Cards on the table; I knew, worked with and admired MacColl for over 20 years and continue to respect him and his work, yet whenever his name is mentioned I groan because I know that before we can get round to discussing his work and his contribution to folk music there will be the usual scramble over the mound of garbage that has built up around him and his ideas. It's a welcome change to get so many positive comments about him.
First – change of name. Why is it 'bizarre' that he changed his name – and does it matter? Why have I never heard anybody complain that Robert Zimmerman (or Archie Leech, or Doris Kappellhoff or Ethel Gumm or Christopher Grieve) changed theirs? MacColl changed his name when he was in the theatre – that's what actors and others in the arts did and do. Does a name change mean that these people were anything other than good at what they did?
Dictatorial – MacColl wrote very little on folk song (or anything) during his lifetime. He had strong opinions and when asked, he said what he thought (would that we all did that). Virtually all his opinions were given in interviews, and there weren't too many of them. Instead he chose to work with a small group of younger, less experienced singers, helping them to develop and trying out new ideas in order to devise a method of improving and understanding singing and traditional song. Most of those workshops were recorded and are now deposited at Birmingham Central Library and at Ruskin College for people to make up their own minds (Charles Parker Archive web-site for details). Whatever ideas he and the group came up with were solely for the use of him and the group (and anybody who expressed an interest). If I had a criticism of MacColl, it was that he didn't express his ideas more forcibly and publicly. There is a letter by Peggy Seeger on the 'Living Tradition' web-page in response to one I had written earlier, which sums their approach admirably (the debate began on the letter page in January 2000 and ran for six months or so.
In the years I knew and worked with him I never heard him slag off any other singer on the folk scene in public. Nor did I hear him 'dictate' to anybody how or what they should sing. The Singers Club had a policy, decided on and maintained by an audience committee (my wife and I were both members). One of the aims of the club was that singers should develop their own native repertoire based on its traditional singers. In order to do so, visiting singers were asked to perform songs from their own countries. I believe it is because of this policy, which was encouraged by Lomax (it was his idea in the first place), Lloyd, Dominic Behan and the early residents, that we have such a rich English, Irish and Scots repertoire on the folk scene today.
MacColl was incredibly generous with his time, his experience and his material to anybody genuinely interested. While the other 'superstars' of the revival were getting on with their own careers, he ran free weekly workshops for newer and less experienced singers – it ran for nearly ten years. I don't know any other singer who devoted anything like that time to others.
There was a wonderful example of misrepresentation of MacColl and his ideas in the recent – dreadful 'Folk Britannia'. In a discussion of Irish fiddler Michael Gorman, it was stated by somebody I have great respect for, that in the early days it was the aim of MacColl, Lloyd et al to create 'folk ensembles' similar to those to be found in eastern Europe. As evidence, the sleeve notes of a Folkways record, 'Irish Jigs and Reels' were produced, and yes - there it was in black and white - which was odd, as I knew both Lloyd and MacColl hated those ensembles. However, on a closer examination of my own copy of the record I saw that the sleeve notes were written, not by MacColl, Lloyd or anybody on the British folk scene, but by American scholar and collector Sidney Robertson Cowell. It seems that they have to bear the responsibility for other peoples ideas as well as their own!
MacColl died in 1989 and seventeen years later it is still possible to witness a regular dance over his grave (except that he was cremated and his ashes scattered over Kinder Scout). I have yet to read a decent analysis of his work – perhaps the forthcoming biography by Ben Harker will break the mould.
Sorry to have gone on for so long – it's covers half a lifetime for me.
Jim Carroll
PS The version of Sheath and Knife that McColl sang was given to him by scholar Robert S Thomson, now at Gainsville University, Florida.