Korean Job Discussion Forums

[On the other hand]

I've grown a bit cynical about these old folkies, possibly due not so much to the folkies themselves, but to a general fatigue with self-congratulatory baby-boomer nostalgia. That said, there is no denying that stuff like Puff The Magic Dragon was pretty damned good.

And I have to admit here that I'm not even quite sure what her role was in the band. I think she sang, right, but did she play an instrument as well?

link

[Ya-ta Boy]

Well, the tambourine sometimes. She was primarily the lead singer in a group that introduced teenyboppers to Dylan and other folk singers who couldn't get on the radio themselves. P, P & M were not without their own edge, by the way. Everyone's parents hated them because they all wore mostly black all the time and Mary wore her straight hair long--all the way down to her shoulders. Scandalous to the local members of the Greatest Generation.

While a good enough song, 'Puff' wasn't groundbreaking--it'd already been done by the Byrds' version of 'Mr. Tambourine Man'.

I know what you mean about self-congratulations. It's so aggravating when it's deserved. Here's L. Cohen quoting Janis (folkies both in the beginning):

"And clenching your fist for the ones like us
who are oppressed by the figures of beauty,
you fixed yourself, you said, "Well never mind,
we are ugly but we have the music."