Customer Reviews

Black & White - The Definite Collection

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This album is an antidote to all forms of fashionable 'arty' popular music (from Maccoll's original 'bete noir' Bob Dylan onwards). Maccoll's language is so spare and precise that it cuts right to the essence of the emotions and experiences he describes. The poetry of `Nobody Knew She Was There' is almost like Auden. But Maccoll is most powerful for the ethical force of his songs, and the charismatic control of rhythm with which he performs them. The lyrics of these songs are like a history of left-politics in Britain during the twentieth century, culminating in its defeat at the hands of Mrs Thatcher during the 80s. She is the `lady' of `Looking for a Job', a painful song to listen to because its raw power seems now to come from desperation - the failure of the traditional Communist values which Maccoll supported throughout his life. In the end all he seems able to offer is resentful resistance to change (`My Old Man'). This is sad, and depressing to experience, but it is also, in a way, unimportant. What we have here is a real sense of continuity - from the 1930s to the 60s to the 80s, but also stretching back to the 17th and 18th century. It's intensely moving to feel this sense of continuity and communality so consistently affirmed in these wonderful songs. This is an album that cares about life: past, present and future. The final song 'The Joy of Living' can make you cry.

Black and White includes a song whose cover version hit the Top 40 (The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face), songs that couldn't be sung by anyone else (Looking For a Job), songs that have entered the folk canon (Shoals of Herring, which is often assumed to be by 'trad.arr.', and Manchester Rambler) and songs that really are traditional (Sheath and Knife). When MacColl has a message it's blunt as can be, as in Dirty Old Town and the despairing Looking For a Job (skip this song if you're really out of work!). There is no danger of overproduction here; there are only a few musicians on the album besides MacColl himself and Peggy Seeger, his wife (I think) and life partner. MacColl's singing suits his music; Seeger's is definitely an acquired taste, and their harmonies are raw, with the almost Appalachian sound characteristic of theeraly folk revival. The crowning jewel is the last song on the album, the beautiful Joy of Living, a farewell to MacColl's life that will leave you with a greater appreciation of your own.

Every song and performance on this album is pure genius. The problem really is that Ewan Maccoll's career has such breadth that it is difficult for this type of 1 disc compilation to provide a full overview. Still, it's the best that's out there, though missing a number of key tracks.

Ewan MacColl does a great job with these songs of injustice. The music on this CD reminds me of Pete Seeger - was Pete influenced by Ewan? These songs give you lots to think about the injustices of this world - a woman "lies dead in the ditch fed on by hungry flies" and no one seems to notice, his father loses his job to new and improved means (robots, most likely), being born of the wrong class therefore "you can't stay here ... you'll drive down the price of property", begging for work - anything - even cleaning up after animals that unload on the street, slave labor that picks the fruit that we put on our table, etc. These are the types of people we tend to ignore when we see them on the street begging for a "dollar". Will we think twice the next time we see these types of people? I hope that I do, for some day I could end up like them.

This is a great easy listening CD full of happy and sad songs beautifully performed. The Joy of Living and Dirty Old Town are my favourites.

...hardly 'definitive'. Probably best to seek out source material for this artist until a truly 'definitive' collection comes out...

Having heard Ewan MacdColl's music in various venues; Radio, CDs, and music festival. And knowing his connection to the early Folk Music scene in England, Scotland, and Ireland, I felt compelled to purchase and listen to the CD and was not disappointed. Many of the songs are familiar to the American audience by artists well known to us, ie - First Ever I Saw Your Face - Roberta Flack, The Shoals Of Herring - The Clancy and Tommy Makem, and Manchester Rambler - The Dubliners. All performed in Ewan's inimitable folk style. A definite plus for the collectors of Irish Folk Music.

TRACKLIST
# SONGNAME.......... TIME
1. Ballad of Accounting 2:43
2. The Driver's Song 2:11
3. My Old Man 3:29
4. Dirty Old Town 2:53
5. Black and White 1:57
6. Brother, Did You Weep? 1:57
7. The Press Gang [live] 1:56
8. The Shoals of Herring 3:54
9. The Manchester Rambler 4:42
10. Sheath and Knife [live] 6:20
11. Highland Muster Roll [live] 2:00
12. Cam Ye O'Er Frae France [live] 1:56
13. The Maid Gaed Tae the Mill [live] 2:07
14. The Moving on Song 3:21
15. Nobody Knew She Was There 3:52
16. Looking for a Job 5:18
17. Kilroy Was Here 3:36
18. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face 2:25
19. The Foggy Dew [live] 3:48
20. The Joy of Living 4:41