Ewan MacColl | |
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| Born | James Henry Miller (1915-01-25)25 January 1915 Broughton,Lancashire, England |
| Died | 22 October 1989(1989-10-22) (aged 74) Brompton, London, England |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1930–1989 |
| Political party | Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 5, includingKirsty MacColl |
| Relatives |
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James Henry Miller (25 January 1915 – 22 October 1989),[1] better known by his stage nameEwan MacColl, was a Britishfolk singer-songwriter, folk song collector,labour activist and actor. Born in England toScottish parents, he is known as one of the instigators of the 1960sfolk revival as well as for writing such songs as "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Dirty Old Town".[2]
MacColl collected hundreds of traditional folk songs,[3] including the version of "Scarborough Fair" later popularised bySimon & Garfunkel,[4][5] and released dozens of albums withA.L. Lloyd,Peggy Seeger and others, mostly of traditional folk songs.[6][2] He also wrote many left-wingpolitical songs, remaining a steadfastcommunist throughout his life and actively engaging in political activism.[2]
MacColl was born as James Henry Miller at 4 Andrew Street, inBroughton,Salford, England, on 25 January 1915[7] toScottish parents, William Miller and Betsy (née Henry), bothsocialists. William Miller was aniron moulder and trade unionist who had moved to Salford with his wife, acharwoman, to look for work after being blacklisted in almost every foundry inScotland.[8] Betsy Miller knew many traditional folk songs such as "Lord Randall"[9] and "My Bonnie Laddie's Lang A-growing",[10] of which her son later created written and audio recordings; he later recorded an album of traditional songs with her.[11][deprecated source]
James Miller was the youngest and only surviving child in the family of three sons and one daughter (one of each sex wasstillborn and one son died at the age of four).[7] They lived amongst a group of Scots and Jimmy was brought up in an atmosphere of fierce political debate interspersed with the large repertoire of songs and stories his parents had brought from Scotland. He was educated at Grecian Street School,Salford, England.[7] He left school in 1930 after an elementary education, during theGreat Depression and, joining the ranks of the unemployed, began a lifelong programme of self-education whilst keeping warm inManchester Central Library. During this period he found intermittent work in a number of jobs and also made money as a street singer.[8]
He joined theYoung Communist League[12] and a socialist amateur theatre troupe, theClarion Players. He began his career as a writer helping produce and contributing humorous verse and skits to some of theCommunist Party's factory papers. He was an activist in the unemployed workers' campaigns and the mass trespasses of the early 1930s. One of his best-known songs, "The Manchester Rambler", was written just before the pivotalmass trespass of Kinder Scout.[7] He was responsible for publicity in the planning of the trespass.[13]
In 1932 the British intelligence service,MI5, opened a file on MacColl, after local police asserted that he was "a communist with very extreme views" who needed "special attention".[14] For a time theSpecial Branch kept a watch on the Manchester home that he shared with his first wife,Joan Littlewood. MI5 caused some of MacColl's songs to be rejected by theBBC, and prevented the employment of Littlewood as a BBC children's programme presenter (see:"Christmas tree" files).[15]
He was married three times: to theatre directorJoan Littlewood (1914–2002) from 1934 to 1948; to Jean Mary Newlove (1923–2017) from 1949 to 1974,[16] with whom he had two children, a son Hamish (1950–2024), and a daughter, the singer-songwriterKirsty MacColl (1959–2000); and to American folksingerPeggy Seeger (b. 1935) from 1977 until his death in 1989, with whom he had three children, Neill, Calum, and Kitty.[7] He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre, and with Seeger in folk music.[7]
