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I GOT A SONG
I GOT A SONG
A HISTORY OF TUE
Newport Folk Festival
RICK MASSIMO
Wesleyan University Press * Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
© 2017 Richard Massimo
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed by Eric M. Brooks
Typeset in Calluna by Passumpsic Publishing
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
NAMES: Massimo, Richard, 1964–
TITLE: I got a song: a history of the Newport Folk Festival / Rick Massimo.
DESCRIPTION: Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
IDENTIFIERS: LCCN 2016038490 (print) | LCCN 2016038662 (ebook) | ISBN 9780819577023 (cloth: alk. paper) | ISBN 9780819577030 (pbk.: alk. paper) | ISBN 9780819577047 (ebook)
SUBJECTS: LCSH: Newport Folk Festival—History. | Folk music festivals—Rhode Island—Newport—History.
CLASSIFICATION: LCC ML38.N4 N374 2017 (print) | LCC ML38.N4 (ebook) | DDC 781.62/1300787457—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016038490
5 4 3 2 1
Cover photo: John Prine in 1994 by Ken Franckling.
FOR
CHRISTINE,
FLORENCE &
HENRY
CONTENTS
1 People Think This Stuff Just Happens 1
2 The American Public Is Like Sleeping Beauty 8
6 Keep Me Company and Hold My Hand (A Prelude) 66
8 It Is Beginning to Bog Down 92
9 It Was a Sweet Town When I First Came Here 115
10 He Was Amazed and I Was Amazed 125
12 In the Woods They Got Electronic Instruments 162
13 Let Them Know That You Know Where You Are 175
Illustrations
PREFACE
The Newport Folk Festival was an American musical institution almost as soon as it began in 1959, and it’s been a touchstone for more than fifty years, even given a pair of interruptions during its history. This book examines how the festival came to be in the beginning, how it came to be what it is today and how it came to be what it was at each distinct stage of its history in between. At every point, the story both drives and reflects changes in individuals and the collective musical world in which they work.
In July 2009, I was planning coverage of the fiftieth-anniversary Newport Folk Festival for the Providence Journal. I had already written about the fiftieth-anniversary Newport Jazz Festival in 2004, so I knew there would be a lot of history to cover. I also knew that George Wein was stepping back in to take the reins of both festivals after having sold his operation to a startup that had since failed.
My editors at the Journal sent me to New York to spend a day with Wein; we spoke for about two hours, went to a jazz festival–related event, returned to Wein’s home and spoke for about two more hours. On the train ride back that night, I plotted out a series of stories on the history of the Newport Folk Festival; by the time I got back to Providence, I knew the subject deserved a book.
Those interviews yielded valuable historical insights as well as a picture of what it was like to be in the driver’s seat to one of American music’s landmark events, and these are sprinkled throughout. The portion of that day recounted in chapter 11, however, comprises the heart of the interviews, and in many ways it is the heart of this book: the festival’s original sense of purpose, which has been refracted but never distorted over the decades.
The festival has meant many things to many people at many times. The real meaning of individual performances, and the festival as a whole, in many ways resides in the minds of those who witnessed it live. Some aspects of this history can only be fully understood by reading books; some can only be grasped by delving into unpublished primary sources such as board minutes and sometimes-angry letters; some of it requires face-to-face talks with the people who were there in the early days and are still involved; some of it can only be learned by listening to the music. A lot of people helped with each of these aspects.
Elijah Wald’s book on Bob Dylan’s electric performance at Newport is loaded with important information and analysis, and he was consistently willing to help. And Benjamin Filene was not only happy to discuss his work with me but found my interpretations of it not totally laughable.