Sing Out! Was the folk music bible that hit its peak during the folk heyday of the 1960s.
With the excellent Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, now in the theatres, creating a renewed interest in the early/mid-60s Greenwich Village folk scene and in Dylan’s controversial “going electric” live performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, I thought that now would be the perfect time to re-publish this lost post.
I first published this piece on my finding these 1964-66 issues of Sing Out! back on October 25, 2011, on OpenSalon.com. With OS’ imminent closure in early 2015, I moved all of my blog entries over to my personal mylifeinconcert.com blog but now realize that there are a few I forgot to move over, with this Sing Out! Entry being one of them.
It features articles and ads from the famous folk music publication from the noted years, as well as Newport ’65 coverage. Enjoy!
Here is the original blog entry from OpenSalon. The original comments that appeared on the 2011 blog follow below.
I have written about my love of collecting vintage magazines via my pieces chronicling the motherlode of copies of Life that I lucked into last year as well as the issue of Maclean’s that was synchronous with a Season Four Mad Men episode (NOTE TO SELF: I seriously need to repost both of those here on the blog as well, although there is this). While it’s always great to find single-issue periodical gems, it’s even better to find a clustered clutch of a specific publication from a particular era.
At this year’s Friends of Library and Archives Canada’s Annual Book Sale — one we try to never miss — I hit a mini-jackpot when I came upon seven vintage copies of folk music bible Sing Out! Spanning the years 1964-66, each is in superb condition and was inexpensively priced (they were $2-3 each; so far I’ve found them selling online for $20-30 a pop).
Sing Out! is a folk-focussed journal that was inaugurated in 1950 and survives until this day. But it was in the mid-60s, at the height of the folk music boom, that Sing Out! reached its circulation peak and had its greatest cultural impact. Suffice it to say, as a magazine collector, student of social history, and music nut who has a big love for a lot of the 1960s folk music and artists, it was one sweet treat to stumble onto multiple copies from this core era.
Things went from regular, unsalted “Cool” to “Super Cool, Daddy-o” once I started examining the actual contents and realized that two of the issues at hand are among the most famous in Sing Out!’s history.
The November 1964 issue (see above) looks back at that year’s Newport Folk Festival – one of the headiest and best-attended editions of the festival.
Above: Peter, Paul, & Mary’s Mary Travers and Bob Dylan (inset) at Newport ‘64. Below: Paul Nelson’s feature report on that year’s festival.
Most significantly, however, is that this issue features the infamous “Open Letter to Bob Dylan” from SO! co-founder and then-editor, the late Irwin Silber (below).
The letter scolds Dylan for moving away from his previously oft-topical material and into writing songs that were not only more personal, but “maybe even a little maudlin or a little cruel on occasion.” Silber felt that the “paraphernalia of fame” was getting in Dylan’s way, aiding him to lose “contact with people.”
Dylan responded by distancing himself from Sing Out!, instead investing himself in his newly developing electric sound and increasingly abstract lyrics, the results reaching full fruition with his classic 1965 releases, albums Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited plus the single “Positively 4th Street” (my favourite Dylan song, the ultimate in Fuck you! You’re and ass and get lost!)
“A little cruel”? “Ballad in Plain D” anyone?
Well, if Irwin was a wee miffed with Bobby in 1964, he worked himself into a right Holy Doodles! state over Dylan’s electrification in ‘65. The Bobster unleashed his new sound and approach, backed by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, to the 1965 Newport Festival folks, the response deeply dividing the folk community between the booing purists and applauding futurists.
Dylan is conspicuously absent from the cover of the November 1965 edition (above) … although he gets a page all of his own on just inside (below).
The November 1965 issue recaps that year’s Newport Folk Festival, an historic event owing to Dylan’s controversial plugged-in set and the range of reactions it provoked. Inside the magazine, both Silber and then-Managing Editor Paul Nelson present radically different interpretations of the festival in general, and Dylan’s performance in particular.
