'Why does he want to be called a folkie?'

The one night I saw Harper back in 1968. A friendly lecturer had taken me out to Cambridge for the day, and i asked the lecturer who had brought me if we could go and see Harper play - for I saw him advertised outside an art gallery, where were displayed Jim Dine originals.

Even then. harper was getting hassle. A traddie got up and delivered a bitter diatribe about the vile Bob Dylan who had stolen this beautiful English folksong. And then he went on to slaughter Scarboro Fair. Lugubrious, long and tuneless. by the end of it I was ready to plough a lambs horn right up his jacksie.

As i recall, the place was full of young people, packed - so many that no pub could be expected to have that many seats. We sat on the floor, those that didn't have seats. Many stood at the back. fire regulations ....forget it.

Harper was young, but seemed self assured and worldly - many years wiser than we students. He said, this is a Bob Dylan song, Because he writes songs like this, this room is full of young people tonight - myself included. And he sang a faultless Girl of the North Country.


I think it was Martin Carthy who said, just becauseyou're English doesn't mean you can understand this music. I'm not blaming him and his like, but when the decision was made that it didn't matter that we could lose all the audience that was in that folk club (as long as we preserved 'the tradition'), I think it was a bad one. And no amount of all the kings horses and all the kings men and running university courses to produce little Aly Blains, little Kate Tickells and little Ewan MacColls is going to put it right.