Being an old folksinger - don't like it

Subject: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 01:02 AM

Its happened twice in the ten days - I've been billed as

1) 'an unapologetically old school folksinger'

2) 'a singer/songwriter of the old school'

I feel like one of Fred Dibhah's fucking steam engines. I didn't say I was old. Where is this old school I'm supposed to have attended? As far as I knew I was a young tearaway from Martin Carthy and his crew of senile songsters.

Bollocks!

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,Backwoodsman sans Cookie
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 01:43 AM

There's some good tunes played on old fiddles, Al.
And by old-school folkies too.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Ernest
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 01:44 AM

"Senile Songster" sounds like a good new lable if you don`t like the "old school" thing - put that on your posters/press kit.

Alternative: "One-man-senior-boy-group"

Sincerely, this sounds like a good idea for a song. Especially since you are good at writing that kind of songs.

You might use the line

"I`m not one of Fred Dibhah`s fucking steam engines: I stopped smoking years ago"

for a start, but you might have to explain who Fred D. is/was.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: michaelr
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 01:48 AM

Ernest is right, Al -- for a writer such as yourself, there's got to be a song in that. Please post it here!

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 02:19 AM

Aging is inevitable Al!!... Be happy that you can still perform and you still have your.... what's the word... begins with 'M'... mem something..... ermmmm....... well.... ermmmmm 'MEMORY' that's it memory!

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 02:22 AM

Mojo?

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Bugsy
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 02:29 AM

If you're billed as an "Old School Folksinger" you're in good company. Take it as a compliment. You're still getting booked aren't you?

CHeers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: theleveller
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 03:00 AM

Ah, but do you have the old school folksinger tie - essential wear for getting entry to folk clubs across the country?

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 03:03 AM

Why refuse promotion?

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,Don Wise
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 03:33 AM

"The Senile Songsters".......a new (folk?) supergroup??

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Green Man
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 03:42 AM

Old folkies never die they just forget the words....

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 03:46 AM

You're gettin old Al, live with it.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: cooperman
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 04:00 AM

Yes, write a song about it Al - make it a collapso, haha

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 04:12 AM

I KNOW I'm getting old. I just didn't expect it to turn into my unique selling point. Come and see Big Al rambling on about people we've never heard of ....like Derek Brimstone and Hamish Imlach.

I can remember sitting through some pretty excruciating shit when I was young, and people used to say, 'well its not his fault, he's old...'

I didn't think I'd get there so quickly.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Bugsy
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 04:46 AM

I've heard of Derek Brimstone AND Hamish Imlach and I'm only 64!

CHeers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Dead Horse
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 04:47 AM

I'll have a word with Matron - it seems you've missed your meds again :-)

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 04:48 AM

Harry Cox, Sam Larner, Walter Pardon, Henry Burstow, George Spicer, Harry Upton, Johnny Doughty, Joseph Taylor, Phil Tanner...etc etc. You are in good company.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 05:00 AM

Joe Heaney once told us "it takes me all night to do what I used to do all night".
I wouldn't mind getting old if I could still do all the things I could do when I was 25
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Leadfingers
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 05:10 AM

Getting Old is a VAST improvement on the alternative

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: redhorse
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 05:28 AM

Still, it beats the alternative.............

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 06:03 AM

I suppose I'm an old school folksinger. I started our school folk song club, and the school couldn't open, originally, until Cromwell had moved his cannons from the roof!

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: WindhoverWeaver
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 06:39 AM

"Why refuse promotion?"

Personally, I don't think we should promote refuse -- isn't that the job of X-Factor and the like?

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: kendall
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 07:39 AM

Consider being an old folk singer who has been robbed of his voice.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,desi C
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 08:30 AM

It would help if you referred to what subject/thread you are rferring to!?

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Bert
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 09:35 AM

Here's a song for just that problem...

I wanna have a mid life crisis
but if the truth be told
I can't have a mid life crisis
My wife says I'm too old

I wanna drive a bright red sports car
with a pretty young blond for a date
I wanna have a mid life crisis
My wife says it's too late
She said
        I coulda had a crisis at Forty
        or even at Fifty Five
        If I'd wanted a mid life crisis
        I should have done it while I'm still alive

I want a pick up truck with monster wheels
I want to be stacked up with sex appeal
I want tatoos on my arms and chest
A Harley and a black leather vest
I want to let my hair grow long
I want to get to Nashville with this song
I want a Cowboy hat and belt and boots
I want a hand tailored white silk suit

I wanna have a mid life crisis
but if the truth be told
I can't have a mid life crisis
My wife says I'm too old

I wanna drive a bright red sports car
with a pretty young blond for a date
I wanna have a mid life crisis
My wife says it's too late
She said
        I coulda had a crisis at Forty
        or even at Fifty Five
        If I'd wanted a mid life crisis
        I should have done it while I'm still alive

I wanna drive a bright red sports car
with a pretty young blond for a date

Spoken:
I don't think my wife would go for the blond
But how about a sports car?
a 59 Subeam Alpine in British Racing green

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 09:40 AM

Well there you have it in a nutshell Gerard Manley Weaver. I know I was always refuse to the the hoity toities who won the great traddy/contemporary conflict. Why would I regard relegation to their ranks as promotion. In fact it feels a bit weird to be considered by another generation - one of them!

Kendall - I take your point. I've got nothing to bitch about in relative terms.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,Lou
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 10:38 AM

Think about Pete Seeger - now he is both old, and old school (Americana style).


