Book 3: Transformation

Book 3: Transformation
Folk Music, Rock and Roll Attitude

By Kayla Slay

The Emergence of Folk Rock

Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.”
- As you listen, write down words that describe the song and the singer. You may wish to focus on the instruments they hear, the style of singing, the ideas of the song, etc.

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Folk Singer

• What kind of singer does the album cover suggest Bob Dylan might be?

• What do you see in the picture? What instrument does Dylan have? Can you imagine the person in the picture singing a song like “This Land is Your Land?” Why or why not?

• What words would you use to describe the album cover?

Bob Dylan

• What kind of music was Dylan playing in high school?

• How many years does he seem to have spent doing this?

• Does this surprise you, based on what you saw on the album cover from 1962? Why or why not?

Bob Dylan

• How is this song different from “This Land is Your Land”?

• In subject matter?

• In its instrumentation?

• In the vocal performance?

• In its general sound and mood?

Little Richard

Bob Dylan

“The thing about Rock and Roll is that for me, anyway, it wasn’t enough… There were great catch phrases and driving pulse rhythms… but the songs weren’t serious or didn’t reflect life in a realistic way. I knew that when I got into folk music, it was more of a serious type of thing. The songs are filled with more despair, more sadness, more triumph, more faith in the supernatural, much deeper feelings.”

• What did Dylan feel was limiting about Rock and Roll?

• What are the lyrics of “Tutti Frutti” about? Are they “serious”? Does they “reflect life in a realistic way”? Why might a song like this have been “not enough” for Dylan?

• What did Dylan think he could find in Folk music? Why might he have been drawn to Folk singers such as Woody Guthrie?

• According to the timeline, what happened to Dylan when he attended the University of Minnesota? Why did he go to New York in 1961?

Bob Dylan

“The songs themselves had the infinite sweep of humanity in them … [Guthrie] was the true voice of the American spirit. I said to myself I was going to be Guthrie’s greatest disciple.” 
“To me, Woody Guthrie was the be-all and end-all. . .Woody’s songs were about everything at the same time. They were about rich and poor, black and white, the highs and lows of life, the contradictions between what they were teaching in school and what was really happening. He was saying everything in his songs that I felt but didn’t know how to.”

• What does it mean to be a “disciple”?

• Why might Dylan have chosen Woody Guthrie as a mentor at this time in his life? What was he looking for?

• What did Guthrie’s approach to music and songwriting have to offer that Rock and Roll at the time did not?

• ​Is this a Folk song? What elements does it contain that would make you consider it a Folk song? (You may wish to refer back to the list on the board.)

• What does the song teach us about the things Dylan was experiencing in New York?

• How do the lyrics to the song differ from those to “Tutti Frutti”?

Dylan’s song “Talkin’ New York”

• What adjectives does he use to convey a sense for what Hendrix’s sound is like?

• Is it loud? Is it dance music? Is it similar to that of any other performer?

• If you don’t know Jimi Hendrix’s work, can you determine, based on the article, what it might sound and look like?

• Do you get any sense for Hendrix’s past as a sideman?

Jimi Hendrix: Mr. Phenomenon!

Sam and Dave

• What are the featured instruments?

• What gives the song its energy?

• What do you think the group wanted the audience to focus on?

• What melodies, other than the lead vocal, are emphasized?

• How important is the guitar to the overall sound?

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• After seeing and hearing Jimi Hendrix play, would you suggest to Peter Jones anything he could do to make his review more accurate?

• What are the featured elements in the music and in the performance?

• How is Hendrix’s approach with “Purple Haze” different from the approach of Steve Cropper, the guitar player with Sam and Dave?

• If Jimi Hendrix had played and performed as he did here while backing Little Richard, what do you think Little Richard might have said?

Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze

Groups: make a list of the differences you see and hear between the performances of “Hold On, I’m Comin'” and “Purple Haze.” Compare your results, and make some general conclusions about the changes that Hard Rock brought to guitar music.

Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze

What's Next?

1. Rewrite of Peter Jones’ 1966 review. Be sure they explain why they made the changes they did.
2. Design and create cover art for the single of “Purple Haze.”
3. Research three significant events relating to race that happened in 1966. Ask students to explain, with those events as a backdrop, why Jimi Hendrix may have wanted to leave his work as a sideman to front his own band. How does that choice relate to personal expression, and why was personal expression an important issue for an African-American man in 1966?

