Ewan MacColl - Broadside Ballads, Vol.1 (London: 1600 - 1700) (1962)

A broadside (also known as a broadsheet) is a single sheet of inexpensive paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations. They were one of the most common forms of printed material between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, particularly in Britain, Ireland and North America and are often associated with one of the most important forms of traditional music from these countries, the ballad. This album was one of the earliest efforts to collect and in some way attempt to bring to life the folk tradition of England that would then within a few years jump start the English folk (and folk rock) tradition. What makes this specific collection of most interest is instead of reinterpreting known folk songs, folk ballads that would have been common in the historical time frame are unearthed, many of which portray an unnervingly real depiction of life at the time. Topics such as the chilling depiction of the great fire of London, the death of a midwife and the humurous jibe at the emergence of tobacco and its condemnation as part of a drinking song open the listener, in some ways to life at the time (in a way that a revisionist documentary could not). Clearly for many the English folk scene such as Fairport Convention and classics that go in and out of print such as "Anthems in Eden" may be receive more listens. However the authenticity of this compilation clearly cannot be found in later releases none of which would have existed without the dedicated efforts of early folk musicians to revive a musical tradition that had in many ways,other than preserved song lyrics gone extinct and bring it back to life. This collection features songs about myriad topics, including economic changes during the reign of James I and England’s colonies in the New World. Notes by Ewan MacColl: "BROADSIDE BALLADS The term 'Broadside Ballad' is here used to designate any song — narrative or otherwise — which made its first appearance on the penny or halfpenny sheets. The songs which make up these two albums do not, for the most part, have much in common with the Traditional Ballads. Professor Child has characterized the broadsides as "veritable dunghills", and for three hundred years contemptuous literary men have castigated the authors of these 'vile ballads'; and yet even the most awkward of their verses has its occasional flash of humour, its sudden, brief flicker of light, making the dead past live again for a moment. If our view of the past, occasioned by these momentary illuminations, is sometimes an oblique one, then it is none the less interesting on that account. The broadsides flourished from 1500-1700, that is until the first cheap books began to make their appearance. By the beginning of the 18th century, the black-letter ballads had virtually disappeared. The White-letter productions, however, persisted until the mid-nineteenth century, and indeed, even today it is not unusual for one to be accosted in the London streets by a 'soft touch man' who in return for a shilling will slip you an envelope containing a miniature photostat copy of a ballad dealing with the 'Loss of the Royal Sovereign' in World War II, or with the 'Sinking of the Scharnhorst'. In the days before TV, radio and newspapers, the broadsides helped both to mould and reflect public opinion; their authors acted as political commentators, journalists, comic-strip writers, P. R. men for both parties, and for all those ambitious placeseekers who could afford to hire a pen. That they were popular with the masses, no one can doubt; that they were unpopular with the establishment is born out by successive acts of legislation against 'pipers, fiddlers and minstrels' and by the many repressive laws directed against them both in England and Scotland. In 1574 (in Scotland) they were again branded with the oprobrious title of vagabonds and threatened with severe penalties; and the regent Morton induced the Privy Council to issue an edict that "nane tak upon hand to emprint or sell whatsoever book, ballet, or other werk" without its being examined and licenced under pain of death and confiscation of goods. In August 1579, two poets of Edinburgh, (William Turnbull, Schoolmaster and William Scot, notar, "baith weel belovit of the common people for their common offices") were hanged for writing a satirical ballad against the Earl of Morton, and in October of the same year, the Estates passed an act against beggars and "sic as make themselves fules and are bards ... minstrels, sangsters, and tale-tellers, not avowed in special service by some of the lords of parliament or great burghs." Seventy-five years later, Captain Bentham was appointed provost-marshall to the revolutionary army in England, with power to seize upon all balladsingers, and five years after that date there were no more entries of ballads at Stationers' Hall. The heat was still on a century later and in July 1763, we are told that "yesterday evening two women were sent to Bridewell by Lord Bute's order, for singing political ballads before his lordship's door in South Audley Street". Even in the mid-nineteenth century the attacks on the ballad-mongers continued, though by this time the fraternity was somewhat reduced in size; yet it was still sufficiently large for the owners of factories and workshops like the Vulcan foundry of Newton-Le-Willows, Cheshire to deem it necessary to issue the following warning on a cast-iron notice board: TAKE NOTICE. PRIVATE PROPERTY. We do hereby caution all HAWKERS, RAG AND BONE DEALERS, BALLAD SINGERS & From trespassing on these premises. Any person or persons of the above description found hereon after this notice will be prosecuted with the utmost rigor of the LAW. VULCAN FOUNDRY MAY 1st. 1835. They have departed now; it is no longer necessary for the authorities to brand "bardis and balletsingers" on the cheek and scourge them through the streets. The descendents of Elderton, Deloney, Johnson, Munday and Martin Parker now work for the establishment, as the hired men of television, radio, the press and Tin Pan Alley; they have learned how to write without offending anybody or anything, except, occasionally, one's sense of the ridiculous. The Accompaniments The broadsides were, for the most part, sung on the streets and in the taverns of Britain's cities. If they had accompaniments at all, these would probably have been of a most rudimentary nature. To have presented them in these albums with the sophisticated virginals and lute would have been as incongruous as arranging the St. Louis Blues for the serpent and three Alpine horns. It is much more likely that instruments such as the pipe and tabor and fiddle were used. For this present recording we have made no attempt to provide "authentic" accompaniment. We have used instead the concertina, the guitar, the ocarina, flute, piccolo, tin whistle, autoharp, tabor and, for two songs, the banjo; all of them instruments which have been widely used by street singers of our own time." Side One Room For Company - (Piccolo and Tabor) Pity's Lamentation - (Guitar and Flute) There's Nothing To Be Had Without Money - (Concertina, Flute and Guitar) The Midwife's Ghost - (Autoharp) Side Two A Merry Progress To Lonoon - (Unaccompanied) Lqndon's Lottery - (Guitar and Flute) London Mourning. In Ashes - (Concertina) King Lear and His Three Daughters' - (Flute, Concertina and Guitar) Ewan MacColl: Vocals Peggy Seeger: Guitar, Banjo and Autoharp Alf Edwards: English Concertina, Ocarina and Tabor Alfle Kahn: Piccolo, Flute and Tin Whistle Ewan MacColl - Broadside Ballads Vol. 1 (1962) (128 kbps, front & back cover included)