1965

Submerged by the Future

Folk Music and Modernity

July 20, 2026

•

Folk music had stakes in 1965. Bob Dylan faced jeers and applause when he “went electric.” The Byrds took retooled renditions of acoustic folk—all sweet and harmonious, rock-coded singalongs—to the top of the charts. And contrary to the title of his ‘65 album, Phil Ochs didn’t hang up his activist spikes: He doubled down on searing political commentary just as his peers were offering a more temperate, radio-friendly take on the tradition.

Phil Ochs performs in Lansing, MI. Photo CC BY-SA 4.0 Kenneth Tash.

That tradition always had room for these types of changes. For all its connotations of “authenticity,” folk music is perhaps most defined by its fluidity, adaptability, and capacity for evolution. Oral traditions necessarily bring change as each performer offers their interpretation of the repertoire. And those traditions wouldn’t survive without the ability to accommodate shifting performers, audiences, and contexts of creation; they’d be replaced by the next thing rather than seen as part of the same story.

The very notion of folk music as obsessed with the past is, ironically, a product of the present. Technologies that facilitate recording and replication allow us to hear past performances with a level of fidelity pure memory would place out of reach. But the context of those performances—and even their inherent “authenticity” at the time they were laid to tape—is unattainable when heard as perfectly-captured objects years later.

For me, this push-pull of modernity and tradition, and the influence of technological advancement on that dialogue, explains the sound of 1965. An array of vernacular musical traditions—broadly, folk music—incorporated the latest studio technological advancements to create perfectly-recorded music objects with their own sets of values, conventions, and styles. In turn, they’d define the genres that came to dominate recorded popular music in the decades to follow, themselves evolving like an oral tradition, riffing on these recorded forms.

You hear this all over English-language popular music in the playlist below: blues births rock and soul, themselves teasing early renditions of punk and funk; American folk splinters among Dylan, the Byrds, Ochs, and others; and British folk gives rise to Donovan, Graham, and Jansch. But you hear it in other musical traditions, too. Vernacular styles like samba in the favelas of Brazil and cumbia from the rural Colombian coast are, to varying degrees, transforming in much the same way.

This transformation doesn’t just tell how those traditions gave us the styles of music that dominated music for the back half of the 20th century; it also makes evident how those styles are in fact continuations of past practices, not breaks from prior tradition. High-fidelity, unchanging evidence of the past, detached from its context, is the province of museums—not living culture.

“A museum is just a fancy word for a tomb.” -Jamal Mahjoub, Nubian Indigo

‍

Album Spotlight

Al Oud

Hamza El-Din

Folk

🇪🇬

Listen

here.

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In 1965 Nubia, a region split by the border of Egypt and Sudan, both monuments from antiquity and living culture were threatened by the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Built to meet the agricultural and industrial needs of newly-independent Egypt, the resulting lake would both swamp twenty-two massive temples and countless archeological sites and displace 100,000 Nubians from their ancestral homes on the bank of the Nile. A multi-million dollar UNESCO rescue campaign saved much of the former. A few anthropologists took notes on the last days of the latter.

This is the context in which Nubian oud player Hamza El-Din recorded Al Oud, a record laid to tape as the rising waters of Lake Nasser drowned his people’s homes. It's a spare, meditative record consisting mostly of El-Din's plaintive voice and the titular oud, a stringed instrument and ancestor of the lute and guitar, remembering and honoring those people and their culture.

It’s a project not unlike much western folk of its time. El-Din was a professional musician, trained in Cairo and overseas. He traveled to the Nubian community in southern Egypt with a self-conscious intent to learn deeply—and preserve—the cyclical, percussive, call-and-response musical traditions of his people. His work is far from a precise recreation of how Nubian music sounded at the time. The Oud is an instrument long associated with virtuosic Arab art music—not Nubian music—though one which El-Din felt had a "Nubian accent." And the very process of recording a professional solo album is miles away from the communal context of music in Nubia. This is a fundamentally modern project, honoring and continuing his peoples’ culture, not freezing it in amber.

And it’s a tremendous project. In El-Din’s hands, the oud moves from a tradition that might resemble flamenco to unfamiliar ears into something much closer to the American orchestral music of its time. Recursive melodic lines—coiled, asp-like—give tracks like “The Message Bearer” and “Call for Unity” a hypnotic pulse familiar to fans of Riley and Reich. When he lets the instrument breathe, as on “The Gondola,” the loose languor predicts his later association with the Grateful Dead. And the occasional introduction of handclaps and tar not only brings a heightened urgency to tracks like “Greeting Card,” it gets us closest to those percussive Nubian traditions.