Written Response

1. Consider what they wrote about your favorite song at the moment at the beginning of the lesson....

2. How might cultural and economic conditions have influenced the creation of your favorite song at the moment? What might those conditions have been?

• Did the featured artist for the song you wrote about write and record the song solely by themself? Who may have helped them in this creative process?

• Why might it be beneficial to work with other people when writing and recording a song?

• Might an artist’s location, culture, or identity impact what or how they create music?

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Share!

• ​Do you know the song, “My Girl” by The Temptations? If so, how are you familiar with it?

• What did you hear in the song? How would you describe its sound, lyrics, or feeling?

• Do the Temptations remind you of any artists today?

​The Temptations

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Groups of 3


Each group will examine four issues influencing racial dynamics in Detroit when Motown Records was founded in 1959:

- Education
- Employment
- Housing
- Urban Renewal

Follow the directions on your handouts and answer the questions at the bottom of the pages. Be ready to discuss your answers.

• Considering your examination, what kind of challenges might African Americans have faced if they wanted to start their own business in Detroit?

• How might these issues have impacted Berry Gordy, Jr.’s founding of Motown Records?

• What might Motown Records have offered to African Americans in Detroit and the city-at-large?

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• What is the Motown slogan in the top right of the flyer? (The Sound of Young America)

• Thinking of the handout you read and analyzed about the company, what was the nickname for the company’s headquarters building in Detroit? (Hitsville U.S.A)

• What do these slogans and nicknames suggest about Motown’s audience?

• Who was Motown’s music intended to appeal to? Who may have been listening to it?

• What may have been the benefit of including many people in the writing, recording, and quality control process of “My Girl”?

• How may this process be different from the way other artists and record companies operate?

• What about these people was interesting or stood out to you?

​The Temptations

• What do you notice in the song or the performance that you didn’t notice in your first viewing?

• How might the cultural and economic conditions in Detroit during this time inform your knowledge about “My Girl”?

• Why do you think this song is still popular and commonly heard today?

​The Temptations

Written Response

Consider your favorite song at the moment and then write about the song, focusing your writing on what you know about the song’s creation and/or its artist.

​Why did nearly 100,000 young people descend upon San Francisco in 1967 for a “Summer of Love"?

​Essential Question

• What are the major themes of the song?

• What do you imagine a “love-in” might have been?

• What does McKenzie mean by referring to the people in San Francisco as “gentle people” with “flowers in their hair”?

• What impression do the people and the images in the video give about the atmosphere in San Francisco in the summer of 1967?

• Why might this summer in San Francisco have come to be known as the “Summer of Love”?

San Francisco

​You have just been put in charge of organizing a protest against an unfair policy at your school (for instance, students are being prohibited from speaking anywhere on school grounds outside the classroom). What are some actions you could take to encourage your fellow students to join your cause?

​Protest Movements

​As a class, make a list on the board of different ways to organize a protest and discuss how these various strategies would work in different ways.

​Protest Movements

• ​Why was the March on Washington such an effective and memorable protest event? You may ask the students to consider the location, number of attendees, the featured speaker, and the mood of the event.

• How do you think attending an event like this would have felt? How would it have felt watching it on television?

• Do you think most of the marchers and speakers shared a similar set of values?

I have a
dream...

​Woodstock: NY 1967

• What are some reasons people might have attended the March on Washington?

• What are some reasons people might have attended Woodstock? How might their reasons have been different than those of the marchers?

• Think back to the phrase used to advertised the festival – “Three Days of Peace and Music.” What kind of political values do you think the attendees of Woodstock might have shared?

• What does the photo of the Woodstock suggest about the popularity of live Rock and Roll music in 1969?

​Concert for Banglasdesh

• At the beginning of the clip, how does George Harrison respond to the reporter who asks “Of all of the enormous problems in the world how did you choose this one to do something about?”

• While not shown in the clip we just watched, Harrison also said the following statement at the press conference announcing the Concert for Bangladesh:

“Ravi [Shankar] came to me and he said if he was to do a concert, maybe play to so many thousand people, but to the size of the problem, the money, the funds that would be made would just be so small. So that’s where I came on. I can generate money by doing concerts and by making albums.”

• As a former Beatle, why was Harrison such a valuable spokesperson?