Customer Reviews

Washington Square Memoirs: The Great Urban Folk Boom

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I can't write about this CD in the third person as the other reviewers have because many of the songs bring up vivid memories of the singers and other events happening at the time that were related to those songs. I'm listening to this CD at work, and I would have gotten through all three CDs if I didn't keep repeating some of the songs endlessly. As one who owned about half of these songs on LP, if I were to create a CD with representative songs of the era, many of the same songs would be on it.

Some of my all time favoritesongs are included like "Pack up your sorrows," "Thirsty boots," and "I can't help but wonder where I'm bound." These are on CDs I've already bought, but it is still great to have them all in one place. Other's enter my CD collection for the first time. Finally "Reason to believe," "Suzanne," "Hard Traveling," "Euphoria," "Sing and turn Jubilee" and "The motorcycle song" can be played in the car.

If you are new to this music or this era, this is just a sampling. Some of these artists you will probably want in more depth. When they play "Cod'ine," I want to run home to also hear Buffy Sainte-Marie sing "Pineywood hills" and "Until it's time for me to go." But start here, it's a great introduction. It's hard for me to listen to "Four strong winds" without also hearing "Early morning rain," but if you've never heard Ian & Sylvia, this is one of the two best songs to start with.

If you grew up/old with this music too, how can you resist?

About 6 years ago, I bought Rhino's "Troubadours of the Folk Era" CD's. They introduced me to many folk singers whom I now know intimately. Taking that one better, Rhino now has this 3 CD set with pictures, liner notes and personal essays. Buyer beware, if you do have the Troubadours CD's, you may be disappointed to learn that many of the same recordings do pop up here. The good news is that there is a wealth of other material here to select from. Joni Mitchell is explained as not appearing due to licensing restrictions in this collection, yet oddly, she appeared on the Troubadour series. Conversely, Dylan appears here although he was not on Troubadours. The times are a'changin' I guess. I do have some minor quibbles with the material selected... "There but for Fortune" is not, in my opinion, the best Joan Baez choice for this collection, as it was released later in the 60's and doesn't have as much of that Washington Square flavor as say, "We Shall Overcome" or any of her broadside ballads do. Also, why do they select "Codine" from Buffy Sainte Marie, which is one of the hardest songs of hers to appreciate at first listening? Also, with lesser known artists such as Judy henske whose older material is NOT available on CD, why do we have "High Flying Bird" yet again, as on Troubadours? It's an amazing song, but for those of us starved for Henske, another selection would have been adequate.

That said, this is still worth having, for its historical impact and musical pleasure. Enjoy!

Since CDs started predominating the form in which music is available to the consumer, there have been many folk reissues. But this one is by far, the best collection of reissues I've seen or heard. It's only problem -- if it's even a problem -- is that after you've listened to all 72 tracks, you're left wanting more. The sound quality too is excellent. Go for it!

The New York Times this week refers to the "new folk revival." Even from that elevated vantage it is clear that rooted sounds are rising from the ground once more, and that's a cause for rejoicing. Along with it, there's what might be called a folk-revival revival, a growing interest in the legendary folksong movement that reached its apex in the early to mid-1960s, leaving an indelible mark on American popular music ever after.

This welcome, (mostly) judiciously selected collection of songs covers the early revival and follows it to its end, just as "folk" was being redefined as a vehicle for personal introspection rather than as a traditional, communal form of expression. Anyone who was touched by the revival, or who is curious to know what it was about, should claim Washington Square Memoirs as quickly as it takes to retrieve cash, check, or credit card.

Now the inevitable quibbles about choices: Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and Simon and Garfunkel aren't here because the editors couldn't get legal clearance, so their absence is excusable. But why not Leonard Cohen? And why Bob Gibson's dopey "Fog Horn" and not Patrick Sky's great reading of "Reuben" or, failing that, "Cape Cod Girls"? Why Ed McCurdy's pedestrian "Darlin' Corey" and not his sterling version of "The Two Sisters"? Why not a less dated, more interesting Paul Siebel song than the mopish hippie ode "Then Came the Children" -- say, "Louise" or "Long Afternoons" or "My Town"? And it is hard to think or speak or write of the Limeliters' arrangement of "The Wabash Cannonball" without conjuring up the adjective "hideous."