Those traditions—and the threat they faced at the time of recording—are the subject of the record. Traditions shared through storytelling, traditions maintained in the face of disruption, traditions lost but remembered. Opener and album highlight “Childhood” hears El-Din’s intimate delivery tell of early memories along the Nile: “Do you remember when we were young / When we played together by the Nile?” Then: “Now the palm trees have been submerged / But I am the one who has drowned in your love.” The stakes of El-Din’s negotiation between a remembered past and a changing present aren’t just aesthetic.

Of course, few things are. The aesthetics of vernacular culture reflect our own naturalized ways of knowing and ways of being: what belongs, what counts as valid, what’s even intelligible. And that culture’s appeal to the past is ultimately a project of the present—it can be nothing else—shaping what today looks like and sounds like. In music in 1965, we hear a question with significant stakes: Even if we agree to privilege the past, what past are we privileging?

This is part one of a series telling a global history of popular music. Hear the full story of the dam’s impact on the Nubian people—and music in 1965—by listening to the podcast. And check out 101 curated songs from 1965 in the playlist, listening for how those songs bring the past to bear on the present.

Listen to the Podcast Read the Transcript STREAM the Playlist

The Songs

Alton and The Flames

Dance Crasher

Included on

Dance Crasher / Vitamin A

Genre:

Ska

🇯🇲

Listen to

Dance Crasher

"Of all his early songs that attacked the rude boys and badmen, Dance Crasher was perhaps the most popular . . . The recording urged the knife-wielding, bottle-throwing troublemakers, to redirect their energies into more productive areas."

—

Clinton Lindsay

The Foundation Radio Network

Astrud Gilberto

Água de Beber

Included on

The Astrud Gilberto Album

Genre:

Bossa Nova

🇧🇷

Listen to

Água de Beber

B.B. King

How Blue Can You Get?

Included on

Live at the Regal

Genre:

Blues

🇺🇸

Listen to

How Blue Can You Get?

Bana

Prigosinha

Included on

Nha Terra Cabo Verde

Genre:

Morna

🇨🇻

Listen to

Prigosinha

Barbara Mason

Yes, I'm Ready

Included on

Yes, I'm Ready

Genre:

R&B, Soul

🇺🇸

Listen to

Yes, I'm Ready

Barry McGuire

Eve of Destruction

Included on

Eve of Destruction

Genre:

Folk, Rock

🇺🇸

Listen to

Eve of Destruction

Beach Boys

Do You Wanna Dance?

Included on

The Beach Boys Today!

Genre:

Rock, Pop

🇺🇸

Listen to

Do You Wanna Dance?

The Beatles

I'm Looking through You

Included on

Rubber Soul

Genre:

Rock, Beat

🇬🇧

Listen to

I'm Looking through You

Bert Jansch

Strolling Down the Highway

Included on

Bert Jansch

Genre:

Folk

🇬🇧

Listen to

Strolling Down the Highway

Billy Stewart

Summertime

Included on

Unbelievable

Genre:

R&B, Jazz

🇺🇸

Listen to

Summertime

"[C]ontrolled mayhem . . . Stewart scats, hoots, and hollers his way through the entire [track] . . . the man doesn’t come up for air."

—

Jamison DJ Prestige Harvey

Flea Market Funk

Bob Dylan

Subterranean Homesick Blues

Included on

Bringing It All Back Home

Genre:

Folk, Rock

🇺🇸

Listen to

Subterranean Homesick Blues

Los Brincos

Tú Me Dijiste Adiós

Included on

Tú Me Dijiste Adiós / Eres Tú

Genre:

Rock, Beat

🇪🇸

Listen to

Tú Me Dijiste Adiós

Buck Owens

Before You Go

Included on

Before You Go / No One But You

Genre:

Country

🇺🇸

Listen to

Before You Go

The Byrds

All I Really Want to Do

Included on

Mr. Tambourine Man

Genre:

Folk, Rock

🇺🇸

Listen to

All I Really Want to Do

Cal Tjader

Soul Sauce

Included on

Soul Sauce

Genre:

Jazz, Lounge

🇺🇸

Listen to

Soul Sauce

Charles Aznavour

La Bohème

Included on

La Bohème

Genre:

Chanson

🇫🇷

Listen to

La Bohème

Christophe

Aline

Included on

Aline

Genre:

Chanson

🇫🇷

Listen to

Aline

"At the end of a career spanning about fifteen albums and a string of hits, the artist’s name remains attached to his first hit: Aline."

