WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000
[sil.]

00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:29.999
Dad. Hmm.

00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:34.999
I’m going to read you this article … I see.
Would you like me to? Right.

00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:39.999
It’s an article that you wrote
40 years ago. Goodness gracious.

00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:44.999
And the …you wrote it for the Hi-Fi
Stereo Review and it’s called

00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:49.999
The Saga of A Folksong Hunter.
Well … It’s very good.

00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:54.999
Really? Every smallest branch

00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:59.999
of the human family at one time
or another has carved its stream

00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.999
out of the rock on which it’s lived.
True and sometimes painful dreams

00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:09.999
but still wholly appropriate to their
particular bit of earth. Yeah.

00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:14.999
Each of these ways of expressing emotion
has been the handiwork of generations

00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:19.999
of unknown poets, musicians
and human hearts.

00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.999
Umm-hmm. Now we have the jets, the
wireless, the auto (inaudible)

00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:29.999
are on the verge of sweeping
completely off the globe … Oh yeah.

00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:34.999
When unspoiled folklore is left. It
is only a few sentimental folklores

00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:39.999
like myself, who seem to be
disturbed by this prospect today.

00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:44.999
But tomorrow, when it will be too
late, when the whole world is bored

00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.999
with automated mass distributed video music …
Absolutely. Our descendants will despise us

00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:54.999
for having thrown away
the best of our culture.

00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:03.000
[sil.]

00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:13.000
[music]

00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:25.000
[music]

00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:44.999
The incredible thing is that when
you would …could play this material

00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:49.999
back to people, it changes everything
for them. They realize that their stuff

00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:54.999
and they were just as good as anybody else.
When I found out that what I was

00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:59.999
really doing and my father was
really doing was giving up an avenue

00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:04.999
for those people to express themselves
and tell their side of the story.

00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:10.000
[music]

00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:14.999
[music]

00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:20.000
Hey hello.

00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:35.000
This is my dad, here.

00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:19.999
He sang this song that I never heard him sing
and I can recall sitting, listening to this

00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:24.999
and I was sitting with my back to the piano
and …in the front of a rehearsal and sitting,

00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:29.999
listening to this song and listening
to every word that he will be singing

00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:34.999
and tears coming rolling down my eyes,
in fact, I …I’m feeling it is now

00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:39.999
because it was a very, very moving song.

00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:44.999
I was only 10 years old at the time.

00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:49.999
We, as children had never seen an American, well
…well seen them on … on film, John Wayne etc.

00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:54.999
But there was this enormous Texan,
because to me as a 10-year-old,

00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:59.999
this guy was a giant. Yeah. And of course, he had
…he had the beard and he was such a gentleman

00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:04.999
and he was such a nice guy.
And I remember seeing

00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:09.999
his …he had a campervan, something like
…something like one of those Volkswagen caravans

00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:14.999
and he …inside I saw a guitar in there.

00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.999
I …I’d been never been so close to a guitar in my
life and I was so excited that there was a guitar

00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:24.999
and I said to my father \"he has got a
guitar,\" and he was \" shhshhshh …\"

00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:29.999
they were busy working, you know, because they were recording
and that no. So eventually at the end of the evening,

00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.999
umm …my father mentioned the
fact that I was keen to hear

00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:39.999
the guitar and he says \"Aye, no bother,\" and
he took the guitar upstairs. Now, all our life

00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:44.999
we lived in an upstairs flat and if we
made a noise running about on the floor,

00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:49.999
we were always told \"shh shh shh, quiet.
Remember this Mrs. Brown’s roof.\"

00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:54.999
Well, Alan got his guitar and he came up
and I can recall vividly him sitting down

00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:59.999
on the piano stool and picking up his …I will just give a little
demonstration, I won’t play it because I don’t know if this is in tune

00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:04.999
and I can’t play anymore, but he was sitting
down and he started playing something

00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:09.999
and it was something like ‘Show me coming down the
mountains, ’ I mean he started to bang his foot

00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:14.999
on the floor and he was \"Ho!
Come around the mountain …town,\"

00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:19.999
oh my god he was getting away with this
because we were told never ever and my father

00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:24.999
was doing like this and he was thinking this is wonderful and I was
like, how does he get away with it and I thought \"What a hero.\"

00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:29.999
This is the one.

00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:34.999
[sil.]

00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:43.000
I will get this laced up.

00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.999
And going to try and see this.
First recording I made of Alan

00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:09.999
umm …I mean it all on this
type of machine, tape machine

00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:14.999
and I said \"Alan, let’s have some songs
from your Texas where you come from,\"

00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:19.999
and this is how he began.

00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:28.000
[music]

00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:54.999
It’s a very session actually

00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:59.999
because he was a drink of just the right
kind of white wine, he was the right man,

00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:04.999
he got himself and he was very nervous
like any …anybody who collects folksongs

00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:09.999
is very nervous when they have to do
something like this themselves and,

00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:14.999
so we had a …we had a nice guitar player and
an English mouth organ player, a harmonica

00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:19.999
just to jolly him along and so
that …that was the recording.

