FIFTY YEARS AGO
An unedited version of Jack Kerouac's On The Road, copied verbatim from his legendary scroll of taped-together tracing paper which he fed through this typewriter for a solid three weeks in the 50s, has just been released. This in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the first publication of On The Road.
As a Kerouac fan, I couldn't help wondering
what else was going on then, and suddenly realized that, old gaffer
that I am, I can remember fifty years ago. I remember turning
10 in 1957, because ever since I was nine had wanted to be an
age with two digits in it.
The Milwaukee Braves won the 1957 Series, and Sputnik
went up; in Wisconsin, the Braves got more press. Ed Gein,
Wisconsin's goulish human lampshade maker, was caught in '57 and
became the subject of every joke on the playground and every nightmare
in Dairyland. I remember all that, but out of curiosity, turned
to Google to help me remember things I hadn't known at the time,
folk music related and otherwise.
On the Road and Sputnik both being launched the same year resulted in the new generation of hipsters being called Beatniks. According to Dave Van Ronk, as noted in last month's column, Beatniks hated folk music, but 1957 was a busy year for it nonetheless. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel named themselves Tom and Jerry, and came up with their first hit song, Hey Schoolgirl. The San Diego Folk Song Society was started by the amazing performer and folksong collector Sam Hinton, who, now living in Berkeley, is still collecting and organizing the thousands of folk songs he has learned over the years.
The incredible Old Town School of Folk Music opened in December of 1957 in Chicago. Here is a reminisce of opening night by Win Stracke, the founder, who, among other accomplishments, used to tour as part of a folk review with Studs Terkel, Big Bill Broonzy, and Lawrence Lane: "The opening ceremonies and registration on December 1, 1957, were a smash... George Armstrong opened the proceedings with the strains of the bagpipes; Frank Hamilton gave a demonstration of his teaching method... Big Bill Broonzy performed one of his blues numbers and, on the spot, Frank analyzed and reproduced Bill's intricate right-hand style in written tablature on a blackboard and then played back an exact rendition of Bill's playing."
The Cornell Folk Song Club formed in 1957, one of its first presidents being Peter Yarrow, later of Peter, Paul and Mary. Izzy Young started the Folklore Center on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village in 1957, which quickly became folk music central of the known universe, so they say.
Jimmie Rodgers -- not the singing brakeman but another Jimmie Rodgers -- had a big hit with Kisses Sweeter than Wine which had been learned by the Weavers from Leadbelly. Bob Gibson performed a solo concert at Carnegie Hall in 1957 according to the Still Records site; there is an LP of it, called Carnegie Concert listed at www.stillrecords.com/ . The Kingston Trio formed in San Francisco in 1957.
Pete Seeger split from the Weavers (over their decision to do a Lucky Strike commercial, or so I have read) and began his legendary solo career, which he pursues to this day of course.
Neither the general population nor the government knew exactly what to make of folkniks and Beatniks intruding upon their Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver (both on the air in '57) sensibilities. On March 26, 1957, Pete Seeger was indicted by a federal jury for contempt of Congress because of refusing to cooperate with the Joe McCarthy (who died in 1957) witch hunts. Four years later Seeger was convicted on all counts and sentenced to prison; In 1962 the convictions were overturned on appeal. On April 12 of 1957, five days after my tenth birthday, Allen Ginsberg's astonishing poem Howl, printed in England, was seized by U.S. customs officials on the grounds of obscenity.
In 1957, Civil Rights issues were becoming front page news. On January 23, Ku Klux Klan members forced truck driver Willie Edwards to jump off a bridge to his death in the Alabama River. On August 28, United States Senator Strom Thurmond set the record for the longest filibuster with his 24-hour, 18-minute speech railing against a civil rights bill. August 29 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957. On September 4, Orville Faubus, governor of Arkansas, called out the US National Guard to prevent African-American students from enrolling in Central High School in Little Rock. On September 24, President Eisenhower sent federal troops to Arkansas to provide safe passage into Central High School for the Little Rock Nine.
Meanwhile the USSR, England, and the US madly tested nuclear bombs in the air and underground all over the world.
In lighter news of that year, Wham-O Company produced the first Frisbee. Velcro was patented. The computer language Fortran was invented. Though there is some debate, it's probable the laser was invented in 1957 by a graduate student at Columbia, Gordon Gould. Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat was published.
In music news other than folk, On July 6, 1957, John Lennon met Paul McCartney at a church "garden fete" in Liverpool. American Bandstand began its 30 year run. Bernstein and Sondheim completed West Side Story and it started its extended run on Broadway . Pat Boone starred in his first two movies: Bernadine and April Love. The "humbucking" pickup for electric guitars -- still very much in use -- was invented by Gibson in 1957. Patsy Cline and Jerry Lee Lewis began their careers. Tennessee Ernie Ford was on TV.
On January 6, Elvis made his final appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. His Jailhouse Rock and All Shook Up came out in '57, not to mention Great Balls of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis and Wake Up Little Susie by the Everly Brothers; Tammy by Debbie Reynolds; Blueberry Hill by Fats Domino; Peggy Sue and Oh Boy by Buddy Holly; Sugartime by the McGuire Sisters; Tutti Frutti by Little Richard. The list goes on and on. Hard to believe folk music survived at all.
Obviously this is a tiny and lopsided summary of the year. What did I learn from looking back at it? Mainly that it was as crazy as 2007. Fallout shelters were all the rage, bubble wrap was invented, and Elvis was drafted. Makes you dizzy. As Tom Paxton was quoted in last month's Whither Zither, "It's okay if you look back as long as you don't stare."
Webliography:
www.folklib.net
wikipedia.org
www.oldtownschool.org
www.fiftiesweb.com
www.nytimes.com
timelines.ws
etc...