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20 Sep 06 - 04:58 PM (#1839479) Subject: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud of It From: GUEST,Popinjay Well why should all the proud folksingers have a place to post and not the ones who aren't proud or might even be a little bit ashamed. This thread is for you, step forward and post. I myself am not a professional folksinger and am neither proud or not proud of this (lean towards the not proud). |
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21 Sep 06 - 03:24 AM (#1839748) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: Big Al Whittle Well as someone who has probably devoted as much time and energy to the folkscene as most people in a job, I've got to admit -I'm not all that proud of the state of English folkmusic. And I wish it were in better shape. My generation at least as kids we knew the main English folksongs through the government schemes like the radio programmes called Singing Together. In my lifetime we had all these tory governments elected who didn't believe in the nanny state, didn't believe in society - didn't believe in anything except making money and turning the country into a cultural bloody wasteland. We interspersed that with Labour governments who didn't seem to believe in anything at all much one they got elected. We let complete prats dictate to us what real English folk music was about - as though we weren't English and should have been the ones deciding that. In fact we did that with all the arts - I remember going to an Art Gallery once and seeing that the artist had just filled the entire floor area with twigs. Why didn't we say something? Somehow I wish us normal folk had been a bit more 'professional'. |
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21 Sep 06 - 03:48 AM (#1839753) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: John MacKenzie Hans Christan Anderson, and the story of The King's New Clothes covers the mind set apparent in this slavish 'right on' devotion to concrete houses, unmade beds, and butchered sharks in formaldehyde as 'works of art' [sic] Your floor full of twigs is just another manifestation of this mind set and 201 years after the birth of Anderson, we still haven't learned the lesson of that story. Giok |
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21 Sep 06 - 04:07 AM (#1839764) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: Big Al Whittle Seroiusly though, you won't find many 9 year old kids going round singing High Germany like we used to - it didn't preclude singing the latest Lonnie Donnegan or Tommy steele song or what ever. |
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21 Sep 06 - 04:54 AM (#1839782) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: Tim theTwangler Maybe we gotta look elsewhere to hear the new folk music mate ? Maybe our folk is now the folk of the establishment and kids wont go around singing it because it has no relevance to them? There are rappers now and though they may outrage some peoples sense of what music is,they sing about what is impotant to there generation. I dont mean the polished sanitised crap you see on mtv I mean the music made by the guys from the housing estates of london ,Brum,Knottingham etc. It might be raw,sexist,violent ,or not but I think it is the current folk form for those that are living that life. They dont plough,fish,mine,quarry,marry virgins etc. So why should they sing about it or in any way assosciate with those "Folky" things? |
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21 Sep 06 - 05:07 AM (#1839786) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: Tim theTwangler Errr I am sorry I just dont seem able to stick to the thread titles on here ooops! |
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21 Sep 06 - 05:18 AM (#1839790) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: Keith A of Hertford I was on a coach trip with some year 8 kids a few years ago. They wanted to have a sing. They sang Happy Birthday To You over and over because it was the only song they knew all the words to. It was no one's birthday. |
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21 Sep 06 - 06:09 AM (#1839830) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: Scrump Strange story - did they sing "Happy birthday dear no-one"? Or did they just leave a blank? |
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21 Sep 06 - 06:22 AM (#1839835) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: Keith A of Hertford Sorry, memory fades. |
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21 Sep 06 - 07:56 AM (#1839883) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: Big Al Whittle Yeh absolutely Tim - to me, Pulp's Common People song is the best folk song of the last twenty years at least. Even the the really good writers from the folkscene seem to go for a 'quaint' quotient, so you get them going on about poachers, sailors ploughing the deep, - in fact bloody anything except what relates to the folks going up and down aisles in ASDA. However those old songs are part of the heritage of our country - like Shakespeare. Teachers are useless at teaching Shakespeare - I suppose they wouldn't be much better at teaching folksong Still I think we ought to have a go. |
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21 Sep 06 - 08:18 AM (#1839894) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: kendall Keith, why didn't you teach them another song? |
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21 Sep 06 - 08:51 AM (#1839915) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: Keith A of Hertford It wouldn't have worked on that occasion Kendall, but I have done on other coach trips with kids. One succes I had with some boys was getting them to do the repeat lines of Airborne All The Way. It is odd that there are so many new songs about 19th Cent whaling etc., good though they are. |
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21 Sep 06 - 10:40 AM (#1840021) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: Fidjit And the point of this thread is ?? |
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21 Sep 06 - 10:51 AM (#1840033) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: Scoville What the Hell are we talking about here? I'm not entirely proud of the state of American folk music but I do what I can to keep the parts of it of which I am proud rolling along. |
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21 Sep 06 - 11:13 AM (#1840054) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: Rob Henderson TimTheTwangler I agree with you totally. I am 26 now and was brought up on Folk music but I always liked Rap music. The funny thing was I never liked American Rap music. I loved some of the English rap stuff that was being produced years ago and the lyrics were very similar to the folk songs I listened to at the time too. To a virginal ear they are the same, it's only because we have now built up walls in our heads that make us think differant ways about what is really the same thing. (If that makes sense) Rap song from a few years back that I liked: And I'm way down the mine In another lifetime But I don't how this canary keeps chirping And my lungs are tight When you've got to keep working What's the point in life There's a hundred miners here in the union March through the manor while the owner takes communion I'm going in to get my wage for last year Plus a big bag of food One of them big chandeliers I affect the state and affect the earth And pass my spirit on again Until it's triggered by a birth I'm in this for a better life Staying clever Got the soldiers on the hop Slept in the oak tree Raided a crop They probably think I'm catholic 'Cause of my name I caught the King's deer They were giving me fame And they heard about my antics Up at the castle When I didn't pay my taxes Down came the hassle They burnt my village and my family at the stake I felt the whole ground shake Why? 'Cause spirits resonate They want my pagan head Turn the hunters in my band and that's as good as it gets Its by an English rapper called Braintax who also mentions about Eastenders characters and various other parts of modern English culture. This stuff isn't obviously your mainstream rap, but it was what me and my friends found from going to see bands that we liked. Isn't that the same thing as going to see folk bands singing about the times they lived in? I often say to my Dad its the same as folk music because it winds him up, lol. |
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21 Sep 06 - 01:25 PM (#1840171) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: Tim theTwangler LOL winding ones parents up is something that dont change innit? I reckon there is good music and purely money chasing stuff in all genres. The words you posted could be straight from a Trad songs book as far as I can see. There is a rapper on the music tech course we have just started attending and I might get the courage up to ask him to add something to one of my songs at some point. Some of the london rap from a few years back was just loaded with the tension of living in a boil on the arsehole of the earth. Having nothing and being expected to be grateful for it. You dont often get very humerous rap do you? Is that because it a young persons medium and life is always serious to a young bloke with nothing. Hey what was this thread about? |
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21 Sep 06 - 01:57 PM (#1840187) Subject: RE: Professional Folksinger, but not Proud o From: GUEST,Jon So why should they sing about it or in any way assosciate with those "Folky" things? I don't suppose much was that relavant when we had Singing Together and in some of my earlier years (second 1/2 primary, 1st 2 years secondary), as non-Welsh speaker in Wales, even less was relavant as I hadn't the first idea what the words to the Welsh songs and hymns we sang meant. The point as far as I can see then was we enjoyed singing and to be honest, I'm not even sure that relavance in terms of current affairs would have meant much to us at that age anyway. Of course as one gets a bit older, one might start getting more influnced by other music and events of the day and quite possibly (as I did) pretty well leave folk music. The thing in that case though was, the (or some of the) foundations were there for those of us who later decided to come back to folk music. |