25 folk songs

dr wu23 wrote: Nick Drake ...River Man from that list ,    but I also voted for several others.....Harper, Simon and Garfunkel,  Mr Fox, Pentangle, CSNY....

 

^^^ David, that Saat is one of my favourites too. Been a long time since I last listened to it. I spent a year familarising myself with music in PA before joining with this account (I had had an earlier registered account), and I used the mp3 tracks we had then (at first downloadable, then streamable as I recall) to discover so much music, and Saat was one of the first that really resonated with me,, and so I got the album. It was one of my early discoveries through PA, along with Heldon, Forest (I'm very surprised "Graveyard" has no votes -- love at first listen for me) Tim Blake, Carpe Diem, Third Ear Band, Tangerine Dream's first (I did have Phaedra already in my collection) and various others that immediately resonated at the time.

^^ Steve, feel free to mention any favourites off of these (i.e, not in my list). I'm very happy when people find something to like on my lists and mention their actual favourites (I like to hear about those, and it helps to connect with those who share similar tastes - I've discovered so much great to me music because I found others who I connected with musically, which has proved one of my greatest joys at this site).

^ The only album of Nick Drake I actually have in my collection is Five Leaves Left. My two favourite songs of his are "River Man" and "Fruit Tree", which says something about my psychology, both of which I found so emotionally resonant. Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom elicits a rather similar reaction. That said, I have heard lots of his other music, including "Northern Lights." It didn't connect with me, seemed rather ordinary to me, if you know what I mean. But many consider it to be extraordinary. Both "River Man" and "Fruit Tree", on the other hand, moved me profoundly and resonated with me so deeply from first listen. Either of those could have been my choice. "Cello Song" would be my third favourite. Nick Drake certainly was able to do melancholy -- such a tragic loss from someone who on the surface of it had so much going for him. I do hope to gain a deeper appreciation for more of Nick Drake's albums and music.

I actually discovered Nick Drake very late, maybe six years ago (not sure how he escaped my radar for so long, especially since there are quite a few folkies at this site and I've been very active here). I was Googling for music similar to Comus' "The Herald", and an article/ web page came up comparing Nick Drake's "River Man" to it -- it was adoration at first listen. I liked to pair "River Man" and "Fruit Tree" up with David Bowie's "Life on Mars?" and "Starman", for some reason.

By the way, when I came up with my original list, but failed to save which was silly cause it took me a long time to put together, I had over 75 songs listed -- I do such things when I have insomnia which is most always (I stuck with one song per artist as is common with me). I was going to do thee polls, but that felt excessive and potentially spammy at the time. I did this again from scratch. Even 25 songs rather than albums or artists might seem very silly, because how many will recognise and remember many of the exact songs even if they would recognise the artists and the album names? I did include some big names that I know some here would have liked, like Jethro Tull, and despite LAM-SGC and us apparently being "worlds apart", Bert Jansch was one of the early ones I included and listed , and then I would have got my "Trouble" by Cat Stevens in -- I really love that, partially because I so love Harold and Maude, and the Neil Young, that I fugured some would miss (I ran out of space aphabetically), and it would have been "nice" (meaning pleasant rather than precise) to put together a modern one. And hen I got to include arious of my favourite relative obscurities such as These Trails -- I went with the, I think gorgeousness of "El Rey Pescador" over the psychedelic weirdness of " Psyche I / Share Your Water", which is what oringally got me to get the album.

I would say that Drake's "River Man", Vashti Bunyan's "Winter is Blue", "Willow's Song" and Perry Leopold's "the Journey" (I adore the Christian Lucifer album, and that may well be my absolute favourite album in Prog Folk) are some of those that strike the biggest chord with me on the list, but obviously, it being my list, I really like them all.

Along with the Forest, I'm rather surprised to see "Willow's Song" with no votes, perhaps it's because I didn't add "from The Wicker Man OST" to it in the poll even though I did in the list in my OP. Maybe I should have included "Gently Johnny", which these days I prefer still.

