Paul Clayton Discography

 

Paul Clayton was born in New Bedford, Mass., March 3, 1933 

PAUL CLAYTON was a trained folklorist who studied at the University of Virginia, and collected southern Appalachian ballads on several field trips, including a collecting trip with Liam Clancy. He began his performing career when he was fifteen, on a series of folksong radio programs in New Bedford. He made his first record in 1954.

During the fifties and sixties, he was part of the Greenwich Village folk music scene that also included such well-known figures as Dave van Ronk, Bob Dylan, and Judy Collins. The melody to Dylan's “Don't Think Twice, It's All Right” was taken from a song that Clayton had collected in Appalachia, “Who'll Buy Your Chickens When I'm Gone” (which he recorded on Monument 4001). The tune was in the public domain, but many people believed at the time that Clayton should have received some kind of credit for finding it. There is a theory that Dylan's “It's All Over Now, Baby Blue” was written at the end of his close friendship with Clayton, but Dylan has denied this.

Paul Clayton died March 30, 1967

 

Partial (?)  Discography:

Cumberland Mountain Folksongs                                           

Folkways FA 2007

Bay State Ballads                                                       

Folkways FA 2106

Folk Songs and Ballads of Virginia                           

Folkways FA 2110

Folkways-Viking Record of Folk Ballads                              

Folkways FA 2310

Dulcimer Songs and Solos                                         

Folkways FA 2382

Foc'sle Songs and Shanties                                        

Folkways FA 2429

British Broadside Ballads in Popular Tradition

Folkways FW 8708 

American Broadside Ballads in Popular Tradition                

Folkways FA 23378

Whaling Songs and Ballads
    (still available on LP from Stinson Records)

Stinson SLP #69

Waters of Tyne                                                           

Stinson SLP #70

Whaling and Sailing Songs from the Days of Moby Dick

Tradition 1005
(CD as Tradition 1064)

American Folksongs and Tales                                              

Tradition  TLP-1011

Bloody Ballads (British and American Murder Ballads)       

Riverside RLP 12-615

Wanted for Murder                                                     

Riverside RLP 12-640

Timber-r-r!                                                                 

Riverside RLP 12-648

Concert of British and American Folksongs               

Riverside RLP 12-836

The Riverside/Folklore Series, Volume 3: Singing the New Tradition  (two songs on a CD compilation)

Riverside RCD 9911-2

Unholy Matrimony

Elektra EKL-147

Our Singing Heritage  (two songs)                 

Elektra EKL-151

Bobby Burns' Merry Muses of Caledonia                              

Elektra EKL-155

Home-Made Songs & Ballads

Monument 4001

Paul Clayton, Folk Singer!                                         

Monument MLP 8107

This list is based on published sources and my own collection. Please send additions and corrections to johnross@halcyon.com.

 

Issue 3, August 1999