tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24731384.post1445560432047580639..comments2023-04-16T05:43:18.780-07:00Comments on Who Said Pixies Are Rational Creatures?: Music and Stuff from O. ReaderSha'el, Princess of Pixieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14049854555801812071noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24731384.post-32561462455794961802017-08-08T10:35:29.159-07:002017-08-08T10:35:29.159-07:00The fun seems to have been intense!
(British humo...The fun seems to have been intense!<br /><br />(British humor at it's best, I think you'll agree)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24731384.post-64393302867356250782017-08-06T13:39:36.324-07:002017-08-06T13:39:36.324-07:00It was a great festival and I do agree with your c...It was a great festival and I do agree with your comments both about Shirley Collins and tattoos! <br />It was good to see you and Mrs O again. I'm glad the family managed to get the tents up for you. Amy Goddardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06796182907608668962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24731384.post-60834926793951148172017-08-06T11:42:19.351-07:002017-08-06T11:42:19.351-07:00Addenda to post
Shirley Collins, now in her eight...Addenda to post<br /><br />Shirley Collins, now in her eighties, gave an interesting interview at the Cambridge Folk Festival. She personally knew folk luminaries like Ewan McColl (and disliked him intensely) and travelled the deep south of America with folk musicologist Alan Lomax in the 1950s collecting field recordings.<br /><br />But she made two points that I disagree with. <br /><br />First, she said that people should not write new folk songs - that modern songs were not “folk.” Rather, we should stick with the tens of thousands from the past. Sorry Shirley, but staying with songs about being transported for stealing a sheep doesn’t make sense. At one time, THAT was a new song. In years to come, songs about the British miner’s strike or the American civil rights movement will the historic ones. You don’t have to LIKE modern songs, but to say they don’t qualify for the genre just because they were written recently doesn’t make sense. And anyhow, many modern folk songs steal tunes from the past. Bob Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind is a classic example - the tune is pinched from the 19th century song No More Auction Block, conveniently out of copyright.<br /><br />The second point was that she disagreed with modern performers putting themselves into the songs. The songs should be preserved as “pure” from the past. Well, again, sorry Shirley - if they were collected from field recordings in the middle of muddy fields in past decades, you have no idea whether they are “pure” or “changed” - and if it relies on word of mouth, then obviously they have evolved. And the second you got on the stage to sing some of those “pure” renditions - with an electric acoustic guitar backing you, and modern percussion, then you have put something of yourself into them. As the pop-folk group, the Kingston Trio (with John Stewart) said in an interview in the early 1960s - “we don’t believe in deliberately singing badly just to appeal to the purists.”<br /><br />Shirley can sing whatever she wants however she wants. And some acts on folk festivals may be on the fringe of what is traditionally called folk. But the genre should be eclectic. And the audience is free to choose.<br /><br />An occasional readernoreply@blogger.com