Ewan MacColl: 1915 - 1989
A Political Journey

The handloom weaver, while carrying his finished products to the nearest centre of commerce often covered considerable distance, and the only relief from the rigors of the road was to be found in the weavers howffs (poor inns). Here over a glass of 'tupenny' a man could exchange gossip, talk politics, boast of his conquests and roar out his defiance of a world seemingly bent on starving him. This song belongs to the period of nearly 200 years ago, when weaving was changing from a handicraft to an industry. Originally from Kincardinshire, it is now widely sung throughout the southern and Eastern regions of Scotland.

2.
The Blantyre Explosion

The disaster described in this ballad occurred at Messrs. Dixon's colliery,. High Blantyre, near Glasgow on October 22nd 1877, with the resulting death of over 200 miners. Unlike many pit-disaster ballads which take the form of Irish 'come ye all' songs, The Blantyre Explosion is in the tradition of the South-West Scottish Elegy. 'The Version sung here was collected in 1951 and first appeared in A. L. Lloyd's 'Come all ye bold Miners'.

3.
Moses of the Mail

'Moses' was the nickname of Henry Poyser, an engine-driver who served on the Manchester-Warrington run in the 80's. Despite the 'local' feeling of the text and the trivial nature of the events described, the song still lives as part of the oral tradition of the Lancashire railwaymen. The version sung here is collated from three texts collected in Newton-Heath Loco shed in 1952.

4.
Fourpence a Day

Still current in North-East Yorkshire, this song is attributed to Thomas Raine, lead-miner and bard of Teesdale. The washing racks, where the lead-bearing rocks were separated from the clay and gravel were usually operated by young boysa or old disabled miners. Mine owners were said to have become so incensed by the song that they closed the pits and imported leadminers from Germany.
The song was collected by Joan Littlewood and Ewan MacColl from John Gowland, retired lead-miner of Middleton-in-Teesdale in 1948.

5.
Champion at Keeping 'em Rolling .

This song was written by Ewan MacCol1 in 1949 for a radio programme dealing with lorry drivers. It has since been the British road-haulage men who have added countless new verses, few of which would past the censor, The words were set to the tune of 'The Limerick Rake', a popular 18th century Irish song.

6.
The Four Loom Weavers.

One of the most dramatic of British Industrial songs, this ballad was first sung shortly after The Battle of Waterloo, when handloom weavers wages fell to a new low. That it was a great favourite for many years is evidenced by the great number of broadsheet prints issued under this and other titles. It is sometimes attributed to John o' Greenfield Junior, himself the character in a ppoular l9th century comic ballad. The version sung here was collected by EwanMacColl from Beckett Whtiehead of Delph, near Oldham, Lancashire.

7.
The Plodder Seam

Ewan MacColl wrote this song in 1937 for a group of young colliers in Ashton Colliery. Lancs, and it is now fairly popular with hikers in South East Lancs. The melody in a variant of an Irish song: The Boys of Ballinamore.

Side Two 1.
Cosher Bailey's Engine.

The real hero of this song was a Monmouth ironmaster who built the Taff Vale Railway along the Aberdare Valley in 1846. According to legend he drove the first train along the railway himself and got stuck in a tunnel, an event immortalized to several verses of this song. It is sung to the tune of the traditional Welsh song 'The Black Pig. The version sung here was collected by Alan Lomax from the singing of John H. Davies of Treorchy, South Wales.

2.
The Gresford Disaster

The mining disaster described in this ballad occurred on September 22nd. 1934. The ballad, properly bitter in its editorialized narrative, slightly underestimates the casualties-265 miners were killed, including three rescue men. MacColl learned the song from a young miner named Ford in the Sheffield Miners' Training Centre.

3.
Cannily, Cannily

Written by Ewan MacColl in 1953 for Isla Cameron, The song in frequently sung in radio programmes of folk music, where it in usually described as a traditional song.

4.
The Coal-owner and the Pitman's Wife

This ballad in believed to date from the Durham strike of 1844 and to have been writtn by William Hornsby, a collier of Shotton Moor, Durham. The ballad was discovered among a collection of papers relating to the strike by a studious Lancashire miner, J. S. Dell. The tune was supplied by J. Dennison. of WaIker and. together with the text can be found in A. L Lloyd's 'Come all ye Bold Miners'.

5.
Poor Paddy Works on the Railway

This song, long popular in the United States, was the product of Irish immigrant labourer, who moved west with the great railway expansions in the middle of the 19th century. A questionnaire(1952) circulated to a number of loco sheds in Northern England, produced five versions of this song. In the past few years British folksingers have tended to fuse two versions into a single song. MacColl sings a collation of a slow version from Liverpool and a fast version from Hellefield in Yorkshire.

Hot Asphalt.
From the singing of 'Baldy' Thomson, railwayman of Dundee. Last two verses from William Miller of Stirling.

