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The renowned voice of the airwaves, Phil Wilson, famous for his morning show "Phil Wilson In The Morning" on Affinity Radio Newcastle and Affinity Radio Shields, Saturday 7-10am and the syndicated sensation "Phil Wilson's Vinyl Revival," engages again in a captivating conversation with Tony Butler of Big Country and now Kindred Spirit with the release of the album Think Loud 4 Parkinsons. Stars have come together to support the charity Cure Parkinson's with an album of brand-new recordings including Leo Sayer, Hank Marvin, The Waterboys, Paul Carrack, Tony Hadley, Pete Townshend, Roger Taylor, Andy Fairweather Low, Hugh Cornwell, John Cooper Clarke, Ralph McTell, Jools Holland, Mike & The Mechanics & Marcella Detroit. Kindred Spirit's - Think Loud 4 Parkinson's, released on 14th February 2025, sees a plethora of British rock legends team up to help raise awareness and funds for the charity Cure Parkinson's. The album features all new and previously unreleased tracks. About Cure Parkinson's We're here for the cure. Cure Parkinson's is working with urgency to find new treatments to slow, stop and reverse Parkinson's. Our funding and innovation has redefined the field of Parkinson's research, enabling the world's leading researchers to prioritise the next generation of drugs for clinical trials. Together we will conquer Parkinson's. Further information at https://www.cureparkinsons.org.uk Cure Parkinson's is the operating name of The Cure Parkinson's Trust, a registered charity in England and Wales (1111816) and Scotland (SCO44368) and a company limited by guarantee - company number 05539974 (England and Wales). https://www.facebook.com/cureparkinsons/ https://x.com/CureParkinsonsT https://www.instagram.com/cureparkinsons/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC22BEygQpXo9wbb6qMZPjtQ Tune in to Phil Wilson Weekly: Affinity Radio Newcastle - Affinity Radio Shields on DAB accross the North East Of England, Smart Speaker and online https://www.affinityradio.uk Phil Wilson's Vinyl Revival https://www.vinylrevivalradio.com Celeb TV UK https://www.celebtv.co.uk Follow Phil Wilson: https://www.celebtv.co.uk https://www.vinylrevivalradio.com https://www.radioshields.co.uk https://www.facebook.com/CELEBRITYPHIL https://twitter.com/CelebrityPhil https://www.instagram.com/CelebrityPhil/ Please visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/celebrityphil to show your support for this channel. Thank you!
The renowned voice of the airwaves, Phil Wilson, famous for his morning show "Phil Wilson In The Morning" on Affinity Radio Newcastle and Affinity Radio Shields, Saturday 7-10am and the syndicated sensation "Phil Wilson's Vinyl Revival," engages again in a captivating conversation with Tony Butler of Big Country and now Kindred Spirit with the release of the album Think Loud 4 Parkinsons. Stars have come together to support the charity Cure Parkinson's with an album of brand-new recordings including Leo Sayer, Hank Marvin, The Waterboys, Paul Carrack, Tony Hadley, Pete Townshend, Roger Taylor, Andy Fairweather Low, Hugh Cornwell, John Cooper Clarke, Ralph McTell, Jools Holland, Mike & The Mechanics & Marcella Detroit. Kindred Spirit's - Think Loud 4 Parkinson's, released on 14th February 2025, sees a plethora of British rock legends team up to help raise awareness and funds for the charity Cure Parkinson's. The album features all new and previously unreleased tracks. About Cure Parkinson's We're here for the cure. Cure Parkinson's is working with urgency to find new treatments to slow, stop and reverse Parkinson's. Our funding and innovation has redefined the field of Parkinson's research, enabling the world's leading researchers to prioritise the next generation of drugs for clinical trials. Together we will conquer Parkinson's. Further information at https://www.cureparkinsons.org.uk Cure Parkinson's is the operating name of The Cure Parkinson's Trust, a registered charity in England and Wales (1111816) and Scotland (SCO44368) and a company limited by guarantee - company number 05539974 (England and Wales). https://www.facebook.com/cureparkinsons/ https://x.com/CureParkinsonsT https://www.instagram.com/cureparkinsons/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC22BEygQpXo9wbb6qMZPjtQ Tune in to Phil Wilson Weekly: Affinity Radio Newcastle - Affinity Radio Shields on DAB accross the North East Of England, Smart Speaker and online https://www.affinityradio.uk Phil Wilson's Vinyl Revival https://www.vinylrevivalradio.com Celeb TV UK https://www.celebtv.co.uk Follow Phil Wilson: https://www.celebtv.co.uk https://www.vinylrevivalradio.com https://www.radioshields.co.uk https://www.facebook.com/CELEBRITYPHIL https://twitter.com/CelebrityPhil https://www.instagram.com/CelebrityPhil/ Please visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/celebrityphil to show your support for this channel. Thank you!
Kev gets dewy-eyed over the music of Ralph McTell, remember the Streets of London, and Neale is feeling hopeful and buoyant about people and business in 2025. Questions today about the best camera for sports photography from the Fujifilm range, the quirks of Auto ISO, content insurance for kit away from home, more issues, photo challenges for 2025, content creators snapping your original ideas, and what software the boys use for editing video. Email the show with your questions: click@fujicast.co.uk Pic Time: https://www.pic-time.com/ - use FUJICAST when creating an account for discount offers to apply For links go to the showpage.
http://www.copperplatemailorder.com Copperplate Podcast 301 presented by Alan O'Leary January 2025 1.Gerry Diver: The Bath Set. Diversions 2. Garadice: Gan Ainm/The Sunny Hills of Beara/The Castleblaney Piper. Garadice3 PJ & Marcus Hernon:Speed the Plough/Travers No1 & Traver's No 2. Celebrating 50 Years 4. Sorcha Costello: Farewell to Ireland/Farewell to Cailroe. The Primrose Lass 5. Mick Moloney: The Wren's Song. An Irish Christmas 6. Tim Dennehy: The Boys of Barr na Sráide. Between the Mountains & the Sea 7. John Wynne & John McEvoy: McPaddin's Fave/A Visit to Ireland. The Dancer at the Fair 8. Elaine Reilly: Leddy from Cavan/Tim Fitzpatrick's. Epiphany9. Helen Roche: Green Grow the Laurel. Shake the Blossom Early 10. Dave Sheridan: The Hut in the Bog/Tom Dowd's Fave/The Trip to Cullenstown. Drivin' Leitrim Timber 11. Mick O'Brien: Statia Donnelly's/I Will If I Can/Patsy Geary's. May Morning Dew12. Carlos/Sweeney/McCartin: The Cran Man/The Flying Wheelchair. The One After it13. Eleanor Shanley/Garadice: Sanctuary. Sanctuary 14. Andy Martin: The Sailor's Bonnet/The Culfadda Reel Will We Give It a Go? 15. Goitse: Banjoman Button. Inspird By Chance16. Ralph McTell: Things You Wish Yourself. Single
Interview by Peter Jonathan Robertson in London in 1994 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
http://www.copperplatemailorder.com Copperplate Time 486 presented by Alan O'Leary www.copperplatemailorder.com Preview of Return to London Town 24 1. Bothy Band: Green Groves/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours 2. Providence: The Glenntaun Reel/The Sandymount/The Beauty Spot/Ravelled Hank of Yarn/The Midnight Reel. Geantrai 3. Maeve Donnelly & Peadar O'Loughlin: Dan Breen's/West Clare Reel/The Sandymount. The Thing Itself 4. James Keane: Return to Camden Town/Miss Thornton/ Repeal of the Union. With Friends Like These 5. John Spillane: All The Ways You Wander. Geantrai 6. Gerry O'Connor: The Bag of Spuds/The Copperplate. No Place Like Home 7. Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill: Martin Rochford's/The Green Gowned Lass. Live in Seattle 8. Garadice: Gan Ainm/Sunny Hills of Beara/The Castleblaney Blacksmith. Garadice 9. Eleanor Shanley/Garadice: Wild Mountain Side. Garadice 10. Dave Sheridan: Mulhaire's/Kiss the Maid Behin the Bar. Sheridan's Guest House 11. Noel Hill & Tony Linnane: The Home Ruler/Kitty's Wedding. Noel Hill & Tony Linnane 12. Doireann Glackin: Farewell to Eireann/Man of the House. The Housekeepers 13. Aoife, Mick O'Brien & Emer Mayock: Johnny Gone to France/The Highlanders Knee Buckle/Lady O'Brien. More Tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts 14. Laoise Kelly & Michelle O'Brien: Little John's Hame/Devanney's Goat/Tommy Whelan''s. Live at the Dock Ceoil 215. Karen Ryan: The Galway Reel/The Musical Priest/Sailor on the Rock. The Coast Road16. Ralph McTell: Nana's Song. More Love Songs 17. Niamh Ní Charra: Anac Cuan. Donnelly's Arm18. Liam Clancy: Anac Cuan. Liam Clancy 19. John McEvoy & John Wynne: Bridget McRory/The Sligo Lasses/McDonagh's. The Dancer at the Fair 20. Bothy Band: Green Groves/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours
Chat with the writer of such classic songs as ‘From Clare to Here' and ‘The Streets of London' and who will be bringing his ‘Time Drift of the Road' tour nationwide in April and May 2025. He also talks about being raised by a strong single mother and the importance of prostate cancer screening Official website: www.ralphmctell.co.uk
Streets highways, lanes and alleys have all featured in a myriad of songs. Sometimes they are the setting for social comment as in Ralph McTell's classic Streets of London or... LEARN MORE The post Streets and Thoroughfares appeared first on Yesterday Once More.
fWotD Episode 2546: Death of Blair Peach Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.The featured article for Wednesday, 24 April 2024 is Death of Blair Peach.Clement Blair Peach (25 March 1946 – 24 April 1979) was a New Zealand teacher who was killed during an anti-racism demonstration in Southall, London, England. A campaigner and activist against the far right, in April 1979 Peach took part in an Anti-Nazi League demonstration in Southall against a National Front election meeting in the town hall and was hit on the head, probably by a member of the Special Patrol Group (SPG), a specialist unit within the Metropolitan Police Service. He died in hospital that night.An investigation by Commander John Cass of the Metropolitan Police's Complaints Investigation Bureau concluded that Peach had been killed by one of six SPG officers, and others had preserved their silence to obstruct his investigation. The report was not released to the public, but was available to John Burton, the coroner who conducted the inquest; excerpts from a leaked copy were also published in The Leveller and The Sunday Times in early 1980. In May 1980 the jury in the inquest arrived at a verdict of death by misadventure, although press and some pressure groups—notably the National Council for Civil Liberties—expressed concern that no clear answers had been provided, and at the way Burton conducted the inquest.Celia Stubbs, Peach's partner, campaigned for the Cass report to be released and for a full public inquiry. An inquiry was rejected, but in 1988 the Metropolitan Police paid £75,000 compensation to Peach's family. In 2009 Ian Tomlinson died after he was struck from behind by a member of the Territorial Support Group, the SPG's successor organisation; the parallels in the deaths proved to be the catalyst in the release of the Cass report to the public. The Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, released the report and supporting documentation. He also offered an official apology to Peach's family.The policing of the demonstration in Southall damaged community relations in the area. Since Peach's death the Metropolitan Police have been involved in a series of incidents and poorly conducted investigations—the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence, the death of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, the botched 2006 Forest Gate raid and the death of Tomlinson—all of which tarnished the image of the service. Peach's death has been remembered in the music of The Pop Group, Ralph McTell and Linton Kwesi Johnson; the National Union of Teachers set up the Blair Peach Award for work for equality and diversity issues and a school in Southall is named after him.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:37 UTC on Wednesday, 24 April 2024.For the full current version of the article, see Death of Blair Peach on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm Salli Standard.
