We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

English and Scottish Folk Ballads

by A.L.Lloyd and Ewan MacColl

supported by
madswami
madswami thumbnail
chavonovak72
chavonovak72 thumbnail
Gavin Atkin
Gavin Atkin thumbnail
mr_so_and_so_dick
mr_so_and_so_dick thumbnail
davidmuir1
davidmuir1 thumbnail
andylambert
andylambert thumbnail
/
1.
Henry Martin 03:16
info
buy track
2.
The Baron Of Brackley 05:01
info
buy track
3.
The Cruel Mother 06:36
info
buy track
4.
Lord Randal 03:31
info
buy track
5.
The Bitter Withy 02:43
info
buy track
6.
The Sweet Kumadie 04:22
info
buy track
7.
The Demon Lover 03:52
info
buy track
8.
Hughie The Graeme 04:38
info
buy track
9.
The Prickly Bush 03:29
info
buy track
10.
The Beggar Man 06:05
info
buy track

about

Transferred from the best quality vinyl we could find. The original masters are presumed lost.

The folk ballad is a folk tale put into verse and set to music. Among
British ballads are some of the oldestas well as greatest folk songs we have. Romantic writers used to consider them the essence of all that
was most deeply national in poetry and music andmtheme; but now we know that in fact the ballad type, in form and subject matter, is remarkably similar over the greater part of Europe, and many of our most prized ballad themes are shared by peoples living as far apart as Spain, Scandinavia and the Balkans. That need be no cause for disappointment; the best British folk ballads are the equal of any for fine poetry, handsome melody, mettlesome spirit and high imagination.

The oldest of the ballads originated among a wild proud people in a barbarous time, and the qualities of that society reflect clearly in the ballad texts. In the hillier stonier parts of Britain lived a rough people,
cattle grazers and cattle thieves, petty nobility and their peasants who sometimes comprised a large gang or small private army to engage in raiding or the settlement of family feuds. Life in these parts was poor, stirring, bloody. Matters of loyalty and pride counted for a great deal. Such was the society that produced the earlier folk ballads, which might be made by the lord himself (who was often a man indistinguishable from his neighbours except through his fierceness and rapacity, and who had been awarded or had snatched his distinction by
virtue of those qualities) or by one of his peasants or by a professional or semi-professional minstrel engaged to entertain the rough company. The names of the ballad-makers are not known to us. Indeed, as Professor F. J. Child has said: ‘Though a man and not a people has composed them, still the author counts for nothing, and it is not by a mere accident, but with the best reasons, that they have come down
to us anonymous’. Those ‘best reasons’ are mainly that the ballad producing society was, in its primitive way, oddly democratic. In it, men were more or less equal, or if one was better than another it was on
account of his strength, courage and wits rather than on account of his possessions. As the historian A. L. Morton puts it: ‘Even if class divisions existed, class oppression was much less evident than the universal oppression of harsh necessity, the prevailing poverty, the barrenness of the earth, the reiving and raiding that were part of the life of a wild (stretch of) country. Joys and fears, hopes and doubts, deeds and beliefs were largely common to all’.

It used to be thought that the ballads were somehow local to the strip of bare hilly country extending from Newcastle up to Edinburgh, and from Berwick across to Carlisle, and on that account they became known as ‘Border Ballads’. The name is utterly misleading.

We now know that the ballads circulated all over England and Scotland, and were made up in many different regions. In fact the two areas that have proved most rewarding to folk song collectors searching for ballads are Aberdeen and – Somerset! It is the case, however, that the peculiar way of life that is mirrored in the ballads lasted longest in the
Border country, where a few free-booting families still survived in the eighteenth century, and also that a number of good ballads mention Border place and family names. Still, it is high time we broke ourselves
of the habit of too readily attaching the label of ‘Border’ to our traditional ballads.

Of course, by no means all our ballads are concerned with themes of raiding and feuding. Nor were all of them created by members of such a society as is sketched above. Some are ancient pieces of
moralizing symbology, such as The Prickly Bush (though in our version the symbolic element is overlaid) and The Cruel Mother. Some are genial peasant improvisations on religious legends, such as The Bitter Withy. Others are novelistic adventure stories, such as The ‘Sweet Kumadie’, or romances such as The Demon Lover which, in some versions, has lost its element of magic and emerges as a simple story of crime passionel. But the kernel of our folk ballads, the most characteristic productions, are doubtless the proud brave hard tragedies of the kind of Hughie the Graeme and The Baron of Brackley, the nearest thing we have to the great hero-epics of early times and more primitive societies.

Our ballads are well known in book versions, though it must be said that the great anthologies don’t always contain the best specimens. They are less well known in sung versions, though they were made to be sung, not read. In this connection, the poet Robert Frost has something pertinent to say: “Voice and ear are left at a loss what to do with the ballad until supplied with the tune it was written to go with… Unsung, it stays half-lacking.” May this record do something to repair a lack.

A. L. LLOYD

credits

released March 18, 1964

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Ewan MacColl image

Ewan MacColl London, UK

This site is maintained by the MacColl family, aiming to make Ewan's catalogue available to download.
Ewan MacColl is known to most as a songwriter and singer, but he was also of significant influence in the worlds of theatre and radio broadcasting. His art reached huge numbers through the folk clubs, greater numbers through his recordings and untold millions through the radio. ... more

contact / help

Contact Ewan MacColl

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

Ewan MacColl recommends:

If you like English and Scottish Folk Ballads, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
listen now