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TV on DVD Reviews > Washington
Square Memoirs
Various
Artists
Washington
Square Memoirs - The Great Urban Folk Boom 1950-1970 (Rhino R2 74264 ) ©2001
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Report Card 
Copyright ©2001
PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted: June 5, 2001. |
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Description |
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The urban
folk boom of the fifties and sixties took the music world by storm, and yet there is too
little out there to remind us of the power and purity of their artistic vision. As
Pete Seeger, one of the founders of the movement, modestly put it in the liner notes,
"...a very interesting phenomenon occurred where city people picked up what had been
done in the countryside for centuries and called it a folk-song revival."
Starting, naturally, with Woody Guthrie, this set also covers most of the big names of the
Village folk boom including The Weavers, the Kingston Trio, Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Fred
Neil, Bob Dylan and many more. But even more interesting, you get to see forgotten
or overlooked artists like Dave Van Ronk, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and Judy
Roderick. |
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What's
Good About It? |
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First of
all, Washington Square Memoirs has some of the biggest hits and classics of the
era, like The Weavers' "Wasn't That A Time," Peter Paul & Mary's
"Blowing In the Wind" and the Rooftop Singers "Walk Right In."
The collection doesn't usually pick the most obvious choices though. For example,
Jesse Colin Young is best known to the world at large for his hit version of "Get
Together" from his band the Youngbloods. Instead, the set has Young's song
"Four In the Morning" while using singer/actor/comedian Hamilton Camp's earlier
acoustic version of "Get Together." And while it is a given that Bob Dylan
would be on here, it's adventurous to include the lesser known "Boots of Spanish
Leather" than his more obvious hit singles. Even more interesting are some more
obscure choices, like the Holy Modal Rounders' delightfully twisted "Euphoria,"
Judy Henske's smoky "High Flying Bird" and Taj Mahal's traditional-sounding
"Candy Man." Then you get to reevaluate some artists that you might not
think of as folk like John Denver's "Bells of Rhymney" and country singer Hoyt
Axton's "Greenback Dollar." |
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What's
Bad About It? |
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Not too
much. This collection is scholarly in its info, reprises forgotten musical treasures
and is pretty close to comprehensive on its overview of this musical genre. |
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What's
Missing? |
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Well,
Rhino acknowledges this right in the liner notes. "Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon,
Simon & Garfunkel and James Taylor do not appear on this compilation due to
licensing restrictions." Those are significant absences, but obviously they
tried to get them for the collection, so you can't really blame the compilers. There
are probably a few other artists that also might be included. For example, Leonard
Cohen is only represented with Judy Collin's version of his song "Suzanne," I
think his own recordings should probably be included too. But for the most part,
this is as varied and complete a folk collection as you are likely to ever get. |
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PopEntertainment.com
final grade: A |
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It's a great history lesson but it doesn't play like
one. It just plays like good music. You also come to respect how diverse the
musical scene that sprouted out of Bleecker and MacDougal really was. All in all,
this is a terrific collection.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2001
PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted: June 5, 2001.
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