The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #146180   Message #3546602
Posted By: Jim Carroll
07-Aug-13 - 11:58 AM
Thread Name: Bill Leader/Dave Bulmer
Subject: RE: Bill Leader/Dave Bulmer
"Jim - it might have helped if you had named the individual."
Ellen.
I really wanted to draw people's attention to the general mistreatment of our source singers, not just Peter's - I believe it would be counter-productive to just concentrate on him, even though he was the worst offender, bot towards those he collected from and his fellow-collectors.
"but he did not stand "between us and our folk heritage for four decades"
Don't know how familiar you are with the Beeb project, I put in a great deal of time on it for the Librarian at C#House, Barbara Newlyn, transferring the original acetate discs to tape and am constantly surprised at how much material was never made widely available, and how much was issued in edited form (Caedmon series) - also his grotesque series where he added on accompaniments and choruses and increased or slowed down the speeds.
"There certainly wasn't "a tsunami of abuse for "speaking ill of the dead"
There was to a degree here on Mudcat, but this wasn't the only place it was raised, to be greeted in a similar manner.
The point is that his behavior was never openly discussed, no matter how "honest" his obituary was - and the collection was sold on,
Dick Greenhause has repaired much of the damage Kennedy did, both in making the material available again and in one case, actually offering reparation for recordings Kennedy misappropriated from another collector and sold without permission of either the collector or the singer.
In this case, the singer, an impoverished Irish Traveller who gave us a treasure trove of ballads (including the rarest in the entire repertoire), died of malnutrition in a derelict house in Roscommon.
Any proceeds forthcoming from this singers repertoire were donated to a school set up to teach Irish Traveller children traditional trades - and the beat goes on!!
Ironically, the copyright of the ballad now rests with a well-heeled professional musician who, as far as I know, doesn't even sing the damn thing - so this appalling behaviour goes far beyond Kennedy.
Despite any marginally unpleasant things that might have been said about Kennedy following his death his behaviour (which tainted the reputation of both the BBC and the EFDSS at the time) was never dealt with satisfactorily; he was protected by threats of legal action while he was living and was cushioned by cries of "don't speak ill of the dead" following his death, please remind me how long he has been dead and how much discussion has taken place since?
An example of how much damage was done is highlighted by a story the late Keith Summers used to tell of how he approached a still living former informant of the BBC project (in the 1980s I thing, but perhaps somebody can correct that).
When Keith asked her for her songs (she turned out to be one of the most important latter-day Irish field singer) she grabbed him by the collar and demanded threatening, "You're not from Peter Kennedy are you?"   
Keith's charm managed to rescue the remainder of her large repertoire that Kennedy had not recorded.
Sorry to go on sol long abot this - I believe it to be a general problem, not just one of Kennedy's behaviour - making a sacrificial lamb out of Bulmer just doesn't hack it for me - we all need to examine where we stand regarding all our behavior and attitude.
Jim Carroll