In 1931, with other unemployed members of the Clarion Players he formed anagit-prop theatre group, the "Red Megaphones". During 1934 they changed the name to "Theatre of Action" and not long after were introduced to a young actress recently moved up from London. This wasJoan Littlewood who became MacColl's wife and work partner. In 1936, after a failed attempt to move to London, the couple returned toManchester, and formed the Theatre Union. In 1940 a performance ofThe Last Edition – a 'living newspaper' – was halted by the police and MacColl and Littlewood were bound over for two years for breach of the peace. The necessities of wartime brought an end to Theatre Union. MacColl enlisted in theBritish Army during July 1940, but deserted in December. Why he did so, and why he was not prosecuted after the war, remain a mystery.[14] In an interview in June 1987, he said that he was expelled for "anti-fascist activity".[17] Allan Moore and Giovanni Vacca wrote that MacColl had been subject toSpecial Observation whilst in the King's Regiment, owing to his political views, and that the records show that, rather than being discharged, he was declared a deserter on 18 December 1940.[17]
In 1946, members of Theatre Union and others formedTheatre Workshop and spent the next few years touring, mostly in the north of England. In 1945, Miller changed his name to Ewan MacColl (influenced by theLallans movement in Scotland).[clarification needed][7][8]
In the Theatre Union roles had been shared, but now, in Theatre Workshop, they were more formalised. Littlewood was the sole producer and MacColl thedramaturge, art director and resident dramatist. The techniques that had been developed in the Theatre Union now were refined, producing the distinctive form of theatre that was the hallmark of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, as the troupe was later known. They were an impoverished travelling troupe, but were making a name for themselves.[citation needed]
During this period MacColl's enthusiasm forfolk music grew. Inspired by the example ofAlan Lomax, who had arrived in Britain and Ireland in 1950, and had done extensive fieldwork there, MacColl also began to collect and perform traditionalballads. His long involvement withTopic Records started in 1950 with his release of a single, "The Asphalter's Song", on that label. When, in 1953 Theatre Workshop decided to move toStratford, London, MacColl, who had opposed that move, left the company and changed the focus of his career from acting and playwriting to singing and composing folk and topical songs.[citation needed]
In 1947, MacColl visited a retired lead-miner named Mark Anderson (1874–1953) inMiddleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham, England, who performed to him a song called "Scarborough Fair"; MacColl recorded the lyrics and melody in a book of Teesdale folk songs, and later included it on his andPeggy Seeger'sThe Singing Island (1960).[18][19][5]Martin Carthy learnt the song from MacColl's book, before teaching it toPaul Simon;Simon & Garfunkel released the song as "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" on their albumParsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, popularising the obscure and unique folk tune.[4] Ewan MacColl, a decade after collecting the song, released his own version accompanied byPeggy Seeger on guitar in 1957 on the LP "Matching Songs of the British Isles and America"[20] and an a capella rendition another decade later on "The Long Harvest" (1967).[21]
Over the years MacColl recorded and produced upwards of a hundred albums, many with English folk song collector and singerA. L. Lloyd. The pair released an ambitious series of eight LP albums of some 70 of the 305Child Ballads. MacColl produced a number of LPs with Irish singer songwriterDominic Behan, a brother of Irish playwrightBrendan Behan.[22]
In 1956, MacColl caused a scandal when he fell in love with 21-year-oldPeggy Seeger, who had come toBritain to transcribe the music forAlan Lomax's anthologyFolk Songs of North America (published in 1961). At the time MacColl, who was twenty years older than Peggy,[23] was still married to his second wife.
Seeger and MacColl recorded several albums of searing political commentary songs. MacColl himself wrote over 300 songs, some of which have been recorded by artists (in addition to those mentioned above) such asPlanxty,the Dubliners,Dick Gaughan,Phil Ochs,the Clancy Brothers,Elvis Presley,Weddings Parties Anything,The Pogues andJohnny Cash. In 2001,The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook was published, which includes the words and music to 200 of his songs.Dick Gaughan, Dave Burland andTony Capstick collaborated inThe Songs of Ewan MacColl (1978; 1985).
