[filk] Re: What is 'Folk Music'?

On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 11:54:31 -0400, in rec.music.folk "Helen" < at abuse.roman.gov> wrote:

>"ADG01369" <adg01369 at aol.com> wrote in message =
>news:20030726102700.24680.00000560 at mb-m28.aol.com...
>: I think, Helen - There are a lot a people who sing all kinds of songs who are
>: not very believeable and they may not be very entertaining. But, entertainment
>: is only one little small part of music.

>: My dad used to say "Sing what you know," which to me means if you live in
>: mansions sing about mansions. There's nothing wrong, it seems to me, about
>: people singing their own truths. A person can be living on the streets one day
>: and living like royalty the next - Or living like kings one day and having
>: nothing the next. There's a lot of experience in the trials and tribulations of
>: the world - and anyone can sing what they what about them. And if you haven't
>: actually experienced something for yourself it doesn't mean you can't learn
>: about people you don't know anything about by singing their songs.

>: I learned Guabi Guabi (an African song from Ramblin' Jack Elliott) and sang it
>: for years before I went to South Africa three years ago and someone asked me if
>: I knew any African songs - I said yeah, but I learned it from a cowboy singer
>: from Brooklyn, NY. Turns out Jack had learned it and taught it to me well
>: enough so that everybody had big smiles of recognition when I sang it for them
>: there.

>: Sometimes you can learn something from doing what you don't know anything
>: about. It doesn't mean anyone else will find you worth listening to. Sometimes
>: it's more entertaining to listen to someone who you truly believe is full of
>: &^%$!

>: I remember going to the Philly Folk Festival one year and sitting with Dave Von
>: Ronk just off the stage. His commentary on some very serious perfomances was
>: truly making my stomach hurt with laughter.

>: There's room for everyone in my boat - it's what makes having to share the
>: world with everyone else possible. Lightening up every so often is better for
>: you than eating vegetables, if you ask me - Which no one has...

>: That's never stopped me!

>: "Make yourself useless as well as decorational" WWG

>Thanks for your thoughtful response. I suppose I just wanted a conversation
>about 'folk' songs/music/singers/writers and what IS it that makes you (plural)
>consider it/them 'folk'. If there are no distinguishing factors/elements then we
>can't have any meaningful discussion in the sense that if 'folk' to me (analogously)
>is a baseball game while to you it's football/soccer or something else, then when
>attempting a discussion its senseless. Admittedly I have learned many things from
>listening to 'folk' (my definition-perception) music. These 'things' included but are
>not limited to: history, thinking, pleasant music while also being entertainment.
>These meaningful elements seemed to distinguish 'folk' music. Sure it's only my
>opinion, but my opinion of 'folk' music is derived from those elements. I grew up
>in an area where nearly everyone played banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin or sang.
>Singing was then just a part of life. Sure we made fun of things and goofed off,
>but folk music was held in the highest respect - it was 'telling it like it is' type of
>music. "Little Boxes", "Pretty Boy Floyd", "Joe Hill" "The Wreck of Old 97",
>"The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti", "Do Re Mi" - the latter is one of if not the
>best folk song ever written. It is entertaining, informative and timeless...the
>message applies now as then but not limited to California. That's what I mean
>about 'folk' songs: they inform me in a pleasant way of things I didn't know
>before, had forgotten or give me food for thought. I don't see that happening
>today. It just seems to me that if 'everything' is 'folk music' then something
>very important is lost, not the least of which is the ability to discuss 'folk' music.

I just found the preceding exchange on r.m.folk, as part of the latest round of the endless "What is folk music?" discussion.

replyAnyone else wonder if the second poster is aware who she was responding to? ;-)

                                                Dan, ad nauseam Received on 07/26/03