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Folk music had a history of being sympathetic to the working class citizen. This folk tradition which had been carried on in the 1940’s and 50’s by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger became increasingly popularised and politicised in the late 50’s and early 60’s by people like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul and Mary. Their new breed of folk music, a cross with rock ‘n’ roll, reached a far greater audience and had the youth listening. Pete Seeger was a folk singer before, during, and after the war. He wrote many folk songs and is still currently writing. In 1941 Seeger, Cis Cunningham and the Lomaxes formed a group called the Almanac Singers. Their aim was to bring social injustice to the awareness of others. Woodie Guthrie was also a folk artist during and after WWII. He wrote over 1000 songs before his death in 1967 from a nerve disease. ‘Where Have All the Flowers Gone?’ and ‘This Land is Your Land’ were two of Guthrie’s protest songs. In 1962 a young artist by the name of Bob Dylan came onto the folk scene with his self-titled album. Woody Guthrie had a huge impact on Bob Dylan. Dylan even wrote a song called ‘Song to Woody’, which paid tribute to Guthrie. ‘…I'm a-singin' you the song, but I can't sing enough, Cause there's not many men that done the things that you've done.’ But it was not Dylan’s debut album, it was his second and third albums released in 1964 that had songs of protest against the Vietnam War. ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’, ‘Only a Pawn in Their Game’, and ‘The Times are They are A-Changing’ were all songs protesting war and racism. ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ was a song protesting the Vietnam War. It asks how long and how many dead soldiers it will take before enough is enough.
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