42 January 1984 Marxism Today

THE UNHIPNESS OF FOLK Karl Dallas Why is it so unhip to like folk music? I'm about a woman who has 'disappeared' in reworking of The Maid and the Palmer. not speaking of the commercial music fascist Chile, followed closely by a fiery Interestingly, it is Leon Rosselson who industry, which has to break as well as rendition of the old International Brigade has produced one of the most musically make crazes, turn yesterday's heroes into song from the Spanish War, Venga Jaleo. stimulating albums in his latest for Fuse, tomorrow's also-rans, the applied logic of sings the song herself, incident- 'Temporary Loss of Vision' and Evans and Detroit marketing. I'm thinking of other- ally, on a fine duet album with Ronnie Carthy play on parts of it. Rosselson's wise intelligent people, who would not Gilbert, 'Lifeline.' reputation for incisive, carefully crafted sacrifice a principle like Clause 4 of the It's ironic that the populist strain carried lyrics was even acknowledged by Tony Labour Party Constitution or the rights into Britain by pioneers like MacColl is Palmer in 'All You Need Is Love', and of trade unions to manage their own represented today almost solely by the though he is a fine musician, he has often affairs merely because they had become Spinners, who this year celebrate their 25th tended to let the words speak for unfashionable. anniversary with a double album In Our themselves, almost baldly. Here, there is There has never been a greater hunger for Liverpool Home, recorded at a concert for more reliance on what he himself criticised songs, as the October 22 CND demo the unemployed. If folk is unfashionable, as 'sounds' in the sixties (the string showed, and folk music is still the most then the Spinners are doubly so, which is synthesizer on My Daughter, My Son, for approachable form for most activists. Yet unjust not because they are not sometimes instance, and the fade in and out of the many young musicians, like Ali and Robin excessively cosy and undemanding of their voice on Sun) but as a blend of musical Campbell of UB40 (sons of folksinger Ian audiences, which they are, but because I form and lyrical content it would be hard to Campbell) and Chris Foreman of Madness suspect what is held mainly against them is better — though some of his recent work (son of John Foreman, the Broadsheet their expertise in manipulating the mass runs it very close. King), find the indigenous black culture of media, and in particular television. It is a Steve Ashley: 'More Demo Tapes' (£2.30 reggae more congenial than the songs their pity, however, that they are not able to find from PO Box 101, Cheltenham, Glos, parents sang. more truly contemporary material than GL52 6ET) It is interesting that one of the most John Lennon's Imagine or Hughie Jones' Brass Monkey: 'Brass Monkey' (Topic powerful songs on Steve Ashley's More Stockholm Tar. 12TS431, £4.50 from Topic Records, 50 Demo Tapes cassettes, We Say No, is Essentially, I see little difference be- Stroud Green Road, London N4) tween such living in the past and the performed with a reggae beat. Ashley is a Holly Near & Ronnie Gilbert: 'Lifeline' thoughtful singer-songwriter whose past musical attitudes revealed by Martin (Redwood RR404, £5.59 from Collets Folk songs, like the lovely Fire and Wine, have Carthy's new band, Brass Monkey, a Shop, Charing Cross Road, London WC2) indicated a feeling for tradition and the potentially interesting collaboration be- English countryside, and it is significant tween a group of our finest instrumenta- Leon Rosselson: 'Temporary Loss of that he has felt that he has had to turn away lists: Carthy himself, squeezebox-player Vision' (Fuse CF384, £4.50 from 28 Park from the clubs of the folksong revival back John Kirkpatrick, and three 'horn players' Chase, Wembley Park, Middlesex to the peace movement that gave them birth (as jazzmen would term them), Howard Spinners: 'In Our Liverpool Home' (PRT to find an audience for his newer, more Evans on trumpet/flugelhorn, Martin SPN1, £5.99 plus postage from 24 politically-committed songs. Brinsford on saxophone/mouth-organ and Beresford Road, Wallasey, Mersey side Musically, this is a stronger collection Roger Williams on trombone. What it Weavers: 'Together Again' (Loom 10681, than 'Demo Tapes' to which it is a sequel, sounds like, however, is deliberate £6.50 from Collets Folk Shop, Charing though the quality of the lyrics is more archaism, and though some of the per- Cross Road, London WC2) variable, ranging from the unfunny Johnny formances are enjoyable, Carthy's singing All prices include postage, except where Cash parody, Which War Son? to the is particularly dispirited, apart from on the specified. stirring Easy Come whose chorus line 'we are easy come but we are not easy go' re- minded me of 's famous dictum, 'take it easy — but take it'. Seeger's populism was the fertile soil from which much that was good in the heyday of British folk grew, and Seeger's reunion with his old associates in , still has the old spirit on the album of their 1980 Carnegie Hall meeting, 'Together Again', but far from being a sterile exercise in geriatric nostalgia (like, for instance, Paul Simon's recent concerts), one has the sense of a continuing tradition, especially when the superb Ronnie Gilbert sings Holly Near's moving 'Hay Una Mujer',