FRESHMAN COMPOSITION, RHETORIC, GRAMMAR II

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INTRO. TO LITERARY RESEARCH & WRITING

INSTRUCTOR: James Maxfield

This is an example of the strategic use of writing in the Definition Mode in a longer format.

CHAPTER I—GENERAL INTRODUCTION

When we talk about the 60s, when exactly was that? Do we start in January of 1960 and end in December of 1969 and count it as a calendar decade? How should we set the parameters? By what criteria? And reaching agreement on where to start the period is not as difficult as where to end it. The criteria used to make the determination are as varied as are the number of approaches or disciplines engaged in studying the 60s.

The political scientist might argue that the 60s commenced with the inauguration of President Kennedy in January of 1961. The economist or urban theorist might point to the beginning of the economic recovery after the minor recession of 1958 or perhaps the advent of the Kennedy-Johnson vision for a new America. The sociologist could point to the invention of the birth control pill as a key event that began the liberation of women in our society. The music historian might argue that the 60s began during the brief period of 1958 to 1959 when the hard-driving rock-and-roll music of the 50s died and underwent a significant change, and traditional folk music became popular on college campuses.

The folk music scene had been changing, too, during the 50s. The hard-hitting union protest songs of the 30s and 40s were a distant memory, and the folk-singing community was still recovering from the general persecutions and communist "Red Scare" accusations of McCarthyism. Folk singers had returned to singing traditional folk and ballad material whenever they could find an audience. But in 1952, the Weavers with Pete Seeger popularized traditional and contemporary folk songs by adding tighter harmony and more complex arrangements. In 1956, one of the most popular singers was Harry Belafonte, who had recorded numerous folk-song hits, some arranged with Latin and calypso rhythms, as well as many standard American folk songs.

As Charles Hersch points out in his consideration of the period (in Democratic Artworks), the valuation of any period in terms of its chronological decade is an inherently flawed approach (10). But Todd Gitlin, an important participant in and writer about the period, correctly reminds us that the 1960s, perhaps more than any other decade, more closely adheres to the 1960-1970 framework (81); and I think the reasons are obvious, particularly from a political perspective with the change from the socio-economic conservatism of the 50s to the new liberalism that dominated the 60s.

But beginning the period of the 60s is not so clear-cut. For our purpose of tracing the development and definition of folk-rock lyricism, we need to go back at least to 1958, the year that the sea change occurred in both folk and rock musical circles, when the urban folk reviv2al and folk music dominated college campuses and coffee houses, when 50’s style rock-and-roll died. Such performers as Roy Orbison and the Everly Brothers expanded rock music into a more personal ballad form; and folk music was popularized by the first performances of The Kingston Trio in 1958, Joan Baez in 1959, and Bob Dylan in 1961.

As hard as it is to determine the beginning of the 60s, establishing an ending is even more problematic. Perhaps the easiest approach is to use January 1969—when President Nixon took office and terminated eight years of liberal government with a return to Republic conservatism and a promise to end the war in Vietnam by the end of the year. But this seems grossly arbitrary, except for two circumstantial points. First, we will discover that 1968 seems to be the peak year in defining the development of folk-rock lyricism as its own genre, and second, we can point to the assassination of Robert Kennedy during his campaign for President, psychologically ending the Kennedys’ reign in Camelot, coming just after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. just two months earlier. And some might even argue that the first moonwalk in July of 1969 marks the end of the decade because we reached the decade-long goal set forth by President Kennedy.

Still, more arguments can be made. Environmentalists can point to the 1973 oil crisis, the first Earth Day celebration in 1970, or the (1969) publication of Buckminster Fuller’s book, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. Certainly some women would also argue for 1973, citing it as the year they obtained the right of free choice for abortions with Roe v. Wade. The music industry can claim 1970 as the year ending the 60s by reminding us that the Beatles had dissolved just a year before, Simon and Garfunkel as well as Peter, Paul, and Mary ended their ten-plus years of association and decided to pursue their individual careers. These dissociations were coupled with the birth of super groups, most notably Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash, which sometimes included Neil Young.

Political scientists, sociologists, and economists might also argue that 1970 is correct because of fundamental changes in society. LSD had been illegal since 1965 and its prolific use had begun to wane by 1968. After the killings at Kent State University in May of 1970, the student and ghetto riots during the last half of the decade began to quickly fade away. The industrial war machine fueling the economy was winding down, and there was a general feeling of malaise within the economy. People were tired of fighting for change that never came, both in the inner cities and in the suburbs. People were "moving on." But we will not forget, of course, the one overriding event that shaped the entire period—the Vietnam War, with the final withdrawal of troops in 1973 after the Paris Peace talks.

Although the development of folk-rock lyricism was fully matured by 1968, it has continued to evolve as a genre into the twenty-first century, albeit with some musical permutations and the splitting into numerous musical sub-genres. After much consideration, I have chosen to compromise with a diplomatic solution for identifying the period. For the purpose of this thesis and future anthology, I am beginning the period in 1958—the year that The Kingston Trio recorded the hit song "Tom Dooley" and the year JFK started actively campaigning for President. I have chosen to end the period in August of 1970 for the following reasons, which are partly subjective. While I cannot deny feeling some finality or rite of passage during that summer of 1970, still a general malaise was felt, almost a nostalgia—perhaps the nostalgia that affects many of the 60’ generation. This feeling of the-end-of-something-special was signaled by the break-up of Simon and Garfunkel and sobered by the killings at Kent State. August of 1970 was the last appearance of Peter, Paul, and Mary in Cleveland (which I missed) before their long hiatus. And the following month I entered Cleveland State University as a freshman.

This anthology attempts to re-define folk-rock exclusively in terms of its lyrical and poetic elements without regard to musical genres, arrangements, or instruments. This exclusivity results in an expanded body of songs and lyrics that express similar themes of the period. Folk-rock lyricism is presented as a new cultural aesthetic, an aesthetic of interiority interwoven between two primary themes of the period: the sense of individual freedom in all things and an inherent antithesis between the individual and the counterculture’s concept of an idealized shared community. And although these songs use similar lyrical forms, structures, and techniques, all of these lyrics can be collected as a canon of songs or contemporary poetry (as has long been done with traditional folk songs, ballads, and broadsides) and contribute to our increased understanding of the period. However, by editorial prerogative, I have decided for this introductory anthology to include significant thematic songs by singer-songwriters whose creative or performing career began in the 60s, even though the majority of their creative output may have come after 1970.

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