Folk legend and “voice of the civil rights movement” Odetta died yesterday of heart disease. She was 77 years old.

Odetta came to prominence in the 1950s, and was a major influence on future superstars like Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez and Janis Joplin.

Odetta’s influence on Dylan was such that he credited her as his inspiration to ditch rock in favor of folk music (before going back to rock, of course):

“The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta. I heard a record of hers in a record store, back when you could listen to records right there in the store. Right then and there, I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar, a flat-top Gibson. … [It was] just something vital and personal. I learned all the songs on that record.”

Odetta was renowned for her commitment to the entire breadth of folk music. In a 1960 article, Time magazine wrote that, “What distinguished her from the start was the meticulous care with which she tried to re-create the feeling of her folk songs; to understand the emotions of a convict in a convict ditty, she once tried breaking up rocks with a sledge hammer.”

Odetta was also a major figure in the civil rights movement, and sang “I’m on My Way” at the historic March on Washington in August 1963, where Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. She described her music as “the anger” of the oppressed given voice.

Although not officially invited, Odetta had hoped to sing at Obama’s inauguration. Her last big concert was here in San Francisco when she performed in front of tens of thousands at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival on October 4.

She is survived by a daughter, Michelle Esrick, and a son, Boots Jaffre. She was divorced about 40 years ago and never remarried, her manager said.

Odetta – “Water Boy” [from No Direction Home]

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