Many of MacColl's best-known songs were written for the theatre. For example, he wrote "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" very quickly at the request of Seeger, who needed it for use in a play she was appearing in. He taught it to her by long-distance telephone while she was on tour in the United States (from where MacColl had been barred because of his Communist past). Seeger said that MacColl used to send her tapes to listen to whilst they were apart and that the song was on one of them.[24] This song, which was recorded byRoberta Flack for her debut album,First Take, issued by Atlantic records in June 1969, became a No. 1 hit in 1972 and won MacColl aGrammy Award for Song of the Year, while Flack received aGrammy Award for Record of the Year.[25]
In 1959, MacColl began releasing LP albums onFolkways Records, including several collaborative albums with Peggy Seeger. His song "Dirty Old Town", inspired by his home town ofSalford in Lancashire, was written for the playLandscape with Chimneys (1949) produced byJoan Littlewood andTheatre Workshop.[a 1] It went on to become a folk-revival staple and was recorded bythe Spinners (1964),Donovan (1964),Roger Whittaker (1968),Julie Felix (1968),the Dubliners (1968),Rod Stewart (1969),the Clancy Brothers (1970),the Pogues (1985),the Mountain Goats (2002),Simple Minds (2003),Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (2003),Frank Black (2006) andBettye LaVette (2012).
MacColl's song "The Shoals of Herring", based on the life of Norfolk fisherman and folk singerSam Larner was recorded by the Dubliners, the Clancy Brothers, the Corries and more. Other popular songs written and performed by MacColl include "The Manchester Rambler", "The Moving-On Song" and "The Joy of Living".
Ewan has a short biography of his work in the accompanying book of theTopic Records 70-year anniversary boxed setThree Score and Ten.[26]: 11 Five of his recordings, three of them solo, appear in the boxed set:
MacColl was one of the main composers of Britishprotest songs during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. In the early 1950s he penned "The Ballad ofHo Chi Minh" and "The Ballad ofStalin" for the British Communist Party.
Joe Stalin was a mighty man and a mighty man was he
He led the Soviet people on the road to victory.
All through the revolution he fought at Lenin's side,
And they made a combination till the day that Lenin died.
When asked about the song in a 1985 interview, he said that it was "a very good song" and that "it dealt with some of the positive things that Stalin did".[27] In 1992, after his death, Peggy Seeger included it as an annex in herEssential Ewan MacColl Songbook, saying that she had originally planned to exclude the song on the grounds that Ewan would not have wanted it included, but decided to include it as an example of his work in his early career.[28] The B-side of the record,Sovietland (Land of Freedom) was not included in the songbook.
MacColl sang and composed numerous protest and topical songs for thenuclear disarmament movement, for example "Against the Atom Bomb",[29]The Vandals,Nightmare, andNuclear Means Jobs.[30]
MacColl dedicated an entire album to the lifestyle of Gypsies in his 1964 albumThe Travelling People. Many of the songs spoke againstthe prejudice against Roma Gypsies, although some also contained derogatory remarks about "tinkers", which is a word forIrish Travellers.[citation needed]
He wrote "The Ballad of Tim Evans" (also known as "Go Down You Murderer") a song protesting againstcapital punishment, based on an infamous murder case in which an innocent man,Timothy Evans, was condemned and executed, before thereal culprit was discovered.[citation needed]
MacColl was very active during theminers' strike of 1984–85 in distributing free cassettes of songs supportive of theNational Union of Mineworkers, entitledDaddy, what did you do in the strike?[31] The title song was unusually aggressive in its language towards thestrikebreakers. This collection was only released on cassette and remaining copies are rare, but some of the less aggressive songs have featured on other compilations.[32] At MacColl's 70th birthday party, he was presented byArthur Scargill with a miner's lamp to show appreciation for his support.[27]
In his last interview in August 1988, MacColl stated that he still believed in a socialist revolution and that the communist parties of the west had become too moderate.[33]: 116–117 He stated that he had been a member of the Communist Party but left because he felt that the Soviet Union was "not communist or socialist enough".[33]: 43
MacColl had been a radio actor since 1933. By the late 1930s he was writing scripts as well. In 1957 producerCharles Parker asked MacColl to collaborate in the creation of a feature programme about the heroic death of train driverJohn Axon. Normal procedure would have been to use the recorded field interviews only as source for writing the script. MacColl produced a script that incorporated the actual voices and so created a new form that they called theradio ballad.
