My musical taste might differ from yours


The Folk Era was a special time in America, a time of innocence, when people sang Kumbaya and really meant it. When banjo music got airplay and Burl Ives had groupies. No one knows what caused the folk era, and scientists are studying what can be done to prevent it from ever happening again.

The nice people at royzimmerman.com have sent me another CD, The Best of the Foremen. They tell me this group was especially popular with biologists (I can see it—songs about wallowing in whale guts and what we euphemistically call “firing the Surgeon General” are always well received by us), and that SJ Gould had them play at his wedding. I can’t argue with Gould! Not any more at least.

Self-mocking folkies are always fun to listen to. Check ’em out.

Comments

  1. Luis says

    PZ:

    I am happy to see the that the connection with RZ is still ongoing.

    Several songs from “Folk Heroes” are still completely relevant today – “Ollie Ollie Off Scott Free” and “My Conservative Girlfriend” spring to mind.

  2. natural cynic says

    *sigh*

    What could ever beat:
    “And it’s one, two, three, what are we fightin’ for
    Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn…”

    Gimmee an FFFFF

  3. David Wilford says

    Sorry, but they just don’t make ’em like Tom Lehrer did anymore:

    Who made me the genius I am today,
    The mathematician that others all quote?
    Who’s the professor that made me that way,
    The greatest that ever got chalk on his coat?

    One man deserves the credit,
    One man deserves the blame,
    and Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name. Oy!
    Nicolai Ivanovich Lobache…

    I am never forget the day I first meet the great Lobachevsky.
    In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics: Plagiarize!

    Plagiarize,
    Let no one else’s work evade your eyes,
    Remember why the good Lord made your eyes,
    So don’t shade your eyes,
    But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize…
    Only be sure always to call it please, “research”.

    And ever since I meet this man my life is not the same,
    And Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name. Oy!
    Nicolai Ivanovich Lobache…

  4. Doug Kilgore says

    PZ,
    I enoy your blog immensely. It fails to surpirse me that you have such great taste in music.
    DFK

  5. Doug Kilgore says

    PZ,
    I enoy your blog immensely. It fails to surpirse me that you have such great taste in music.
    DFK

  6. says

    “Self-mocking folkies are always fun to listen to.”

    Duck’s Breath Mystery Theater (they originated “Ask Dr. Science,” among other things) had a guy who did very funny folksong parodies from time to time. I still remember (sung in a plaintive tenor to a minor key melody, moving up into falsetto for the final line of each stanza):

    I’m an old folk singer;
    I’m just an old singer;
    I’m an old folk singer;
    Are you a folk singer, too?

    I’m an old folk singer;
    I’m just an old singer;
    I’m an old folk singer;
    These two chords are my life.

    Best, Marc

  7. Kagehi says

    Hmm. Technically, when its not about traditional folksy stuff its called “Filk”. Reminds me.. I need to see if Firebird Arts and Music is still around, so I can replace some old cassetes from them with CDs…

  8. says

    Tom Lehrer also wrote:

    We are the folk-song army
    Every one of us cares;
    We all hate poverty, war, and injustice
    Unlike the rest of you squares!

  9. WackoHubris says

    David Wilford writes < >

    Wouldn’t biologists expect each generation to make lots of ’ems like Tom Lehrer?

  10. george cauldron says

    Hard to believe all the resident wingnuts resisted the temptation to ridicule the ‘kumbaya’ reference…