From: ianREMOVETHISjackson@g3ohx.co.uk   
      
   In message , Tom   
    writes   
   >notablyawkward@gmail.com wrote in   
   >news:f773dbd9-e35e-4978-99fe-6262c7317df6@googlegroups.com:   
   >   
   >> Catch the Wind - Donovan   
   >> Every Grain of Sand - Bob Dylan   
   >> Time in a Bottle - Jim Croce   
   >> Girl From the North Country - Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash (this might   
   >> count as Country) Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen   
   >> The Sound of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel   
   >> Harvest Moon - Neil Young   
   >> This House is on Fire - Dead Man Winter   
   >> I’ll Have to Say I Love You In a Song - Jim Croce   
   >> Vincent - Don McLean   
   >>   
   >Alas, none of these are really true folk songsa.   
      
   Well, some are a bit more 'folksy' than others.   
      
   All 'folk' songs have had to have been devised or composed by somebody -   
   even if it was several centuries ago. Many are more modern. What makes   
   those of (say) Woody Guthrie more worthy of being 'folk' than some of   
   those above?   
      
   It's sometimes difficult to say exactly what a folk song is, but in the   
   end I've decided it usually has to be about some aspect of the 'human   
   condition' (whatever THAT really is!).   
      
   The problem really occurs when someone who has previously been thought   
   of as a folk singer moves more into the world of 'popular' music - often   
   by writing or performing 'not-quite-folksongs' type of music. And what   
   about 'pop artists' who write songs about the 'human condition'? Is the   
   Beatles 'Eleanor Rigby' pop - or is it possibly more like folk?   
   --   
   Ian   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)