OBIT: Hamish Henderson (1919-2002)

Subject: Hamish Henderson
From: Paddy Plastique
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 08:39 AM

I see on the Guardian's site this morning that Hamish Henderson has passed away
Here's a link to the Guardian story Guardian Article
His 'Banks of Sicily' has been the subject of a couple of threads there recently
He'll be put on the Left in heaven, I s'pose...

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: DonMeixner
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 09:19 AM

I met Mr. Henderson at a party in Auburn, NY in the early 70's. He was visiting friends of friends and speaking at the Presbyterian church. WE spoke at length about American folk music and specifically American Cowboy Music. He suggested that I might come to Scotland and "sing a bit" and does those "yodeling songs". Sadly an invite I never took up on. I recall a pleasant easy to talk to man who had a wild look about him when he was speaking about something he was passionate about.

Don

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Big Tim
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 11:13 AM

This is a man who will never be forgotten in Scotland. Thanks HH.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: sian, west wales
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 12:58 PM

That is very sad news. I met him through his involvement in the Celtic Film Festival - amazing man.

sian

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 01:00 PM

Apart from Farewell to Sicily, the "Freedom Come-All-Ye", makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up every single time.

This is a great, sad, loss..

Cheers

Steven

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 02:06 PM

I remember seeing him in The Volunteer at Sidmouth a few years back. A big man, with a big voice. He was to have been at the National Folk Festival more recently, but had to cry off.

I've got a book of his in front of me right now - "Alias MacAlias - writings on Songs, Folk and Literature". It's amazing stuff.

Here's an extract from the blurb, which gives a hint at the stature and range of the man: "There are formal essays on literature - on the poet Hugh MacDiarmid and on Lorca - as well as introductory pieces on the tinkers, the ballads, the Clearances, Glencoe, the folk scene and folksong recordings. Completing the volume are tributes to individuals such as Jeannie Robertson, Willie Scott, Jimmy MacBeath and Roy Williamson." And a great piece on William McGonagall, teasing out how he ties in with various folk traditions.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 04:01 PM

Hamish was, in addition to being a songwriter and essayist, a great collector of Scottish folk music (and I don't use that adjective lightly.) He was responsible for a obtaining and recording good deal of the material that Lomax later claimed credit for.

He'll be missed, whether or not you're a Scot.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 05:37 PM

Anyone responsible for such songs as 'Come all ye' will indeed be sorely missed - Even if, as a sasanach, I only understood 1/4 of the lyrics I still find it a fine song!

Here's to us, wha's like us. There's nae many. There aw deed.

Dave the Gnome

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 05:56 PM

Farewell to Big Hamish! A sad day for folk music ...

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Art Thieme
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 06:29 PM

A monumental figure in things folk.
A sad day.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 07:14 PM

"He was responsible for a obtaining and recording good deal of the material that Lomax later claimed credit for." Well maybe - but Alan Lomax crops up several times in that book of Hamish's writing - and there's never a trace of any antagonism towards him.

For example "In the autumn of 1959, Alan Lomax arrived from the United States...He approached me for help with the Scottish LP. I agreed to assist him in the North-East, and asked Sorley and Calum (MacLean) to do likewise in the Gaelic speaking west, pointing out that the tape recorder he had brought with him was streets ahead of any other portable recording machine I had so far encountered, and this seemed a golden opportunity to put on record a good number of the virtuoso tradition bearers...Lomax never forgot the co-operation he received from Calum on this occasion, and he recently sent me the following appreciation of their fruitful association..."

It seems clear that the crucial thing for Hamish would have been that the songs were collected and the singers given respect. Who got the credit for the collecting was very much a secondary matter. A really special man.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: banjomad (inactive)
Date: 10 Mar 02 - 05:42 AM

Hamish was the last GIANT of British folk music [ MacColl and Lloyd have gone before ], he was also one of Scotlands greatest poets. He is missed already. Dave

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Mark Ross
Date: 10 Mar 02 - 04:43 PM

Question; Did he write or collect "THE D-Day Dodger"? I don't remember.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 10 Mar 02 - 08:04 PM

I was privileged to be a steward at his 80th birthday concert at The Hub, Edinburgh during the last Edinburgh Folk festival in November 99. It was a measure of his contribution to Scottish Folk Music that so many illustrious musicians and singers and reciters of his poems were present on one stage that night, with the man himself leading the "Freedom come all ye". Tattie B

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 03:36 AM

Hamish was a wartime officer in British Intelligence. It is said that he gained his left-wing views through his contact with, and admiration for, the Italian underground antifascist movement. The membership of the movement was said to be mainly communist. A curtain has come down on an era with his passing. But for Mudcat, I would not have known---thanks.

