tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187043.post951636247807839481..comments2024-03-29T05:13:18.992+00:00Comments on UK Commentators: Friday Night JungleLabanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12031578024191117985noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187043.post-19827221450734063542010-09-05T11:28:22.956+00:002010-09-05T11:28:22.956+00:00City Journal did a memorable hatchet job on Seeger...City Journal did a memorable hatchet job on Seeger a few years back- here's the link-<br />http://www.city-journal.org/html/15_3_urbanities-communist.html<br /><br />Personally I enjoy quite a lot of the music referenced in this article, but it is something of a guilty pleasure, given that the US 'Protest Song' tradition clearly had its roots in fellow travellerdom- as did our own 'folk revival' of the 60s.<br /><br />The UK equivalent of Seeger, Ewan MacColl, was similarly gifted musically, and an even more hard line CP'er than the Bard of Berkeley. Hatchet jobs on Ewan MacColl are very few and far between, but Peter Simple/Michael Wharton, in his first volume of autobiography,'The Missing Will', wields the stiletto elegantly. I can't find anything online, so here are the relevant extracts-<br /><br />Wharton's boss at BBC Manchester, Denis Mitchell 'now had a prominent figure of the left, the ballad singer and playwright Ewan MacColl,a bearded man of ruffianly charm, staying with him, and writing for his productions...the conversation turned to politics.MacColl made some standardised left-wing remark. I could not take it and contradicted him. It was though I had shouted an obscenity in Church.'<br /><br />Later, Wharton ' was able to observe an interesting phenomenon: the formation, in the North Region Features Department, of a Marxist coterie. The leading spirit was Ewan MacColl (a man of talent and ingenuity who, when asked for a bit of folk song to liven up some documentary about the Workers, could pop off to the lavatory and be back with a perfectly good one in ten minutes flat).'<br /><br />Later again- 'I put myself beyond redemption one morning in March, when, as was the custom, the BBC people went along about noon to drink at Yates magnificent wine bar...I went up to the BBC counter and, noticing they seemed stunned and unhappy, remarked 'What's the matter? What has happened ?'. Mitchell turned to me slowly and solemnly, and said 'Haven't you heard the news ? Stalin is dead.' I (Wharton) couldn't help saying 'Pity he was ever born'... To these people, it was simply blasphemous. They did not speak to me again for a fortnight, and ever afterwards avoided me..'Marknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187043.post-61203456372726070562010-09-05T11:25:46.521+00:002010-09-05T11:25:46.521+00:00City Journal did a memorable hatchet job on Seeger...City Journal did a memorable hatchet job on Seeger a few years back- here's the link-<br />http://www.city-journal.org/html/15_3_urbanities-communist.html<br /><br />Personally I enjoy quite a lot of the music referenced in this article, but it is something of a guilty pleasure, given that the US 'Protest Song' tradition clearly had its roots in fellow travellerdom- as did our own 'folk revival' of the 60s.<br /><br />The UK equivalent of Seeger, Ewan MacColl, was similarly gifted musically, and an even more hard line CP'er than the Bard of Berkeley. Hatchet jobs on Ewan MacColl are very few and far between, but Peter Simple/Michael Wharton, in his first volume of autobiography,'The Missing Will', wields the stiletto elegantly. I can't find anything online, so here are the relevant extracts-<br /><br />Wharton's boss at BBC Manchester, Denis Mitchell 'now had a prominent figure of the left, the ballad singer and playwright Ewan MacColl,a bearded man of ruffianly charm, staying with him, and writing for his productions...the conversation turned to politics.MacColl made some standardised left-wing remark. I could not take it and contradicted him. It was though I had shouted an obscenity in Church.'<br /><br />Later, Wharton ' was able to observe an interesting phenomenon: the formation, in the North Region Features Department, of a Marxist coterie. The leading spirit was Ewan MacColl (a man of talent and ingenuity who, when asked for a bit of folk song to liven up some documentary about the Workers, could pop off to the lavatory and be back with a perfectly good one in ten minutes flat).'<br /><br />Later again- 'I put myself beyond redemption one morning in March, when, as was the custom, the BBC people went along about noon to drink at Yates magnificent wine bar...I went up to the BBC counter and, noticing they seemed stunned and unhappy, remarked 'What's the matter? What has happened ?'. Mitchell turned to me slowly and solemnly, and said 'Haven't you heard the news ? Stalin is dead.' I (Wharton) couldn't help saying 'Pity he was ever born'... To these people, it was simply blasphemous. They did not speak to me again for a fortnight, and ever afterwards avoided me..'Marknoreply@blogger.com