"It makes a wonderful story...."
I was present when he was writing the script for the 1968 Festival of Fools - he could work at incredible speeds, particularly under pressure.
The following year he wrote a whole sketch for FOF which, on rehersal night, he couldn't get to work - those of us selected to do it couldn't. By the following day he had replaced it with an entirely new one and had completed several more as well.
I was told by somebody who was around at the time that The Ballad of Jimmy Wilson was conceived and almost completed during a car journey on the way to a party.
"Was the tune going through his head"
Often MacColl's practice with tunes was to take an existing one and hum it about the house, (often much to the irritation of the other occupants) constantly making small adaptation, until it had become something else.
Shoals of Herring and several others were based on the Greig Duncan 'Famous Flower of Serving Men' (Sweet William), which he learned (and recorded) from 'Last Leaves'.
Tunnel Tigers was an adaptation of the Irish version of William Taylor which he heard from London/Irish singer Paul Lenihan.
Jim Carroll