All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music
Go Down, Moses! (Folk 'War Songs')
S1 • E12 Apr 29, 1977 55m
After Nashville had raped American country music, it might seem that the folk traditions this music embodied had been lost. Not so, because these traditions had a purpose other than to entertain. We shall see how folk music used popular melodies to spell out unpopular themes, how during the American War of Independence filthy words were penned against the British Crown, but all to the tune of ‘God Save The King’. The same happened during the American Civil War – different words, depending on whether you were from the North or the South but to the same tune.
Song has been used by such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, Peter Seeger and Leonard Cohen as a passionate weapon for peace. The effect these singers managed to achieve in the sixties was one of the stronger causes of the American defeat in Vietnam.
featuring
Arlo Guthrie
Bing Crosby
Country Joe McDonald
James Simmons
Joan Baez
Leon Rosselson
Leonard Cohen
Pete Seeger
Peter, Paul and Mary
The Andrews Sisters
Vera Lynn
Woody Guthrie
Song has been used by such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, Peter Seeger and Leonard Cohen as a passionate weapon for peace. The effect these singers managed to achieve in the sixties was one of the stronger causes of the American defeat in Vietnam.
featuring
Arlo Guthrie
Bing Crosby
Country Joe McDonald
James Simmons
Joan Baez
Leon Rosselson
Leonard Cohen
Pete Seeger
Peter, Paul and Mary
The Andrews Sisters
Vera Lynn
Woody Guthrie