Nelson had long been a Dylan booster, dating back to their days when they were both living in Minnesota. As a lynchpin in a publication that was about to start panning Dylan over his new sound and songs, Nelson wanted no part of it. He saw the writing on the wall.
While Silber writes that Newport ‘65 was like a “carnival gone mad” in general, and that “disappointed legions did not think (that Bob Dylan’s set) was very good Dylan,” Nelson instead penned a prescient condemnation on those wanting to keep the status quo vs the new world that he saw Dylan inaugurating. He stood firm, countering with “I choose Dylan. I choose art. I will stand behind Dylan and his ‘new’ songs, and I’ll bet my critical reputation that I’m right.”
Once published, Nelson resigned as Managing Editor, spending the next 20 odd years as a behind-the-scenes visionary: working for Mercury records, signing the New York Dolls and Rod Stewart, and eventually becoming one of Rolling Stone’s best writers during it’s 1970’s heyday.
Upon closer examination, a third issue of SO! — from January 1966 (see below) — also proved noteworthy as it was the final one to be published in its smaller, digest size before debuting in its new 8″x11″ dimensions.
Advertising 1: Instruments and Accessories
As with all magazines, I often have a particular interest in the advertising, from semiotic, historical, and aesthetic/visual perspectives. Being a publication aimed at the folk community meant that ads for instruments, especially for guitars, are plentiful throughout each issue.
She needs to start ironing that hair if she’s going to be a real “folk music-maker.”
Maybe Mr. Kingston Trio Jr. is looking for “an action that’s fast and easy” with that beatnik chick salaciously lurking behind him.
Wanna sign up? I love this sketch style of illustration as it was so prevalent in advertising and commercial art at this time. Totally evokes the era.
And here all along I’d been thinking it was diamonds. Check out those knee socks.
Harmony should be glad they weren’t trying to flog guitars during the Sousaphone era.
Folk Stars in Advertising: The Serendipity Singers lay it down for Guild guitars.
This is my favourite: I love the elephant graphic and the ad’s overall composition for Martin guitars.
Ta da! Banjos are instruments too! Representation is important! There’s also a nice dulcimer or six to be had through the ads. And we can all jump for joy that “White Lady Banjos” are back in production.
Simple yet terrific graphic, lettering, and layout for this ad for La Bella strings.
Advertising 2: Records and Record Stores
As a music collector, I especially enjoy the many ads for then-contemporary new album releases, in particular from two of the key folk labels of the day: Elektra and Vanguard.
While a contemporary pop/rock label since the later 1960s, Elektra was predominantly an independent folk label prior to that. I love seeing the original Elektra guitar player logo in a print ad.
Phil Ochs’ 1964 debut album: All The News That’s Fit To Sing.
Another Big Debut: Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965), from the band who had backed Dylan during his controversial set at Newport that year. Ads and articles about more traditional blues artists were plentiful in SO!, but advertising Butterfield’s album must have felt like heresy to some Sing Out! readers.
BTW, I’ve heard this fine album, and I agree with its tagline.
Okay, if you schlepped up with the $1 for this set, I’ll bet you’ve long thought it was a dollar well spent. What a line-up of talent on a single disc! Almost 50 years later, this ad is selling me on going out and buying the album, and it’s long out of print. Now that’s persuasion.
And a shout out to Fred Neil, who I’m a big fan off. More on him further down the page.
Meanwhile Vanguard were releasing albums by …
… Canadian legends Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker, better known simply as Ian and Sylvia. Their third LP, Northern Journey, features Sylvia’s “You Were On My Mind,” later a big hit for We Five. **FACTOID**: I have an aunt (Hi Aunty Jean!) who was involved in an amateur theatre company in Chatham, Ontario in the 1950s, which Sylvia was also part of. My Aunty J said that even then Sylvia really stood out as different, and that she liked her. “Sylvia was so unhappy in Chatham,” she told me.
She would also play the songs she was working on to my Aunt who would applaud and encourage her. Not bad: Private performances by Sylvia Fricker/Tyson.