The English contemporary folk artist is the perfect modern troubadour.
http://www.copperplatemailorder.com Copperplate Time 468 presented by Alan O'Leary www.copperplatemailorder.com 1. Bothy Band: Green Groves/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours 2. Moving Cloud: Paddy Fahy's/Whistle & I'll Come to You/Woods of Old Limerick. Foxglove3. Andy Irvine & Paul Brady: The Plains of Kildare. Andy Irvine & Paul Brady 4. Altan: Miss Stewart's/Bonnie Annie/Hand Me Down the Tea Things/House of Baoithín. Donegal 5. Joe Burke & Eileen O'Brien: Nora Criona/Shaskeen Reel/The Bag of Spuds. The Fiddler's Choice6. Mary McPartlan: The Holland Handkerchief. The Holland Handkerchief 7. Ruby Harris: The Independent HP/Humours of Kilfenora/Foxhunter's Jig. The Kid on the Mountain 8. Miscellany of Folk: Coiscéim na Sí/Hervick Head. Atlantic Sounds 9. Dezi Donnelly: The Fisherman's Island/The Lads of Laois. Familiar Footsteps 10. Colum Sands: The Piper in the North Country. Turn the Corner11. Leonard Barry: Jimmy O'Reilly's/Paddy's Pet/Jigging Away the Donkey. Littoral 12. Danny O'Mahony: My Former Wife/Paidin O'Raffertaigh. In Retrospect13. Daoirí Farrell: A Pint of Plain. A Lifetime of Happiness 14. Patsy Moloney: The Sweetheart/Farewell to London. Temple in the Glen 15. Ralph McTell: From Clare to Here. Right Side Up16. Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill: Paddy Fahy's Reel. The Lonesome Touch 17. The Outside Track: Jiggery – Polka - Ry. Light Up the Dark 18. Moving Hearts: Before the Deluge. Moving Hearts 1 19. Bothy Band: Green Groves/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours
Ralph McTell's songs reflect a lifetime of observing the people around him and putting their stories to music
Ralph McTell joins Jim to talk about his six-decade-long career including his knack for songwriting, life on the road, and rubbing shoulders with Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone and Tom Waits.
http://www.copperplatemailorder.com Copperplate Time 461 presented by Alan O'Leary 1. Bothy Band: Green Groves/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours 2. Le Cheile: Seanamhach Tube Station/Munster Buttermilk. Out of the West3. Andrew Murray: Jock o' Hazeldene. Hell or High Water 4. Michael Sheehy: She Hadn't The Thing She Thought She Had/The Gullane/The Kilcummin. The Cat's Rambles 5. Paddy Carty & Conor Tully: Dowd's/In Memory of Coleman. Trad Music of Ireland6. Gerry O'Connor & Giles le Bigot: The Old Dash Churn/How She Gets up in the Morning/The Torn Bag Apron. Live in Oriel 7. Angelina & Peter Carberry: The Girl of the House/The Dawn Chorus/O'Sullivan's March. An Tradisiún Beo 8. Eilis Kennedy: The Factory Girl. Time to Sail9. Ailie Robertson: The Humours of Scariff. First Things First10. Con O'Drisceoil: The Spoons Murder. It's No Secret 11. Brendan McAuley: The Last McCartney of Pennyburn. The McCartney's of Pennyburn 12. Mick Sands: Autobiography. The Ominous & The Luminous13. Cillian Vallely & David Doocey: The Lark's March/Will You Come Home With Me. The Yew & The Orchard14. Danu: The Poor Man's Fortune/The Long Strand/Gan Ainm. # 10,000 Miles 15. Triona/Bothy Band: Pretty Peg/Cregg's Pipes. 197516. Terry Clarke: Elvis Presley Came to Prestwick. West Highland 17. Blues 17. Ralph McTell: Walk Into the Morning. Songs for Six Strings 18. The Waterboys: With A Bang on the Ear. Fisherman's Blues
Ralph is back touring Australia. The “Streets of London” singer/songwriter sits down with David Barr to talk about his music and perform some songs. Ralph will be playing at The Concourse Chatswood on Friday 9 February as part of his Streets of Oz Tour 2024. [...]Read More... from A Chat with Ralph McTell
Veteran musician from the UK Ralph McTell chats with Denis Walter as he returns to Australian shores for the first time in five years!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The iconic folk singer and songwriter Ralph McTell chats to Marty about his iconic hits Streets of London and From Clare to Here, and being celebrated as part of Tradfest 2024
Live from Dublin Castle, music and chat from Janis Ian, Ralph McTell, Toshín, Aoife Scott, Neil Martin and Louise Mulcahy.
Eighty-nine years ago today, one of America's greatest — though least-known — blues artists died after months of illness. Gaunt and frail, Arthur Blake — known to blues aficionados by his stage name, “Blind Blake” — must have looked much older at the end than his 38 years.It had been a wild and sometimes wonderful decade for him. Starting in mid-1920s, he was celebrated as Paramount Records' sensational guitarist, whose distinctive playing often was compared to the sound and style of a ragtime piano.InfluencesHis intricate finger-picking was to inspire generations of guitarists, from Rev. Gary Davis to Ralph McTell, from Leon Redbone to Ry Cooder and John Fahey.Famously, blues great Big Bill Broonzy, who heard Blake in person in the early 1920s, said Arthur made his guitar “sound like every instrument in the band — saxophone, trombone, clarinets, bass fiddles, pianos, everything. I never had seen then and I haven't to this day yet seen no one that could take his natural fingers and pick as much guitar as Blind Blake."The CrashBlake recorded about 80 tracks between 1926 and 1932. His future looked bright. With his records selling well, he felt he could settle down, so he married Beatrice McGee around 1931. But then the next year it all went bad. Paramount went bankrupt in 1932 under the weight of the Great Depression. In the remaining two years of his life, Arthur Blake was plagued by poverty and by illness. A coroner's autopsy confirmed that his Dec. 1, 1934, death came because of complications from tuberculosis.The SongToday Blind Blake's legacy lives on in his recordings and through their impact on nearly a century of blues, folk and jazz musicians who travel in his shadow. In 1992, for instance, Bob Dylan honored Blake in the title of his Good as I Been to You album, on which he performed a cover of "You Gonna Quit Me Blues.”Our Take on the TuneAnd that's where The Flood comes in. We started doing the song in the mid-'90s, right after hearing Dylan's version on that album.We were looking for an easy, happy tune that we could warm up with, one that would let everybody in the room just stretch out a little. Nowadays it is just as likely to turn up as a last song of the night — as it does here — putting a bow on a great evening of music. Enjoy.Meanwhile, in Other News…By the way, we're now one month away from our big “Flood at 50” birthday bash on New Year's Eve, and the good folks at Alchemy Theatre who are hosting it have created a Facebook Event page for the do, with all kinds of additional goodies. Click the graphic below to reach it on Facebook:In addition, our dear friend Shane Ward at Eve.NET has helped us get a dedicated website for the event up and running. Visit us there at Floodat50.com! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com
One of the great storytellers, Ralph McTell, is celebrating more than 50 years on the road. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Shane Byrne reflects on Ireland's loss to the All Blacks, Daniel Deasy, Associate Professor of Philosophy at UCD tells us about his critical thinking course at UCD on how to spot bulls**t and Conor Pope takes on your consumer troubles.
Ralph joins Ray ahead of his tour 'From there to here' which is also the title of his new album.
On Thursday's Morning Focus, Alan Morrissey was joined by Ralph McTell an Engligh singer-songwriter to discuss his new album and upcoming performance at Glór. The English singer-songwriter is one of the most influential figures to emerge from the 1960s folk music scene over in the UK and has written songs such as, the legendary Streets of London, which has been covered by over two hundred artists around the world, and From Clare to Here, his ballad about Irish emigration. Ralph has announced a new album and he will be touring Ireland throughout late October and early November, including what should be a memorable show at Glór in Ennis on the 27th of October. Picture (c) Ralph McTell via Facebook
Instrumental SING ALONG **** "Streets of London"Written by Ralph McTell * Released 1968 Producer Renee Plays her Rendition on Piano + Guitar.Here Are The Lyrics:Have you seen the old man outside the closed down marketHe's kicking up the paper with his worn out shoes ?In his eyes you'll see no pride and loosely held by his sideIs yesterday's paper telling yesterday's news.How can you tell me you're lonely and say for you that the sun doesn't shine ?Let me take you by the hand, and lead you through the streets of LondonI'll show you something to make you change your mind.Have you seen the old girl who walks the streets of LondonThere's dirt in her hair and her clothes are all in rags ?She's no time for talking she just keeps right on walkingCarrying her home in two carrier bags.How can you tell me you're lonely and that your sun it doesn't shine ?Let me take you by the hand, I"ll lead you through the streets of LondonI'll show you something to make you change your mind.In the all night cafe at a quarter past eleven The same old man sitting there on his ownLooking at the world over the rim of his teacup Each tea lasts an hour then he wanders home alone.So how can you tell me you're lonely and for you the sun doesn't shine ?Let me take you by the hand, and lead you through the streets of LondonI'll show you something to make you change your mind.Have you seen the old man outside the seaman's missionHis memory now is fading with the medal ribbons that he wears ?In our Winter city the rain cries a little pityFor one more forgotten hero and a world that doesn't care.How can you tell me you're lonely and that the sun it doesn't shine ?Let me take you by the hand, and lead you through the streets of LondonI'll show you something to make you change your mind. VoiceRenee@charter.net
http://www.copperplatemailorder.com Copperplate Time 437 presented by Alan O'Leary www.copperplatemailorder.com Music & Mischief1. Bothy Band: Green Groves/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours 2. Trian: Humours of Ballyconnell/Reel Eboulemant/Richie Dwyer's. Trian 23. Seamus Maguire & John Lee: The Road to Ballymac/Corrigea Grove/The Cloone Reel. The Missing Reel 3. Planxty: Accidentals/Aragon Mill. Retrospective 4. Liam Clancy: Ten & Nine. Liam Clancy5. Dervish: Jim Coleman's Set. At The End of the Day 6. Johnny O'g Connolly: Fear Inis Bearachian/Fear Londain/Fear Bhoston. Fear Inis Bearachain7. Leonard Barry: Kitty Got A Clinking/Sarah's Reel/The Bog Carrot New Road 8. Catherine McEvoy: Elizabeth Kelly's Fave/Kitty Come Down to Limerick. The Home Ruler 9. Niamh Parsons: Clohinne Winds. Her Infinite Variety10. Crawford/Farrell/Doocey: Aube Mauve/Mousein the Mug/The Cuil Aodh/Monaghan Twig. Music & Mischief 11. Ralph McTell: Interest On the Loan. Streets 12. Ralph McTell: River Rising. Right Side Up13. Ralph McTell: Harry (Don't Go). Slide Away the Screen 14. Martin Carthy: Scarborough Fair. Electric Muse 15. John Martyn: Some People Are Crazy. Grace & Danger 16. John Regan & Paddy Glackin Maid at the Spinning Wheel/A Visit to Ireland. Let Down the Blade17. Mulcahy Family: The Fog on the Hill/Dave White's/Peg McGrath's. The Reel Note 18. London Lasses: Dandy Dinny Cronin/Moving in Old Decency/Ballintore Fancy/Over the Bridge to Peggy. LL 25 19. Bothy Band: Green Groves/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours
This exceptional episode of Electronically Yours features the legendary artist Robin Scott - under the identity of M he was responsible for one of the late 70's most irresistible hits, Pop Muzik. Emerging originally from the folk music scene, he shared bills with David Bowie, Ralph McTell and John Martyn. He has also written a musical, produced many other bands and remains an inspirational songwriter and performer to this day. And he's Berenice Scott's dad! Ladies and gentlemen, New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody's talking about - Robin Scott... If you can, please support the Electronically Yours podcast via my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/electronicallyours
The night is chill and crisp, a bright moon rides the racing clouds and stars shimmer on the surface of the canal. It's a perfect night for a night walk. Snuggle down and wrap up warm as you join me on a canal walk washed by moon light. Journal entry:29th November, Tuesday“Reluctant daylight. The sun's cold shoulder. Three ducks bob on ruffled water. I walk on uphill Grateful for thick socks.” Episode Information:In this episode I read an extract from Niall Mac Coitir's retelling of the myth of Halcyone and Ceyx in his (2015) book Ireland's Birds: Myths, legends and folklore published by Swift Books. The book by Alexander Porteous that I refer to on the walk is The Forest in Folklore and Mythology first published in 1928 and subsequently republished by Courier Corporation (2001). I also cite a portion of Ralph McTell's song ‘Streets of London' released in 1969. You can listen to the complete song here: Ralph McTell – Streets of London. The first NoSW ‘Nightwalk' can be heard here: Episode 5: Nightwalk. For more information about Nighttime on Still WatersYou can find more information and photographs about the podcasts and life aboard the Erica on our website at noswpod.com. General DetailsIn the intro and the outro, Saint-Saen's The Swan is performed by Karr and Bernstein (1961) and available on CC at archive.org. Two-stroke narrowboat engine recorded by 'James2nd' on the River Weaver, Cheshire. Uploaded to Freesound.org on 23rd June 2018. Creative Commons Licence. Piano and keyboard interludes composed and performed by Helen Ingram.All other audio recorded on site. ContactFacebook at https://www.facebook.com/noswpodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/nighttimeonstillwaters/Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoswPodMastodon: https://mastodon.world/@nosw I would love to hear from you. You can email me at nighttimeonstillwaters@gmail.com or drop me a line by going to the nowspod website and using either the contact form or, if you prefer, record your message using the voicemail facility by clicking on the microphone icon.
