A Second Selection Of Ten Essential UK & Irish Folk Music Songs From 1960s-1980s

Introduction

Peter Guy said this in a comment on the story below:

It’s ascribed to various blues singers I think, that “all music is folk music, at least I never heard a horse sing” or words to that effect.

Which is a good point when you are not sure when something is folk music or not.

I posted a recent article on some folk music on the Facebook Group UK & Irish Folk Music 60s-80s

It was pointed out that the group was focused on UK and Irish Folk Music from the sixties to the eighties (I assume first of January 1960 to 31st December 1989). It was pointed out that my music writing is esoteric and eclectic and the article I shared included music outside of the group's focus. So I took that onboard and created this piece.

This resulted in some amazing enlightening discussions (and yes there is a spelling mistake in the title but that is awkward to fix because the title defines the URL, sorry for the web jargon) with lots of suggestions about songs that I had missed. That gave me an idea for a follow up. This will be ten songs that fit the remit of UK & Irish Folk Music 60s-80s plus an addendum of one or two outside the timeframe. Give the amount of amazing folk music this might run and run.

The other thing that happened is that that article got more reads in a single day that any other single day story in my two and half years on Vocal and is already my fourth most read Vocal story of all time. Thank you everybody for that.

Ralph McTell - "Spiral Staircase"

Before I was a teenager, my friend's sister, Christine Fletcher had this album and I just loved the cover. Of course, Ralph hit paydirt with the sadly poignant "Streets Of London", but the title track of this album is my absolute favourite song of his, and combined with that cover, is just a little piece of heaven in my record collection.

The sleeve design was by Peter Thaine, a friend of McTell from Croydon Art College.

Steeleye Span - "Fighting For Strangers"

The hypnotic percussion rhythm to this may not be standard folk music but the song definitely is. This could have been sung in the nineteenth century. I am choosing these songs just from memory without a lot of research but apparently, this is a traditional tune that hails from Norfolk but I am happy to be corrected.

Nick Drake - "Time Has Told Me"

Not Nick's best-known song but it was the first song I heard by him on the Island Sampler "Nice Enough To Eat". This is a beautifully melancholic song, Nick was sadly ignored while he was alive, and we finally lost him to suicide. All his albums should be in everyone's collection but if you want to see where I first heard him check here.

Dick Gaughan - "Pound A Week Rise"

I believe that Dick Gaughan has one of the most distinctive voices I have ever heard and his politics and mine are very close. I first saw him with Five Hand Reel and later solo. Another favourite is "World Turned Upside Down" which was also covered by Billy Bragg and me if you search out my YouTube channel (be warned I am no singer or musician).

Leon Rosselson - "World Turned Upside Down

The Great English singer-songwriter sings his tribute to The Diggers and Thomas Paine. This has been covered by many artists including myself, but this is a beautiful but powerful song.

Planxty - "Raggle Taggle Gypsy/Tabhair dom do laimh"

This was a suggestion from David Thomas McQueen on the original post but we both were thinking of these and The Bothy Band, but this is a wonderful live performance. Take your time to drink it all in.

The Bothy Band - "Old Hag You Have Killed Me"

This is an absolute instrumental treasure and makes me just realise how much amazing music I have still to unearth. I tried to learn the fiddle but never got the hang of it or wind instruments. This performance just leaves me in awe.

The Proclaimers - "Letter From America"

You may not agree with this inclusion but from when I first them on John Peel I considered them a great Scottish folk music gem and the story of displacement could be sung in any folk club on an acoustic guitar with an in tune voice.

Roy Harper - "When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease"

Was always impressed by Roy Harper. Is he a folk singer? Is this a folk song? It is a beautiful song evoking an English loss. I love it .

Eric Bogle - "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda"

Although this is based in Australia, as is Eric Bogle, but he was born and raised in Scotland. This is probably the greatest anti-war song ever written. It has been covered by so many artists, and you will have your own favourites, but this is from the source.

Conclusion

This is the second installment, but the ones I have missed will be in subsequent posts. You may not agree with all my selections, but I hope you find something that you like and I now need to start thinking of the next installment.