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10/04/2006
Dylan and The Anthology Of American Folk Music
The Anthology Of American Folk Music is a rich compilation of nearly forgotten acoustic roots music put together by Harry Smith, an eccentric collector, and first released in 1952. It set the agenda for the search for authenticity of the US Folkie Revival of the 1950s - on which Dylan hitched a ride, until he eventually tired of its conceits.
The Folkways box of 6LPs was re-released as a 6CD set in 1997. Listening to these gems, it’s obvious that, while Dylan left the 1960s folkies behind, he has used this collection of the music they revered as a key reference source throughout his career.
Run down the 84 song tracklist and the Dylan covers/concepts/references keep leaping out at you - from See That My Grave Is Kept Clean right up to The Coo Coo Bird. The House Carpenter… Sugar Baby… Poor Boy Blues… Froggie Went A'Courtin'. Dylan’s links with the “old weird America”, as Greil Marcus perceptively calls it, are here in abundance. But it’s not just the content that has influenced him – probably more important are the styles, the sensibilities, the ideology.
Of course, Dylan’s genius transformed this esoteric body of work into something approaching mainstream popular culture. But, without having absorbed these sources, Dylan’s art would have been very different – he might have had to settle for a career as a Bobby Vee sideman or a Little Richard imitator.
Ignore these riches at your peril!
www.folkways.si.edu
Gerry Smith
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