Terug naar 1968, London en een jonge artiest met de naam Ralph McTell die een prachtige song uitbrengt met de titel "TheStreets of London"45 jaar later en 200 covers verder is het een monument van een plaat. We duiken in het verhaal erachter en laten ons leiden door de muzikale reis in het London van eind jaren 60
http://www.copperplatemailorder.com Copperplate Time 407 Presented by Alan O'Leary www.copperplatemailorder.com 1. Bothy Band: Green Groves of Erin/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours 2. Moving Cloud: Colonel McBain/ Grogan's Fav/Sailor on the Rock Moving Cloud 1 3. Teada: The Cauliflower/Ton Busby's/A Tribute to Jim. Coiscéim Colligh 4. Tim Dennehy: Lenihan's Big Bazaar. Between the Mountain & the Sea 5. Ailie Robertson: The Exploding Bow: First Things First 6. Angelina Carberry & Dan Brouder: Laughing Waters/Sean Ryan's Dream/The Ballybunion Reel. Back in Time 7. Hughie Gillespie & Frank Kelly: The Morning Dew/Woman of the House. Sparkling Dawn 8. Mairead Taggart: The Scholar. A Woman's Love 9. Tony MacMahon: The Scholar/The Heather Breeze Tony MacMahon 10. Seamus Quinn & Gary Hastings: An Ceannabháin Bhána/Dever the Dancer. Stories to Tell 11. Maurice Lennon: The Road to Garrison/The Bllackberry Blossom. The Little Ones 12. Mick, Aoife O'Brien & Emer Mayock Rathhinneach/A Bhean Bheag/Gregg's Pipes. More Tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts 12. Patsy Moloney: The Dooney Rock/Paddy Fahy's. The Temple in the Glen 13. Rita Connolly: Ciumhais Charraig Aonair Beal Tuinne 14. Maurice Lennon: The Little Ones. The Little Ones 15. Hayes/Canny/OLoughlin/Lafferty: Lucy Campbell/Boys of Ballisodare An Historic Recording 16. Ralph McTell: Nana's Song Ralph Albert & Sydney 17. Paul Brady: Nobody Knows. Compilation 18. Terry Clarke: Sea Songs The Shelley River19. Delores Keane: Galway Bay. Best of 20. Moving Cloud: Do You Want Anymore/A Visit to Ireland. Moving Cloud 1 21. Bothy Band: Green Groves of Erin/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours
This episode is part of Pledge Week 2022. Every day this week, I'll be posting old Patreon bonus episodes of the podcast which will have this short intro. These are short, ten- to twenty-minute bonus podcasts which get posted to Patreon for my paying backers every time I post a new main episode -- there are well over a hundred of these in the archive now. If you like the sound of these episodes, then go to patreon.com/andrewhickey and subscribe for as little as a dollar a month or ten dollars a year to get access to all those bonus episodes, plus new ones as they appear. Click below for the transcript Transcript Before I start, a warning. Even though this episode is short it deals with many, many, upsetting subjects. If you're likely to be upset by a story dealing with the death and disfigurement of small children, disability, mental illness, gun violence and eye injuries, you're probably best off skipping this episode altogether, as it deals with these subjects right from after the first excerpt of music until the end. It's not a happy story. In this week's main episode we talk briefly about a record that Paul Simon produced while he was in Britain, before "The Sound of Silence" became a big hit. The performer whose record he produced only released that one album in his lifetime, but it's a record that had an outsized influence on the British folk-music scene. So today, we're going to have a look at the tragic life of Jackson C Frank, and at "Blues Run the Game": [Excerpt: Jackson C Frank, "Blues Run the Game"] Jackson C Frank's life started to go badly, irrevocably, wrong, when he was just eleven years old. His family lived in Buffalo, New York, where the winters are long and cold, and Jackson was a Baby Boomer. Because of the tremendous number of new children going through the school system, the brick schoolhouse at the school he attended had been augmented with an annexe, made out of wood, and he was in that annexe, in a music lesson, when the boiler exploded and set fire to it. Jackson was one of the lucky ones. That fire took the life of fifteen of his classmates, and spurred a national movement towards banning timber buildings for schools and the institution of fire drills, which up to that point had not been a thing. Jackson got thrown out of a window by a teacher, and the snow put out the flames on his back, meaning he "only" suffered burns over sixty percent of his body, scarring him for life. He had to spend a year in hospital, have a tracheotomy, and have a metal plate put in his head. He developed thyroid problems, got calcium deposits that built up over the years and frequently left him in agony, and always walked with a limp and only had limited movement in his arms. Many celebrities did things to comfort the children, who became nationally known. Kirk Douglas came to the hospital to visit them, and later in his childhood Jackson was able to go and meet Elvis, who became a big inspiration for the young man. He spent his teenage years going around the local music scene, including spending a long time with a friend who later became known as John Kay of Steppenwolf, but then when he turned twenty-one he got a massive insurance payout that had been held in trust for him. I've seen different numbers for this -- it was either fifty or a hundred thousand dollars, and in modern terms that would be about ten times that much. Being a young man, he didn't want to invest it, he wanted to buy expensive cars. He wanted an Aston Martin and a Bentley, and Britain was where they made Aston Martins and Bentleys, so he caught a boat to England, and on the trip over started writing songs, including the one that would become his best known: [Excerpt: Jackson C Frank, "Blues Run the Game"] Once he was in the UK, Frank moved into Judith Piepe's flat, where he started a relationship with an eighteen-year-old nurse, who was also trying to be a singer. Frank encouraged her to follow her dreams and become a professional, and Sandy Denny would later record some of his songs, and wrote the song "Next Time Around" about him: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, "Next Time Around"] While he was in London, he became well known on the folk circuit, regularly playing Les Cousins, and as Ralph McTell put it, "EVERYONE" sang 'Blues Run the Game'". Over the years, the song has been performed by everyone from Bert Jansch: [Excerpt: Bert Jansch, "Blues Run the Game"] to Counting Crows: [Excerpt: Counting Crows, "Blues Run the Game"] Frank's own version of the song was recorded on his one and only album, which was produced by Paul Simon, as we heard in the main episode. That album also included songs like "Carnival", which has now possibly become the song of Frank's that has been heard by most people, as it was featured both on the soundtrack and in the dialogue of the 2019 film Joker: [Excerpt: Jackson C Frank, "Carnival"] The album didn't sell, and Frank returned to the US, after marrying Elaine Sedgwick, the cousin of Edie Sedgwick. He was missed when he left, and Roy Harper, another folk musician who played the same circuit, wrote "My Friend" about his departure: [Excerpt: Roy Harper, "My Friend"] When he came back in 1968 to do a couple of shows, though, his depression, which had always been bad since the fire, had worsened. Al Stewart said "He proceeded to fall apart before our very eyes. His style that everyone loved was melancholy, very tuneful things. He started doing things that were completely impenetrable. They were basically about psychological angst, played at full volume with lots of thrashing. I don't remember a single word of them – it just did not work. There was one review that said he belonged on a psychologist's couch." He was withdrawn, and wouldn't speak to people, and he had writer's block. To make matters worse, his home life was also going awfully. His insurance money had all run out, but Paul Simon had given him a loan of three thousand dollars, with Simon taking Frank's publishing as surety, so he could start a business, but the business failed and Simon kept the publishing. In 1971, when Art Garfunkel was recording his first solo album, he asked Frank if he had a song that might be suitable. Frank had actually written a new song, "Juliette": [Excerpt: Jackson C Frank, "Juliette"] Unfortunately, when he turned up to see Garfunkel, he brought along a few hippy friends, who all made fun of Garfunkel for being a sell-out, and so Garfunkel didn't record the song, though he did give Frank a new guitar. By the early seventies, Frank was in a very bad way. He and his wife had had two children, but one had died of cystic fibrosis, and the marriage had ended. He spent periods of time in psychiatric hospitals, and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, though he always said himself that he wasn't schizophrenic, he was suffering from depression because of the loss of his son. He was living off handouts from friends, even as his songs were inspiring new artists like Nick Drake, who recorded four of his songs: [Excerpt: Nick Drake, "Here Comes the Blues"] In the early eighties he was living with his parents, but then in 1984 while his mother was in hospital he got an idea -- he could go to New York and find his old friend Paul, and ask him for his publishing back, or maybe just for some money. He didn't leave a note, and his parents had no idea where he'd gone. He did go to New York, but he couldn't find his friend, and he ended up homeless, living on the streets, and in and out of psychiatric institutions. In the early nineties, a fan tracked him down and helped sort out some accommodation for him in Woodstock, where he'd lived in his twenties. By this time he was in an awful physical and mental state, and the fan described him as looking like the Elephant man because of the bloating from his thyroid problems and his joint issues affecting his posture (though I have to say that from the couple of photos I've seen of him at this time, that's quite an exaggeration). But just to rub salt in the wound, after the accommodation had been arranged, but before he'd had a chance to move, he was sat on a park bench in Queens, and some kids, shooting randomly with a pellet gun, hit him in his left eye, permanently blinding him in that eye. His rediscovery got a bit of publicity, and led to his album being reissued on CD. He also started writing again, and recorded some demos on a cheap cassette recorder in 1997, many of which have since been released on various compilations: [Excerpt: Jackson C Frank, "(Tumble) in the Wind"] But 1997 was also the year that Frank moved into a care home, and he wouldn't record any more after that. In 1998, Paul Simon finally returned his publishing to him, presumably having given up on ever getting his three thousand dollars back. And on March the third, 1999, one day after his fifty-sixth birthday, Jackson C Frank died of pneumonia. His game had finally run to its end.
"The Good Listening To" Podcast with me Chris Grimes! (aka a "GLT with me CG!")