Celebrations for a Grey Day, the 1965 debut album by Mimi and Richard Farina. As for Mimi’s sister …
… Joan Baez was releasing Farewell, Angelina. She and Dylan may have been through, but she still included four of his numbers on the LP.
Out of all the majors, Columbia was probably the most invested in the folk scene, signing Dylan, Pete Seeger, and the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, among others. Columbia placed several cluster ads in almost every issue, highlighting a number of their most recent folk or folk-related titles.
The backpages are loaded with nifty smaller ads for independent record stores, labels, and publishers (below).
Advertising 3: Etc.
Other types of advertisements in Sing Out! cover include …
Hermes Nye (???) pens the age’s Folksinging For Dummies…
… an early, low budget ad for the fledgling rock magazine, Crawdaddy …
… It’s a Radio! It’s an Amp! It’s $24.95! It’s a piece of crap …
… meanwhile, Folklore Productions and legendary folk agent Harold Leventhal promotes talent rosters, Leventhal via where his acts are playing next (below). That’s one impressive lineup of gigs!
Of course, you can always subscribe if you don’t want to miss an issue.
The last one is not from Sing Out! but is hilarious and from that time. There has definitely been a sharp drop in beatnik rentals in the last 70 years. “Badly groomed but brilliant”: Love it!
Songs
One of the magazine’s other mandates was to help disseminate songs, both traditional and new, to the emerging folk community and its musicians. Here are two typically topical tunes of the day: Tom Paxton’s “Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation” and Malvina Reynolds’ “Napalm.”
Meanwhile, here’s Dylan’s classic “All I Really Want to Do,” appearing in print several months before turning up on Another Side of Bob Dylan. Of course, that’s the album that got Irwin Silber’s knickers in a twist, and following the Open Letter, Dylan forbid any further songs of his from appearing in Sing Out!
And check out Bob’s bonkers written piece.
Features
Otherwise, Sing Out! Features Focus On …
… the civil rights movement …
… contemporary folk, country or blues performers, such as Ramblin’ Jack Elliott …
… overviews covering scenes of varying geographies, with the above piece on Toronto from 1965, noting that “Local hero Gordon Lightfoot is achieving wider and wider acclaim for his songs” along with a review of that year’s Mariposa festival …
… and an ad for the 1966 Mariposa festival … Check out that line-up! …
… and meditations on the quandary that success creates for an underground movement.
Local London Lore: The Black Donnellys
I was stoked to read a piece on the Donnelly family, or The Black Donnellys as they were/are better known. This family-as-gang were a nefarious mid-18th Century crew in the Biddulph Township, not too far from where I grew up in London, Ontario. When I was younger, I read many books about the Donnellys, fascinated with this dark, violent chapter in Canadian history, that only took place about a 20 minute car ride away. Here is an article on the Donnelly’s history (above) along with a song, “The Black Donnelly Feud” (below).
The Emergence of Folk Rock and the Wane of the Folk Boom
The line in the sand that Dylan drew at Newport ‘65 had fully polarized an audience within a year, with the more purist folk community now receding in the shadow of the Folk Rock explosion.
Silber demonizes the movement with table-thumping effluvia like “Folk Rock: Thunder Without Rain” …
… while the somewhat appropriately named Cipher Guitar ads played up this new culture war …
… or simply portrayed it as the ginchiest, lauding its “free ridin’ beat” in this Hagstrom ad.
And, In the End …
Silber did ultimately have just cause for worry, in his own respects. While the early ‘60s boom solidified folk enclaves around the world and provided a stage for some brilliant later performers, it’s moment of being the “alternative” music was succeeded by the emergence of folk rock, garage rock, and psychedelia in the 1960s second half. By 1968, Silber was no longer editor, and the heady 1965 subscription peak of 25,000 was decimated, Sing Out! barely hanging on. Despite these and other setbacks, it has stood its ground, endured, and regrown celebrating its 60th anniversary last year in 2010.
Sing on, Sing Out!
