[Studs Terkel with Dave Marsh, part 2]

Continuation of raw footage of Studs Terkel with music critic Dave Marsh on WFMT, who is promoting his new book "The Heart Of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made." Terkel plays clips from Marsh's list of the greatest rock singles ever made while Marsh explains their deep connections to society and culture. (Note: while music is playing, their dialogue is inaudible.)

00:00  Continuing from the last tape, the song “Live to Tell” by Madonna plays. Admitting that even though a generation gap exists in musical tastes, Marsh says, “People have a way in which people have of dismissing all this stuff as kid stuff, and that’s not right because it comes from something.” Marsh points out that Madonna broke taboos, working with black and Latino producers—often her boyfriends—despite sharp criticism from the white press.

01:52Copy video clip URL Marsh talks about editing a book about Woody Guthrie, which gave him a new perspective on music’s past. They also talk about how modern music is “cut off from its own roots.”

03:45Copy video clip URL They play “Mean Old World” by Little Walter, a blues musician. “What he’s saying is you’ve got to have community,” Marsh says of the post-war record. They briefly discuss the country blues movement.

07:02Copy video clip URL Transitioning to the British Invasion, they discuss and play the ancient folk lament “The House Of The Rising Sun” remade by Eric Burden & The Animals. “It’s American music [that] crosses the water through a variety of means. British kids hear what is there musically and emotionally, and connect with it. And they find out it’s universal.” They also talk about legendary guitarist Bo Diddley.

13:29Copy video clip URL Retuning to the common theme of the fusion of black and white music, they relate Gladys Knight’s “Midnight Train to Georgia” to the Great Migration. “If you want to be eclectic, you have to learn to listen what other people care about,” Marsh comments about his job as a critic. They also talk about “wallpaper” music and shares his daughter’s complaint against his blues records—”They’re so hard to ignore.”

18:26Copy video clip URL They talk about conflicts within the black musical tradition, like the movement that sought to secularize black gospel music. For an example, Marsh plays the Faye Adams gospel-influenced “Shake A Hand.” “I can understand why church people would find it very offensive that people were taking their music and taking the Jesus out of it, and other black people were raping their culture, as white people would later.” Tape stops mid-song.

 

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