Ladies n' Genminminminmin (er, min...) please welcome Bristol Broadcasting Legend Keith Warmington legendary BBC Radio Bristol Presenter, Blues Harmonica Player, Voiceover Artist & Cycling Nut!Top bloke, top local Broadcaster and top local legend! After 52 years in Bristol, the mellifluous Keith Warmington is an optimistic Francophile, who is on his way to becoming the finished article. He is a self-confessed "cycling nut", happy to be on the road for up to 3 hours on any day he chooses. Habitually he enjoys saying hello to people, counting local cranes on a regular basis and changing his spectacles every year. He also enjoys sharing chocolate cake in the Primrose Cafe. Keith does not yet have his own website but claims the BBC website's version of him is inaccurate. He was born in Camborne, not as a ‘chopper' in Redruth, as implied by the BBC. Keith started working with them in 1983, not 1993 as their website suggests. This programme is proud to set the record straight! Keith is a professional performer and harmonica player, who also plays the guitar. His great loves, apart from his lawyer wife and his grownup daughter, are recognising random road bikes and gazing at beautiful guitars. While still at school in Redruth, Keith was inspired by role-model folk singers like Mike Chapman and Ralph McTell in denim jackets, carrying their guitars around in cases. Later he was impressed by Tour de France competitors with their seemingly effortless energy and elegant sunglasses. Keith actually taught French for 9 years in Bristol before finding more fame and job satisfaction in broadcasting with the BBC. There, the late John Turner was his mentor. Keith remembers John's pragmatic advice:* Always know what you are going to do next* When the red light goes on, make sure you've got something to sayIt has stood him in good stead to this day. What Keith says is colourfully fluent and well worth listening to. Hear for yourself, here. Thank you!
http;//www.copperplatemailorder.com Copperplate Time 394 Presented by Alan O'Leary An Easter Miscellany1. Bothy Band: Green Groves of Erin/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours 2. Ben Lenon & Friends: The Enchanted Lady/The Holy Land The Natural Bridge 3. Christy Moore: Easter Snow. Collection 81-91 4. Liam O'Flynn & Catherine Ennis: Easter Snow. Bringing It All Back Home 5. Ralph McTell: The GPO Song. Download 6. The Goodman Trio: The Wash-Woman/The Aberdeen/The Merry Time of Easter. More Tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts 7. Maggie Boyle: Donal Og. Won't You Come Away 8. Brian O'Rourke: Donal Og Replies. Brian O'Rourke 9. The Outside Track: Eleanor Plunkett. Rise Up 10. Ralph McTell: Easter Lilies: Red Sky. 12. Christy Moore: Bright Blur Rose. Collection 81-9113. Matt Molloy: The Morning Thrush. Download 14. Teresa Mullane: Caoineadh na hTrí Mhuire. Lan Mara 15. Mick O'Brien & Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh: Aoibhinn Crónan/The Hopstores/Lily in the Valley Deadly Buzz 16. Ralph McTell: Jesus Wept. Sand in your Shoes 17. Maranna McCloskey: At Last. At Last 18. Liam O'Flynn: The Dark Woman of the Glen. The Piper's Call 19. Míckaél O'Raghallaigh: The Stoney Steps/The Hut in the Gog/The Merry Days of Easter. The Nervous Man. 20. Jake Walton: A Celtic Benediction. Jubilee 21. Bothy Band: Green Groves of Erin/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours
Como sabéis, cada año escogemos una obra de Alan Moore para dedicarle un monográfico y cuando se cumplen 40 años de la salida del primer capítulo de V de Vendetta en la revista Warrior, no podíamos escoger otra obra que esta para dedicarle nuestro modesto pero apasionado homenaje. David Lloyd y Alan Moore marcarían para siempre sus carreras con esta obra de juventud, quizá algo más visceral que el trabajo posterior que hemos visto de ambos y tal vez por eso sea tan intensa e interesante. Hay mucho que hablar sobre V de Vendetta y por eso le dedicamos este monográfico que tenéis a golpe de play. Sabed, oh-yentes, que entre los años del hundimiento de Atlantis y sus brillantes ciudades, tragadas por los océanos, y los años del nacimiento de los hijos de Aryas, hubo una edad no soñada donde podía escucharse el podcast 240 de ELHDT. Selección musical: 🎶Simpathy for the devil, versión de Sara Loera 🎶 Dancing in the street, Martha and the Vandellas 🎶 This vicious Cabaret, David J. 🎶 Streets of London, Ralph McTell 🎶 Obertura 1812, Epic Trailer version
http;//www.copperplatemailorder.com Copperplate Time 392 Presented by Alan O'Leary1. Bothy Band: Green Groves of Erin/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours 2. Buttons & Bows: The Return of Spring/The Mountain Pathway. The Return of Spring 3. The Blackwater Ceili Band: Farrell O'Gara/Maids of M ount Kisco/Billy Brocker's.The Blackwater Ceili Band 4. Tony Reidy: Paddy's Looking Rough. Back on the Farm. 5. Dezi Donnelly & Mike McGoldrick: An Buachaillin Dreoite/The Lark in the Morning. Dog in the Fog 6. Andy Martyn: The Light of Home. Will We Give It A Go? 7. Paul Brady: Mary & the Soldier Paul Brady & Andy Irvine 8. Brian Hughes & Dave Sheridan Shanahan's HP/Eanach Mhic Coilin/The Leitrim Thrush. However Long the Day 9. Eilis Kennedy: The Elk River Dam. Westward 10. Frankie Gavin & Alec Finn: The Dark Haired Lass/The Shoemaker's Daughter. Frankie & Alec Vol 2 11 Frankie Gavin & Paddy Ban O'Broin: The Glass of Beer/Richard Dwyer's. My True Love He Dwells on the Mountain 13. Steve Tilston & Maggie Boyle: The Slip Jigs & Reels. . Of Moor & Mesa 14. Karen Ryan: Mrs Lawrie's/Karen Ryan's. The Coast Road 15. Paddy Glackin: Cherish the Ladies. Music on the Fiddle 16. Skara Brae: Bán Chnoic Éireann Ó. Keep ‘er Lit 17. Connie O'Connell: The Forgotten Fling/ Her Goden Hair Hung Down Her Back in Ringlets. Music from Cill na Martra 18. Delores Keane: Galway Bay. Best of Delores Keane. 18. Mick O'Brien & Micheal O'Raghallaigh. The Lass of Carracastle/Morning Dew/Geese in the Bog. The Deadly Buzz 20. Donal Clancy: Open the Door Softly. On The Lonesome Plain 21. Ralph McTell: An Irish Blessing. Sand in Your Shoes 22. Bothy Band: Green Groves of Erin/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours
Copperplate Time 385 Presented by Alan O'Leary www.copperplatemailorder.com 1. The Bothy Band: Green Groves of Erin/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours 2. Open the Door For Three: Boyne Water. The Joyful Hour 3. John Regan & Paddy Glackin: Tom Ward's Downfall/The Piper's Despair. Let Down the Blade 4. Christy Moore: The Clock Winds Down. The Clock Winds Down 5. Casey Sisters: Humours of Castlebernard/ From Shore to Shore. Sibling Revelry 6. Seamus Maguire & John Lee: The Road to Ballymac/Corriga Grove/The Cloone Reel. The Missing Reel 7. Aaron O'Hagan & Luke Ward: Green Fields of Woodford/Young Tom Ennis. From The Devil's Punchbowl 8. Paddy Cronin: The Girl Who Broke My Heart/Tom Steele. Kerry's Own 9. Mairead O'Casey: Dark Lochnagar. Sibling Revelry 10. Willie Clancy: Dark Lochnagar. The Gold Ring 11. Brendan McGlinchey: The Galway Reel / Paddy Fahy's. Music of a Champion 12. Joh Kerr & Friends: Roger Sherlock's/Farewell to London. Two Old Black Sticks 13. Maurice & Brian Lennon: Carmel O'Mahoney Mulhaire. Within A Mile of Kilty 2 14. Muireann Nic Amhloibh: Faoiseamh Faoistine. Seaborne 15. Kevin Burke:Canyon Moonrise. Sligo Made 16. Kathleen Smith: Dublin Reel/The Steampacket. Cherish The Ladies 17. The Baileys: Colcannon. A Song for Ireland 18. Danny Meehan: The Tarbolton/Over the Moor to Maggie. The Navvy on the Shore 19. Dick Gaughan: Both Sides the Tweed. Handful of Earth 20. Tommy Peoples: Drumnagarry Strathspey/King George 1V . Tommy Peoples 21. Ralph McTell: A Close Shave. Hill of Beans 22. Sandy Denny: I'm A Dreamer. Rendeavous 23. The Bothy Band: Green Groves of Erin/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours
Copperplate Time 383 Presented by Alan O'Leary www.copperplatemailorder.com 1. Bothy Band: Green Groves of Erin/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours 2. London Lasses: Humours of Castlefinn/Eileen O'Brien's/ The Enchanted Lady. The Enchanted Lady 3. De Danann: Morrison's/Tailor's Thimble/Wellington's. The Star Spangled Molly 4. Planxty:Little Musgrave/Paddy Fahy's.The Woman I Loved So Well 5. Niamh Ni Charra: Flush of Success/The Worn Torn Petticoat/ Tom Billy's Fave. Donnelly's Arm 6. Angelina Carberry & Dan Brouder: The Liverpool HP/Mullin'Fancy/Boil The Breakfast Early/Fallon's Delight. Back in Time 7. Tommy Reck: Maid in the Cherry Tree/Man of the House. The Master Pipers Vol 4 8. Paddy Killoran: The Old Dudeen/The Road to Lurgan. Valuable Treasure 9. Kate Purcell: The Green Hills of Clare. Independent Soul 10. Brian Lennon: The Laurel Tree/Flowers of Red Hill. Within A Mile of Kilty 2 11. Brendan McGlinchey: Splendid Isolation/McGlinchey's. Music of a Champion 12. Paul Brennan: My Bonnie Blue Eyed Lassie. Airs & Graces 13. Carrig: The Piper's Jig/The Swan Among the Rushes/Behind the Bush in the Garden. Airs & Graces 14. Aine & Francis O'Connor: Kiss the Maid Behind the Barrell/ The Ravelled Hank of Yarn. They Didn't Come Home Till Morning 15. Noel Hll: An Phis Fliuch/The Fisherman's Jig. Live in New York 16. Cherish The Ladies: Donegal Jig/ Cherish The Ladies. Cherish The Ladies17. Johnny Og Connolly: Ceilúr na Spideoige/Ben's Arrival. Fear Inis Bearachain 18. Eileen O'Brien & Anne Conroy Burke: Down the Hill/The Lane to the Glen. The Fiddler's Choice 19. Ralph McTell: Things You Wish Yourself. Single 20. The Bothy Band: Green Groves of Erin/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours
Welcome to Season 5 of The TradFest Podcast. On Today's podcast we chat to English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player Ralph McTell. An incredible interview not to be missed. Ralph will be performing as part of TradFest Temple Bar 2022 on Thursday Jan 27th @ 8Pm in The National Stadium. Don't miss it. Book your tickets today.
