Ewan Maccoll
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Turpin Hero
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Aikendrum
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General Info
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Genre: Folk
Location UK
Profile Views: 24422
Last Login: 8/19/2009
Member Since 4/26/2007
Website http://www.pegseeger.com/html/ewanindex.html
Record Label Topic
Type of Label Indie
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Bio
MacColl was born James (Jimmie) Henry Miller in Salford, Lancashire in England, to Scottish parents, William and Betsy Miller. He left school in 1929, joined the Young Communist League and the socialist amateur theatre troupe, the Clarion Players. He began his career as a writer helping produce, and contributing humorous verse and skits to some of the Communist 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 after the pivotal mass trespass of Kinder Scout. He was responsible for publicity in the planning of the trespass. In 1932 the British intelligence service, MI5, opened a file on MacColl, after the Chief Constable of Salford told them that the singer was a Communist Party member. For a time the Special Branch kept a watch on the Manchester home that he shared with his wife Joan Littlewood. MI5 caused some of MacColl's songs to be banned from the BBC, and blocked the employment of Joan Littlewood as a BBC children's programme presenter. MacColl enlisted in the Army in July 1940, but deserted in December. Why he did so, and why he was not prosecuted when he re-surfaced after the war, remain a mystery. In 1931, with other unemployed members of the Clarion Players he formed an agit-prop group, the Red Megaphones. In 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 was Joan Littlewood who became Miller's wife and work partner. In 1936, after a failed attempt to relocate to London, the couple returned to Manchester, and formed Theatre Union. In 1940 a performance of The Last Edition - a 'living newspaper' - was halted by the police and Miller and Littlewood were bound over for two years for 'breach of the peace'. The necessities of wartime brought an end to Theatre Union. In 1946 members of Theatre Union and others formed Theatre Workshop and spent the next few years touring, mostly in the north of England. Jimmie Miller had by then changed his name to Ewan MacColl. In Theatre Union roles had been shared but now, in Theatre Workshop, they were more formalised. Littlewood was the sole producer and MacColl the dramaturge, art director and resident dramatist. The techniques that had been developed in Theatre Union now were refined, producing the distinctive form of theatre which 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. In this period MacColl's enthusiasm for folk music grew. In 1953 Theatre Workshop opted to settle in Stratford, London, and MacColl, who was opposed to the move, left and began to concentrate on the promotion and performance of folk music. His long involvement with Topic Records was first obvious in 1950 when he released a single "The Asphalter's Song" on the label. As well as writing and performing, MacColl followed in the footsteps of his colleague Alan Lomax and collected traditional ballads. Over the years he recorded upwards of a hundred albums, many with English folk song collector and singer A.L. Lloyd. The two together released a series of eight records of the Child Ballads, many of which appeared on his other albums. MacColl also produced a number of LPs with Irish singer songwriter Dominic Behan. In 1956, MacColl caused a scandal by leaving his then second wife, Jean Newlove, the mother of his children, Hamish and Kirsty, for Peggy Seeger, who was many years his junior. It was for her that he wrote the classic, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". This song became a #1 hit for Roberta Flack in 1972; MacColl won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for it, while Flack won the Record of the Year award for it. His other best-known song is "Dirty Old Town", written about his home town of Salford in Lancashire. It was written to cover an awkward scene change in his play "Landscape with Chimneys" (1949), but with the growing popularity of folk music the song became a standard, part of many a singer's repertoire. Recordings include The Spinners (1964), The Dubliners (1968), Rod Stewart (1969), the Pogues (1985), Simple Minds (2003), Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (2003), and Frank Black (2006). [edit] Radio MacColl had been a radio actor since 1933. By the late thirties he was scripting as well. In 1957 producer Charles Parker asked MacColl to collaborate in the creation of a feature programme about the heroic death of train driver John 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 the radio ballad. Between 1957 and 1964, eight of these were broadcast by the BBC, all created by the team of MacColl and Parker together with Peggy Seeger who handled musical direction. MacColl wrote the scripts and the songs, as well as, with the others, collecting the field recordings which were the heart of the productions. 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 as Planxty, The Dubliners, Dick Gaughan, The Clancy Brothers, Elvis Presley, Weddings Parties Anything, and Johnny Cash. In 2001, The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook was published, which includes the words and music to 200 of his songs. There is a plaque dedicated to MacColl in Russell 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 the University of Salford. His daughter from his second marriage, Kirsty MacColl, followed him into a musical career, albeit less traditionally. Kirsty MacColl was killed in an accident in Mexico in 2000. -
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6 Songs | Sep 21, 2008



Tim Cheatle 
2 years ago
Wendy W. Valenzuela
2 years ago
Wendy W. Valenzuela
2 years ago
David Franks: Walkabout… 2 years ago
Giles Winterton

3 years ago
David Franks: Walkabout… 3 years ago
David Franks: Walkabout… 3 years ago
Bob A. Feldman Hope that the public television stations in the USA that aired a documentary film about Pete Seeger this year will air some kind of documentary film about Ewan MacColl for U.S. folk music fans in 2010.
