I'm doing my Gov't term paper on the affects of music in the 20th century focusing on Woody, Peter and Bob and i was wondering if anybody had any articles or essays that are similar that subject. this grade is pretty big, i don't graduate if i fail it, pretty much. but i don't think that will happen. i've been pouring over Pete's book "The Incompleat Folksinger." i love it.

the paper is due monday... i would greatly appreciate all of your resources.
thank you,
Breton

ps- if anybody goes to the Kerrville Folk Fest in Texas, look out for my friend Jack Harris. he's a contestant in the songwriters competition. from Wales. he's coming to stay with me after all the US touring is done. he is fantastic

Hi, I've done several term papers using folk music as references. If you can give me more specific information about what you need, I'll look through my reference note. I have my last final today and I can look afterwards. If the labor movement has a part in your paper, look up the Wobblie Song Book, aka The Little Red Song Book and Joe Hill. His history is interesting. While the Salvation Army Bands would sing hyms and preach temperance, the Union organizers would stand near them and using the SA music would sing their own lyrics to attract workers to the Union. There are many union and fight songs. Also the anti war movement in the sixties used music as a protest method. Need I say "Alice's Restaurant"?

Feel free to e-mail me. hrmyrgfrm@nni.com

the topic is "The Social Impact of Music on the 20th century focusing on Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan." I made it really broad so I could fit just about all I could in there, including labor movements, national pride, protest... awareness in general. Which is what most of the music seems to do.

i'm probably going to write a lot about the easier songs by them, like This Land is Your Land, The Sinking of the Rueben James, We Shall Overcome, If I Had a Hammer, Blowin' in the Wind, and Masters of War.

i might be going the wrong way, but i have until sunday to figure that out.

I have a feeling that you would find it easier to write your paper if you narrowed the focus a little bit... Woody, Pete and Dylan all wrote tons of songs, about hundreds of subjects, and they are all twentieth century folk artists.

Maybe if you focused on one topic of song... anti-war, or pro-labor-movement, or anti-discrimination, you could get a better handle on what you want to write.

Good luck with your paper!

haha, yeah. i'm starting to realize that. i am only in the part where i am doing a brief biography of each... trying to show the differeneces in upbringing, but proving that they shared a common goal, which seems like i'm narrowing my topic already to equality in their songs. labor unions v. business and racial topics could be the main focus. those are 2 of the biggest things to have happened in the 1900's. the overthrow of unfair business and civil rights. it lets me show woody and pete in the labor union stuff and pete and dylan in civil rights. i would have to include pete in both because he was around for both, and i will probably be able to write more about woody in unions and bob in civil rights than i will for him in either subject unless i combine them.

wow, i think i just rambled.

I did a paper on the 1913 Copper Mine strike (1913 Massacre). I learned about the strike after hearing the song. There was also a song about the Ludlow massacre. I use both of the songs as part of a history lesson. Pete has a record, "Which Side Are You On?" which is all Union songs. It's different than the The Little Red Song Book. Something you might want to put in your paper, the literacy rate at the turn of the century was a lot lower than it is today and mush lower the century befor that. Like folk tales, music was a source of news and information for people. It was, and still is, a great teaching tool. I've subbed for a music teacher who would have the class sing the same two songs for a whole period. The kids were bored and I hated it. I would flip open their books and find a Woody Guthrie song, teach the kids the song and give them a mini history lesson on whatever the song is about. I explained dust storms to 3rd graders after teaching them "So Long, It's Been Good To Know You."

i read about the "which side are you on?" record in The Incompleat Folksinger. i'm starting again tonight... 12:53 until whenever i finish... gyah.

Hi Folks.... followin' Lee's thread , " Bury my heart at wounded knee " sung

by Indigo Girls is another example of how music teach or move us to know

history ( that was my case ) . I felt moved to read about the facts .

Maybe Im an stranger to give my opinion , but its the same in my

country , where some folk-rock singers have the commitment to write

songs with social or history content in order to refresh our memory .....

..... but as a local songwriter once said " A song will never change the

world " ...... See you around OZZy

Ozzy, you should check out the Buffy Sainte Marie version. I think she wrote it.

Hi Goofus , I got it as a Dee Brown's book first published in 1970 .....

See ya around