Copperplate Time 380 Presented by Alan O'Leary www.copperplatemailorder.com 1. Bothy Band: Green Groves/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours 2. Noel Hill & Tony Linnane: Anderson's/Carty's/Sweeney's Dream. Noel Hill & Tony Linnane 3. Niall & Cillian Vallely: Humours of Ballyloughlin/Old Tipperary. Callan Brodge 4. Niamh ni Charra: Gone, Gonna Rise Again. Donnelly's Arm 5. Angelina Carberry & Dan Brouder: Green Grow the Rushes O/Stirling Castle/Lady Ramsey's Strathspey. Back in Time 6. Tommy Peoples: Drumnagarry/King George 4th Strathspey. Tommy Peoples 7. Eamonn Cotter: Bimid ag Ól/The Gallowglass/Biddy, the Bold Wife. Trad Music from Co Clare 8. Seamus Begley: Bean Dubh an Ghleanna. Harping On 9. Crawford/Farrell & Doocey: Mouse in the Mug. Music & Mischief 10. Johnny Doran: Colonel Fraser/My Love is in America/Rakish Paddy. Fire Draw Near 11. James Morrison & John McKenna: The Tailor's Thimble/Red Haired Lass. Anthology of Irish Music 12. Rita Gallagher: The Mountain Streams. May Morning Dew 13. Ailie Robertson: The Exploding Bow. First Things First14. Ralph McTell: Nana's Song. Ralph, Albert & Sydney 15. Bert Jansch: Fresh As Sweet Sunday Morning. L.A. Turnaround 16. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: Go Your Way. Raise The Roof 17. Alan Hull/Lindisfarne: Winter Song. Meet Me On The Corner 18. Moving Hearts: May Morning Dew. The Storm 19. Bothy Band: Green Groves/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours
Copperplate Time 378 Presented by Alan O'Leary www.copperplatemailorder.com 1. Bothy Band: Green Groves/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours 2. Bothy Band: Pipe on the Hob/Hag at the Churn. After Hours 3. Angelina & Peter Carberry: Paddy Kelly's/ The Thatched Cabin/Harrison's Fedora. An Tradisiún Beo 4. Danu: Co Down/Garech's Wedding/Gan Ainm/The Moving Bog/Cliffs of Glenn ColmCille. The Road Less Travelled 5. Liam Kelly: Colonel Fraser/The Highland Skip. At Home With McKenna 6. Bobby Casey: Poll Ha'penny/Scully Casey's HP. The Spirit of West Clare 7. Colm O'Donnell: Horses & Ploughs. Farewell to the Evening Dances 8. Caoimhin O'Fearghaill: Mary McMahon/Reel of Mullinavat. Uilleann Piping from Waterford 9. PJ Crotty & James Cullinane: Harvest Moon/Johnny McGoohan's/Dwyer's. Happy to Meet 10. Niamh Ni Charra: Curlew Hills/Tripping to the Well/Two Part Pour. Donnelly's Arm 11. Sean O'Riada & Ceoltoiri Chulann: O'Neill's March. O'Riada sa Gaiety 12. Linda Moylan: Brig Hannah. The Merchant 13. Dezi Donnelly: The Knocknagow Jig/Maids on the Green. Familiar Footsteps14. Mick & Aoife O'Brien & Emer Mayock: Split the Whisker/The Black Joke. More Tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts 15. Ralph McTell: The Girls from the Hiring Fair. Silver Celebration 16. John Regan: Waltz from Coppelia. Let Down the Blade 17. Luke Kelly & Dubliners: The Night Visiting Song. The Collection 18. Ushers Island: Johnny Doherty's Set. Ushers Island 19. Bothy Band: Green Groves/Flowers of Red Hill. After Hours
Episode one hundred and thirty-five of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel, and the many records they made, together and apart, before their success. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Blues Run the Game" by Jackson C. Frank. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata I talk about a tour of Lancashire towns, but some of the towns I mention were in Cheshire at the time, and some are in Greater Manchester or Merseyside now. They're all very close together though. I say Mose Rager was Black. I was misremembering, confusing Mose Rager, a white player in the Muhlenberg style, with Arnold Schultz, a Black player who invented it. I got this right in the episode on "Bye Bye Love". Also, I couldn't track down a copy of the Paul Kane single version of “He Was My Brother” in decent quality, so I used the version on The Paul Simon Songbook instead, as they're basically identical performances. Resources As usual, I've created a Mixcloud playlist of the music excerpted here. This compilation collects all Simon and Garfunkel's studio albums, with bonus tracks, plus a DVD of their reunion concert. There are many collections of the pre-S&G recordings by the two, as these are now largely in the public domain. This one contains a good selection. I've referred to several books for this episode: Simon and Garfunkel: Together Alone by Spencer Leigh is a breezy, well-researched, biography of the duo. Paul Simon: The Life by Robert Hilburn is the closest thing there is to an authorised biography of Simon. And What is it All But Luminous? is Art Garfunkel's memoir. It's not particularly detailed, being more a collection of thoughts and poetry than a structured narrative, but gives a good idea of Garfunkel's attitude to people and events in his life. Roots, Radicals, and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World by Billy Bragg has some great information on the British folk scene of the fifties and sixties. And Singing From the Floor is an oral history of British folk clubs, including a chapter on Dylan's 1962 visit to London. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Today, we're going to take a look at a hit record that almost never happened -- a record by a duo who had already split up, twice, by the time it became a hit, and who didn't know it was going to come out. We're going to look at how a duo who started off as an Everly Brothers knockoff, before becoming unsuccessful Greenwich Village folkies, were turned into one of the biggest acts of the sixties by their producer. We're going to look at Simon and Garfunkel, and at "The Sound of Silence": [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sound of Silence"] The story of Simon and Garfunkel starts with two children in a school play. Neither Paul Simon or Art Garfunkel had many friends when they met in a school performance of Alice in Wonderland, where Simon was playing the White Rabbit and Garfunkel the Cheshire Cat. Simon was well-enough liked, by all accounts, but he'd been put on an accelerated programme for gifted students which meant he was progressing through school faster than his peers. He had a small social group, mostly based around playing baseball, but wasn't one of the popular kids. Art Garfunkel, another gifted student, had no friends at all until he got to know Simon, who he described later as his "one and only friend" in this time period. One passage in Garfunkel's autobiography seems to me to sum up everything about Garfunkel's personality as a child -- and indeed a large part of his personality as it comes across in interviews to this day. He talks about the pleasure he got from listening to the chart rundown on the radio -- "It was the numbers that got me. I kept meticulous lists—when a new singer like Tony Bennett came onto the charts with “Rags to Riches,” I watched the record jump from, say, #23 to #14 in a week. The mathematics of the jumps went to my sense of fun." Garfunkel is, to this day, a meticulous person -- on his website he has a list of every book he's read since June 1968, which is currently up to one thousand three hundred and ten books, and he has always had a habit of starting elaborate projects and ticking off every aspect of them as he goes. Both Simon and Garfunkel were outsiders at this point, other than their interests in sport, but Garfunkel was by far the more introverted of the two, and as a result he seems to have needed their friendship more than Simon did. But the two boys developed an intense, close, friendship, initially based around their shared sense of humour. Both of them were avid readers of Mad magazine, which had just started publishing when the two of them had met up, and both could make each other laugh easily. But they soon developed a new interest, when Martin Block on the middle-of-the-road radio show Make Believe Ballroom announced that he was going to play the worst record he'd ever heard. That record was "Gee" by the Crows: [Excerpt: The Crows, "Gee"] Paul Simon later said that that record was the first thing he'd ever heard on that programme that he liked, and soon he and Garfunkel had become regular listeners to Alan Freed's show on WINS, loving the new rock and roll music they were discovering. Art had already been singing in public from an early age -- his first public performance had been singing Nat "King" Cole's hit "Too Young" in a school talent contest when he was nine -- but the two started singing together. The first performance by Simon and Garfunkel was at a high school dance and, depending on which source you read, was a performance either of "Sh'Boom" or of Big Joe Turner's "Flip, Flop, and Fly": [Excerpt: Big Joe Turner, "Flip, Flop, and Fly"] The duo also wrote at least one song together as early as 1955 -- or at least Garfunkel says they wrote it together. Paul Simon describes it as one he wrote. They tried to get a record deal with the song, but it was never recorded at the time -- but Simon has later performed it: [Excerpt: Paul Simon, "The Girl For Me"] Even at this point, though, while Art Garfunkel was putting all his emotional energy into the partnership with Simon, Simon was interested in performing with other people. Al Kooper was another friend of Simon's at the time, and apparently Simon and Kooper would also perform together. Once Elvis came on to Paul's radar, he also bought a guitar, but it was when the two of them first heard the Everly Brothers that they realised what it was that they could do together. Simon fell in love with the Everly Brothers as soon as he heard "Bye Bye Love": [Excerpt: The Everly Brothers, "Bye Bye Love"] Up to this point, Paul hadn't bought many records -- he spent his money on baseball cards and comic books, and records just weren't good value. A pack of baseball cards was five cents, a comic book was ten cents, but a record was a dollar. Why buy records when you could hear music on the radio for free? But he needed that record, he couldn't just wait around to hear it on the radio. He made an hour-long two-bus journey to a record shop in Queens, bought the record, took it home, played it... and almost immediately scratched it. So he got back on the bus, travelled for another hour, bought another copy, took it home, and made sure he didn't scratch that one. Simon and Garfunkel started copying the Everlys' harmonies, and would spend hours together, singing close together watching each other's mouths and copying the way they formed words, eventually managing to achieve a vocal blend through sheer effort which would normally only come from familial closeness. Paul became so obsessed with music that he sold his baseball card collection and bought a tape recorder for two hundred dollars. They would record themselves singing, and then sing back along with it, multitracking themselves, but also critiquing the tape, refining their performances. Paul's father was a bass player -- "the family bassman", as he would later sing -- and encouraged his son in his music, even as he couldn't see the appeal in this new rock and roll music. He would critique Paul's songs, saying things like "you went from four-four to a bar of nine-eight, you can't do that" -- to which his son would say "I just did" -- but this wasn't hostile criticism, rather it was giving his son a basic grounding in song construction which would prove invaluable. But the duo's first notable original song -- and first hit -- came about more or less by accident. In early 1956, the doo-wop group the Clovers had released the hit single "Devil or Angel". Its B-side had a version of "Hey Doll Baby", a song written by the blues singer Titus Turner, and which sounds to me very inspired by Hank Williams' "Hey, Good Lookin'": [Excerpt: The Clovers, "Hey, Doll Baby"] That song was picked up by the Everly Brothers, who recorded it for their first album: [Excerpt: The Everly Brothers, "Hey Doll Baby"] Here is where the timeline gets a little confused for me, because that album wasn't released until early 1958, although the recording session for that track was in August 1957. Yet that track definitely influenced Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel to record a song that they released in November 1957. All I can imagine is that they heard the brothers perform it live, or maybe a radio station had an acetate copy. Because the way everyone has consistently told the story is that at the end of summer 1957, Simon and Garfunkel had both heard the Everly Brothers perform "Hey Doll Baby", but couldn't remember how it went. The two of them tried to remember it, and to work a version of it out together, and their hazy memories combined to reconstruct something that was completely different, and which owed at least as much to "Wake Up Little Suzie" as to "Hey Doll Baby". Their new song, "Hey Schoolgirl", was catchy enough that they thought if they recorded a demo of it, maybe the Everly Brothers themselves would record the song. At the demo studio they happened to encounter Sid Prosen, who owned a small record label named Big Records. He heard the duo perform and realised he might have his own Everly Brothers here. He signed the duo to a contract, and they went into a professional studio to rerecord "Hey Schoolgirl", this time with Paul's father on bass, and a couple of other musicians to fill out the sound: [Excerpt: Tom and Jerry, "Hey Schoolgirl"] Of course, the record couldn't be released under their real names -- there was no way anyone was going to buy a record by Simon and Garfunkel. So instead they became Tom and Jerry. Paul Simon was Jerry Landis -- a surname he chose because he had a crush on a girl named Sue Landis. Art became Tom Graff, because he liked drawing graphs. "Hey Schoolgirl" became a local hit. The two were thrilled to hear it played on Alan Freed's show (after Sid Prosen gave Freed two hundred dollars), and were even more thrilled when they got to perform on American Bandstand, on the same show as Jerry Lee Lewis. When Dick Clark asked them where they were from, Simon decided to claim he was from Macon, Georgia, where Little Richard came from, because all his favourite rock and roll singers were from the South. "Hey Schoolgirl" only made number forty-nine nationally, because the label didn't have good national distribution, but it sold over a hundred thousand copies, mostly in the New York area. And Sid Prosen seems to have been one of a very small number of independent label owners who wasn't a crook -- the two boys got about two thousand dollars each from their hit record. But while Tom and Jerry seemed like they might have a successful career, Simon and Garfunkel were soon to split up, and the reason for their split was named True Taylor. Paul had been playing some of his songs for