Lou

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: terrier
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 10:59 AM

I don't think I know any young school folkies, maybe ALL folkies are old. Anyway, I remember Fred Dibner, he was a real knock down comedian, never failed to raise the roof, always had a stack of jokes..or was that chimneys, renowned for bringing the house down, and all those OLD jokes :) As long as your teeth don't glow in ultra violet light, you're OK.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Elmore
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 11:08 AM

" Well my friends are gone, My hair is gray. I ache in the places where I used to play." - L. Cohen

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Musket
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 12:04 PM

Huh Elmore - I was going to quote from The Tower of Song, but you beat me to it!

Well Al, a mate in Worksop called Mitch wrote a song, which I messed about with I have to admit, but he should get the credit, called Senile Skifflers. It is about some mates of ours who as well as playing in the folk clubs also did a lot of busking, dressed as Morris fools around Worksop and Mansfield.

With your original comment, we could always write you a special verse. After all, you were part of the local furniture yourself once...

As a taster from the original;

We don't dress in high fashion, to be outrageous is our aim,
Bowler hats and gay cravats adorn our manly frame,
We'd like more winkle pickers, but now we've got the gout,
So we wear wellies and our beer bellies mean skin tight jeans are out.

Amen & druse.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Will Fly
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 02:08 PM

Face it Al - you're an old, experienced, knowing, cantankerous, talented, hard-shell, "OLD SCHOOL" (whatever the fuck that is) musician. Enjoy!

(Did you like the way I slipped "talented" in there?) If the cap fits...

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Harmonium Hero
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 02:11 PM

I'm 66 in a few weeks, and they don't call me Old School. They just don't call me.
JK

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 05:17 PM

You can't undo what's been said. So here's what you can do: walk onstage with a mobile in your hand and pretend to be sending somebody a text message. After a while, stick it in your pooket, look up at the audience as if you hadn't noticed them before and say "oh, hi."

That will convince everybody you are a modern person.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Bert
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 06:04 PM

Nice one Leeneia, I'll have to try that.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 08:34 PM

Round about 50 years ago I called myself a "boy dirty old man". I still haven't grown up.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 09:03 PM

Bert-

Thanks for the song!

Big Al-

What's taken you so long? Some of us old farts have been old for years!

Charley Noble, born in the Pleistocene

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,Bugsy
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 11:22 PM

I used to play with Pleistocene as school,

Cheers

bugsy

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: theleveller
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 03:27 AM

"Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty;
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood,
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility;
Therefore my age is as a lusty winter,
Frosty,"

As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 3

My wife bought me a t-shirt with the first line of this on it.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 03:28 AM

Shouldn't that be 'Lustful', Pete? :-)

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: theleveller
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 05:21 AM

You speak for yourself, John!

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,Backwoodsman sans Cookie
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 06:29 AM

Guilty on all counts, M'lud! :-). :-)

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Midchuck
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 06:50 AM

I have figured out that a full week passed, after I finally reached maturity, before the onset of senility. Unfortunately, it was the week I spent in the hospital last winter, recovering from my cardiac surgery, so I pretty much missed it.

P.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 10:45 AM

Think yourself lucky, Al. I used to get intoduced as John Denver or, even worse, the Milky Bar Kid.

I know what you mean about "old school", though: once, after playing a short set of relatively death-free folk songs - I think it included Lord Franklyn - the MC (younger, but not by that much) said "thanks for cheering us up Pete".

Now they've renamed the FC as an Acoustic Club.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 10:50 AM

Re-reading the OP, I see that Al is called an 'old-school' folksinger, not an 'old' folksinger. One could be 16 years old and still be an 'old school folksinger' if one did it right.

So, is there a new school of folksinging? If so, nobody told me. Could it be the Grateful Dead? Is Al old school because he doesn't have a rock-band setup?

Somebody please explain.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 11:25 AM

I think there is a new school. A sort of post armageddon ethic. I think maybe its the finger picking of the guitar - none of 'em do that much. Sunjay Brain sticks ouy like a sore thumb.

Perhaps a cavalier approach to political correctness - although I could never condone racism.

Also presentation perhaps. I always respected minstrelsy - like Pete seeger an attempt to give songs their context. Whereas there seems to be an insistence that folk should be respecred as serious music with youngsters.

One kid recently started her set saying - this is a Steve Knightley song, if you haven't heard of him - you should have....

I dunno where the attitude comes from.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,Romac
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 11:57 AM

Ah that I was where I should be
Then, I would be where I am not
Here am I where I must be
Go where I will, I cannot........Can you still hear the guns Fernando?

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 11:59 AM

Well you won't cut it talking about Imlach and Brimstone Al; Mumford and Sons are the way forward for folk.......so they tell me.

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,Padre - sans cookie
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 12:09 PM

Al,
You have now officially entered the 'Metal" years:

Silver in the hair
Gold in the teeth
Lead in the backside

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 12:57 PM

I am with leenia on this and am suprised how many people aren't familiar with the expression.

"New school"? - most of what gets booked by The Nest Collective

Subject: RE: Being an old folksinger - don't like it
From: MikeL2
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 02:14 PM

hi Al and gang

Don't know about " old folksinger" but many ( many) moons ago I appeared on a charity show in my home town and was introduced as a "young whippersnapper who sings and plays this new stuff called rock & Roll". !!!

Guess I am now an old whippersnapper eh??

Cheers

MikeL2