Craft Corner: Here is a double CD compilation I made a few years back for myself and a few others — Folk Off! — featuring some of my favourite folk or (folk-ish/influenced) songs and performers from the late 1940s until 2003, but with a substantial focus on the 1960s. I’ve played the dickens out of it over time, particularly at this time of year. That 52-song CD is now a 100+ song iPod playlist.
NOTE: It is now an even longer Spotify playlist, going up to 2024.
Here s a short film made for Sing Out!‘s 50th Anniversary, about the history of the magazine.
Folk You!
To conclude, here are a couple of songs from some of my favourite, lesser known folk singers from the 60s:
Judy Henske, “High Flying Bird.” What an incredible voice and delivery on this bluesy classic from 1963. I think she must have been an influence on Grace Slick, with moments of Courtney Love near the end of the tune.
Tim Hardin’s “Reason To Believe.” Rod Stewart of course did a famous cover of this track, but I have a big fondness for the succinct, understated original.
Okay, I freakin’ love Fred Neil. He only recorded a few albums but damn he was good. And, of course, he authored the classic songs “Everybody’s Talkin’,” later a hit for Nilsson and this LP’s Side Two opener, and “The Dolphins,” the opening track on this album. This self-titled Capitol Records debut from 1966 was thisclose to being on my Top 15 LPs Open Call shortlist. From that album, here is “I’ve Got A Secret (Didn’t We Shake Sugaree).”
And finally, someone when they were unknown: It’s the Canadian folk music TV show Let’s Sing Out on the CBC, this evening featuring a singer, one Joni Anderson. She of course went on to become Joni Mitchell. Here she is, all fresh faced and pink cheeked in 1965, performing the early song “Born to Take the Highway.”
NOTE: This track has since been released on Joni Mitchell Archives—Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967).
By the way, if you love folk from this period, be sure to seek out other Let’s Sing Out episodes as this was an incredible Canadian show who had almost all of the biggies on. The 1966 episode with Simon & Garfunkel doing a mini-set is a classic.
Et voila!
Next On Stage: I’ll be selecting and looking back on my favourite London, Ontario shows that I’ve seen through the years, as well as those I missed that I would most like to have seen.
EP 035A: REAL COOL TIME: MY TOP 10 LONDON, ONTARIO, CANADA LIVE SHOWS
EP 035B: MISS YOU: MY TOP 10 LONDON, ONTARIO, CANADA LIVE SHOWS I WISH I’D SEEN
These entries will look at live London performances from a diverse array of acts while also revisiting past London venues such as Campbell’s, Fryfogle’s, Kiplings, London Arena, London Gardens, and Wonderland Gardens along with still-standing Centennial Hall, Alumni Hall, and the Polish Hall.
Following that will be an episode looking at two concerts by The Smiths. Stay tuned for
EP 036 I Know It’s Over: The Smiths with Billy Bragg, Kingswood Music Theatre, Canada’s Wonderland, Vaughan, Ontario, June 9, 1985; and with Phranc, Centennial Hall, London, Ontario, July 30, 1986
© 2011/2025 VariousArtists
Original Comments That Appeared on the original Open Salon mylifeinconcert Blog, posted on October 25, 2011
Fascinating trove there Various. I’ll be back to post a longer comment this evening.
I swear you should sgtart a music museum..
HUGGGGGGGGG
I’ll be back for more after work.
You must have been beside yourself Various. Even getting the issue with Silber’s letter (where he mistakes “insure” for “ensure”)! I was a big fan of that era’s folk and I still listen to plenty of it. I was glad to see a mention of the Chad Mitchell Trio. Their “Live at the Bitter End” is a classic of the period. The ads are pretty amusing too. Sex sold even in the politically correct folk world I guess.
I was lucky enough to see in various venues Dylan, Ochs, Lightfoot, Paxton, Rush, Collins, Mitchell and Ramblin’ Jack.
