Liberal Arts Blog — Odetta: “Voice of the Civil Rights Movement”
Liberal Arts Blog — Thursday is the Joy of Music Day
Today’s Topic: Odetta (1930–2008) “Voice of the Civil Rights Movement”
How did I miss Odetta? Thank you, Earle, for introducing me to her work. With a huge, operatic voice, she had a major influence on many other musicians — from Bob Dylan and Joan Baez to Janis Joplin and Harry Belafonte. Martin Luther King would call her “the Queen of American folk music.” Today, a few clips and notes. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
ODETTA’S MANY INFLUENCES — Dylan, Baez, Joplin
1. Bob Dylan: “The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta. I heard a record of hers Odetta Sings ballads and Blues” in a record store, back when you could listen to records right there in the store. Right then and there, I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar, a flat-top Gibson. . . . [That album was] just something vital and personal. I learned all the songs on that record.”
2. Joan Baez “Odetta was a goddess. Her passion moved me. I learned everything she sang.”
3. Apparently Janis Joplin “”spent much of her adolescence listening to Odetta, who was also the first person Janis imitated when she started singing”
NB: Maya Angelou — “If only one could be sure that every 50 years a voice and a soul like Odetta’s would come along, the centuries would pass so quickly and painlessly we would hardly recognize time”
ODETTA IN PARIS
1. Have you ever heard “Frog Went a Courtin”?
2. You’ll never think of it the same after hearing Odetta sing it. (second clip in the video below).
WATERBOY: or is it “Water, boy”?
1. “Water boy, where are you hiding?”
2. “Today when this song is performed it is titled “Waterboy” instead of “Water, Boy. “I equate this to trying to soften up the history, but let’s not forget what’s true.” (fourth link below)
3. “Said as an order. Water is needed, boy go get it.”
NB “Slaves sang this song on the plantation, inmates past sang this some when they were put to work. They sang this song with an innate need to preserve its meaning, to bring awareness to terrible work and living conditions.”
https://newrepublic.com/article/122674/whats-behind-music-isnt-nearly-important-song-itself
Catch Her Melody: Odetta — Protest Magazine
THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE -
Odetta — This Little Light Of Mine (best version)
FOOTNOTE
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, she moved to LA with her mother when she was seven. Her father had already died. She began vocal training at age 13 and made “her professional debut in musical theater” a year later, in 1944. Her first recording was made in 1954. She famously sang “Oh! Freedom!” at the March on Washington in 1963. Her last tour was in 2008 when she sang from a wheel chair.
Last three years of posts organized thematically:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN
Time to share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to music. Or the coolest thing you learned in your life related to music. Say your favorite song or songs. Or your favorite tips for breathing, posture, or relaxation. Or some insight into the history of music….Or just something random about music… like a joke about drummers. jazz, rock….or share an episode or chapter in your musical autobiography.
This is your chance to make some one else’s day. And perhaps to cement in your memory something important you would otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than you otherwise would about something that matters to you.
