home >> collections & research
services >> online collections >> lomax
collection >> quotes
Alan Lomax Collection
Quotes
Throughout the world, folksong collectors tend to dig up old bones from
one graveyard and put them into another graveyard--their filing cabinets.
But Alan Lomax and his father John wanted the American people to once again
sing the wonderful old songs of this country which they never heard on
the radio. So you who read this should know where you can get them--the
American Folklife Center--and they'll live again. --Pete Seeger
The Alan Lomax Collection has finally come home to the American Folklife
Center at the Library of Congress. This sonic treasure chest represents
the vivid stories, history, hopes and dreams of many cultures. Through
these recordings generations will come to know what has passed before them.
The Lomax Collection is a jewel in the crown. --Mickey Hart
Alan was one of those who unlocked the secrets of this kind of music.
So if we've got anybody to thank, it's Alan. Thanks, Alan. --Bob
Dylan
Alan was the impresario of American folk music--he was far more than a
musicologist. He was inventing all sorts of ideas that sounded crazy but
they were not--he saw the connections between cultures and their ballads,
he had a great interest in how society behaves. His work in helping us
discover blues, spirituals, and work songs were like no other musicologist
I know--he is the one who came closet to capturing song--to finding the
nature of folksong and folklore, to locating those common bonds of humanity.
Lomax was to folk music as Diaghelev was to ballet. --Studs Terkel
It has been through these collections of music and narratives that the
history of some strong, powerful (everyday) people was brought to me...Not
in school, but through his collecting, did I find the strength I have inherited.
--Odetta
Alan Lomax's life's work will always represent the true voices of people,
in particular, those who are off the map of popular media or under the
radar of those often supposedly representing them. Alan reminded us, and
his legacy continues to reason, that our finest national treasures are
in the arts - arts of the people, by the people and for the people. A true
friend to my father, he saw with his heart, and heard with his heart. He
did everything he could do to inspire other's to see and hear in new ways.
He heard BIG, and lived BIG, and it certainly would follow that it would
take a BIG Library to house him! --Nora Guthrie
How else can we, and our children's children, go back and learn where
we came from and hear of the struggles of our forefathers, but for the
work and endless labors of Alan Lomax? The little man's voice was heard
because of Alan's efforts. --Josh White, Jr.
Alan Lomax is a completely central figure in twentieth-century culture.
Almost any line you could draw through the whole field of popular musical
culture would have him somewhere on it--probably in several places. -- Brian
Eno
To rescue a nation's folk cultural heritage from impending oblivion is
no mean feat, and America will be eternally grateful to Alan Lomax for
just that. --Stetson Kennedy
In bringing my father's work back home to the place that it began, the
Library of Congress and the American Folklife Center, have embraced my
father's collection in the grandest of ways, and have recognized his vision
of preserving, understanding, and honoring the soul and spirit of the world's
cultures. With its world-wide recognition as a cultural institution, the Library
will serve as a marvelous platform for Alan's intellectual legacy and his legendary
collection. --Anna Lomax Wood
I'm thrilled that the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress
has just acquired the Alan Lomax Collection. The music that Alan Lomax
chronicled and documented is invaluable and deserves to be given the respect
for which the American Folklife Center is legendary. --Moby
|