Baby Let Me Follow You Down

by Eric Von Schmidt, Jim Rooney

Long out of print, Baby, Let Me Follow You Down is a classic in the history of American popular culture. The book tells the story of the folk music community in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from its beginnings in living rooms and Harvard Square coffeehouses in the late 1950s to the heyday of the folk music revival in the early 1960s. Hundreds of historical photographs, rescreened for this edition, and dozens of interviews combine to re-create the years when Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and a lively band of Cambridge folksingers led a generation in the rediscovery of American folk music.

Compiled by two musicians who were active participants in the Cambridge folk scene, the volume documents a special time in United States culture when the honesty and vitality of traditional folk music were combined with the raw power of urban blues and the high energy of electric rock and roll to create a new American popular music.

Genres: Music, History

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Chuck Wiedrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by those who lived it, and by those interviewed to relate their recollections of very interesting times in Cambridge, MA. A lot of great stories and significant detail transporting the reader back in time to the late 1950's through early 1970's. Many relatively unknowns together with Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Tom Rush, Doc Watson and Jim Kweskin. I particularly enjoyed the stories of 'discovering' the blues masters like Skip James, Son House, Brownie McGee and Sonny Terry to name a few. Quite informative and fun to read.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

A detailed and engrossing tale of the birth, growth, and dissipation of the Cambridge-based folk scene. The birth of the careers of Joan Baez. Bob Dylan, Peter Wolf, Bonnie Raitt, and more make for very good reading. There are lots of great pictures, but one distracting thing is it is hard to tell who is speaking when the authors inssert one of the many prinary history sources.

[John Edmiston · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best of the best. This should be in everyone's library if you're a dylan fan, or a folk music fan, or just interested in how to do an oral history of some very old, weird america.

[Bernie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great history of the folk scene in Cambridge during the beginning of the folk music boom.
I arrived in Cambridge too late to experience this, but I did catch the tail end... what a time

[Roland Fitzroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

These were the "good old days"