Hamish Henderson radio programme

Subject: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Vic Smith
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 06:03 AM

This information in an e-mail from Edinburgh:-

A programme about Hamish Henderson, called "Hamish Henderson - a 'Various Man'" is going to be broadcast on Radio 4 on Tuesday, 14 October at 11.30am. It'll also be available on the 'listen again' facility on the web. If anyone misses it altogether, but wants to hear it, let me know, and I will be able to get hold of a copy on CD.
Marian
***************************************
Cathy Howieson
Senior Research Fellow
Centre for Educational Sociology
University of Edinburgh
St John's Land, Holyrood Road
Edinburgh EH8 8AQ
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Web: www.ces.ed.ac.uk

The Guide in Saturday's The Guardian says of this programme:-

Hamish Henderson was a soldier, poet, early anti-apartheid campaigner, champion of the rights of the Scottish Travellers and folklorist who did more for the culture of the Scottish people than anyone since Robert Burns. Yet he remains mostly unknown outside of his own country. Hamish Henderson — A Various Man (11.30am, R4) is the folk music hero Pete Seeger's tribute to the person that Nelson Mandela specifically sought out after his release from jail, and who introduced the world to the talents of the great Scottish traveller singers Jeannie Robertson and Belle Stewart.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 06:28 AM

Hi Vic,

Thanks for pointing that out. I managed to miss it in my weekly fine tooth comb of the Radio Times.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: GUEST,Bill the sound
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 07:16 AM

I think he was known far wider than you think.
I have heard a lot of folk singers sing 'The D-Day Dodgers' and they have all spoke of Hamish.
I also remember him singing it himself in a folk concert for the festival some years ago.
A programme not to miss!

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Leadfingers
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 08:20 AM

I know what I will be listening to on Tuesday !

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 12 Oct 08 - 03:30 PM

Vic, I'd be very grateful for a CD of the programme as my PC is not up to radio at the moment. (I'll PM you with details.)

I've just read the first volume of Hamish's biography by Tim Neat. Great stuff, although I found myself wondering at times whether one man could have done everything Neat claims, and NOT be an all-British hero. Quite well documented, though, and mandatory reading for anybody interested in Scottish folk music.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 13 Oct 08 - 03:30 AM

I have number 462 of a 600 copy limited edition of ' Freedom Come- All- Ye, An 80th Birthday Souvenir for Hamish Henderson ' the publishers, Chapman Publishing, Edinburgh were surprised that someone in England knew about this and had actually heard of Hamish Henderson.

eric

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Jim McLean
Date: 13 Oct 08 - 04:25 AM

In late 1962, Bob Dylan, in a conversation with me, asked if I was Hamish Henderson!

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: GUEST,Andymac
Date: 13 Oct 08 - 07:55 AM

Well Jim,
I can't think of a higher compliment to you than that, though it may also show Mr. Zimmerman's ignorance of things Scottish.
I'll be listening and I've made sure everyone at home knows of it too..
Andymac

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 03:23 AM

MacColl used to tell a story of his appearing in a concert with Hamish in the early days of the revival.
He said he was doing his spot on stage in which he included the port-a-beul piece 'Tail Toddle'.
As he came backstage he saw Hamish and a 'very respectable-looking grey haired American lady' in conversation - she was rather diminutive and the be-kilted Hamish towered over her.
She said: "Tell me Mr Henderson, what does 'Tail Toddle' mean?"
Hamish moved in very close to the lady so he was loomed over her and boomed in a slow, deep voice; "Well madam, the tail is the female pudenda and toddling is the act of fornication, so tail toddling is going backward and forward - backward and forward....." and began to demonstrate the action with his hips.
The lady fled and was never seen again.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Anne Lister
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 10:11 AM

I was fascinated ... why haven't they done anything like this before about such an interesting and principled man?

Anne

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 10:24 AM

Possibly because he was such an interesting and principled man - and a communist. Peter Cox's book on the Radio Ballads, or Ben Harker's on Ewan MacColl, I can't remember which, contains an account of how the BBC refused to deal with Topic Records because it was perceived as a communist organisation.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: GUEST,big tim
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 10:37 AM

Stirring it up a bit: why did he write 'Freedom' in a broad Scots accent, which, I hear, he didn't actually speak?

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Effsee
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 10:57 AM

Poetic licence?

