At age 6 I saw Belafonte sing. "Muleskinner" on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and it made a huge impression on me. My father then took us to Discount Records in Beverly Hills and bought me "Midnight Special," my first Belafonte album. So here's one kid who is proof of that theory.
Cary
On Jul 30, 2013, at 5:49 AM, "Michael Biel" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> From: Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv6xCUEBrDM
>
> WOW! The Brits really get their license fee's worth with Channel 4 --
> and this was a BBC Scotland production!
>
> I started watching this thinking that it would be crap and that I would
> find loads of factual errors, but on the whole it makes many good
> points. It makes a good argument about the transition of the rock and
> pop scene from being singles oriented to album oriented that I had not
> fully considered despite the fact that I lived it and was a part of it.
>
>
> Perhaps their excuse would be that they had discussed the 50's as being
> when adults bought albums and kids bought singles, but I would go beyond
> their narrow view of performers that teenagers would know of. Kids did
> not buy Bob Dylan albums in 1962 or 63. They DID buy Elvis albums,
> Kingston Trio, but not Dylan.
> Although I was there in the folk scene, I had gotten my introduction to
> Dylan in 63 when my British pen-pal asked me to send him Freewheeling
> which had not been released there. The delay in releasing his first 2
> albums in England is not noted despite crediting Dylan with part of the
> thrust to albums with his first albums, especially Freewheeling, but
> this was not noticed at the tie -- only later. They did have an aside
> about the growth of the American Folk Music scene being an influence in
> the album, but then jump back to Dylan. If you want to note album
> artists that did not have hit singles, it started before Dylan. Harry
> Belefonte was not a singles seller, but with "Mark Twain" and especially
> "Calypso", his albums were very influential. I discovered recently when
> doing my "First Family"/"My Son the folk Singer" research that Joan Baez
> had THREE albums in the top 15 that month and that Peter Paul and Mary's
> first album was the No 1 album that these two comedy albums bumped off.
> Dylan's own albums were not making a wave yet -- PP&M MADE Dylan. Later
> on the doc discusses the live album and credits Peter Frampton with
> starting that phase of albums, they forgot "The Weavers At Carnegie
> Hall" and then Belafonte's three GIGANTIC HIT Carnegie Hall and Greek
> Theatre albums as being influential sellers for performers who still
> were not singles sellers. Kids were buying these albums before they
> bought Dylan's albums. Plus I would say that Belafonte's albums were
> more "concept" than Dylan's early albums and that they were hits whereas
> Dylan's weren't.
>
> But it is a thought provoking doc.
>
> Mike Biel [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
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