—

Robin Verner

BFMTV

Conchita Velasco

Calor

Included on

Conchita Velasco

Genre:

Yé-yé

🇪🇸

Listen to

Calor

Conjunto Miramar

Cumbia Loca

Included on

Cumbias con 'El Miramar'

Genre:

Cumbia

🇨🇴

Listen to

Cumbia Loca

Connie Smith

I Can't Remember

Included on

Cute 'n' Country

Genre:

Country

🇺🇸

Listen to

I Can't Remember

Daudi Kabaka

Harambee Harambee

Included on

Harambee / Bibi Moupe

Genre:

Benga

🇰🇪

Listen to

Harambee Harambee

Davy Graham

Cocaine

Included on

Folk, Blues & Beyond...

Genre:

Folk, Blues

🇺🇸

Listen to

Cocaine

Dionne Warwick

Are You There (with Another Girl)

Included on

Here I Am

Genre:

Pop

🇺🇸

Listen to

Are You There (with Another Girl)

Dionysis Savvopoulos

Mi Milas Alloe Gi' Agapi

Included on

Τα Πουλιά Της Δυστυχίας / Μη Μιλάς Άλλο Γι' Αγάπη

Genre:

Folk

🇬🇷

Listen to

Mi Milas Alloe Gi' Agapi

Donovan

Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness)

Included on

Fairytale

Genre:

Folk, Rock

🇬🇧

Listen to

Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness)

Eddie Palmieri

Oyelo Que Te Conviene

Included on

Azucar pa' Ti

Genre:

Salsa

🇺🇸

Listen to

Oyelo Que Te Conviene

Elza Soares

O Samba da Minha Terra

Included on

Um Show de Elza

Genre:

Samba, Jazz

🇧🇷

Listen to

O Samba da Minha Terra

"If you don’t like samba, something’s off—either in your head or in your feet."

—

Elza Soares

O Samba da Minha Terra lyrics, translated

Fela Kuti

Oloruka

Included on

Oloruka / Awo

Genre:

Highlife

🇳🇬

Listen to

Oloruka

Fontella Bass

Rescue Me

Included on

Rescue Me / Soul of the Man

Genre:

R&B, Soul

🇺🇸

Listen to

Rescue Me

Four Tops

It's the Same Old Song

Included on

Second Album

Genre:

R&B, Soul

🇺🇸

Listen to

It's the Same Old Song

France Gall

Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son

Included on

Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son

Genre:

Yé-yé

🇫🇷

Listen to

Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son

Franco and TPOK Jazz

Ngai Marie Nzoto Ebeba

Included on

1963 1965 1966

Genre:

Rumba

🇨🇩

Listen to

Ngai Marie Nzoto Ebeba

Françoise Hardy

Ce Petit Coeur

Included on

Françoise Hardy

Genre:

Yé-yé, Chanson

🇫🇷

Listen to

Ce Petit Coeur

Frank Sinatra

The September of My Years

Included on

The September of My Years

Genre:

Pop, Ballad

🇺🇸

Listen to

The September of My Years

Franz Josef Degenhardt

Spiel Nicht mit den Schmuddelkindern

Included on

Spiel Nicht mit den Schmuddelkindern

Genre:

Folk, Liedermacher

🇩🇪

Listen to

Spiel Nicht mit den Schmuddelkindern

". . . an anthem of the 1968 movement."

—

Von Goetz Steeger

Deutschlandfunk Kultur

The Fugs

Supergirl

Included on

Sing Ballads of Contemporary Protest, Point of Views, and General Dissatisfaction

Genre:

Rock, Psychedelic

🇺🇸

Listen to

Supergirl

George Jones

Things Have Gone to Pieces

Included on

Things Have Gone To Pieces / Wearing My Heart Away

Genre:

Country

🇺🇸

Listen to

Things Have Gone to Pieces

The Holy Modal Rounders

Junko Partner

Included on

The Holy Modal Rounders 2

Genre:

Folk

🇺🇸

Listen to

Junko Partner

Jackie Opel

Old Rocking Chair

Included on

Old Rocking Chair / Ska In Vienna Woods

Genre:

Ska

🇯🇲

Listen to

Old Rocking Chair

Jackson C. Frank

Blues Run the Game

Included on

Jackson C. Frank

Genre:

Folk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMBYg5r6zzE

Listen to

Blues Run the Game

"[T]he sole perfect number that forms his entire legacy . . . [a] mantra for those who can never outrun their own tail of perennial sadness."

