#968. Lineage of Song: “Turn, Turn, Turn”

 

Pete Seeger

The Byrds

Ah, so this is definitely one I composed in the aftermath of A Complete Unknown, where Seeger is played by Edward Norton, who has been able to settle into doing exactly what he wants after very uncomfortably existing in the early parts of his career in the mainstream. His starring role in The Incredible Hulk, the second entry in the MCU, was the definitive tipping point. He became known as “difficult to work with,” mostly stemming from taking over the production of his masterpiece, American History X. Seeger, meanwhile, seems to have been the last of the true believers in the folk music scene, the bridge between Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. That aspect of Unknown is alone worth savoring, how Dylan navigates his early career, clearly enthralled with the dying Guthrie while forging ahead with Seeger, Joan Baez, rejecting their attempts to pigeonhole him, theirs and fans. Music as we know it would be poorer had he agreed. His legacy will continue to evolve over the coming decades. I’m currently working my way into a country act named Colter Wall, who sounds like a young version of the older Johnny Cash. He keeps denying it, but it’s absolutely there. His music seems to have been unearthed, like he’s tapping what Cash was always trying to mine. Bob Dylan is and was a more complete phenomenon than Cash. Just imagine the Bob Dylan version of Colter Wall. It’s going to happen. Wall plays in obscurity. He’s another Canadian act tapping into traditional American sounds, like the Dead South. Maybe the Bob will emerge from that, too. Or just show up in the anonymous music circuits most of us will never experience. Radio doesn’t look for these acts, and the expanse of the internet hides everything it finds. Such is what we have to navigate.