Subject: Death of Hamish Henderson Announced
From: Terch
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 04:05 AM

Sad news I am afraid. As I was travelling in to work this morning it was announced that Hamish Henderson had died. he will be sadly missed but his work and his glorious songs and tunes will live on. Peter

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Paddy Plastique
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 04:11 AM

Mark,

Yes, Ballad of the D-Day Dodgers was by him, indeed. Here's a link to the obituary
in The Scotsman, with a lot of information crammed in, and some good lines about & by HH Scotsman Obit
At least The Scotsman doesn't have the indecency to hit you with a pop-up ad for a Volvo
while you're reading about a great man, unlike the Guardian

Subject: RE: Death of Hamish Henderson Announced
From: GUEST,Argenine
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 04:13 AM

Obit: Hamish Henderson

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Wolfgang
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 04:49 AM

Sad news, indeed

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 05:39 AM

Here's the full page obituary in today's Guardian

And here is the opening paragraph as a taster:

"The tryst of Hamish Henderson, who has died aged 82, was with Scotland. It was a meeting of high consequence - across the 20th century, in darkness and in sun, Scotland informed all that Henderson was as a man and a poet. In his great sequence of second world war poems, Elegies For The Dead In Cyrenaica, he asks "that we should not disfigure ourselves/With villainy of hatred". It is the MacDonalds of Glencoe that he presents as exemplars. And in his Nelson Mandela freedom song, Rivonia, when Henderson sings, "Spear of the nation unbroken", it is to Scotland as much as South Africa that he refers."

And here is a piece about him published a few years back in Living Tradition, with a photo, and a discussion of one of his most impressive songs.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 02:14 PM

Clickies McGrath?

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 02:57 PM

Here is the clicky for the Living Tradition article

And here is the Guardian obituary today.

I hope.

Subject: RE: Death of Hamish Henderson Announced
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 03:48 PM

Sorry, can't seem to get to the other thread. I missed this the first time. Sorry to see another important folk person go. I think Sandy Paton knew him well.

Rick

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 04:00 PM

Sorry I couldn't bring this thread up before when I tried...so I posted to the other one. Sad news indeed.

Rick

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 07:24 PM

This morning I received an email from a friend at the School of Scottish Studies, where Hamish taught at the time George and I did OUR collecting in 1952-53. He volunteered enthusiastically as our guide, and he took us to his old friends and helped all three of us to discover new ones. I shall never forget that journey- he made Scotland come to glorious life for me, and has been a good and faithful friend ever since.

Some excerpts from this morning's letter: "I write to let you know that Hamish Henderson passed away-in a noble and dignified fashion- on Friday evening... all at the School are...bareft and the feeling extends, I know, to the whole country and well beyond...

"...the old spark was there to the last and the carrying stream he contributed to so massively through his life and work will continue to flow on and out in so many ways..." So beautifully said, and true. We are all bareft.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Abby Sale
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 09:30 PM

Although "D-Day Dodgers" is in Ballads of World War II, most of the songs there are not by him, they are collected by him, mostly. I think he was maximally Communist at the time so there were few attributions in the booklet. The song doesn't appear in the collections specifically of his material. I believe he avoided discussing it but I think the accepted story is that the song was anonymous as a verse or two from the UK troops. Hamish collected, expanded and fully developed it.

