Podcast #5

Episode 5 talked about Harry Smith again and went into more depth about his personality and his relationships with other people. First it talked of how he got to be interested in music. It said that he came from a strange religous background which played an important part in his frame of refrence when he put the songs together and wrote about each one. He also became interested in music at a young age because he used to transcibe Native American ceremonies into writing. Sometimes he would record whole ceremonies which could last several days. People described Harry as a true 20th century renasance man. He drove himself beyond imagination and often drank and did drugs to "open his mind." He is also described as a maddening, irritable and mean man.
I found it interesting that in this episode they said that many singers wouldn't be about today if it wasn't for Harry's anthropolgy of American music. This music shaped how people thought about other singers including Bob Dillan and The Grateful Dead. This has a lot to do with our class because we have been discussing how music started out and how it has changed over the years to form the music that listen to nowadays.