—

Grayson Haver Currin

Pitchfork

Jacques Brel

La Chanson de Jacky

Included on

Ces Gens-Là

Genre:

Chanson

🇫🇷

Listen to

La Chanson de Jacky

James Brown and The Famous Flames

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag

Included on

Papa's Got A Brand New Bag

Genre:

R&B, Soul

🇺🇸

Listen to

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag

James Phelps

Love Is a Five Letter Word

Included on

Love Is A 5-Letter Word / I'll Do The Best I Can

Genre:

R&B, Soul

🇺🇸

Listen to

Love Is a Five Letter Word

João do Vale

Carcará

Included on

O Poeta Do Povo

Genre:

Samba

🇧🇷

Listen to

Carcará

Johnny Cash

Orange Blossom Special

Included on

Orange Blossom Special

Genre:

Country

🇺🇸

Listen to

Orange Blossom Special

Jorge Ben Jor

Agora Ninguém Chora Mais

Included on

Big Ben

Genre:

Samba, Rock

🇧🇷

Listen to

Agora Ninguém Chora Mais

Jr. Walker and The All Stars

Shotgun

Included on

Shotgun

Genre:

R&B, Soul

🇺🇸

Listen to

Shotgun

Junior Wells' Chicago Blues Band

Hound Dog

Included on

Hoodoo Man Blues

Genre:

Blues

🇺🇸

Listen to

Hound Dog

Justin Hinds and The Dominoes

Bother Ration

Included on

Bother Ration / Satan

Genre:

Ska

🇯🇲

Listen to

Bother Ration

The Kinks

See My Friend

Included on

See My Friend

Genre:

Rock, Psychedelic

🇬🇧

Listen to

See My Friend

"That ‘See My Friend.’ I really like that. I should have written it."

—

Paul McCartney

Beatles '66: The Revolutionary Year

Lito Barrientos

Cumbia en do Menor

Included on

Very Very Well

Genre:

Cumbia

🇸🇻

Listen to

Cumbia en do Menor

Lord Kitchener

Hold on to Your Man

Included on

Mr. Kitch

Genre:

Calypso

🇹🇹

Listen to

Hold on to Your Man

Lord Tanamo

I'm in the Mood for Ska

Included on

I'm In The Mood For Ska

Genre:

Ska

🇯🇲

Listen to

I'm in the Mood for Ska

Luli

Baleiro

Included on

Luli

Genre:

Bossa Nova

🇧🇷

Listen to

Baleiro

Manna Dey

Aao Twist Karen

Included on

Bhoot Bungla

Genre:

Bollywood, Rock

🇮🇳

Listen to

Aao Twist Karen

Marcos Valle

A Resposta

Included on

O Compositor e o Cantor

Genre:

Bossa Nova

🇧🇷

Listen to

A Resposta

Martha Reeves & the Vandellas

Nowhere to Run

Included on

Dance Party

Genre:

R&B, Pop

🇺🇸

Listen to

Nowhere to Run

"[A] hard-driving, fast-moving, raunchy bluesy stomper with a contagious teen-oriented, danceable beat."

—

Cash Box

23793

Marvin Gaye

Ain't that Peculiar

Included on

Ain't that Peculiar

Genre:

R&B, Soul

🇺🇸

Listen to

Ain't that Peculiar

The Maytals

It's You I Love

Included on

The Sensational Maytals

Genre:

Ska

🇯🇲

Listen to

It's You I Love

Mighty Sparrow

No Bacchanal

Included on

Congo Man

Genre:

Calypso

🇹🇹

Listen to

No Bacchanal

Miriam Makeba

Chove-Chuva

Included on

Makeba Sings!