As one listens to these three discs, sometimes it is best to keep historical value as much as musical virtue in mind. You might say, if you're in a charitable frame of mind, that some of these songs -- the Big Three's "Nora's Dove (Dink's Song)" and Gibson and Camp's "Betty and Dupree" for two examples -- lose something in the translation from gritty folk plaint to pretty pop tune. Still, there are pleasures to be had in unexpected places. Not having heard the song for some 35 years, I was shocked at the lump in my throat as I was reintroduced to the Chad Mitchell Trio's earnest "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" (a once widely sung anti-war anthem and campfire song [composed by Ed McCurdy], for those of you too young to know what I'm talking about). And there's the almost maddeningly infectious melody of the Kingston Trio's "Molly Dee" (written by a very young John Stewart). Lucinda Williams has never been accused of writing maddeningly -- or even pleasantly -- memorable melodies. Maybe these uncool guys with crew cuts and striped shirts were on to something after all.

Most of the music, though, lays claim to artistic seriousness and esthetic achievement. Lots of highlights, from the familiar to the obscure, and some happy surprises, such as the revelation of Judy Henske's excellence; her bluesy reading of Billy Edd Wheeler's "High Flying Bird" has an emotional and intellectual depth that probably didn't even shine as vague glimmer in the collective imagination of the Journeymen. Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, Ian and Sylvia, Koerner, Ray, and Glover, the late Fred Neil, Tom Rush, Odetta, Taj Mahal, Tom Paxton, Kweskin's Jug Band, and other giants of the revival deliver the goods (though -- so kill me -- Joan Baez bores as always). A special delight is the inclusion of the undeservedly forgotten Kathy and Carol's gorgeously harmonized "Wondrous Love," and it's good, too, to be reminded that there once was an Even Dozen Jug Band -- but jeez, why the merely decent "Take Your Fingers Off It" and not the hilariously inspired "Evolution Mama"? Ah, well, complain and listen and smile. Damn if it isn't true, but -- in the Weavers' words -- wasn't that a time?

It is encouraging that this set may have been prompted by success of "The Best of Braodside" out on Folkways last year. In this case you get a pretty panoramic look at folk based music in the early 60s and people are certain to disagree on what is good or bad, should be in or should be out. The bottom line is that no matter what your point of view there is a lot of high quality music here and a good look at how folk music planted seeds for a lot of what is still happening in contemporary music. It was a great time, it was (and is) great music and one thing that can be agreed upon is that having Judy Henske's "High Flying Bird" back in print is a real important plus.

I'm not one who is too fast to gush about a slick cd set but even after owning it for a couple years I can't say enough about this one.

First and foremost is the varied and intelligent song selection that blends, in chronological order, traditional, folk-blues, Cambridge jug band revival, early and later protest songs, and the birth of the singer-songwriter era. The selections seem to have been chosen for their musical integrity, not just to represent a certain sub-genre or for sentimental value. Out of 72 cuts, there's only about 5 that I don't like, often because they were performed with an earnestness seems silly today. Mericfully, there is no Kumbaya.

This set also mixes the best known icons of the era (Dylan, Baez, PP&M) with those who are well known to fans of the music but perhaps less so by the public (Ochs, Paxton, Odetta, Brand, von Ronk) and greater performers and writers who may be unknown to younger audiences because they've mostly been undeservedly out of print the last few decades (Hamilton Camp, Carolyn Hester, "Rick" (ha!) Von Schmidt, Hedy West, Judy Henske, Rounders).

Best of all, unlike pretty much all the other sets out there, this one has very few pop-folk songs mixed in. No doo-wop Wimoweh, Coca Cola commercials, or Gordon Jenkins string sections, not that those recordings can't be enjoyed on other terms. There is just so much more meat here than in the larger sets you may have seen on TV that it this set is worth the premium prices used copies are starting to sell for.

The booklet has intersting notes on the songs and performers, although some seem to be recylced and not original to this set. And there are sine pictures that melted my heart. A teenage Mary Travers with friends in WSP in 1955 (may she have a speedy recovery from her health challenges)!

Finally, the sound quality is mostly very good. I have several of the original pressings and generally the versions on this set sound better.

Oh yeah, The Motorcyle Song is the hard to find long talking verion!