Hamish was endlessly generous with his time, knowledge, aid, songs and his heart. He did not tolerate deception, though. Song thieves felt his wrath.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 10:06 PM

Caroline and I travelled with Hamish for only a couple of weeks in September, 1958, but his influence on our lives was profound and lasts to this day. We met him at the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh, where he proudly encouraged a visiting Jeannie Robertson to record some ballads and songs for us. In one of the obituaries I have read today, it is mentioned that he opened the doors of the School to all, including those without ties to the academic world. How true! I had no credentials at all, not even a high school diploma, but he arranged for me to take one of the School's tape recorders with me to Jeannie's home in Aberdeen, where she and her daughter Lizzie Higgins recorded more songs for us. Hamish joined us at Jeannie's on the weekend and together we set off for Sutherlandshire, by way of Jimmie MacBeath's home in Banff, where we recorded another dozen songs or so, then up through Inverness and Wester Ross to Sutherland.

We travelled to the very northeast corner of the Scottish mainland, looking for a particular family of Travellers. We found them camping near the Kyle of Tongue and to see them welcome Hamish into their midst was like witnessing the return of the prodigal son. We camped there with them, recording Ossian tales told in Scots Gaelic by Blind Sandy Stewart, the beloved elder of the group. You can see photographs of this adventure in Timothy Neat's lovely book, The Summer Walkers. About a dozen of the photos in the book are mine, but (alas) were credited to Bobby Botsford, who was there the year before we were. There's even one photo that I took of Caroline, holding our then six-month old David, with Jeannie Robertson beaming by her side. (To salve my pride, please note that the photos of that group of Travellers that are in sharp focus are mine.) I treasure a letter from Timothy Neat apologizing for the error in the photo credits. Fair enough. I gave Hamish some photographs; he gave me the inspiration to spend my life working with folk music, not just as a singer of the songs, but urging others to listen to the people from whom the songs have come to us.

I came home shortly after that field trip, fired with an undying enthusiasm for collecting and producing records of traditional music, an enthusiasm informed by watching Hamish become one with the folks he was recording, sharing the experience, not merely witnessing it.

Another brief aside: on the way up, we passed a small cluster of men standing by a loch. Hamish spotted them and urged us to turn around and go over to them. He had recognized his old friend, James Robertson Justice, doing his bit to stock salmon in the local waters. Travelling with Hamish was an adventure and an honor, an education and a joyful blast! Thank God he lived as long as he did to influence so many and inspire all those who knew him. He was a great man.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Death of Hamish Henderson Announced
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 11 Mar 02 - 10:43 PM

Yes, Rick. My summary of our trip with Hamish is in the other Hamish Henderson thread. I wish I could conjure the eloquence to adequately express my admiration for his work, his art, his courage, his energy, his knowledge, his humanity, and to properly describe his profound influence on my life.

My God, I wept less when my father died.

Sandy

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 12:37 AM

Sandy, your recollections of Hamish have brought back memories for me.

I only had a nodding acquaintance with him until one afternoon in Sandy Bells in Edinburgh, when we fell to conversing about the Highlands, and I was able to tell him about the island of Handa in Sutherland, (about a mile offshore from my home village of Scourie) , which had the unique distinction of being governed by a "Queen" an office which was held by the oldest unmarried woman on the island. I can still remember how animated he became as we discussed this largely forgotten piece of folklore.

Sandy, I would think you must have passed through Scourie on your way to Tongue. I can remember the Stewarts used to camp in Scourie every spring, at the top of the brae ....

As you say, thank God he lived as long as he did.

Murray

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 11:04 AM

I met Hamish Henderson only about half a dozen times, but they are times I will never forget. I met him first in Edinburgh,circa 1965. We spent a long time talking about the 'D.Day Dodgers' song. I had learned my version in the army in 1951 from an old Sgt.Major who was a veteran of the Italian campaigns. Subsequent meetings were a joy to me for his exhilarating conversation, scraps of song and poetry pulled out of his memory and followed up through the mail weeks or more later, and his life affirming sense of fun. His loss is a sad one, not only for his family and friends, but for the world at large. We have need of such as he. Let's keep his memory green by treasuring the things he left behind for us. Read his works, sing his songs.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 08:04 PM

I never met him but my life was made a little richer for his music Here's to You Hamish! There will be damn few come along that can compare. God speed! Neil

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 12 Mar 02 - 08:13 PM

"Her's to the Sodjer, Wha's like him? Gey few, & a lot of 'em dead"

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: SaulBro
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 11:09 PM

Spent many happy hours at the bar at Sandy Bell's Pub in Edinburgh, where Hamish "held forth". I well remember my lesson on the distinction between "P" and "Q" Celtic languages. Would occasionally visit his office. My most vivid memory is when Margaret Bennett took me with her to her office at the School of Scottish Studies late one night to retrieve something she had forgotten. There was Hamish in his tweed coat, book in his lap, sleeping soundly in the library chair, with his trusty dog keeping watch.