My own theory as to why Dylan was met with so much hostility when he first went electric at Newport is due to his opening song – Maggie’s Farm. I never much liked it; it doesn’t work well as a rock song and it was far away from even the wider boundaries of folk. Now had he begun with Ballad of a Thin Man or Like A Rolling Stone, things might have been different.
Abra: That roster of performers that you saw is incredible. Out of them, I’ve only seen Dylan (a number of times) and Joni Mitchell (once — in a shared bill with Dylan). Would particularly like to have seen Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.
As for the Newport stuff … well, we’re going to have to agree to disagree. First — “Maggie’s Farm?? Oooooh .. a H U G E fave of mine. As for the reason he was booed, I think it was down to the sound, not the song. What he was doing was pretty radical at the time, and was an effront to the sensibilities of many in the traditional folk camp (and I like that kind of music, too). It happens all the time when one chunk of a group wants to take a leap forward and another stays put. And this drew a line in the sand.
While working on this, I re-watched “No Direction Home,” the Scorsese Dylan doc, and was reminded of one of my favourite bits: when the audience is being interviewed leaving one of the 1966 Scottish shows with The Band, one kid is sniffing about Dylan hooking up with some pop band, and another kid in front turns around and snaps “there aren’t many pop bands that sound like that.”
Linda: I would if I could do that and live off of it, lol. Let me look into start-up financing 😉
Scarlett: Yep, they are all original copies. And in superb shape. Did a bit of an eyeroll when I picked them up. We actually got a whack of books and magazines … just what our home needs: more books …
VA ~ what a great find you were able to buy! I know how much time it takes to scan pages like this and I really appreciate the huge effort you made to bring us so many details and pages from your new collection! A few of the venues in the old ads were near me such as the ones in White Plains, NY and NYC. I was too young to attend the concerts at that time but many of the well known artists I was familiar with at that point in musical history. My brother who was into music before I was has a lot of his early music magazines still sitting in my parents’ basement and I’ll have to see what I can find there.
One thing that I did post about that was hanging on the wall was a 1966 Blues Project poster that my brother bought that year:
http://open.salon.com/blog/designanator/2010/11/10/the_blues_project_avalon_ballroom_poster
you don’t have to be back to study (phony Abrawang or Sumac)
one quick scroll down is a rush
and will do
A 20-minute car ride away from Lucan, hah? Bet I know where you’re from, then.
My favourite song about the Donnellys was done by Londoner Jay Boyle (think that’s the right spelling). Called The Donnelly Clan Must Die, I believe. “Back in the year of 1880/Near Lucan Ontar-i-o/The vigilantes met on the Roman Line/A dastardly deed to go….”
Wish I still had it, but it got lost in the marital wars of the early 1980s.
Anyway, Sing Out was a great publication, and I used to have many copies of it. No more. I DO still have almost all my sheet music and compilations from that era, though. Occasionally leaf through them and wonder if it’s worth abusing my fingertips again.
ume, since a few seconds is all you figured this post was worth, you probably won’t be back for comments. Scarlett said most of what i want to. i can spare around 15-20 minutes perusing OS with my morning coffee. Then it’s off to work and I don’t get back on till after 8:00 Eastern time. I enjoy Various’ posts and the subject matter of this one especially interested me.
In addition to the 3 second skim you gave it, I wanted to study the names and concert listings of the performers, carefully read Silber’s letter and then compose the sort of response I’d hope to get on my own blog.
In contrast, you skim a blog that delivers exactly what it promises, you disparage a couple of folks you don’t even know about a dynamic you don’t begin to understand, and then post an inane comment that at best only serves as an outlet for whatever demons haunt you. In your place I’d be asking myself why in hell I’m carrying on so.
Actually Abrawang, It was late, I was tired and practically screen blind when I wrote my comment. I left out a word and had a typo so I’m glad you were able to make sense. Obviously, my first sentence should begin: I do not “know” why …
As a rule I usually let this stuff go but “phony” is a tag that just doesn’t fit or sit well. I vouch for both of us on that one.
designanator: That’s too much that you grew up close by to some of those places. Definitely check out your parents’ basement — I did just that when we were there a few weeks ago and found a goldmine of mags I had totally forgotten about and/or were thought lost — but that’s probably going to be another blog entry down the line.
