Word: schmidts
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...NAMES. Joan Baez, Mimi Farina, Richard Farina, Dave Van Ronk, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Tom Rush, Pete Seeger, Taj Mahal, Geoff Muldaur, Bonnie Raitt, John Sebastian, all spanning a decade. Von Schmidt sees an enduring musical "scene," based on the fact that people wanted to hear this music. Today that scene doesn't exist, and while von Schmidt wants badly to believe that the listeners are out there, he acknowledges popular decline of the folk movement, and the powerful appeal of electronic music...
...This book is an attempt to recount that era," von Schmidt adds, "to show that this existed, and that it may happen again." The author balks at considering folk alongside other American "scenes," such as any rock and roll scene, including today's burgeoning punk/new wave scene...
...Schmidt's bias gives his book its power. His knowledge and understanding--both of the folkies and their detractors--lends credibility and a certain ghostliness to his recall. Baby Let Me Follow You Down succeeds where many "rockumentary" efforts fail--these are not idle memories scribbled down for pleasant reading; they are real experiences...
...were so innocent," many of the book's characters say. They came to Cambridge for nothing more than a college education. "Education," von Schmidt points out, "is the key to the American dream." Then a job. Then a home. And a family. And then Woody Guthrie's refrain: "Then they all live in boxes, little boxes, all the same...
...Schmidt's innocent characters all came for the university. Baby tells us, indirectly, what they learned...