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 10:57 AM

It's my understanding that he wrote it in Lallans dialect, as an attempt to revive that form of speech. The Freedom Come All Ye is certainly difficult to understand, for us Southerners at any rate. But that doesn't stop it moving mountains within me whenever I hear it. And I agree with the man in the programme that it should be the Scots National Anthem; except I'd rather it were kept as an anthem for all the peoples of this earth.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Folkiedave
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 11:03 AM

Will take you to a place where you can link to the show.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/pip/zvxld/

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: GUEST,big tim
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 11:21 AM

Agreed Fred, 'Freedom' is one fantastically amazing brilliant song. One of the all time international greats, IMO. And I'm Irish.

Lallans tho is lowland Scots and HH came from Perth (via a Highland childhood, with some Gaelic). It's not Lallans, it's just a sort of generalised 'broad Scots', an attempt (very successful) to use and record some old Scots words before they faded away.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Leadfingers
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 12:20 PM

VERY interesting Programme !!

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 12:48 PM

Moved me to tears when they read a bit from his Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica.
Any man who didn't see eye to eye with Hugh McDairmid is my sort of man ;)
Wonderful programme which really only skimmed the surface, of a long and distinguished career.

JM

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Emma B
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 02:13 PM

What a wonderul tribute to a principled man and poet

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: GUEST,Jerry O'Reilly
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 02:15 PM

Brilliant! Brilliant! Hearing him sing brought me back to nights in Tom Munnelly's house in the early seventies when he used to visit Dublin with his daughters.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 04:19 PM

Och Jim,
At least he had the Hamish part right! :-}

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Jim McLean
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 05:20 PM

Ceart gu leòr, Sandy.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 15 Oct 08 - 04:35 AM

A man like Hamish Henderson merited at least a 2 hour programme just to scratch the surface.

Many many years ago when some people were pushing for ' Flower Of Scotland ' to be Scotlands national anthem, Dick Gaughan was recommending The Freedom Come All Ye, surely one of greatest songs ever.

eric

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: GUEST,big tim
Date: 15 Oct 08 - 12:19 PM

For the info of anyone who may not have heard, a biogaphy of HH was published recently.

'Hamish Henderson: a biography. Volume I, the making of the poet, 1919-53'. Polygon, Edinburgh, 2007. By Tim Neat.

It dwells mainly on his poetry but also covers his (somewhat mysterious) parentage, and a bit of background to 'Seven Men of Knoydart'. A great read.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: GUEST,big tim
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 04:29 AM

As coincidence would have it, I will be driving thru Perthshire tomorrow. I will stop at Blairgowrie and try to find and photograph the house, 'Ramleh', his maternal granny's, where HH was born in 1919. I am told it's still standing.

Re the James/Hamish thing, HH was actually Christened James Scott Henderson, after his supposed father James Scott. His mother tho, a Gaelic language and Scots history enthusiast, called him Hamish (the Scots Gaelic form) from day one. Many years on, school records still had him down as James

(btw, Dylan's even having heard of HH in 1962 was, I think, pretty good for a 21 year-old Minnesotan).

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Jim McLean
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 06:57 AM

(btw, Dylan's even having heard of HH in 1962 was, I think, pretty good for a 21 year-old Minnesotan).

I agree with this, big Tim, and the reason was probably because Seeger was singing Hamish's Freedom Come All-ye and Ding Dong Dollar from the eponymous LP, which he produced for Folkways. As writers we were told not to put our names against our songs and they would be under the banner of (from) Thurso (to) Berwick, which would include all of Scotland. Pete knew Hamish had written the FCA and would have given him credits.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 07:08 AM

I don't think there's anything unusual about Dylan having heard of Henderson in 1962. As the Martin Scorsese biopic of Dylan demonstrated, he obsessively immersed himself in folk music even from before he arrived in Greenwich Village, asking questions of everyone he met. He would certainly have come across the name from Seeger or the Clancy Brothers, or possibly even from Martin Carthy when he was in England in the winter of 1962.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Jim McLean
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 08:04 AM

Fred, Dylan asked me if I was Hamish before he talked to Martin Carthy. A November BBC Radio 4 will clarify this.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 08:08 AM

Quite possibly, but he was asking questions in Greenwich Village before he got to England. What's the radio 4 programme in November?

