The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #155178   Message #3648288
Posted By: Jim Carroll
04-Aug-14 - 01:25 PM
Thread Name: Spontaneous folk composition
Subject: RE: Spontaneous folk composition
One of the great stories of spontaneous composition is told of Alan Lomax, when he went to the Hebrides to record waulking songs (which were improvised on the spot ,for 'fulling' or stretching newly-spun tweed)
He began to record the women singing in Scots Gaelic as they worked, not knowing their song was about "the handsome young American with the fine head of hair, a handsome face, a broad pair of shoulders, a manly chest, a slim waist"..... down his body as far as your imagination will take you; not having a word of Gaelic, he hadn't a clue of what was happening
The recordings were said to have been sent back to the studio and broadcast on the radio, only to be greeted by a barrage of complaints from the listeners complaining about the obscene contents of the song.
Jim Carroll