Ewan McCall and Peggy Seeger

‘Climate change is going to cull us as a species’: folk hero Peggy Seeger on Bob Dylan, the ultimate love song and touring at 90

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The musician and activist answers your questions about her marriage to Ewan MacColl, being the inspiration for The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, and her mother’s legacy

As told to Dave Simpson

Touring at 90 is amazing. What was a career highlight?
When I was 60 the thought of touring when I was 70 was anathema and the thought of touring at 90 seemed dreadful! The hardest part is sitting in the car. We’re gonna be away six weeks and I’m a walking hospital case. I have meds, a step stool so I can put on compression stockings, and arthritis in both hands. My family treat me like glass, but as soon as I get on stage all these things melt away. I can only tour because I have my crew – my sons Neill and Calum, my daughter-in-law Kerry Harvey-Piper and an excellent sound engineer, Stefan Care. Or rather, they’re not my crew, I’m their singer. I don’t think in terms of career highlights because I could yet muck it up.

What’s it like being the subject of one the greatest love songs ever written [The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face]? 
In my memoir First Time Ever I devote an entire chapter to it! I was estranged from Ewan MacColl, who had been pursuing me when I came to England. It was a very passionate encounter, but I fled back to America because a married man with a five-year-old son he adored wasn’t my ideal. It turned out that both he and his wife had been unfaithful during their marriage, which made it a bit better later on. They are both gone now, and so are their issues.

When Ewan sang it to me over the phone I thought it was a nice love song, but I didn’t connect it with him and me because he was infatuated with me, and while I got to love him, I wasn’t “in love”. I felt exposed when I sang “the first time ever I lay with you”, because I was singing it as if I was him. Our first night together was disastrous! The second was what the first should have been. Then after I fell “in love” with my second life partner, Irene Pyper-Scott, I started to sing it as Ewan must have felt it.

Ewan McCall & Peggy Seeger
‘Our first night together was disastrous!’ … Peggy Seeger with Ewan MacColl. Photograph: Brian Shuel/Redferns


It’s been covered by over a thousand singers and Ewan and I hated most of them. We had a section of our record collection devoted to them called “the chamber of horrors”. When it became a huge hit for Roberta Flack I didn’t like the way she sang it, but I’ve come to like it a lot. A digital composer called Broadcaster has done it as a dance track, using my vocals, which is on my Bandcamp. If you listen to it as a song, it’s the worst version ever, but as a dance track, it’s wonderful.


Did you watch [Bob Dylan biopic] A Complete Unknown? If yes, what did you think? If no, why not? [ThankYou,John/

I haven’t had time to see it yet but I want to after the tour. I met Bob Dylan when he was Robert Zimmerman, a student. I remember him very clearly because the event organiser said: “You know that little fellow who followed you around with his briefcase? He’s Bob Dylan.” At that point I said, “Who’s Bob Dylan?”, but more power to him. He’s like me in that he hasn’t got a “good” voice but he’s got a character voice and he created the character Bob Dylan out of Robert Zimmerman. It makes me wonder if I created myself, because I’m much more of an entertainer now than I was when I was just a singer of folk songs. I do little jokes and monologues and all kinds of things I never would’ve done as the Peggy Seeger of 1962.


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Charles Parker: Radio Pioneer – BBC Sounds
		

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Charles Parker
Charles Parker


Sean Street delves into the archive of one of the most innovative and controversial BBC radio producers, reviewing Charles Parker’s work from the Radio Ballads to his sacking in 1972.


06 Apr 2019


Parker was born in Bournemouth on April 5th 1919 – the son of a redundant railway clerk who sold paraffin from a handcart – and died in 1980 on the same day as John Lennon. For a man who revolutionised radio production, who is still talked about and revered today, his death was hardly reported in the press.He is probably best known for his series of eight radio ballads made with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.


These programmes became a high point in radio production but they eventually became expensive luxuries that could no longer be afforded. He was “sacked” or “left” the BBC in 1972.


Bournemouth University’s Emeritus Professor of Radio, Sean Street, reviews the life of an icon in the radio industry who, according to fellow producer Michael Mason, was “a real creative genius… his razor blade was like a sculptor’s chisel, releasing the hidden poets in people”.Talking to family, friends and those who worked with Charles Parker, Sean explores his radio productions and ideas on preserving the oral tradition as he delves into a rich archive of material – creating a portrait of a master magician in radio.


Parker’s life was also a journey from poverty to Cambridge University, from a Conservative Christian to a Socialist, from a Submarine Commander to a Radio Producer. But throughout his career, two things remained constant – his dedication, often working for days without sleep, and most importantly his desire to tell the extraordinary stories of ordinary people in their own words.Producer: Andy CartwrightA Soundscape production for BBC Radio 4


LISTEN to AUDIO at: Archive on 4 – Charles Parker: Radio Pioneer – BBC Sounds

			


					
			





	

					

				
Folk Radio – Ep128 “A Festive Winter Mix”
		

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A festive mix feat. Olivia Chaney, Steve Tilston, Anne Briggs, Bert Jansch, Dick Gaughan, Coope, Boyes & Simpson, Jean Ritchie, Martin Carthy and more.







My first festive mix of the year featuring Olivia Chaney, Steve Tilston, Anne Briggs, Bert Jansch, Dick Gaughan, Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith, Coope, Boyes & Simpson, Martha Tilston, Jean Ritchie, Blind Boy Grunt (Bob Dylan)/Richard Fariña/Eric Von Schmidt, Nadia Cattouse, Jethro Tull, Johnny Cunningham, Susan McKeown & Aidan Brennan, Martin Carthy (with June Tabor), Richard Thompson, Chris Wood, Ewan McCall and Peggy Seeger, Lal Waterson, Bernard Wrigley and David Strawbridge & Tim Laycock.





Enjoy










    

  1. Olivia Chaney – Waxwing
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  2. Steve Tilston – Roving on a Winter’s Night
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  3. Anne Briggs – Fire And Wine
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  4. Bert Jansch – The January Man
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  5. Dick Gaughan – The Snows They Melt The Soonest
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  6. Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith – Winter Berries
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  7. Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith – The Old Churchyard
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  8. Coope, Boyes & Simpson – The Meadowhall Carol
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  9. Martha Tilston – Winter Flowers
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  10. Jean Ritchie – Wintergrace
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  11. Blind Boy Grunt/Richard Fariña/Eric Von Schmidt – Xmas Island
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  12. Nadia Cattouse – Red & Green Christmas
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  13. Jethro Tull – First Snow in Brooklyn
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  14. Johnny Cunningham, Susan McKeown & Aidan Brennan – A Christmas Childhood
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  15. Johnny Cunningham, Susan McKeown & Aidan Brennan – My Singing Bird
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  16. John Kirkpatrick – Wassail
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  17. Martin Carthy – Hunting The Cutty Wren (w/ June Tabor)
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  18. Richard Thompson – The Snow Goose
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  19. Chris Wood – Turtle Soup
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  20. Ewan McCall and Peggy Seeger – Moving on Song
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  21. Lal Waterson – Christmas Is Now Drawing Near at Hand
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  22. Bernard Wrigley – The Wassail Song
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  23. David Strawbridge & Tim Laycock – The Humstrum
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Photo by Toa Heftiba





Source: Folk Show – Episode 128 (a Festive Winter Mix)