"... and emotional intensity in American labor songs by projecting them like a European opera singer.... Odetta was the secret-agent contralto, amplifying a history of pain others were using for sing-alongs.... If 'Blade Runner' and 'Seinfeld' were early manifestations of the twenty-first century, Odetta was the last glowing ember of the nineteenth century, a performer who made her name on the stage with a voice that could reach the cheap seats and the town square, too. Bob Dylan’s early records are omnipresent, whereas Odetta’s are not. Certainly a matrix of biases helped bring about this outcome, most of them unfair. But at least one deals with the character of her singing itself. Her 1957 album 'At the Gate of Horn' is recorded well, and Odetta’s vocal quality is as heavy and shiny as gold. She did not let go of her opera willingly. Until the seventies, when she began to loosen her vocals, Odetta rarely missed a chance to use her chest voice, extend a note, and twist it with vibrato."
From "How Odetta Revolutionized Folk Music/She animated the horror and emotional intensity in American labor songs by projecting them like a European opera singer" by Sasha Frere-Jones (The New Yorker).
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19 comments:
"Bob Dylan’s early records are omnipresent, whereas Odetta’s are not. Certainly a matrix of biases helped bring about this outcome, most of them unfair."
Unfair? Really? I'm not sure how to extrapolate the counterfactual where Bob Dylan didn't become a Rock Star. Would his early records still be omnipresent, or would he be just a slightly better known Phil Ochs? Heck, never mind the full electric Rock Star, was there ever even a Freewheelin' Odetta or Another Side of Odetta? I think she mostly stuck with traditional material her whole career didn't she? Nothing wrong with that, but it's a bit apples to oranges to compare her to Dylan. Wouldn't Pete Seeger or The Kingston Trio be a better comparison, and on that scale, I think she holds her own fairly well.
Sorry, but that revolution, as it were, predated Odetta. Aaron Copland had "operaticized" folks music with his 1950 and 1952 compositions of "Old American Songs" and he didn't innovate the style, either.
Is there a pill for sarcasm? I really, really, need one.
I remember thinking the music of Odetta hugely unappealing at the time, which thought hasn't changned. She seemed to be popular with somebody on campus, judging by the posters. I liked folk music in general though.
Janis Joplin loved Odetta.
https://www.janisjoplin.net/music/influences/odetta/
She does not sound "antiquated" to me.
My sister was her agent in the later ‘80’s as part of a larger agency for musical artists (classical and otherwise). The major task was ensuring that there was adequate liquor delivered to the room pre-check in. Sad in lots of ways.
My wife and her sister (who know they cannot sing) sing like this to each other until they cant anymore because they are laughing too hard. Usually happy birthday or some ear worm from church.
Many of these songs are BRITISH folk songs. How does that equate to “ American labor songs” the author obviously implying they were sung by black slaves. I mean if they were not sung by black slaves what is the author’s point? Was Oddetta using her Opera voice to eulogize all the poor white Brits who suffered and died working to build this country? Snicker.
Lovely.
Her work sounds antiquated only to those unbaptized in the Great River of American Music.
For an example of her later style, here's Odetta singing Randy Newman's Mama Told Me Not To Come.
I was a great admirer of Odetta. She introduced me to a lot of Dylan songs. Yet once I began to listen to Dylan himself I couldn't like the Odetta version as much.
When I was in a band in college we would look over at some other group and say "We are much more talented than them. How come they are getting gigs with much better money?" Then we would look over on the other side and say "Those guys are way better than we are, and they are doing worse than us." Fame and popularity are not entirely accidental, but they are fickle and unpredictable.
It is easy journalism to compare everyone to the Bob Dylans of the world and say "It's not fair!" Prejudice is real and was more real then, but there were plenty of talented white males in that era who also didn't become Bob Dylan. Was she more worthy than Dave Van Ronk? She was better known than Beatrice Reagon. Was that fair, or not fair?
Ugh. An appearance by Odetta on Merv or Ed Sullivan was a peanut butter sandwich break when I was a kid. Even at the age of 9 or 10, I sensed pretentious bullshit.
Mahalia Jackson she ain't!
I don’t understand splitting Odetta from Dylan. I only know of Odetta from her covers of early Dylan folk songs. Her covers are only of interest against the backdrop of the poor quality of voices/performances of folk singers in general and what seems to me to be Dylan’s growing lack of interest in his own folk songs. Hence his move to electric etc. Yet Dylan’s folk songs made her a lot of money and his songs live on. As always, content is king. Those who pretend otherwise are fools.
I saw her in concert here in Madison in it must have been the 80s. The main thing I remember was that one of the songs was "Home on the Range." It came as a complete surprise and was hugely entertaining. I don't see that on Spotify so I guess it wasn't something she did often.
Spotify keeps throwing Odetta songs at me.
No sale.
The first concert I ever saw was Bill Cosby at the Auditorium Theater Chicago on Halloween 1967 (I was 11.) The opening act was Odetta.
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