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Subject: shindell-list-digest V7 #41
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shindell-list-digest     Sunday, February 6 2005     Volume 07 : Number 041



                               Today's Subjects:
                               -----------------
  RE: [RS] RE: shindell-list-digest V7 #38  ["Joe Lanzalotto" <j.lanza@veriz]
  [RS] links to prior generations   [Norman Johnson <njohnson@ent.umass.edu>]
  Re: [RS] everytime I hear the news                      [Rongrittz@aol.com]

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Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 23:50:45 -0500
From: "Joe Lanzalotto" <j.lanza@verizon.net>
Subject: RE: [RS] RE: shindell-list-digest V7 #38

I agree with your friend.  I find this generation of "folk" musicians to be
remarkably unconnected not only with politics but with those folk musicians
that came before.

Joe

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org
[mailto:owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org] On Behalf Of Lisa Davis - home
Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2005 9:27 PM
To: shindell-list@smoe.org
Subject: Re: [RS] RE: shindell-list-digest V7 #38

Funny, I went to Falconridge with one of my many, many 50-something 
friends, whose memories of the 60s is a lot sharper than mine (I'm of 
the Babysitters Here vintage too) and what struck HER the most was how 
peculiarly NON-political "folk" music is in this generation.  In her 
"generation," you practically could not claim to be a "folk" musician 
without getting political.

I remember Richard being characteristically humorous about this.  What's 
bothering me is I can't remember which song, Courier or Things That I 
Have Seen, that he joked about how if you're a folksinger you HAVE to 
write a folk song, and that this was like a rite of passage, an 
initiation.  But some joker in the crowd came up after and said it 
wasn't anti-war ENOUGH.  You can't win! He might have said, <g>.  It 
must be said that Richard has been getting a bit more overtly polemical 
in the songs he's doing; I think the earliest songs are a lot more 
oblique and express more general comments, e.g. Courier, "You Stay 
Here," "Money for Floods"," "Sparrow's Point," of course "Fishing," all 
are about, in a sense, social issues or war, but indirect.  Well, Big 
Muddy does say "draw your own conclusions," but all you have to know is 
that Pete Seeger wrote it!

On the subject of "what topic." It lies to those who are annoyed about 
the non-Richard-ness to do their own contributing if they want to draw 
things back.  I've been on one music listserv or another for 11 years 
and you always get the cycle:  (1) enthusiasm about the artist; (2) 
digression as the topic wears thin and there is no news and people have 
other interests; (3) annoyance and rage on the part of those who say 
"why can't we talk about the artist."   It ought to be forbidden to SAY 
"talk about the artist."  Just do it!

Lisa (who does also think we ought to be a bit more forgiving of each 
other, even when we think each other is (are?) utterly misguided)

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Date: Sun, 06 Feb 2005 00:36:50 -0500
From: Norman Johnson <njohnson@ent.umass.edu>
Subject: [RS] links to prior generations

Joe wrote:


>>  I agree with your friend.  I find this generation of "folk" musicians to be
remarkably unconnected not only with politics but with those folk musicians that came before. <<

I think that's an overgeneralization at best.

It may be true of some young "folk" musicians but there are plenty who are connected with who went before them and politics. Richard, having covered Pete Seeger, Randy Newman, and Paul Simon, is a prime example. There are many others: Dar Williams, Nerissa Nields, Gillian Welch, the Redbird folks (Peter Mulvey, Kris Delmhorst, and Jeffrey Foucault), to name just a few. 

Norman

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Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2005 03:35:26 EST
From: Rongrittz@aol.com
Subject: Re: [RS] everytime I hear the news

>> I think the political implications of the songs that Richard wrote and 
covered are fair game for the list. <<

Of course they are, and the point that several people have made (that, for 
example, you can't talk about "Big Muddy" or "Che" or "Fishing" without delving 
into the politics that inspired them) is, of course, valid.  I don't think 
anyone's saying that the list should be devoid of political discussion.

It's when the discussion begins to include personal attacks -- or, in the 
case of one specific list member, a seeming desire to regularly push certain hot 
buttons just to rouse-rabbles -- that annoys the crap outta me.

RG

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End of shindell-list-digest V7 #41
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