from _The Westsider_, late 1977
It's oldies night on the radio. The d.j. has promised to play nothing but
the greatest hits of the '50s and '60s, and sure enough, here they are --
"Irene Goodnight" sung by the Weavers; "Tom Dooley" by the Kingston
Trio; "Abilene" by George Hamilton IV; "Midnight Special" by Johnny
Rivers; and "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals.
All of these songs reached number one on the charts. And they have
something else in common: all are genuine American folk songs of
unknown authorship that might have been lost forever if they had not been
discovered and preserved by John and Alan Lomax, the famous father-son
folklorist team.
The folk music explosion in America that peaked in the early 1960s and
continues today owes more of a debt to the Lomaxes than to any
performer or songwriter. John Lomax died in 1948 at the age of 80. His
son Alan, 62, has been a resident of New York's Upper West Side for the
past 15 years. Working seven days a week at his 98th Street office and his
100th Street apartment, Alan has carried on his father's work with a
remarkable talent and energy. He has gone far beyond the simple
collecting of folk songs, and maintains a dizzying schedule of activities --
writing books, catching planes for Europe or Africa, making movies,
producing record albums and tapes, and heading a musical research
project for the Anthropology Department of Columbia University.