Okay, let's go through the geography of this seemingly endless review of folk revival of the 1960's tour that I have been conducting over the past year or so. I have gone down the byways and back alleys of Bleeker Street. I have tipped my hat to McDougall Street and its "mayor" (the late Dave Van Ronk). I have been positively 4th Street more times that I can shake a stick at (Bob Dylan's old haunts). So now to round out this tour of a few square blocks of lower Manhattan that made some musical history in the early 1960's that I am reviewing, make that proudly reviewing, I am, hopefully, finishing up with this compilation entitled "Washington Square Memoirs". And this is an apt place to wind up the tour because, in a sense, this is the place where it all got hashed out before it got to the coffeehouses, other venues and those hard sought after recording contracts. If you couldn't make it as a musician in the park (an, at times, not very high bar to get over) then you had better take your act elsewhere. Like, maybe, East Orange, New Jersey.

I mentioned in a recent review of "Friends Of Old Time Music", a CD featuring mountain music, another separate strand of the folk revival that ran through New York City in the early 1960's, the following:

"This three disc compilation (including an incredibly informative booklet giving a mother lode of material, including photographs, about the how, when and why of bringing the mainly Southern, mainly rural talents to New York City in the early 1960s) will give the new generation and mainly older aficionados, in one place, a primer of great value. If you want to know the details of this part of the folk revival puzzle you certainly have to start here. For the beginner or the aficionado this is a worthwhile addition to the store of our common musical heritage."

Except for the reference to the origins of the talent brought to the city the same comments apply for this CD.
Rather than repeat information that is readily available in the booklet and on the discs I'll finish up here with some recommendations of songs that I believe that you should be sure to listen to:

Disc One; Woody Guthrie on "Hard Travelin'", Big Bill Broonzy on "Black , Brown And White", Jean Ritchie on "Nottamun Town", Josh White on "One Meat Ball", Malvina Reynolds on "Little Boxes", Cisco Houston on "Midnight Special", The Weavers on "Wasn't That A Time", Glenn Yarborough on "Spanish Is A Loving Tongue", Odetta on "I've Been Driving On Bald Mountain", The New Lost City Ramblers on "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down", Bob Gibson and Bob Camp on "Betty And Dupree", Ramblin' Jack Elliott on "San Francisco Bay Blues", Peggy Seeger on "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", Hoyt Axton on "Greenback Dollar" and Carolyn Hester on "Turn And Swing Jubilee".

Disc Two: Dave Van Ronk on "He Was A Friend Of Mine" and You'se A Viper", The Chad Mitchell Trio on "Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream", Hedy West on "500 Miles", Ian &Sylvia on "Four Strong Winds", Tom Paxton on "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound", Peter, Paul And Mary on "Blowin' In The Wind", Bob Dylan on "Boots Of Spanish Leather", Jesse Colin Young on "Four In The Morning", Joan Baez on "There But For Fortune", Judy Roderick on "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?", Bonnie Dobson on "Morning Dew", Buffy Sainte-Marie on "Cod'ine" and Eric Von Schmidt on " Joshua Gone Barbados".

Disc Three: Phil Ochs on "I Ain't Marching Anymore", Richard &Mimi Farina on "Pack Up Your Sorrows", John Hammond on "Drop Down Mama", Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band on "Rag Mama", John Denver on "Bells Of Rhymney", Gordon Lightfoot on "Early Morning Rain", Eric Andersen on "Thirsty Boots", Tim Hardin on "Reason To Believe", Richie Havens on "Just Like A Woman", Judy Collins on "Suzanne", Tim Buckley on "Once I Was", Tom Rush on "The Circle Game", Taj Mahal on "Candy Man", Loudon Wainwright III on "School Days" and Arlo Guthrie on "The Motorcycle Song"

I have posted a lengthy analyis of this three-CD set on the Cisco Houston fan appreciation website, so if any readers are detail-oriented, they can check that out. Here's the short version: One-third of the 72 tracks match the right singer or group with the right song. Those picks are perfect. Another third lets us hear worthy performers, but doing less than their best work. The final third features minor-league artists and groups doing minor league "folk songs." I lived through the folk boom years chronicled by this product, and there simply were not 72 acts worthy of preservation in that era. Maybe there were not even 72 endearing and enduring songs. I believe the intentions of the producers of this set would have been better aimed at having 36 artists showcased with two songs each. As for the narratives included, they don't add all that much information of value. Again, a third of the comments about the era and these singers and these recordings are useful, a third are interesting but trivial, and a third are offensive or unnecessary. Therefore, I suggest that if the reader can find a used copy of this set for about $15, it will be a great bargain. Much more than that, and one might decide that the price would be better spent on reissues by the singers one really already likes.