‘THE FOLK BOX’ 1964 RARE ORIGINAL PRESSING 4-LP ELEKTRA CLEAN & CLASSIC

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‘THE FOLK BOX’ 1964 ORIGINAL PRESSING ~ 4-LP ELEKTRA ~ CLEAN & CLASSIC!

“THE FOLK BOX”

4-LP ELEKTRA FOLK, BLUES & COUNTRY BOX SET

LABEL: ELEKTRA EKL-BOX MONO

RELEASE DATE: 1964

ORIGINAL FIRST PRESS w/ BOX & BOOKLET

CONDITION: VINYL, BOX & BOOKLET ALL EX- to EX

A GREAT CONDITION 56 YEAR OLD COPY! 

This auction is for an original first pressing of the classic 1964 Elektra 4-lp ‘THE FOLK BOX.’ This is an original first release from the fall of 1964 on the Elektra label. Comes is a nice sturdy box with a full descriptive booklet.

The box is strong and sturdy, the booklet is tight and clean and the vinyl looks amazingly clean. Vinyl is EX- to EX. The only ‘flaw’ to this fabulous box is that the inner white sleeves have ‘yellowed’ slightly over time, but the vinyl is very clean and crisp.

This album, when it was released back in 1964, played an important formative role in the lives of many Musicians, Artists, Activists and collectors.

In this particular style of music, the song’s the thing. Each song is a world unto itself, a distinctive space of beauty and wisdom into which anyone’s imagination may enter and ultimately be awakened and enlivened.

I can fondly remember listening to an old, beat up, crackly version of this many years ago with friends during college. Sitting around the fireplace, playing along on our cheap guitars and talking about the songs. We would use these songs as the basis to write new lyrics and new verses in order to sing about our own social and political causes back in the day.

This box set incorporates many classic recordings from a veritable who’s who of musicians active in or legendary during the urban folk revival of the 1950s and early 1960s. The Folk Box is chock-full of singularly memorable recordings.

In 1964, as The Folk Box was being compiled and released, hysteria was spreading over the arrival to these shores of the music of the British Invasion. Within a year, Bob Dylan would publicly ‘plug in’ and reject the folk music scene, disgruntled at the pressure to serve as that scene’s spokesperson. Such events rang the death knell for the urban folk revival. But folk music wasn’t really dying—it was only being transformed.

This album documents the rise of the singer-songwriter movement out of the ashes of the urban folk revival. Musicians across America had begun to compose and perform new songs overtly modeled on or inspired by the older folk music.

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Jac Holzman, who founded Elektra Records in 1950, was perhaps the first to notice and to correctly interpret folk music’s transformation in the early 1960s.

While many of his peers feared what they perceived as a compromise to their beloved Folk music, Holzman was fascinated by the possibilities for change within traditional folk music and also within the broader culture.

Holzman decided to produce ‘The Folk Box’, which celebrated America’s folk music in all its rough-hewn glory—its past and present, and its variety of genres, themes, performers, styles, and ethnic influences.

To include the broadest possible range of folk music, Holzman augmented recordings from his own Elektra back-catalog by licensing carefully selected tracks from other labels, especially from Moe Asch’s Folkways Records. In fact, Asch was included in the project as an artistic director, and leading music critic Robert Shelton was invited to contribute album notes to the project. As a result of this powerhouse collaboration, The Folk Box was a textured, balanced, and visionary compilation.

Previously unavailable for decades, the album was chosen for a ‘Records Store Day’ re-release in 2014 and issued by Rhino. That choice was an indication of how important and influential this timeless album was.

This record is an original first pressing box set from 1964, not the re-release. It has the original classic cover art, the extensive detailed booklet written by Robert Shelton and the cool original early Elektra/Folkways labels.

It features 83 tracks over four LPs and features artists such as Pete Seeger, Dave Van Ronk, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Oscar Brand, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Josh White, Leadbelly, Doc Watson, The Dillards, Big Bill Broonzy, Judy Collins and many many more.

It was, and still is, culturally relevant. It serves as a time capsule safeguarding America’s folk music legacy and as a heartening reminder of an era when people were passionate about their songs, their lyrics, their causes and their music. These songs are timeless and never grow old.

Fifty seven years later, the songs and performers that grace The Folk Box continue to inspire America’s music and culture.

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This 4 record set is an amazing mix of Blues, Folk, World Music, Country, Bluegrass and Southern Music.

The record is split into different genres and styles. Each album side has a theme ranging from blues to country:

·        Songs of the Old World and Migration to the New

·        Settling, Exploring and Growing in the New World

·        Work Songs

·        Many Worshippers, One God

 ·      Country Music: From Ballads to Bluegrass

·        Nothing but the Blues

·        Of War, Love and Hope

·        Broadside, Topical Songs, Protest Songs

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I’m recently retired and downsizing and letting go some gems and rarities from nearly 50 years of vinyl record collecting. Check out the many other fantastic 45s and 33s on my page!

All records have been carefully cleaned and played by me. I visually inspect all records under bright light, personally clean them and then play them on a modern high-end turntable to get a true picture of condition. Please look at all the high-resolution pictures I added. They are all my own and are of the actual record being sold. They are part of the description and can show small details, label variations, and condition better than I can put into words.

I’ve been told by other vinyl collecting friends that I under-grade the condition of my records. I see no harm in that. If that VG+ record comes and it’s nicer that you thought, great! We’ve all been burned by that EX- record purchase only to get it and it looks like it was cleaned with sandpaper and played with a rusty nail. My goal is to avoid that ever happening to me or you ever again. My grading is fair and honest and I will ALWAYS refund you for anything you’re not happy with. I have had over 3,100 happy and satisfied EBay customers over the years and I have been buying/selling on EBay for well over 20 years, so please bid with confidence!

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