Genre:

Samba

🇿🇦

Listen to

Chove-Chuva

Mohammed Rafi

Jaan Pehechan Ho

Included on

Gumnaam

Genre:

Bollywood, Rock

🇮🇳

Listen to

Jaan Pehechan Ho

Nara Leão

Não Me Diga Adeus

Included on

O Canto Livre De Nara

Genre:

Bossa Nova

🇧🇷

Listen to

Não Me Diga Adeus

Nina Simone

Sinnerman

Included on

Pastel Blues

Genre:

Vocal Jazz, Blues

🇺🇸

Listen to

Sinnerman

Odetta

Baby, I'm in the Mood for You

Included on

Odetta Sings Dylan

Genre:

Folk

🇺🇸

Listen to

Baby, I'm in the Mood for You

Orlando Julius

Jagua Nana

Included on

Ise Logun Ise / Jagua Nana

Genre:

Highlife, R&B

🇳🇬

Listen to

Jagua Nana

"Orlando Julius . . .played an instrumental role in constructing, through vivid characterisations of Jagua Nana, an avatar of feminism that loiters in our cultural landscape"

—

Desola Olaleye

OlongoAfrica

Otis Redding

I've Been Loving You Too Long

Included on

Otis Blue / Otis Redding Sings Soul

Genre:

R&B, Soul

🇺🇸

Listen to

I've Been Loving You Too Long

Ouro Negro

Meadowlands

Included on

Kwela

Genre:

Folk, Pop

🇦🇴

Listen to

Meadowlands

Paul Desmond

Bossa Antigua

Included on

Bossa Antigua

Genre:

Cool Jazz, Bossa Nova

🇺🇸

Listen to

Bossa Antigua

Paul Simon

A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)

Included on

The Paul Simon Songbook

Genre:

Folk

🇺🇸

Listen to

A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)

Phil Ochs

Here's to the State of Mississippi

Included on

I Ain't Marching Any More

Genre:

Folk

🇺🇸

Listen to

Here's to the State of Mississippi

The Pretty Things

You Don't Believe Me

Included on

Get the Picture?

Genre:

Rock, Garage

🇬🇧

Listen to

You Don't Believe Me

Ray Barretto

The James Bond Theme

Included on

Señor 007

Genre:

Latin Jazz

🇺🇸

Listen to

The James Bond Theme

The Righteous Brothers

Unchained Melody

Included on

Just Once In My Life

Genre:

Pop, Ballad

🇺🇸

Listen to

Unchained Melody

Roberto Carlos

Quero Que Vá Tudo Pro Inferno

Included on

Jovem Guarda

Genre:

Rock, MPB

🇧🇷

Listen to

Quero Que Vá Tudo Pro Inferno

Roger Miller

King of the Road

Included on

The Return of Roger Miller

Genre:

Country

🇺🇸

Listen to

King of the Road

"[T]he Texas-born songwriter’s signature tune . . . [a] deliciously detailed masterpiece [that] describes a happy-go-lucky vagrant’s existential tradeoff."

—

Richard Gehr

Rolling Stone

The Rolling Stones

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

Included on

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

Genre:

Rock, Blues

🇬🇧

Listen to

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

The Ronettes

Is This What I Get for Loving You

Included on

Is This What I Get For Loving You? / Oh, I Love You

Genre:

Pop

🇺🇸

Listen to

Is This What I Get for Loving You

Los Saicos

Demolición

Included on

Demolición

Genre:

Rock, Surf

🇵🇪

Listen to

Demolición

The Seeds

Can't Seem to Make You Mine

Included on

Can't Seem to Make You Mine

Genre:

Rock, Garage

🇺🇸

Listen to

Can't Seem to Make You Mine

Los Shakers

Rampan Todo (Break It All)

Included on

Los Shakers

Genre:

Rock, Beat

🇺🇾

Listen to

Rampan Todo (Break It All)

The Shangri-Las

Out in the Streets

Included on

Shangri-Las - 65!

Genre:

Pop

🇺🇸

Listen to

Out in the Streets

Sir Victor Uwaifo

Joromi

Included on

Do Amen-Do / Joromi

Genre:

Highlife

🇳🇬

Listen to

Joromi

Smokey Robinson and The Miracles

The Tracks of My Tears

Included on

Going to a Go-Go

Genre:

R&B, Soul

🇺🇸

Listen to

The Tracks of My Tears

Solomon Burke

Got to Get You Off My Mind

Included on

Got To Get You Off My Mind / Peepin'

Genre:

R&B, Soul

🇺🇸

Listen to

Got to Get You Off My Mind

Son House

Death Letter Blues

Included on

Father of Folk Blues

Genre:

Blues

🇺🇸

Listen to

Death Letter Blues

The Sonics

Strychnine

Included on

Here Are The Sonics!!!

Genre:

Rock, Garage

🇺🇸

Listen to

Strychnine

"One of the most demented and powerful obscurities to come out of the '60s . . . A combination of loud, distorted frat rock, psychedelic, and hard, Rolling Stones-inspired garage rock & roll."

—

Matthew Greenwald

AllMusic