Edited by Logan - March 24 2020 at 10:05

Out of these: Me And My Woman.

Now if Northern Sky by Nick Drake was on the list, then that would have been my selection. So went for the S&G classic SoS; even though I think America, also by S&G, probably even pips SoS.

Nick Drake ...River Man from that list ,    but I also voted for several others.....Harper, Simon and Garfunkel, 

We are worlds apart when it comes to folk music. So I can't vote. As the best folk songs of that period aren't there in my opinion,
Pentangle, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Lindisfarne, Bert Jansch, John Renbourne, Stealers Wheel, Prior & Tabor, Jethro Tull, The Watersons, Anne Briggs, Albion Country Band, Frankie Armstrong, Martin Carthy and so on.

There are a lot of songs here that I love. As the title of the post is Folk songs that narrows things considerably for me (I wont go into what constitutes 'folk' music to me here) so I will choose one and that's Mr Fox.. But I do love the incredible string band and of course Roy Harper too.. xx

Logan wrote: EDIT: NOW WITH MORE CHOICES THAN EVER (multiple votes enabled). I came up with a much larger list the other day, but then opted not to post it (and failed to save). This focuses on the late 60s through early 70s. This leaves off many of my favourites. I have been told that I tend to go for too many choices, instead of too few, and know I use too many words instead of too few so I panned to keep this to 12, but I went overlong again. Tim Buckley - "Sing a Song for You" Vashti Bunyan - "Winter is Blue" Lenoard Cohen - "Suzanne" Comus - "Winter is a Coloured Bird" Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - "Wooden Ships" Donovan - "Three King Fishers" Nick Drake - "River Man" Extradition - "A Water Song" Forest - "Graveyard" Mark Fry - "The Witch" Paul Giovanni & Magnet - "Willow's Song" off The Wicker Man OST Gryphon - "The Unquiet Grave" Roy Harper - "Me and My Woman" The Incredible String Band - "A Very Cellular Song" Jan Dukes de Grey - "Sun Symphonica" Perry Leopold - "The Journey" Mellow Candle - "Sheep Season" Mr. Fox - "Mr. Fox" Pearls Before Swine - "God Save the Child" The Pentangle - "Cruel Sister" Linda Perhacs - "Parallelograms" Catherine Ribeiro + 2 Bis - "Le Crime de l'Enfant Dieu" Buffy Sainte-Marie - "Suffer the Little Children" Simon and Garfunkel - "The Sound of Silence" Spirogyra - "An Everyday Consumption Song" Cat Stevens - "Trouble" Strawbs - "Witchwood" Trees - "The Garden of Jane Delawney" Neil Young - "The Needle and the Damage Done" I tried to do this alphabetically, using the first letter of the surname for order and not including the artcle for order,, and instead of squeezing in multiple options, I took this list to the first 25 listed (I don't count as I went along) Ugh, and to think it cuts off right before one of my all-time favourite songs, "Trouble" by Cat Stevens. Should there be sufficient interest (it's not the quantity of responses, but more about the way the discussion goes, or fails to go), I will create a part two that includes the last three in my list here as well. as many others. Please excuse any mistakes I may have made.

someone_else wrote: Great list. It might take me some time to make a decision. There are at least 7 songs I could choose.

Thanks, I did opt to change to multiple votes after a comment (although I usually just go for one even when that is an option). The other day I was doing one which asks you to vote for five, and I got to five, but it took ages as I got Captchaed multiple times for every vote cast.

Psychedelic Paul wrote: I voted for Linda Perhacs "Parallelograms" in the end, as I love all of the songs on that album.

I love that album too. Have not listened to it in quite a while, but I also enjoyed her 2014 release The Soul of All Natural Things. She's one of those not well-known in her day, and still not really well-know, but got a significant following in the internet age. I love her vocals.

Edited by Logan - March 14 2020 at 16:59

I voted for Linda Perhacs "Parallelograms" in the end, as I love all of the songs on that album.