Between 1957 and 1964, eight of these were broadcast by theBBC, all created by the team of MacColl and Parker together with Peggy Seeger who handled musical direction, conducted a great many field interviews, and wrote songs, either together with MacColl or alone. MacColl wrote the scripts and songs, as well as, with the others, collecting the field recordings which were the heart of the productions.
In 1965 Ewan and Peggy formedthe Critics Group from a number of young followers, withCharles Parker in attendance, frequently recording the group's weekly sessions at MacColl and Seeger's home. The initial aim of improving musical skills soon broadened to performing at political events, the Singers' Club where MacColl, Seeger and Lloyd were featured artists and theatre productions.[clarification needed] Members who became performing folk singers in their own right includedFrankie Armstrong, John Faulkner,Sandra Kerr,Dennis Turner, Terry Yarnell, Bob Blair, Jim Carroll, Brian Pearson andJack Warshaw. Other members, includingMichael Rosen, joined primarily for theatre productions, the Festival of Fools, a political review of the previous year.[clarification needed]
As the theatre group's importance grew, members more interested in singing left. The productions ran until the winter of 1972–73. Members' differences with MacColl's vision of a full-time touring company led to the group's breakup. The offshoot group became Combine Theatre, with a club of their own mixing traditional and original folksongs and theatrical performances based on contemporary events, into the 1980s.
After many years of poor health (in 1979 he suffered the first of many heart attacks), MacColl died on 22 October 1989, in theBrompton Hospital, in London, after complications following heart surgery.[7][8] His autobiographyJourneyman was published the following year. The lifetime archive of his work with Peggy Seeger and others was passed on toRuskin College inOxford.
There is a plaque dedicated to MacColl inRussell Square in London. The inscription includes: "Presented by his communist friends 25.1.1990 ... Folk Laureate – Singer – Dramatist – Marxist ... in recognition of strength and singleness of purpose of this fighter for Peace and Socialism". In 1991 he was awarded a posthumous honorary degree by theUniversity of Salford.[citation needed]
His daughter from his second marriage,Kirsty MacColl, followed him into a musical career, albeit in a different genre.[7] She died in a boating accident in Mexico in 2000. His son with Peggy Seeger, Neill MacColl, is the long-standing guitarist forMancunian musicianDavid Gray. His grandson Jamie MacColl has also developed a musical career of his own with the bandBombay Bicycle Club.[34]
(* Mixture of documentary, drama and song: broadcast on BBC radio)
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My function is not to reassure people. I want to make them uncomfortable. To send them out of the place arguing and talking.[35]
Ewan wrote a number of songs like this in his early years, alongside more subtle texts like "Dirty Old Town" and "Stalinvarosh." There is no doubt that Joseph Stalin was a brilliant wartime leader and that many of his reforms ... were correct and productive. Idolisation of Stalin by the left wing the world over continued until the 20th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (1956), when he was posthumously denounced byKhrushchev for his "personality cult" and his human rights crimes. Disillusioned and subsequently turning to China for political role models, Ewan stopped singing this song or even referring to it. He would not have included it in the main body of such a book as this unless it were for reasons similar to mine: (1) as a sample of the old politics, which viewed the earth as mere clay out of which man fashions a world for man and (2) as a sample of his early work, highly dogmatic and low on finesse. It exhibits a lack of economy, an excess of cliches and filler lines, many awkward terms and an errant chronological flow. It has many of the characteristics of political songs of its time and is virtually a political credo set into verse and put to a tune. It is just that. –The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook, Appendix IV. p. 388 (quoted inMudcat Cafe)
