Cannon’s Jug Stompers were a jug band started in Tennessee toward the end of the 1920s, by Gus Cannon, a Mississippi-born blues musician who played an integral role in popularizing jug bands.

Folkway Records, or Folkways Records & Service Corp. as it was originally named, is a defunct record label that was started by Moses Asch in New York City in 1948.

Asch’s goal with Folkways was to record the sounds and music of the world, and that he did through the distribution of records whose content ranged from traditional and contemporary music to spoken word and the sounds of nature.

Ultimately, Folkways became a driving force behind the American folk revival because of its championing of singer-songwriters like Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly, and the simultaneous re-discovery and widespread influence of the old-time recordings from the 20s and 30s that were being released by the label at the time.

The New Lost City Ramblers (NCLR) is an old-time string band that came to fruition in 1958, during the American folk revival.

NCLR, as it were in ‘58, consisted of Mike Seeger (half-brother of fellow folk celebrity, Pete Seeger), John Cohen, and Tom Paley.

Here they are (with Tracy Schwarz replacing Tom Paley) playing “Man of Constant Sorrow.”

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

The Anthology of American Folk Music is an super epic six-album compilation of American folk, blues, and country music originally released between 1927 and 1932.

It was put together by Harry Smith, who pulled much of the music from his personal collection of 78 rpm records.

The Anthology played a fairly significant role in revival of American folk music in the 50s and 60s, which is where much of its fame comes from.

Harry Everett Smith (shown left, next to Allen Ginsberg), born in 1923, was many things: an artist and a filmmaker first and foremost, but most importantly, a record collector and self-taught anthropologist.

A figurehead of the Beat Generation, Smith’s use of hallucinogenics and interest in arcane spiritual belief systems is worth noting as they preceded the Hippie movement of the 60s – a movement which saw heavy use of mind-altering drugs and the widespread adoption of esoteric spirituality.

This right is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

— United States Congress – The U.S. Constitution (Bill Of Rights)

Highlighted here is something a lot of people don’t realize about those who suffer from major depression: it really fucking hurts. In fact, physical symptoms are extremely common in major depression and can manifest itself in the form of everything from joint pain to gastrointestinal problems.

In 1999, Simon et al. analyzed a study conducted by the World Health Organization on physical symptoms in the presentation of depression.

They found that of the 1,146 patients in 14 countries included in the study who met the criteria for depression, nearly 70% reported only physical symptoms as their reason for their visit to the doctors.

Because of this fact, many people who suffer from depression go undiagnosed.

In this interview with T La Rock about the story behind the making of this track, the interviewer asks whether or not he had any concerns about the vocabulary of the song going over peoples' heads.

A valid question when you compare the readability (Gunning-Fox Index) of this track to a track like “Rock Box” by Run-D.M.C., which was also very popular in ‘84.

When running the lyrics of these two tracks through Textalyser — a text analysis tool — you get the following results:

     Rock Box
          Readability: 3.8

     It’s Yours
          Readability: 9.6

To put this into perspective, the Gunning-Fox Index outputs a number that corresponds with the hypothetical number of years of education required to read any one particular text.

In other words, reading “Rock Box” would take approximately 3.8 years of education to read (or, a fourth grade reading level), whereas “It’s Yours” would require 9.6 years (or, a high school sophomore reading level).

The situation — or, the landscape of hip-hop as a sonic whole — truly was changed upon release of this track. It was very different than any other track at the time and is even credited with starting bass music by some.

Regarding the track starting bass music, T La Rock said, “There weren’t that many records out with that bass sound, which is from that Roland 808 … We were in the studio mixing down ‘It’s Yours’ and I just kept on saying, ‘More bass! More bass! More bass!’ … I just kept saying, ‘More bass!’ and the engineer was looking at me like I was crazy. Like, ‘How much bass do you want?!’”

— T La Rock Interview Pt. 1 – The Story of It’s Yours