Ewan MacColl (Kirsty's dad) on art and Revolution

Ewan MacColl explains his politics in 1975. Ewan wrote 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' about meeting Peggy Seeger at age 20, and 'Dirty Old Town' about Salford - though mostly his songs were militant and political. Peggy had her US passport withdrawn after she visited China, resulting in her settling in the UK with Ewan. Later she wrote 'I'm Gonna Be an Engineer'.

"I don't believe that today there is any art worthy of the name besides the art created by the working class in the course of its struggle." Food for thought in these days of Non-Fungible Tokens.

Broadcast on November 3 1975 on the Irish programme 'First House', interview by Tom McGurk.

#EwanMacColl #MusicAndPolitics #EwanMacCollPeggySeeger @Gazely Gaze

[aminamangera]

A real hero and fantastic chronicler of folk music, peasant and working class life and struggles throughout history.
Sorely needed today.

[Philbert-sc]

Just ordered 6 of his albums. Looking forward to listening to him.

[LeahDyson-kqbd]

You were pretty queen of new york city

[sirflamedrop]

I love his music and the intricacies of his melodies, but unless I am misunderstanding him and what he means by "worthy of the name" I have to say that I disagree politely. You see, I think that the "struggle of the working class" it's the only adversary to mankind worthy of protest, especially through music. In fact, "the first time ever I saw your face" a song that he wrote, had nothing to do with the working class struggle, other than perhaps the linguistics. Appart from that it portrays a very universal struggle not solely experienced by the working class, the struggle to verbally describe emotion and love. There are many worthy things. What about women in Iran? If someone wrote a song about that, would it not be a worthy protest? It's certainly not a matter only affecting working class women is it? Isn't it a cultural issue that permeates through societal levels?

I'd love to hear your thoughts 😁

[sallyraynor]

Not sure about his bizarre beliefs but his music was good.

[adexter]

So glad he's gone, But what but what a Daughter