I'm reading an oral history of Folk Clubs, called Singing from the Floor, by JP Bean (2014) which institutions were the main manifestation of the British Folk Revival from the middle 1950s until the late 1970s.
I knew this movement pretty well and participated somewhat, towards the end of this era; and perhaps because I came late to it, I had not previously realized the extent to which the trend was dependent upon the Communist Party (in effect the government of the USSR), and socialist Trades Unions, for planning, funding, publicity and organization.
This top-down and social engineering aspect of the British Folk Revival is perfectly clear cut, not hidden, and was always openly acknowledged (albeit the fact that the activities of UK communism were primarily as a tool of USSR foreign policy, was never generally recognized).
Like so much of popular music and popular culture generally, it turns-out that the public face and administrators of Folk Music (aside from the always present actually "folk" musicians, such as farm workers and miners) were the intelligence branches of the Eastern Bloc, and their sympathizers and collaborators within the UK Establishment and Labour movements.
(All of which is ironic considering, this was supposed to be a grass-roots, bottom-up movement, emanating from "the folk" and representing the ideas and ideals of the "secret people" of Britain - the often nameless working "masses". But I suppose this always has been standard operating procedure for the left, who are always appointing themselves spokesmen on behalf of somebody else.)
In the end, the movement outgrew its roots, and the aspects of folk music that I most liked were either disconnected-from or hostile-to the original Soviet-agent "controllers" such as Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, or AL Lloyd.
But there is no doubt in my mind that a major aspect of the Folk movement was covert-agenda-driven, was upper and middle class in origin and actuality; and that this strategy was highly successful in its (presumed) political aims of permeating many performers and audience with a particular world view and assumptions.
And what applied to Folk Music (top-down, organized and funded for strategic political purposes by leftist sources) was analogously true (although probably with less direct Soviet influence, and a more Western Intelligence impulse) for the much larger "pop culture" of Britain.
Thus were built-into people - at an early and formative stage of life, and especially associated with enjoyment, happy memories and day dreams during the "coming of age" years of teenage and young adulthood - ideas and ideals that have been for many decades a cultural compulsion and obsession in The West.
And which consequently still exert a near-monopoly in large sectors of the population in the UK.
Job done!
8 comments:
And the strange thing is that adopting Communism would destroy the whole culture and tradition that folk music originates from.
According to Wikipedia, MacColl "[remained] a steadfast communist throughout his life and actively [engaged] in political activism."
At least his parents were actually Scottish. His parents moved to England because his father was blacklisted at every foundry in Scotland.
Peggy Seeger was the half-sister of American folk singer Pete Seeger (1919-2014), who was also under suspicion in the 1950s for his leftist sympathies.
@No Longer Reading
Yes, one need only look at pop culture video from Soviet television to see what changes would have been expected of them if they wanted to go on performing.
@NLR - I think the key to understanding UK CP communism is that - in practice - it was... whatever the Soviet communist party was saying today.
But socialism more broadly contained the influential William Morris ("Arts and Crafts" tradition, which certainly envisaged an agrarian (Medieval style) society of farmers and craftsmen - and this lineage was very keen on folk music and dancing.
Thje main thread of English socialism was probably that of the Nonconformist churches and the trades unions. Back in the 19th century, early 20th century, these types of socialists were not interested by folk song and dance - but from the 50s (according to this book) the national trades unions began financially and organizationally to support the arts, including folk music.
Overall, I would say that the folk revival connection was a part of the early New Left theme (which has since the 1990s completely taken over leftism) and which was 1. middle and upper class in origin and leadership, and 2. cultural rather than economic in nature.
@ap - It's never a good idea to assume that Wikipedia articles of well known people are honest.
EM's parents were Scottish... That does not usually correlate with a Lancastrian changing his name at the age of c30 years!
For instance: "because his father was blacklisted at every foundry in Scotland" - is exactly the kind of thing that a communist Would say. "every foundry in Scotland" Indeed! And if so, why not England as well?
Good points. I only quoted it because the article on MacColl did not mince words about his lifelong adherence to communism but, yes, the foundry statement does seem exaggerated. I just assumed it meant he was a troublemaker and the foundry owners would have none of it.
Anthony Burgess saw the writing on the wall and had his teens in A Clockwork Orange using Russian words in their speech and seeing 'Russky' pop singers on television. He got in a dig at, I think, J.B. Priestly, describing a statue of him with a pipe "stuck in his rot."
I suspect that Bob Dylan was called Judas in Manchester in 1966 not just because he had gone electric but also because he had renounced the leftism that was endemic to the folk movement at that time. He wrote about this renunciation in one of his best songs My Back Pages with its memorable line “Equality, I spoke the word as if a wedding vow."
@William - Although he toured the British folk clubs, I personally have never regarded Dylan as a folk musician.
I don't like Dylan's singing or music either, and never have; but the two evaluations are unconnected - I also dislike a large majority of those I do regard as real folkies!
Especially, I never could stand more than a small proportion of unaccompanied songs with fifteen-plus versus about mine disasters, fox-hunting, serial murders or whatever.
Indeed the only singer with guitar type musician I ever *really* enjoyed was Martin Carthy. As well as seeing him with the Watersons and Steeleye Span; I saw him in a solo concert in a small theatre (in the round). He was astonishing, memorable, and made the centuries roll back.
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