Sid Prosen, to see what the duo's next single should be, and Prosen had noticed that while some of them were Everly Brothers soundalikes, others were Elvis soundalikes. Would Paul be interested in recording some of those, too? Obviously Art couldn't sing on those, so they'd use a different name, True Taylor. The single was released around the same time as the second Tom and Jerry record, and featured an Elvis-style ballad by Paul on one side, and a rockabilly song written by his father on the other: [Excerpt: True Taylor, "True or False"] But Paul hadn't discussed that record with Art before doing it, and the two had vastly different ideas about their relationship. Paul was Art's only friend, and Art thought they had an indissoluble bond and that they would always work together. Paul, on the other hand, thought of Art as one of his friends and someone he made music with, but he could play at being Elvis if he wanted, as well as playing at being an Everly brother. Garfunkel, in his memoir published in 2017, says "the friendship was shattered for life" -- he decided then and there that Paul Simon was a "base" person, a betrayer. But on the other hand, he still refers to Simon, over and over again, in that book as still being his friend, even as Simon has largely been disdainful of him since their last performance together in 2010. Friendships are complicated. Tom and Jerry struggled on for a couple more singles, which weren't as successful as "Hey Schoolgirl" had been, with material like "Two Teenagers", written by Rose Marie McCoy: [Excerpt: Tom and Jerry, "Two Teenagers"] But as they'd stopped being friends, and they weren't selling records, they drifted apart and didn't really speak for five years, though they would occasionally run into one another. They both went off to university, and Garfunkel basically gave up on the idea of having a career in music, though he did record a couple of singles, under the name "Artie Garr": [Excerpt: Artie Garr, "Beat Love"] But for the most part, Garfunkel concentrated on his studies, planning to become either an architect or maybe an academic. Paul Simon, on the other hand, while he was technically studying at university too, was only paying minimal attention to his studies. Instead, he was learning the music business. Every afternoon, after university had finished, he'd go around the Brill Building and its neighbouring buildings, offering his services both as a songwriter and as a demo performer. As Simon was competent on guitar, bass, and drums, could sing harmonies, and could play a bit of piano if it was in the key of C, he could use primitive multitracking to play and sing all the parts on a demo, and do it well: [Excerpt: Paul Simon, "Boys Were Made For Girls"] That's an excerpt from a demo Simon recorded for Burt Bacharach, who has said that he tried to get Simon to record as many of his demos as possible, though only a couple of them have surfaced publicly. Simon would also sometimes record demos with his friend Carole Klein, sometimes under the name The Cosines: [Excerpt: The Cosines, "Just to Be With You"] As we heard back in the episode on "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?", Carole Klein went on to change her name to Carole King, and become one of the most successful songwriters of the era -- something which spurred Paul Simon on, as he wanted to emulate her success. Simon tried to get signed up by Don Kirshner, who was publishing Goffin and King, but Kirshner turned Simon down -- an expensive mistake for Kirshner, but one that would end up benefiting Simon, who eventually figured out that he should own his own publishing. Simon was also getting occasional work as a session player, and played lead guitar on "The Shape I'm In" by Johnny Restivo, which made the lower reaches of the Hot One Hundred: [Excerpt: Johnny Restivo, "The Shape I'm In"] Between 1959 and 1963 Simon recorded a whole string of unsuccessful pop singles. including as a member of the Mystics: [Excerpt: The Mystics, "All Through the Night"] He even had a couple of very minor chart hits -- he got to number 99 as Tico and the Triumphs: [Excerpt: Tico and the Triumphs, "Motorcycle"] and number ninety-seven as Jerry Landis: [Excerpt: Jerry Landis, "The Lone Teen Ranger"] But he was jumping around, hopping onto every fad as it passed, and not getting anywhere. And then he started to believe that he could do something more interesting in music. He first became aware that the boundaries of what could be done in music extended further than "ooh-bop-a-loochy-ba" when he took a class on modern music at university, which included a trip to Carnegie Hall to hear a performance of music by the avant-garde composer Edgard Varese: [Excerpt: Edgard Varese, "Ionisation"] Simon got to meet Varese after the performance, and while he would take his own music in a very different, and much more commercial, direction than Varese's, he was nonetheless influenced by what Varese's music showed about the possibilities that existed in music. The other big influence on Simon at this time was when he heard The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Girl From the North Country"] Simon immediately decided to reinvent himself as a folkie, despite at this point knowing very little about folk music other than the Everly Brothers' Songs Our Daddy Taught Us album. He tried playing around Greenwich Village, but found it an uncongenial atmosphere, and inspired by the liner notes to the Dylan album, which talked about Dylan's time in England, he made what would be the first of several trips to the UK, where he was given a rapturous reception simply on the grounds of being an American and owning a better acoustic guitar -- a Martin -- than most British people owned. He had the showmanship that he'd learned from watching his father on stage and sometimes playing with him, and from his time in Tom and Jerry and working round the studios, and so he was able to impress the British folk-club audiences, who were used to rather earnest, scholarly, people, not to someone like Simon who was clearly ambitious and very showbiz. His repertoire at this point consisted mostly of songs from the first two Dylan albums, a Joan Baez record, Little Willie John's "Fever", and one song he'd written himself, an attempt at a protest song called "He Was My Brother", which he would release on his return to the US under yet another stage name, Paul Kane: [Excerpt: Paul Kane, "He Was My Brother"] Simon has always stated that that song was written about a friend of his who was murdered when he went down to Mississippi with the Freedom Riders -- but while Simon's friend was indeed murdered, it wasn't until about a year after he wrote the song, and Simon has confused the timelines in his subsequent recollections. At the time he recorded that, when he had returned to New York at the end of the summer, Simon had a job as a song plugger for a publishing company, and he gave the publishing company the rights to that song and its B-side, which led to that B-side getting promoted by the publisher, and ending up covered on one of the biggest British albums of 1964, which went to number two in the UK charts: [Excerpt: Val Doonican, "Carlos Dominguez"] Oddly, that may not end up being the only time we feature a Val Doonican track on this podcast. Simon continued his attempts to be a folkie, even teaming up again with Art Garfunkel, with whom he'd re-established contact, to perform in Greenwich Village as Kane and Garr, but they went down no better as a duo than Simon had as a solo artist. Simon went back to the UK again over Christmas 1963, and while he was there he continued work on a song that would become such a touchstone for him that of the first six albums he would be involved in, four would feature the song while a fifth would include a snippet of it. "The Sound of Silence" was apparently started in November 1963, but not finished until February 1964, by which time he was once again back in the USA, and back working as a song plugger. It was while working as a song plugger that Simon first met Tom Wilson, Bob Dylan's producer at Columbia. Simon met up with Wilson trying to persuade him to use some of the songs that the publishing company were putting out. When Wilson wasn't interested, Simon played him a couple of his own songs. Wilson took one of them, "He Was My Brother", for the Pilgrims, a group he was producing who were supposed to be the Black answer to Peter, Paul, and Mary: [Excerpt: The Pilgrims, "He Was My Brother"] Wilson was also interested in "The Sound of Silence", but Simon was more interested in getting signed as a performer than in having other acts perform his songs. Wilson was cautious, though -- he was already producing one folkie singer-songwriter, and he didn't really need a second one. But he *could* probably do with a vocal group... Simon mentioned that he had actually made a couple of records before, as part of a duo. Would Wilson be at all interested in a vocal *duo*? Wilson would be interested. Simon and Garfunkel auditioned for him, and a few days later were in the Columbia Records studio on Seventh Avenue recording their first album as a duo, which was also the first time either of them would record under their own name. Wednesday Morning, 3AM, the duo's first album, was a simple acoustic album, and the only instrumentation was Simon and Barry Kornfeld, a Greenwich Village folkie, on guitars, and Bill Lee, the double bass player who'd played with Dylan and others, on bass. Tom Wilson guided the duo in their song selection, and the eventual album contained six cover versions and six originals written by Simon. The cover versions were a mixture of hootenanny staples like "Go Tell it on the Mountain", plus Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'", included to cross-promote Dylan's new album and to try to link the duo with the more famous writer, and one unusual one, "The Sun is Burning", written by Ian Campbell, a Scottish folk singer who Simon had got to know on his trips to the UK: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sun is Burning"] But the song that everyone was keenest on was "The Sound of Silence", the first song that Simon had written that he thought would stand up in comparison with the sort of song that Dylan was writing: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sound of Silence (Wednesday Morning 3AM version)"] In between sessions for the album, Simon and Garfunkel also played a high-profile gig at Gerde's Folk City in the Village, and a couple of shows at the Gaslight Cafe. The audiences there, though, regarded them as a complete joke -- Dave Van Ronk would later relate that for weeks afterwards, all anyone had to do was sing "Hello darkness, my old friend", for everyone around to break into laughter. Bob Dylan was one of those who laughed at the performance -- though Robert Shelton later said that Dylan hadn't been laughing at them, specifically, he'd just had a fit of the giggles -- and this had led to a certain amount of anger from Simon towards Dylan. The album was recorded in March 1964, and was scheduled for release in October. In the meantime, they both made plans to continue with their studies and their travels. Garfunkel was starting to do postgraduate work towards his doctorate in mathematics, while Simon was now enrolled in Brooklyn Law School, but was still spending most of his time travelling, and would drop out after one semester. He would spend much of the next eighteen months in the UK. While he was occasionally in the US between June 1964 and November 1965, Simon now considered himself based in England, where he made several acquaintances that would affect his life deeply. Among them were a young woman called Kathy Chitty, with whom he would fall in love and who would inspire many of his songs, and an older woman called Judith Piepe (and I apologise if I'm mispronouncing her name, which I've only ever seen written down, never heard) who many people believed had an unrequited crush on Simon. Piepe ran her London flat as something of a commune for folk musicians, and Simon lived there for months at a time while in the UK. Among the other musicians who stayed there for a time were Sandy Denny, Cat Stevens, and Al Stewart, whose bedroom was next door to Simon's. Piepe became Simon's de facto unpaid manager and publicist, and started promoting him around the British folk scene. Simon also at this point became particularly interested in improving his guitar playing. He was spending a lot of time at Les Cousins, the London club that had become the centre of British acoustic guitar. There are, roughly, three styles of acoustic folk guitar -- to be clear, I'm talking about very broad-brush categorisations here, and there are people who would disagree and say there are more, but these are the main ones. Two of these are American styles -- there's the simple style known as Carter scratching, popularised by Mother Maybelle Carter of the Carter family, and for this all you do is alternate bass notes with your thumb while scratching the chord on the treble strings with one finger, like this: [Excerpt: Carter picking] That's the style played by a lot of country and folk players who were primarily singers accompanying themselves. In the late forties and fifties, though, another style had become popularised -- Travis picking. This is named after Merle Travis, the most well-known player in the style, but he always called it Muhlenberg picking, after Muhlenberg County, where he'd learned the style from Ike Everly -- the Everly Brothers' father -- and Mose Rager, a Black guitarist. In Travis picking, the thumb alternates between two bass notes, but rather than strumming a chord, the index and middle fingers play simple patterns on the treble strings, like this: [Excerpt: Travis picking] That's, again, a style primarily used for accompaniment, but it can also be used to play instrumentals by oneself. As well as Travis and Ike Everly, it's also the style played by Donovan, Chet Atkins, James Taylor, and more. But there's a third style, British baroque folk guitar, which was largely the invention of Davey Graham. Graham, you might remember, was a folk guitarist who had lived in the same squat as Lionel Bart when Bart started working with Tommy Steele, and who had formed a blues duo with Alexis Korner. Graham is now best known for one of his simpler pieces, “Anji”, which became the song that every British guitarist tried to learn: [Excerpt: Davey Graham, "Anji"] Dozens of people, including Paul Simon, would record versions of that. Graham invented an entirely new style of guitar playing, influenced by ragtime players like Blind Blake, but also by Bach, by Moroccan oud music, and by Celtic bagpipe music. While it