In late 1968, volume 1 of New City Songster, a UK protest folk songbook--which contained the lyrics to Ewan MacColl's "Ballad of the Big Cigars," "Lament for the Death of a Nobody," "Brother Did You Weep?," and "Student Edward" protest folk songs, the lyrics to Peggy Seeger's "Song of Choice" and "I Support The Boycott" protest folk songs, and the lyrics to the Critics Group "Grey October" anti-Vietnam War protest folk song--was published. And volume 1 of New City Songster also included an introduction which stated the following:
"This is volume 1 of a continuing series. It is not a folk magazine as such, with articles, reviews and traditional songs, but is strictly devoted to circulating new songs: songs for tomorrow, today and possibly yesterday, but no further back. While realizing the value of placing new songs in a cultural context, i.e. publishing them side by side with their traditional predecessors, it is undoubtedly a fact that many new songs have immediate topical relevance and are often out of date before they are published: others may deal with burning issues, too burning perhaps for most `folk' magazines to handle. As a result, people do not see them, often till too late--and they do not get sung."
No comments:
Post a Comment