Song Of The Day

Song of the day

do you want to know the history of a folk song? submit an ask or dm me and I'll cover it

"The Falcon" Mimi & Richard Fariña, 1965

originally based on a traditional English folk song "The Cuckoo Bird", first published between 1780-1812 in London,

later captured by alan lomax in 1942

Mimi & Richard changed the traditional folk song to a hauntingly beautiful anti-war song, describing the predatory nature of fascism and the falcons longing for peace and whimsy.

in theory, i love wikipedia as a large opensource encyclopedia of information free and available for everyone.

in practice I hate it because how dare you say this song was first recorded in 1930 when it was first recorded in 1910 and how dare you say the first american version of the song was from the 60s when it was from the 30s and most of the links to your citations don't work anymore. they frequently confuse folk songs with other folk songs with completely different origins and list them together. they r usually wrong about when something is first printed or even who it was written by, when it was recorded, etc.

i understand I'm being a bit unreasonable, but most easily accessible things online just copy and paste from wikipedia, and for SUCH a niche topic of the history of american folk songs i just see the same misinformation being repeated over and over.

i know i said this before, but it's still upsetting.

broooo i wish old folk songs were more popular what do you mean i can't sing Cedar Grove by Jean Ritchie at karaoke.

also super helpful for cowboy ballads and american folk that are under talked about. just yesterday, i found a very fun thread about folk songs for Rosh hashanah and why there aren't very many that aren't for kids. i love mudcat.org mwa mwa mwa

I’m not always sure how much crossover Age of Sail fandoms have with sea shanty enthusiasts, but I thought I’d share the big sea shanty hub website in case anyone’s not familiar:

You won’t find a better resource for song lyrics and histories!

Joni Mitchell, Rolling Stone, May 17, 1969. Bob Dylan, Rolling Stone, March 4, 1971.