About This Lesson
This lesson introduces the Folk Rock phenomenon with a look at the genre’s roots in American Folk music traditions. Students will read a brief but colorful description of Folk music from the vantage point of American master Woody Guthrie and also view footage of Guthrie’s protégé, Pete Seeger, singing and talking about Folk music. Students will hear a later version of one of Pete Seeger’s most famous songs (co-written with Lee Hays), “If I Had A Hammer,” and assess the extent to which the “transitional” version of the song, performed by Peter, Paul and Mary, was true to the original spirit of Seeger’s version. Finally, a more fully formed version of the Folk Rock sound will be considered by way of a further comparison between Seeger’s “Turn, Turn, Turn” and a cover of the song by the Byrds, which went to No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart in 1965.