Cheers, Captain...RIP.

Saul Broudy Philadelphia, PA USA

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 11:35 PM

Thank you all for sharing your memories of this remarkable giant of a man.

RIP, kind sir,

kat

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: GUEST,Ard Mhacha.
Date: 18 Mar 02 - 07:15 AM

Hamish was paid a lovely tribute on the "Brief Lives" programme on the BBC`S Radio 5 Live, a great man. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 18 Mar 02 - 05:17 PM

Also, the first hour of last Thursday's 'Travelling Folk' (BBC Scotland) was devoted to him and had several recordings in his own voice, e.g. his turning up on Jeannie Robertson's doorstep and literally singing his way into the house! Also, snippets by Norman Buchan, Martin Carthy, Margaret Bennett and others. Great stuff!

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 18 Mar 02 - 08:41 PM

It is wonderful to read here how many lives Hamish touched, whether through a personal meeting or through listening to his songs and poetry. I never met him, that I know of, but I've been deeply influenced by his example just from hearing the songs he collected. Among his many achievements I would like to praise his memory for having recovered so many songs from the travelling people in Scotland, and for giving the travellers themselves an opportunity to take a deserving pride in their own heritage. Without Hamish to lead the way, how would the singing of Jeannie Robertson, the Stewart family, Betsy White, Jane Turriff and many others have been known? He gained the trust of these singers and encouraged them to record the songs which would have otherwise been lost. He will be greatly missed.

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 06:51 PM

There was also a television "tribute" programme, put on very late: I came in in the middle of it: i do hope they show it again, with more warning this time. Tattie B

Subject: RE: OBIT: Hamish Henderson
From: GUEST,Gina Dunlap
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 08:28 PM

I've just returned to Connecticut from Edinburgh where I attended Hamish's funeral service. It was a grand affair. St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral was packed with six hundred friends, family, students, and the generations of musicians Hamish has inspired and mentored over the years. Brian McNeil and a group of young fiddle players played slow airs as we all took our seats. Then a lone piper played the coffin in to begin the many musical tributes of the afternoon. Stories were told, songs were sung, and it was very clear how deeply he was loved and respected not only by Scotland but by the international folk community as well.

The speakers and singers included Allan MacDonald, Adam McNaughtan, Tim Neat, Sheila Stewart ("Jock Stewart"), Margaret Bennett (a beautiful Gaelic song), Janet Henderson, Joy Hendry (several poems), Freddie Freeman, and Alison McMorland ("The Flytin o Life and Daith" set to music). The hymns were both sung to traditional tunes – "Be Thou My Vision to "Slane," an ancient Irish tune, and "Who Would True Valour See" to "Monk's Gate," a traditional English tune collected by Vaughan Williams. The service was conducted by Canon Kenyan Wright. Hamish had asked him many years ago to do so, and Canon Wright agreed on the condition that if he went first, Hamish would sing at his funeral. Canon Wright brought out Hamish's note, which he had carried with him in the intervening years. The service ended with Brian Miller and Arthur Johnstone and the entire congregation singing Hamish's "Freedom Come All Ye" over and over as the coffin was carried out and the cathedral emptied. What a sound!

Afterwards, the "wake" was at the Pleasance Bar, where the Edinburgh Folk Club meets on Wednesday evenings. After about an hour of chit chat and socializing, Margaret Bennett organized a four-hour sing-around with everyone doing a single song or poem or story, most of them representing one of the many facets of Hamish's long and varied career – songwriter, poet, author, collector, World War II veteran, socialist. And then a trip to Sandy Bell's for a session and to raise one last pint to Hamish.