I Like To Be There.
From the singing of Eliza Bolton, weaver, of Oldham , Lancashire. Contributed by Joan Littlewood

The Best Little Doorboy.
From the singing of Jack Randall. Contributed by Alan Lomax.

The Collier's Bonnie Lassie.
From Cunningham's 'Songs of Scotland.

The Colliers' Rant.
From A. L. Lloyd's 'Come All Ye Bold Miners'.

The Durham Strike.
From A. L. Lloyd's 'Come All Ye Bold Miners'.

The Firefighter's Song.
Words by Ewan MacColl. Tune 'Boston City'.

The Fireman's Not for Me.
Words and music by Ewan MacColl

To the Weavers' Gin Ye Go.
Words by Robert Burns, based on an old song.

SECOND SHIFT
Industrial Ballads - sung by Ewan MacColl and accompanied by Peggy Seeger

THE SONG OF THE IRON ROAD
Written by Ewan MacColl and arranged by Peggy Seeger, This song forms part of the narration of The Ballad of John Axon, a radio documentary first broadcast by the B.B.C. Home Service in April, 1958. The material for both the song and the programme was collected at the Edgeley Loco Shed, Stockport, Cheshire.

DROYLSDEN WAKES.
Of this song A. L. Lloyd writes, it "belonged originally to a Wakes custom, is which two spinners, one dressed as a woman, sat in a cart, going through the motion, of spinning, singing the song (originally in dialogue form), and collecting from the onlookers. It is usually presumed that the 'Threedywell' meant 'Thread the wheel' or 'tread the wheel', but it may be mere onomatopoeia.

THE CALTON WEAVER.
The village of Calton no longer exists, having been swallowed up by the city of Glasgow more than half a century ago. Of its once thriving weaving trade, nothing remains but this wry little song. MacColl learned this version from Hughie Martin of Shettleston, Glasgow, who insisted that MacColl's father had written the tune "because he didna tak' to the ither yin".

TWENTY-ONE YEARS.
This song was written by Ewan MacColl in 1949 for a radio programme about one of the great truck roads running from London to Glasgow. It has not achieved the wide currency of Champion at Keepin' 'em Rolling (Topic 10 T 13 Shuttle and Cage), which was also written for the same programme. The tune is Boston City.

THE BEST LITTLE DOOR BOY
Villikins and his Dinah has probably had more sets of words written to it than any other tune common among the English-speaking peoples. To find it turning up in the South Wales Coalfield, the heart of oratorio country, is proof of its extreme toughness. This version was collected by Alan Lomax from Jack Randall of Treorchy.

OH DEAR ME
The text of this tender little song is the work of Mary Brookbank, an old jute mill worker, of Dundee. Mrs. Brookbank, the author of several fine songs, has also collected a considerable number of jute mill songs and ballads. The air of the song is the work of Ewan MacColl.

WILL CAIRN.
There are few iron-moulders in Britain who have not heard of Alex Russell of Dundee, the author of this song, for Russell is the undisputed bard of the iron-founding industry. An admirer and follower of Robert Burns, Russell exercises his considerable gifts by recording, in verse, the day-to-day struggles of his fellow workers. The tune is an adaptation of The Mucking of Geordie's Byre.

Side two

THE IRON HORSE.
According to A. L. Lloyd, this song was written by Charles Balfour, Stationrnaster at Glencarse, Scotland, and was first performed at a railwaymen's festival in 1848. It remained popular in the neighbourhood of Perth and Dundee for many years and was a favourite in the ploughmen's bothies (comrnunal living huts) of Aberdeenshire. There are few folk who remember it now. The tune is an adaptation of The Piper of Dundee.

THE DURHAM STRIKE.
This song is by Thomas Armstrong, the miner-poet of Tanfield-Lea, County Durham. It refers to the great strike of 1892 when the colliers refused to take a ten per cent cut in their wages. After holding out for two months, the colliers, beaten by hunger, agreed to accept the cut, whereupon the coal-owners raised the cut to thirteen and a half per-cent.

THE COLLIER LADDIE.
One of The oldest and most beautiful of Britain's industrial ballads, this song dates back to at least the l7th century. Robert Burns noted it and sent it to James Johnson, editor of The Scots Musical Museum, with the comment, "I do not know a blyther old song than this". The song, still fairly widely known, is most commonly found among farm workers, who sometimes substitute "ploughboy laddie" fon "collier laddie". MacColl's version was learned from his grandmother, Isabell Hendry of Auchterarder, Perthshire.

THE COLOUR BAR STRIKE.
Charlie Mayo, loco-motive fireman of King's Cross loco depot, wrote the words to this hard-hitting song immediately after the colour-bar strike of the King's Cross railwaymen in 1957. The air is by Ewan MacColl.

THE SWAN-NECKED VALVE.
This is another of the works of Alex Russell, of Dundee. It is a song written for foundry workers and full of workshop humour and irony. The tune is The Keach in the Creel.