was fairly common for players to retune their guitar to an open major chord, allowing them to play slide guitar, Graham retuned his to a suspended fourth chord -- D-A-D-G-A-D -- which allowed him to keep a drone going on some strings while playing complex modal counterpoints on others. While I demonstrated the previous two styles myself, I'm nowhere near a good enough guitarist to demonstrate British folk baroque, so here's an excerpt of Davey Graham playing his own arrangement of the traditional ballad "She Moved Through the Fair", recast as a raga and retitled "She Moved Thru' the Bizarre": [Excerpt: Davey Graham, "She Moved Thru' the Bizarre"] Graham's style was hugely influential on an entire generation of British guitarists, people who incorporated world music and jazz influences into folk and blues styles, and that generation of guitarists was coming up at the time and playing at Les Cousins. People who started playing in this style included Jimmy Page, Bert Jansch, Roy Harper, John Renbourn, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, and John Martyn, and it also had a substantial influence on North American players like Joni Mitchell, Tim Buckley, and of course Paul Simon. Simon was especially influenced at this time by Martin Carthy, the young British guitarist whose style was very influenced by Graham -- but while Graham applied his style to music ranging from Dave Brubeck to Lutheran hymns to Big Bill Broonzy songs, Carthy mostly concentrated on traditional English folk songs. Carthy had a habit of taking American folk singers under his wing, and he taught Simon several songs, including Carthy's own arrangement of the traditional "Scarborough Fair": [Excerpt: Martin Carthy, "Scarborough Fair"] Simon would later record that arrangement, without crediting Carthy, and this would lead to several decades of bad blood between them, though Carthy forgave him in the 1990s, and the two performed the song together at least once after that. Indeed, Simon seems to have made a distinctly negative impression on quite a few of the musicians he knew in Britain at this time, who seem to, at least in retrospect, regard him as having rather used and discarded them as soon as his career became successful. Roy Harper has talked in liner notes to CD reissues of his work from this period about how Simon used to regularly be a guest in his home, and how he has memories of Simon playing with Harper's baby son Nick (now himself one of the greats of British guitar) but how as soon as he became successful he never spoke to Harper again. Similarly, in 1965 Simon started a writing partnership with Bruce Woodley of the Seekers, an Australian folk-pop band based in the UK, best known for "Georgy Girl". The two wrote "Red Rubber Ball", which became a hit for the Cyrkle: [Excerpt: The Cyrke, "Red Rubber Ball"] and also "Cloudy", which the Seekers recorded as an album track: [Excerpt: The Seekers, "Cloudy"] When that was recorded by Simon and Garfunkel, Woodley's name was removed from the writing credits, though Woodley still apparently received royalties for it. But at this point there *was* no Simon and Garfunkel. Paul Simon was a solo artist working the folk clubs in Britain, and Simon and Garfunkel's one album had sold a minuscule number of copies. They did, when Simon briefly returned to the US in March, record two tracks for a prospective single, this time with an electric backing band. One was a rewrite of the title track of their first album, now titled "Somewhere They Can't Find Me" and with a new chorus and some guitar parts nicked from Davey Graham's "Anji"; the other a Twist-beat song that could almost be Manfred Mann or Georgie Fame -- "We Got a Groovy Thing Goin'". That was also influenced by “Anji”, though by Bert Jansch's version rather than Graham's original. Jansch rearranged the song and stuck in this phrase: [Excerpt: Bert Jansch, “Anji”] Which became the chorus to “We Got a Groovy Thing Goin'”: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "We Got a Groovy Thing Goin'"] But that single was never released, and as far as Columbia were concerned, Simon and Garfunkel were a defunct act, especially as Tom Wilson, who had signed them, was looking to move away from Columbia. Art Garfunkel did come to visit Simon in the UK a couple of times, and they'd even sing together occasionally, but it was on the basis of Paul Simon the successful club act occasionally inviting his friend on stage during the encore, rather than as a duo, and Garfunkel was still seeing music only as a sideline while Simon was now utterly committed to it. He was encouraged in this commitment by Judith Piepe, who considered him to be the greatest songwriter of his generation, and who started a letter-writing campaign to that effect, telling the BBC they needed to put him on the radio. Eventually, after a lot of pressure, they agreed -- though they weren't exactly sure what to do with him, as he didn't fit into any of the pop formats they had. He was given his own radio show -- a five-minute show in a religious programming slot. Simon would perform a song, and there would be an introduction tying the song into some religious theme or other. Two series of four episodes of this were broadcast, in a plum slot right after Housewives' Choice, which got twenty million listeners, and the BBC were amazed to find that a lot of people phoned in asking where they could get hold of the records by this Paul Simon fellow. Obviously he didn't have any out yet, and even the Simon and Garfunkel album, which had been released in the US, hadn't come out in Britain. After a little bit of negotiation, CBS, the British arm of Columbia Records, had Simon come in and record an album of his songs, titled The Paul Simon Songbook. The album, unlike the Simon and Garfunkel album, was made up entirely of Paul Simon originals. Two of them were songs that had previously been recorded for Wednesday Morning 3AM -- "He Was My Brother" and a new version of "The Sound of Silence": [Excerpt: Paul Simon, "The Sound of Silence"] The other ten songs were newly-written pieces like "April Come She Will", "Kathy's Song", a parody of Bob Dylan entitled "A Simple Desultory Philippic", and the song that was chosen as the single, "I am a Rock": [Excerpt: Paul Simon, "I am a Rock"] That song was also the one that was chosen for Simon's first TV appearance since Tom and Jerry had appeared on Bandstand eight years earlier. The appearance on Ready, Steady, Go, though, was not one that anyone was happy with. Simon had been booked to appear on a small folk music series, Heartsong, but that series was cancelled before he could appear. Rediffusion, the company that made the series, also made Ready, Steady, Go, and since they'd already paid Simon they decided they might as well stick him on that show and get something for their money. Unfortunately, the episode in question was already running long, and it wasn't really suited for introspective singer-songwriter performances -- the show was geared to guitar bands and American soul singers. Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the director, insisted that if Simon was going to do his song, he had to cut at least one verse, while Simon was insistent that he needed to perform the whole thing because "it's a story". Lindsay-Hogg got his way, but nobody was happy with the performance. Simon's album was surprisingly unsuccessful, given the number of people who'd called the BBC asking about it -- the joke went round that the calls had all been Judith Piepe doing different voices -- and Simon continued his round of folk clubs, pubs, and birthday parties, sometimes performing with Garfunkel, when he visited for the summer, but mostly performing on his own. One time he did perform with a full band, singing “Johnny B Goode” at a birthday party, backed by a band called Joker's Wild who a couple of weeks later went into the studio to record their only privately-pressed five-song record, of them performing recent hits: [Excerpt: Joker's Wild, "Walk Like a Man"] The guitarist from Joker's Wild would later join the other band who'd played at that party, but the story of David Gilmour joining Pink Floyd is for another episode. During this time, Simon also produced his first record for someone else, when he was responsible for producing the only album by his friend Jackson C Frank, though there wasn't much production involved as like Simon's own album it was just one man and his guitar. Al Stewart and Art Garfunkel were also in the control room for the recording, but the notoriously shy Frank insisted on hiding behind a screen so they couldn't see him while he recorded: [Excerpt: Jackson C Frank, "Blues Run the Game"] It seemed like Paul Simon was on his way to becoming a respected mid-level figure on the British folk scene, releasing occasional albums and maybe having one or two minor hits, but making a steady living. Someone who would be spoken of in the same breath as Ralph McTell perhaps. Meanwhile, Art Garfunkel would be going on to be a lecturer in mathematics whose students might be surprised to know he'd had a minor rock and roll hit as a kid. But then something happened that changed everything. Wednesday Morning 3AM hadn't sold at all, and Columbia hadn't promoted it in the slightest. It was too collegiate and polite for the Greenwich Village folkies, and too intellectual for the pop audience that had been buying Peter, Paul, and Mary, and it had come out just at the point that the folk boom had imploded. But one DJ in Boston, Dick Summer, had started playing one song from it, "The Sound of Silence", and it had caught on with the college students, who loved the song. And then came spring break 1965. All those students went on holiday, and suddenly DJs in places like Cocoa Beach, Florida, were getting phone calls requesting "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel. Some of them with contacts at Columbia got in touch with the label, and Tom Wilson had an idea. On the first day of what turned out to be his last session with Dylan, the session for "Like a Rolling Stone", Wilson asked the musicians to stay behind and work on something. He'd already experimented with overdubbing new instruments on an acoustic recording with his new version of Dylan's "House of the Rising Sun", now he was going to try it with "The Sound of Silence". He didn't bother asking the duo what they thought -- record labels messed with people's records all the time. So "The Sound of Silence" was released as an electric folk-rock single: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sound of Silence"] This is always presented as Wilson massively changing the sound of the duo without their permission or knowledge, but the fact is that they had *already* gone folk-rock, back in March, so they were already thinking that way. The track was released as a single with “We Got a Groovy Thing Going” on the B-side, and was promoted first in the Boston market, and it did very well. Roy Harper later talked about Simon's attitude at this time, saying "I can remember going into the gents in The Three Horseshoes in Hempstead during a gig, and we're having a pee together. He was very excited, and he turns round to me and and says, “Guess what, man? We're number sixteen in Boston with The Sound of Silence'”. A few days later I was doing another gig with him and he made a beeline for me. “Guess what?” I said “You're No. 15 in Boston”. He said, “No man, we're No. 1 in Boston”. I thought, “Wow. No. 1 in Boston, eh?” It was almost a joke, because I really had no idea what that sort of stuff meant at all." Simon was even more excited when the record started creeping up the national charts, though he was less enthused when his copy of the single arrived from America. He listened to it, and thought the arrangement was a Byrds rip-off, and cringed at the way the rhythm section had to slow down and speed up in order to stay in time with the acoustic recording: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sound of Silence"] I have to say that, while the tempo fluctuations are noticeable once you know to look for them, it's a remarkably tight performance given the circumstances. As the record went up the charts, Simon was called back to America, to record an album to go along with it. The Paul Simon Songbook hadn't been released in the US, and they needed an album *now*, and Simon was a slow songwriter, so the duo took six songs from that album and rerecorded them in folk-rock versions with their new producer Bob Johnston, who was also working with Dylan now, since Tom Wilson had moved on to Verve records. They filled out the album with "The Sound of Silence", the two electric tracks from March, one new song, "Blessed", and a version of "Anji", which came straight after "Somewhere They Can't Find Me", presumably to acknowledge Simon lifting bits of it. That version of “Anji” also followed Jansch's arrangement, and so included the bit that Simon had taken for “We Got a Groovy Thing Going” as well. They also recorded their next single, which was released on the British version of the album but not the American one, a song that Simon had written during a thoroughly depressing tour of Lancashire towns (he wrote it in Widnes, but a friend of Simon's who lived in Widnes later said that while it was written in Widnes it was written *about* Birkenhead. Simon has also sometimes said it was about Warrington or Wigan, both of which are so close to Widnes and so similar in both name and atmosphere that it would be the easiest thing in the world to mix them up.) [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "Homeward Bound"] These tracks were all recorded in December 1965, and they featured the Wrecking Crew -- Bob Johnston wanted the best, and didn't rate the New York players that Wilson had used, and so they were recorded in LA with Glen Campbell, Joe South, Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, and Joe Osborne. I've also seen in some sources that there were sessions in Nashville with A-team players Fred Carter and Charlie McCoy. By January, "The Sound of Silence" had reached number one, knocking "We Can Work it Out" by the Beatles off the top spot for two weeks, before the Beatles record went back to the top. They'd achieved what they'd been trying for for nearly a decade, and I'll give the last word here to Paul Simon, who said of the achievement: "I had come back to New York, and I was staying in my old room at my parents' house. Artie was living at his parents' house, too. I remember Artie and I were sitting there in my car one night, parked on a street in Queens, and the announcer said, "Number one, Simon & Garfunkel." And Artie said to me, "That Simon & Garfunkel, they must be having a great time.""
