f50 Wars Of The Folkies

We conclude Colin Irwin’s three-part look back at the ’50s & ’60s folk boom years, retrieved from the Melody Maker archives, with a ramble through 1965 – 1967: the final solution!

965: And what a way to start the year. January is barely off the blocks and the Melody Maker is roaring “‘DYLAN SHOWS THE WAY’ SAY BEATLES”. You can imagine a whole generation of mop-top clones sending sales of the new Dylan album Another Side Of Bob Dylan soaring on the strength of it. Elsewhere, the drama is marginally less earth-shattering… John Renbourn and Rod Stradling are noted to be appearing at the Union Hotel, Kingston… Diz Disley and Dave Swarbrick play together at the Stu- dent Prince, Soho… Scan Tester is at the Fox, Islington… and Bob Pegg hits print with a splendidly vitriolic attack on “Glori- fied skiffle groups like the Settlers, Seek- ers, Leesiders and Spinners, while folk music of a higher quality is passed over. Let us hope the better songs will be able to stand the torture they must undergo if folk music is to become the successor to R&B.“

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The Seekers are quick to make their own retort to Pegg. “People are ready for folk providing it’s not too ethnic,” they say, and promptly prove their point by storming to the top of the singles chart with I’ll Never Find Another You. Always eager to flog a cliché, MMtakes this development as an indication that the Seekers and Val Dooni- can (in the chart with The Special Years) are leading a folk boom. Not all are convinced. “CAN THERE EVER BE A BOOM IN FOLK?”

The Seekers – preferably not too ethnic

demands Ken Cottrell, noting the rising age of people who go to folk clubs. He estimates that the average age of club residents is a ripe old 20. Geriatrics indeed! “When we started it was four years younger.”

Wisely, Val Doonican quickly disassoci- ates himself from this bunch of reprobates. “I don’t even like folk music,” he grumbles from his rocking chair, “not even the Woody Guthrie bit.”

Soon, though, Val is knocked off the front page by a young kid who strolls on to Ready Steady Go! and causes a sensation. His name is Donovan. Yet he too refuses to be labelled as part of any movement: “l don’t dig the folk club scene. The audiences lap up my act but the organisers only want English stuff. I’m mostly interested in Ameri- can stuff. It comes naturally to me.” This, naturally, heralds World War 396 in the MM’s Mailbag page. Ian Campbell says it’s misleading to call Blowing In The Wind and What Have They Done To The Rain? folk, and Dominic Behan weighs in, announcing “Of course there’s a folk boom. There always will be, as long as there are folk.”

Folk it may not be, but Ian Campbell is still quick to see the commercial potential of Dylan songs and the Campbells put out a single of The Times They Are A-Changing – the first British act to cover a Dylan song. For a few weeks it even threatens the

charts, too, until Dylan’s own version is released as a single and kills the Campbells’ version dead as it enters the British chart at 32, seventeen places behind Donovan’s first single Catch The Wind.

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esperate for blood, MMcon- trives to create a war between the two singers, a war in which both men refuse to partici- pate. By the start of April,

Catch The Wind makes it into the top five, while Dylan’s Times They Are A-Changing peaks at thirteen. Fuelled by all the excite- ment, though, a new club called Les Cousins opens in Greek Street, Soho (opening guests are Les Bridger, Jo-Ann Kelly and Dick But- ler) and there is a succession of American artists touring Britain, among them Jack Elliott, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Rev Gary Davis, Tom Paxton and John Hammond. All in preparation for the arrival in May of Dylan himself. Joan Baez charts with We Shall Overcome in celebration, “DYLAN DIGS DONOVAN” screams MM, and Dylan says “Oh, to be a simple folk singer again.“

But… “JAGGER SWIPES AT FOLK

FAKES” …“l hate it when people move in on something because it’s the ‘in‘ thing”… Undeter red, Dylan whacks out Like A Rolling Stone in retaliation, leaving MM’s Bob Dawbarn foaming at the mouth. “It will offend the folkies and it won’t appeal to pop fans”, he scolds.

Donovan – dug by Dylan (it says here)