer Reviews

Baby, Let Me Follow You Down: The Illustrated Story of the Cambridge Folk Years

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R. Serge Denisoff, editor of Popular Music and Society, called this oral history seriously flawed, noting that the persons quoted are not always properly identified, and their statements (at least one of them wrong) are occasionally presented unquoted, as fact. My own gripe, which applies to so many miserable books on popular music, is: Here's a wonderful, rich account, chock-full of hundreds of names, and no index to let ya locate 'em again. Nevertheless, for any folkie, it's an absolute must-have, which defrosts the legendary goings-on behind the Cambridge, MA folk scene of the '50s and '60s, written by one of the hoariest veterans of the era. The jam-packed, previously unpublished photos are alone worth the price, and their captions are creative ditties. And, if that wispy, natural, 1960's brand of beauty -- facial, bodily, and musical -- affect you viscerally, get ready to be re-affected.

It was after reading this that I started raiding the used record stores around town, and began being a collector and appreciator of this musical genre. I fell in love with Joan Baez' music, as well and that of Richard & Mimi, Tom Rush, Kweskin, Eric Andersen, and so on; whereas before I'd not traveled further in this direction than Dylan, 'folk rock', and a little bit of Joni Mitchell.
It's very seldom that a writer can make you feel like you were there, but these guys did it for me, even 35 years further down the road.
A very passionate, and fulfilling reading [and learning] experience!

Many books get the history of these times right, but so few get.... the wildness. This one gets it right, and with these authors, why shouldnt it? If only for a model on how to write the story of YOUR music scene, you just gotta have this book. Period.

Jim Rooney and Eric Von Schmidt introduce the reader to the early years of beat music and jug band ska that influenced American musicians for the next 40 years. Great details about Bob Dylan, Mimi & Dick Farina, John Sebastian and all the other juggers who defined folk music in the sixties. Well written with great pictures.