Replay of interview with Chris Stroh speaking of the effort of Idahoans For A Fair Wage Playlist; Anais Mitchell covering Dylan's Hard Rain; Henry Fonda as Tom Joad Look for me; Elvis Costello & Mumford & Sons medley Springsteen's Ghost of Tom Joad & Guthrie's Do Re Me Drive By Truckers TVA; Ruby Friedman & Nick Paige You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive; Unattributed cover of The L&N Don't Start Here Anymore; Townes Van Zandt Tecumseh Valley; Nancy Griffin covering Ralph McTell's From Clare to Here; Dylan North Country; The Chieftain's School Days Over; The Band King Harvest; Opening as since the start of this show; This Is Why We Fight; this time with a version featuring Colin Meloy, The Decemberists Front Man, and band member Chris Funk, with often collaborator Sarah Watkins Closing, since COVID The New Students covering Zevon's Don't Let Us Get Sick
Replay with Joseph McCartin, PhD, Georgetown University Professor of Labor History, founding Executive Director at the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor and member of the steering committee with the Interreligous Network for Worker Solidarity Doctor McCartin provides his profound insight in the current state of labor, and gets into the effort to support the Protect the Right to Organize Act. Opening as since the start of this show; This Is Why We Fight; this time with a version featuring Colin Meloy, The Decemberists Front Man, and band member Chris Funk, with often collaborator Sarah WatkinsPlaylist: ; Anais Mitchell covering Dylan's Hard Rain; Henry Fonda as Tom Joad Look for me; Elvis Costello & Mumford & Sons medley Springsteen's Ghost of Tom Joad & Guthrie's Do Re Me Drive By Truckers TVA; Ruby Friedman & Nick Paige You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive; Unattributed cover of The L&N Don't Start Here Anymore; Townes Van Zandt Tecumseh Valley; Nancy Griffin covering Ralph McTell's From Clare to Here; Dylan North Country; The Chieftain's School Days Over; The Band King Harvest; Closing, since COVID The New Students covering Zevon's Don't Let Us Get Sick
In which our heroes are joined by Jamie from the Talking Dad UK podcast.Jamies podcast discusses all the joys and challenges of being a father and recently had me on to compare stories of DIY midwifery. He joins us on Records and Bands to chat about Dad Rock, how music changes once the kids come along and how some tunes are forever linked to memories of our children.Jamie and Sam really hit it off while we recorded, so much so that I felt like a third wheel at times, but I kind suspected that they'd have more in common musically as they are much closer in age and like loads of the same bands.Anyway I relished the opportunity to rest my COVID ridden throat!!! Yes, I was struggling a bit while recording but we had put Jamie off a few times before and were desperate to keep this appointment so please forgive any coughing and spluttering on my part!Don't expect any deep looks into any particular record on this one, its more of a general chat about records and bands but we had a blast.A few linksJamie the Talking Dad UK One link to all of Jamies stuff, all over the www'sAlphabet Zoo. A Collection of some of the finest songs ever written. Ralph McTell may be famous for Streets of London but you can keep that, I'll have the Impala Song every time. Worth a tenner of everybody's money, whether you have a kid or not!Spotify Playlist; Songs for Parenthood A few of the songs mentioned that we associate with our kids and our parents.www.recordsandbands.com for all your Records and Bands needs! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Percussion Discussion - Episode 12 features Dire Straits founder member and drummer Pick Withers, Join Pick and myself as we chat about his incredible career, from gigging in Germany in the 60's through to being the house drummer at the legendary Rockfield studios in Wales, playing for many artist including Ralph Mctell and Andy Fairweather Low, through to meeting Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits being formed! This one of the first interviews Pick had done for many years, i was very grateful for the opportunity. keep a look out for part two
Interview with Trevor Smith, Political Director at Laborers 292 discussed the need for a Just Transition for any 'Green New Deal' Play List includes Billy Bragg, Ralph McTell, Patty Loveless, Steve Earle, The Chieftains, The Pogues and Great Big Sea
Steve's brand new album is available here from AmazonUncovered by Steve HarleySTEVE HARLEY was born in Deptford, south London, on February 27th 1951, the second of five children.Due to a childhood illness, Steve spent almost four years in hospital between three and sixteen years, undergoing major surgery in 1963 and 1966. Aged 12, while in hospital recovering from surgery, Steve was first introduced to the poetry of Eliot and Lawrence, the prose of Steinbeck, Woolf and Hemingway, and the music of BOB DYLAN and realised that his life was likely to be preoccupied with words and music.Close to Christmas 1964, during that same nine months' hospitalisation at Queen Mary's Hospital for Children, Carshalton Beeches, Surrey, the ward welcomed the young ROLLING STONES who were on a goodwill PR visit.Charlie Watts spent quite a time chatting with us kids, but the others seemed more interested in joking about the huge poster of THE BEATLES pinned to a wall.Steve was a pupil of EDMUND WALLER PRIMARY SCHOOL, in Waller Road, New Cross, London, a short walk from his parents' home at FAIRLAWN MANSIONS, New Cross Gate, between the ages of five and eleven.He attended HABERDASHERS' ASKE'S HATCHAM GRAMMAR SCHOOL, Telegraph Hill, New Cross until seventeen. He left school without completing his Advanced Level exams. Steve later took an A-Level in English in his mid-30s.Steve's first guitar was a Christmas gift from his parents when he was ten-years-old. It was a Spanish, nylon-strung instrument.He took classical violin lessons from the age of nine to fifteen and played in his Grammar school orchestra.But he has always admitted he was a hopeless reader of music, so “must have been bluffing a lot of the time”.In the spring of 1968, Steve got his first full-time job, as a trainee accountant, at the DAILY EXPRESS newspaper in Fleet Street, London, in spite of gaining a mere 24% in his mock O-Level maths exam. But his heart was set on a career in Journalism, so being at the industry's heart was a useful stepping-stone for the nascent reporter. Interviewed by several newspaper editors, Steve finally signed indentures to train with ESSEX COUNTY NEWSPAPERS in Colchester, Essex. After three years working within the group, including stints at the Essex County Standard, the Braintree and Witham Times, the Maldon and Burnham Standard and the Colchester Evening Gazette, Steve moved back to London to work for the EAST LONDON ADVERTISER, then based in Mile End Road, in the heart of London's East End.Among many of Steve's contemporaries who have gone on to successful careers in national Journalism are JOHN BLAKE (now Managing Director of BLAKE PUBLISHING) and RICHARD MADELEY, of daytime TV fame. It was Madeley who actually took over the desk relinquished by Steve at the ELA in 1972."So, if you hadn't given it up to become a rock star," Madeley has told Steve, "I may never have got my chance to become a reporter."Steve began his singing career "floor-spotting" (singing for free as a member of the audience) in London folk clubs in 1971/72. He sang at LES COUSINS, BUNJIE'S and THE TROUBADOUR on nights featuring JOHN MARTIN, RALPH McTELL, MARTIN CARTHY and JULIE FELIX, all leading lights of the London folk movement at the time.He later joined folk band ODIN as rhythm guitarist and co-singer, which was where he met the first COCKNEY REBEL violinist, JOHN CROCKER. However, the folk scene proved a little tame for Mr Harley and, as he was constantly writing songs, formed COCKNEY REBEL as a vehicle for his own work. It was here that Steve and STUART ELLIOTT first met and worked together. Stuart drums with Steve's band on record and on tour from time to time to this day.The band signed to EMI for a guaranteed three album deal in 1972 and released THE HUMAN MENAGERIE early in '73. From this collection, a single, SEBASTIAN, became a huge European hit, staying at NUMBER ONE in HOLLAND and BELGIUM for many weeks. Other COCKNEY REBEL and/or STEVE HARLEY albums are: THE PSYCHOMODO, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, TIMELESS FLIGHT, LOVE'S A PRIMA DONNA, FACE TO FACE (LIVE), HOBO WITH A GRIN, THE CANDIDATE (all EMI), YES YOU CAN (1992), POETIC JUSTICE (1996) and THE QUALITY OF MERCY released in late 2005, plus 2 other Live acoustic CDs, STRIPPED TO THE BARE BONES TO THE and ANYTIME!One Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel single, MAKE ME SMILE (COME UP AND SEE ME), reached NUMBER ONE in 1975 in the UK and many European countries and is regularly voted among the top singles in the history of the charts, which covers six decades of releases. The Performing Rights Society has confirmed MAKE ME SMILE one of the most played records in British broadcasting.The song has been covered MORE THAN 100 TIMES in seven languages and has been featured in several movies including THE FULL MONTY (whose soundtrack album went TRIPLE PLATINUM in the UK, and PLATINUM in the USA and Australia), VELVET GOLDMINE, BEST and SAVING GRACE. The song has also been used on more than twenty TV and radio advertising campaigns around the world.Steve's other chart singles include, JUDY TEEN, MR SOFT, MR RAFFLES (MAN, IT WAS MEAN), HERE COMES THE SUN, LOVE'S A PRIMA DONNA, IRRESISTIBLE, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (with SARAH BRIGHTMAN) and A FRIEND FOR LIFE.During the eighties, Steve took time out from the rock world as his two children were going through their formative years but did perform on stage, albeit the legitimate stage. He starred as the C16th playwright Christopher Marlowe, in the musical-drama MARLOWE, which ran off-Broadway and in London. Steve's performance was described by one leading critic as "a major and moving performance."This has been taken from https://www.steveharley.com/biography.htmlSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/that-millwall-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Fjallað um enska tónlistarmanninn Ralph McTell sem hefur samið mörg hundruð lög á rúmlega hálfrar aldar ferli sínum sem söngvaskáld. Lögin sem hann flytur í þættinum eru: Girl On A Bicycle, Last Train To Rode, Standing Down In New Orleans, Zimmerman Blues, Blues In More Tha 12 Bars, Take It Easy, Weather The Storm, Love Grows, Got To Be With You, 1,2,3,4,5, The Girl From The North Country Fair og That'll Do Babe.
Fjallað um enska tónlistarmanninn Ralph McTell sem hefur samið mörg hundruð lög á rúmlega hálfrar aldar ferli sínum sem söngvaskáld. Lögin sem hann flytur í þættinum eru: Girl On A Bicycle, Last Train To Rode, Standing Down In New Orleans, Zimmerman Blues, Blues In More Tha 12 Bars, Take It Easy, Weather The Storm, Love Grows, Got To Be With You, 1,2,3,4,5, The Girl From The North Country Fair og That'll Do Babe.
Enska söngvaskáldið Ralph McTell flytur lögin Mrs. Adlam's Angels, Mr. Connaughton, Barges, The Fairground, From Clare To Here, Kindhearted Woman, Hesitation Blues, Nanna, Streets Of London, Michael In The Garden og I've Thought It Through.
Enska söngvaskáldið Ralph McTell flytur lögin Mrs. Adlam's Angels, Mr. Connaughton, Barges, The Fairground, From Clare To Here, Kindhearted Woman, Hesitation Blues, Nanna, Streets Of London, Michael In The Garden og I've Thought It Through.