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Jim McLean
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 09:22 AM

25th November, but I'm not sure of the program title yet.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: GUEST,big tim
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 09:46 AM

Probably spot on Jim re 'Freedom', Dylan and Seeger: why didn't I think of that, cos I'm stupid!

I know you know this but not everyone will: in a letter to Seeger, dated 6 October '61, HH said: 'I've just come back from a late holiday in Ireland and found a leaning tower of letters - including your own, and one from a lad who listened to your rendering of the 'Freedom Come-All-Ye' at Carnegie Hall on 16th Sep. I'm most pleased to hear that you like that song'.

He then goes on to credit Morris Blythman for most of 'Ding Dong Dollar' and give Pete his very own translations of the Scots words in 'Freedom'.

Anyone know of an earlier performance of 'Freedom' than Seeger's? Gotta be something related to 'Ding Dong Dollar'?

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Jim McLean
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 09:55 AM

Jack O'Connor recorded it on the Ding Dong Dollar LP and that's where Seeger got it from. I don't remember anyone singing it before 1959 but I'm not sure when Hamish wrote it. Josh McRae and Nigel Denver also sang it at the same time as Jack O'Connor, 1959,60,61.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: GUEST,big tim
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 10:01 AM

Thanks Jim. I think you once mentioned Jack O'Connor before, a trade union man.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: GUEST,big tim
Date: 16 Oct 08 - 10:59 AM

Time to give Morris Blythman (1919-81), pen name 'Thurso Berwick', some credit.

A Fifer, in the 50s he taught French at Allan Glen's (private) School in Glasgow. His pupils included,I've been told: Nigel Denver, Robin Hall, Andy Hunter and Ewan MacVicar

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 04:08 AM

I was lucky enough to to meet Hamish several times, including at the symposium given for MacColl on his 80th birthday in London (along with Howard Goorney, Lomax and Norman Buchan) and was present at a 'Memory Lane' session between them all when they swapped stories about 'the old days'
Hamish was speaking about the argument he and others had had with Hugh MacDiarmid, who apparently was no lover of folk music. He had written the introduction to MacColl's Uranium 235 when it was published, where he compared him to Sir David Lindsay - when MacColl left the theatre MacDairmid described it as 'desertion to doggerel' (or something similar).
Hamish told the story of MacDairmid's literary tour which included Russia and China during the Sino-Soviet dispute when relations between the two were not at their best - to put it mildly. He was travelling to Russia from China, and was carrying two bottles of Mau Tai (Mountain Dew, the Chinese equivalent of Irish poitín) in his hand luggage. The Soviet customs officials had orders to confiscate everything Chinese, so when MacDairmid reached the desk and was told he couldn't bring them through he drank both of them on the spot and was rushed to hospital where he had his stomach pumped.
Don't know how true this is, but it was well told.
Tom Munnelly pointed out to me that a holiday postcard which has a photo of the the Padstow Hobby Hoss includes a smiling Hamish at the front of the onlookers.
Does anybody remember the name of the film which opens with Hamish emerging from a plane at Barra 'International' Airport (the beach)?
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 06:02 AM

That should - of course read 70th birthday
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: sheila
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 09:28 PM

The film Jim Carroll mentioned would likely be 'Play Me Something', directed by Timothy Neat.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: sheila
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 09:39 PM

Oh - and Margaret Bennett's in "Play Me Something", too.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 18 Oct 08 - 02:34 AM

Sheila,
Any idea of dates for the film? The one I saw is at least 20-25 years old and I don't remember any traditional music/song connection (might be wrong).
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 18 Oct 08 - 03:59 AM

Sheila;
Just checked - that's the one - thanks.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: GUEST,big tim
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 11:27 AM

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: GUEST,big tim
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 11:29 AM

I managed to find HH's birth-house in Blairgowie. I'd call it a middle-classish 'villa'.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Abby Sale
Date: 21 Oct 08 - 10:24 AM

I'd much like to hear this but cannot find it. The Radio 4 page goes back to the 14th (1 week) but no luck. BBC Radio 4 (FM)

Please advise.

Subject: RE: Hamish Henderson radio programme
From: Folkiedave
Date: 21 Oct 08 - 05:46 PM

Hi Abby - I suspect that what may have happened is that it has been taken off "iplayer" after one week.