Paul Clayton

Paul Clayton entered the world on March 3, 1933, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, carrying a lifelong devotion to the folk song tradition that centered on sea shanties and whaling songs while he also served as an enthusiastic gatherer of folk melodies. His grandfather first exposed him to the classic sea shanties, prompting the fifteen-year-old to perform these numbers, along with other folk material he had assembled, across a string of radio programs. After securing two degrees from the University of Virginia under the guidance of folklorist Arthur Kyle Davis, Jr., Clayton gathered songs widely across the Appalachians and helped bring about the earliest recordings of traditional artists such as Etta Baker and Hobart Smith. He remained a steady presence in the Greenwich Village milieu throughout the folk revival and issued multiple albums of traditional repertoire on the Folkways, Tradition, Riverside, Electra, Monument, and Stinson labels. The melody of his own “Who'll Buy You Ribbons When I'm Gone,” drawn in turn from the traditional piece “Scarlet Ribbons for Her Hair,” furnished Bob Dylan the melodic line for “Don't Think Twice, It's Alright,” triggering a brief legal dispute between the two singers in the mid-1960s that ended on friendly terms. Clayton died on March 30, 1967, reportedly after carrying an electrical appliance into his bathtub, closing a life that, despite struggles with drug use and depression, remained filled with the pleasure of songs and singing.