3 years ago
David Franks: Walkabout… 3 years ago
David Franks: Walkabout… 4 years ago
10 of 29MoreLunapic Photo Editing
Hey,i love you space..
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Hello,thanks add!
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem sung on MySpace...
Poem cum song 5 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse (see my Blog for details):
STATE TO STATE
(TUNE:
C F G F
C F G F
C F G F
C F G F
F G F C
F G F C
F G F C
C F F F)
From Sydney Town,
In uni. break,
I drove out west
To earnings make
Onion picking,
On the fields
Of Echuca,
That year’s yields.
After day’s work,
From Y.H.A.,
A group of us
Would not delay
To walk on down
To the dirt rim
Of the Murray,
For a cool swim.
On one such day,
I do declare,
Some three of us
Had a big dare
To swim across,
From state to state,
The wide Murray -
I took the bait.
Yes, foolishly,
I took the bait -
A choice that I
Would come to hate,
For I almost
Did drown that date,
Making the swim
From state to state.
(C) David Franks 2003
Hi Ewan Maccoll, thanks for being a friend.
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem, & some songs, on myspace...
Poem 187 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse
(see my blog for details): A SOUTH SHIELDS WALKABOUT - AUTUMN 2001
Out of the museum-and-gallery
(Wiser on Cookson and the local way),
Down Ocean Road with, to the right of me,
Its eateries and, left, neat places to stay;
Before, on either side, Marine Parks -
The southern-one a most beautiful place,
Teeming with moorhens, swans, grebes and mallards
In a small lake at a scenic-hill’s base.
Then (holding chips from the parade’s cafe
And, thus, a flock of gulls squawking above)
Onto the South Pier I made my way:
Seeing seaweed over rocks - like a glove -
And high-and-dry sands held from transgression
By growth of grass and the weaving of wood,
Plus, in the dim light of a sleepy sun,
Fishing boats returning to Tynemouth’s hood.
(C) David Franks 2003
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this folk-carol on myspace...
Poem 230 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse
(see my blog for details):
CHRISTMAS SUNG SIMPLY
As gospellers have said,
Beneath signalling skies,
On land dusty to tread,
A trough in a stable
Was the strawy first-bed
Of a divine baby -
The forgiving Godhead.
A season for new hope -
There then and here now;
The yuletide of goodwill -
There then and here now.
In respect of this chance,
Beneath bright or dark skies,
Faith's the star that we glance
Attending Christ's churches
And trying to enhance,
With singing and ritual,
Our God-loving stance.
A...
(C) David Franks 2003
(Hi: enjoyed my visit.)
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem sung on myspace...
Poem 2 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse
(please see my blog):
WALKABOUT WITH MY PEN
Once drove an old sedan, up north,
From a place in Sydney to Cairns;
Then to Kuranda I went forth,
By train, to look without set plans.
I browsed through the trendy market,
With fresh fruits of tropical kind;
Walked to the creek through lush thicket -
Nature’s hand giving peace of mind.
I dined in a scenic cafe;
Then, outside, as I wrote for yen,
Some passing Kooris called-out: “Hey,
You go walkabout with your pen.”
Request or question, I don’t know -
Assured voices, elderly men.
That’s now several years ago,
And I’ve seen the world - with my pen.
(C) David Franks 2003
(Just enjoyed my re-visit.)
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem sung on myspace -
2 of 230, walkaboutsverse. 741. com: WALKABOUT WITH MY PEN
Once drove an old sedan, up north,
From a place in Sydney to Cairns;
Then to Kuranda I went forth,
By train, to look without set plans.
I browsed through the trendy market,
With fresh fruits of tropical kind;
Walked to the creek through lush thicket -
Nature’s hand giving peace of mind.
I dined in a scenic cafe;
Then, outside, as I wrote for yen,
Some passing Kooris called-out: “Hey,
You go walkabout with your pen.”
Request or question, I don’t know -
Assured voices, elderly men.
That’s now several years ago,
And I’ve seen the world - with my pen.
(C) David Franks 2003
76 of 230, walkaboutsverse. 741. com: LAND RIGHTS
If there is a good thing
From the Second World War
It’s that most peoples learnt
To conquer lands no more.
In Africa, Asia,
And the Pacific, too:
Post-war independence -
Steps only bigots rue.
But for some indigenes,
Outnumbered much-too-much,
It has all come too late
For liberty, as such.
So ‘tis in Australia,
And America’s sites,
Where the best now, I think,
Is to respect land rights.
(C) David Franks 2003