Come write me down: the creative process in the writing of contemporary English folk songs A study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Librarianship at The University of Sheffield by Eleanor Thornton September 2007 Abstract This research was inspired by the lyrics of two anti-war songs written by folk artists during the Vietnam War. They were set in the age of privateering and in the First World War rather than being written from the point of view of soldiers serving in Vietnam. This led to the question of how the idea to set their songs in another era occurred to them and whether they were then concerned with the historical accuracy of the content. The investigation focuses on aspects of the creative process in the writing of English folk song. Paper based research is used to discuss folk song writers from the revival of the 1960s, with particular focus on the work of Ewan MacColl and the Radio Ballads. This provides a frame of reference for the work of the modern song writers, discussed using the field research results, and a comparison of the subject matter that is covered by the respective artists. It examines where the initial ideas for songs come from and what inspires the writer to continue with that idea and complete the song. It looks at what the important aspects of the song are in terms of how they are formed and how the lyrics and tune work together to make the whole. The question of authenticity is also discussed, although the notions of authenticity that emerged from the study were different to those originally envisaged. The subject matter and content of modern folk songs was found to have changed in the modern era and that the inspiration for songs was likely to be found in everyday occurrences, from the very traditional material and from the local history of an area. The lyrics are the most important aspect of a song and they take precedence over the creation of a tune. Authenticity in a song is important to folk artists but the authenticity of a song can mean historical accuracy or the truthfulness of emotion. Potential areas for further study are recommended in several different aspects of this research including how libraries could assist songwriters at various times during the writing process and whether the oral tradition and folklore is enough for authenticity and accuracy or whether research on a subject is needed. i Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Andrew Cox, for believing in this topic and encouraging me to go for it. I would also like to thank all those who agreed to be interviewed and those who helped (may we meet again at Towersey 2008), all my friends who have supported me with kind words and not minded when I’ve been too busy to keep in touch properly, Sheffield Ceilidh Society for providing great music to work by. But most of all I would like to thank my parents and also my wonderful boyfriend Jez without whom it would not have been possible for me to do this course or this dissertation. Word count: 15,205 (excluding title page, abstract, acknowledgements, contents, bibliography and appendices) ii Contents 1: INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................1 1.1 The ‘initial spark’ .....................................................................................................................1 1.2 The research context.............................................................................................................4 1.3 Aims and objectives ...............................................................................................................6 2: LITERATURE REVIEW: ENGLISH FOLKSONG AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS .......................................................................................................7 2.1 English folksong......................................................................................................................7 2.2 The early revivalists and song collecting ..........................................................................9 2.3 Creativity and song-writing .................................................................................................10 3: RESEARCH METHODS AND METHODOLOGY .....................................13 3.1 Methodology ..........................................................................................................................13 3.2 Data Collection......................................................................................................................13 3.3 Ethical considerations..........................................................................................................14 4: THE ‘60S REVIVALISTS...........................................................................15 4.1 Ewan MacColl .......................................................................................................................15 4.2 The Radio Ballads ................................................................................................................17 4.3 Jez Lowe.................................................................................................................................19 4.4 John Kirkpatrick ....................................................................................................................20 4.5 Songs and motivations ........................................................................................................21 5: MODERN FOLK-SONG WRITERS...........................................................24 5.1 Ideas and the first spark......................................................................................................25 5.2 Lyrics and tune......................................................................................................................29 5.3 Research and the question of authenticity .....................................................................32 6: CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................36 6.1 Research limitations and difficulties .................................................................................37 6.2 Areas for further research...................................................................................................39 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...........................................................................................40 APPENDIX 1 .................................................................................................45 APPENDIX 2 .................................................................................................47 APPENDIX 3 .................................................................................................50 1: Introduction “I think that pressure of having a deadline makes you creative.” – Laurel Swift 1.1 The ‘initial spark’ The idea for this dissertation essentially came from three sources: • Hearing a song called Barrett’s Privateers by Stan Rogers being sung by an actor in a television programme. • Hearing And the Band played Waltzing Matilda by Eric Bogle sung by a friend at folk camp. • From a band called Touchstone who write and perform songs about historical events and disasters that took place in their home county of Sussex. Barrett’s Privateers appears to be a traditional song about the dangers of privateering in the eighteenth century. However, it was actually written by Canadian singer/songwriter Stan Rogers in the 1960s as a protest song against the war in Vietnam. It raised questions, not least of which was the question of accuracy. How much research had he done about the conditions for privateers, how historically accurate was the song, was he bothered about historical accuracy or was he more interested in the message he was trying to express. The answers to these questions were relatively easy to find: “There was no Elcid Barrett. There was no Antelope sloop and there wasn’t even a town of Sherbrooke in the year of 1778. Stan Rogers basically made up an imaginary privateer to carry a 60s anti-war theme in a traditional folk setting. Having said all that, many of the details, ranging from the type of cannons mentioned to the letter of marquee reference, are very authentic. Stan Rogers did a fair bit of reading about privateering and appears to have been influenced by the historian Archibald MacMechan, who wrote several books on Canadian privateers.” (Conlin, 2001: 1)1 1 See appendix 1 for lyrics to ‘Barrett’s Privateers’ by Stan Rogers 1 There was also another song that raised similar questions. It was another song about war, this time about the First World War and a young man having to leave his life of roaming behind and go to fight at Gallipoli. It is also about the futility of war, the impact it has, and the damage it causes to the people caught in the middle. Eric Bogle, a man who had no first hand experience of fighting or of war, wrote the song And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda2 in 1972. Eric Bogle was born and brought up in Scotland, however, as a child he had become interested in First World War history and he learnt all he could about that period of history. He knew about the Anzac deployment to Turkey and the disaster at Gallipoli before he emigrated to Australia in 1969. He wanted to write a song about the futility of war but he also wanted to pay tribute to the servicemen who had served in the conflicts. “In writing an anti-war song, he wanted to avoid denigrating the servicemen who'd suffered, and to