I couldn’t access the full link you sent — perhaps send it to me in a PM so I can cut and paste. I’d like to read the piece.
And appreciation appreciated.
ume: WTF?? Abrawang and Scarlett Sumac are two of my favourite people and writers on this site and, unlike someone else, know how to be both frank *and* mature and articulate. You may want to take notes. Phony?? That’s pretty rich for what seems like a hoax. Piss off, nutter.
ChillerPop: Yep, I love the vintage eye candy too. Glad you enjoyed the clips. That one of Joni I just found and was floored to see it.
lschmoopie: So nice to see you back here, my friend; not so nice the circumstances/context of your return. So, I am glad if I was able to bring some levity to your tough day. The guitar ads are a hoot, aren’t they? I also love seeing those album ads as well.
Scarlett: LOL, re: “when people had their own teeth.” I was just looking at a shot of Nick Lowe on the back of his new CD, and his new pearly whites and blinding! And I realize there’s a lot here … come back and visit anytime!
Scarlett: Well, after reading your rebuttal it must be said that you’ve got more poise than moi. I was a little more blunt in my response (see above). It pisses me off that you and abra were needlessly, personally attacked in my blog space. However, I believe in leaving that stuff up … so that people can see what’s what.
alsoknownas: Then you’ve got quite the DNA! Please do drop back in, there’s a lot here.
Boanerges: Ahhh, so you must know London. Did not know about the song, so thanks. I’m amazed that there’s never been a film made about the whole Donnelly saga. It’s quite the story with lots of drama and would lend itself perfectly to a film or short series.
My siblings knew some people from Lucan in the ’70s and I distinctly remember how, even then, it was something you didn’t bring up around the townsfolk, like it was impolite.
That’s great that you still have the sheet music. When did you stop playing?
Abrawang: Well, other than repeating that I’m pissed about how you were slagged off in my blog space, I’ve got nothing more to add: you said it perfectly. Thanks for your kind words, and the irony is that since most of my pieces are long, I’ve always figured that many of my posts would be read piecemeal anyway. Sigh …
Phony?? Far from it.
You’re right that it’d make a helluva movie. All the elements are there. Midnight, midwinter, blood and fire, feuds, aborted trials etc.
I encountered first-hand the reticence of oldtime Lucanites to talk about the events of that night. The original grave marker for the five dead (each with “murdered” after the name) has been removed now, but I well remember it, as I do driving the Roman Line. As Boyle put it in the lyrics:
“Now the people on the Line are tight and filled with fear
The secrets in their hearts did store
More than eighty years have passed and still they have them there
In Lucan On-tar-io.”
Jonathan: Thanks!
Lucy: So glad the post made this morning’s coffee time fun. I’m a Joni nut so I’ve spent plenty of time on YouTube watching old clips of her, but I had never seen this one from 1965 before. Incredible. I’d love to take whoever posted that stuff out for Thank You drinks.
dirndl: Isn’t that Martin elephant great? It caught me right off the bat — and that’s cool that you have an idea who the artist might be. I love ad graphics but don’t know much about the specific illustrators, which I know is your realm. Maybe you could write a piece about your favourite illustrators sometime (hint hint).
Thanks for passing along the link and for the EP shout out (you too, Lucy). While I didn’t get an EP here, I got a front page link on rockcritics.com, which is very gracious of them, and brought a lot of visibility to this piece. As for the music, while I do sincerely love the folk music of that era, I am also passionate about Brill Building pop, especially the girl groups of the era. Don’t even get me started on the topic, I’ll rhapsodize endlessly …
Boanerges: This is so great to be reminded of, and talk about, the Donnelly stuff, the Roman Line etc. And I see you too had the experience of how taboo a subject the Donnellys were to the people of the area. I wonder if that’s still the case today?
Maybe your also a songbird?