Also years later here, I want to echo the same appreciation as others have for uploading this. It was absolutely fascinating and I would probably not have had any other way to see it.
Dear friend,whoever you may be,THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU. This is an absolute joy to watch ,all 4 hours of it. A jem of beauty and brilliance. Long may the dark forces of the dreaded WMG allow this to be here for everyone to cherish. Greetings from far-out Greece.
The first two episodes are absolutely wonderful and exciting - the third one is sad and depressing. It only confirms my opinion that folk music has died sometime around 1975. (And I'm not an old man - I was born in eighties.)
@Chase Williams I think the Watersons shouting in that abrasive tone, wasn't authentic at all, it was copying the ordinary folk. Their enthusiasm was real though. When you think about how the blues movement in England turned out, it was a copy, but ended up very different, and completely inauthentic, I'd say that was similar in effect, to the folk revival. As a musician myself, I know that everyone does it their own way.
Excellent doco - however my complaint is Shirley Collins is dropped after her collaboration with Davy Graham - and therefore also Ashley Hutchings' work with the Albion Country band (and its various incarnations) - and so also Keith Dewhurst's play adaptation of Lark Rise to Candleford -- three important aspects of English folk scene which is inexplicably missing.
Yeah this was a great documentary. Great series, but I particularly liked this last one, perhaps because it was contemporary to me and includes some artists I've been into, e.g. the Men They Couldn't Hang.
Hullo @GoodStuff79 -- What is the problem with Pt 4? Could you do a Pt 4a and a Pt 4b which would not get blocked? It's a shame the BBC don't make the whole lot available, but they must have their reasons, I suppose.
Beth Orton had lessons with Bert Jansch, and said she was inspired by Anne Briggs, but her song was a pile of toss, and so was her voice. Nothing like either, of the much better musicians.
