Full disclosure: I knew and liked Ewan MacColl, and I remain an admirer of his music. I am also the author of a recently published biography of Peggy Seeger, who was Ewan’s personal and musical partner for more than thirty years. So I approached this book with a great deal of personal, as well as scholarly, interest.
The first and largest section of the book contains an introductory chapter by Giovanni Vacca and the transcripts of interviews that Vacca conducted with Ewan in 1987 and 1988. This part is essentially a primary document, raw material for the scholar, while the second part consists of four scholarly articles that examine different aspects of Ewan’s work.
The introductory chapter describes how Vacca, as a 23-year-old student and admirer of Ewan’s music, wrote to Ewan requesting an interview and received an invitation to visit Ewan at his home in London (the first interview). The second interview took place approximately one year later. To his great credit, Vacca resists the temptation to edit the interviews and lets them stand as, in his words, “the questions of an Italian student who could hardly speak English… they were the questions, often naïve, sometimes clumsy, of a beginner and of course they would be very different today” (8). Twenty years later, a seasoned scholar with a doctorate in ethnomusicology, Vacca provides a more sophisticated approach, but his respect for Ewan’s work remains undiminished. This is particularly refreshing when one considers the irritable, even sneering, tone taken by some musicians and scholars when referring to Ewan. Vacca is free of such pettishness, and it is undoubtedly this combination of honesty and fairness, joined with intellectual curiosity and a talent for critical analysis, that earned Ewan’s trust in the first place.
Chapter 2 is a transcript of the first interview, done in June 1987. This interview is primarily about Ewan’s life and work, his ideas about music and politics, and the connections between the two. Chapters 3-6 are transcripts of the second interview, done in August 1988. Chapter 3 focuses on the definition and history of folk music, particularly in Britain and Ireland. Chapter 4 largely deals with ballads and the music of the traveling people, with some information about work songs and political songs as well. Chapter 5 discusses the nature of folk culture and the history of the folk revival, particularly in England. Chapter 6 discusses the culture of Scotland, the use of theatrical techniques in singing songs, and the future of the folk revival.
While the first part of the book is about what Ewan said, the second part is about what others said about him. Dave Laing’s article “MacColl and the English Folk Revival” (chapter 7) discusses Ewan’s work in the revival, his influence, and the opinions—both pro and con—that musicians and scholars have expressed about him. Ewan’s strong convictions and sometimes harsh judgments are apparent in the interviews, and he has elicited both sharp criticism and extensive praise. In a sense, as Laing notes, these strong reactions only highlight Ewan’s considerable influence. What other folk artist excites such passions?
Giovanni Vacca’s “Form and Content: The Irreconcilable Contradiction in the Song-writing of Ewan MacColl” (chapter 8) is a sophisticated critical analysis; it fully shows Vacca’s development from naïve student to mature scholar. This article may be particularly revealing for the folklorist, for Vacca mentions only a few folklorists; his argument’s theoretical weight depends primarily upon scholars of literature, popular culture, and anthropology. One does not need to agree with all of his pronouncements to appreciate his original insights into Ewan’s work, particularly his discussion of the influence of the European avant-garde.
Laing’s and Vacca’s articles are broad enough to interest most people with a general knowledge of Ewan’s work. The final two chapters are more narrowly focused and hence will appeal to fewer people. Allan F. Moore’s “MacColl Singing” (chapter 9) is a musical analysis of Ewan’s singing style and a comparison of his style with that of traditional singers and with other revival singers. Franco Fabbri’s “MacColl in Italy”(chapter 10) is a discussion of Ewan’s interaction with and influence on the Italian folk revival.
A word of caution to those who are unfamiliar with the interview process or with the scientific research on memory: Ewan’s descriptions of some events do not always tally with the descriptions that others have given, and in some places his remarks regarding names and dates are incorrect. Vacca suggests that, “the story of his life is certainly somewhat fictionalized,” and that may well be true, though simple lapses of memory may often be at fault (10). After all, the interviews are the words of a man in his seventies, in the final years of his life and not in the best of health, describing events that happened, in many cases, decades earlier. Ewan had the opportunity to review and edit the first interview, but this was not possible with the second interview, so it in particular may contain errors that Ewan himself would have caught.
This book is valuable for its scholarly focus on the work of Ewan MacColl and on its
attempts to situate Ewan within other scholarship on the folk revival. For those who are
deeply interested in Ewan’s work, it is a must. However, it should not be the first
entry point to the subject. Those without much knowledge of Ewan’s work should, first of
all, listen to his songs and then go to Ben Harker’s biography,
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[Review length: 966 words • Review posted on March 22, 2017]