00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.999
I will play you another one.
We’ll shoot on now and see

00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:29.999
if I can …if I can just
find us next …his next one.

00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:34.999
When did you first meet Alan?
He just sort of turned up.

00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.999
What are you going to record then? \"Oh just the world,\"
he said. Well, we’ll put in on LP so that was his …

00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:44.999
that was his idea to have each country and he had different
people in each country. But in England of course,

00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:49.999
I had already started so …so
I got the job as it were

00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:54.999
and I also helped with the Irish
and the Scottish numbers.

00:09:55.000 --> 00:10:03.000
[sil.]

00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:14.999
I didn’t know what was coming into my
recording machine when I drive north

00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:19.999
into Scotland in the summer of 1950.
What a delightful surprise

00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.999
to an American used to the wild, hard driving tunes
of the Southern states to hear the soft songs

00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:30.000
that inspired Burnes.

00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:40.000
I took the road to the Hebrides. These
islands lie 50 miles west of Scotland.

00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:49.999
All day we ran south along the Bleakcoast.

00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:54.999
It was a grey day and the islands
were cold and uninviting to me.

00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:59.999
I had forgotten what my informant had told me. The best
thing about the islanders is they’re welcome to a stranger.

00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.999
Donald Campbell.

00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.999
[non-English narration]

00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:14.999
[sil.]

00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:19.999
They live here?

00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:24.999
Alright. I heard he knows
a lot of folksongs? Yes.

00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:29.999
Do you know about that …that’s it?
Alright thank you.

00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:34.999
You’ve got the wrong man. You have
to go over to Isle of Barra. How?

00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.999
Yeah somebody over there
and I’m wondering who?

00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.999
Somebody at the Heritage Center told me.
And well,

00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.999
we had to go offer it to you. I know
(inaudible). Do you know a folksong?

00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:54.999
No I don’t. No? You don’t sing? I
never singed, no. You never singed?

00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.999
Oh yeah that’s …no. Is there still some
singer, do you know somebody else?

00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.999
Oh …quite a few in Barra
sing, that’s over in

00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.999
(inaudible) Hugh Sinclair.
Hugh Sinclair? Aye.

00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.999
Oh! He was kidding you.
Who told you to come? DD.

00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.999
Oh! Justin?

00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.999
He is living …he is kidding? But
you are a musician, aren’t you?

00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:29.999
I wrote many years ago. Uh-huh. Many years
ago. Yeah. I think I forgot most of it now.

00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.999
We’re looking for people
who could sing us a song.

00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.999
Umm …I don’t know. To do something

00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.999
on the spur of the moment, it’s not easy
sort of thing. Sometimes he does sing.

00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:49.999
Yes one verse or something like that.

00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:54.999
Umm …we used to live in the
North Sea on the oilrigs

00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:59.999
and we were thinking of moving back up to
Barra after spending 30 years in Glasgow.

00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.999
I decided to write a song about

00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.999
the coming back to Barra.

00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.999
So, umm …I would listen to the
exhaust of a big generator

00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.999
and the beat of the exhaust give me the
beat for the song. So it goes like this.

00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:25.000
Come with me to the Barra come with me.

00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:35.000
Come with me over to the sea to the island

00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:54.999
[non-English narration]

00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:59.999
We’re looking for some
people who were recorded

00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.999
by a man here in the 1950s, Alan Lomax.
I’ve never heard of Alan Lomax anyway.

00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.999
No but maybe you know the people who
were recorded like Annie MacNeil

00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:14.999
who married Johnson. Annie
MacNeil who married Johnson.

00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.999
(inaudible). (inaudible).

00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.999
Another person Flora MacNeil.

00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:29.999
Flora MacNeil, she is living on the
mainland. Oh. Yeah she is taking classes.

00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.999
As a matter of fact, on my way
tonight I could direct you

00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.999
to her house on Barra and her
vehicle parked at the house.

00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:45.000
If she is on the Island she
would give you something.

00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:29.999
Alan, of course, had been used to recording

00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.999
old people, older people.
Wherever he went it was,

00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.999
you know, he wanted old …old songs

00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.999
and he was telling me afterwards
that he thought, you know that I was

00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.999
really going to be one of these old women.
And he says

00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.999
oh gosh! You walked in and
you are pretty as hell.

00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.999
Oh! …Oh! Pretty as hell. I don’t know, I was
taught of hell as being pretty but anyway.

00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.999
So he was quite larger than life,

00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
that’s for sure and …but

00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.999
Alan was fascinated. There were these songs

00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
and really loved the …the poetry

00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
and the songs and the imagery. He really…

00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.999
really admired Gaelic and loved the songs.

00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.999
He couldn’t get enough of them.
What kind of songs: Spinning songs,

00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
weaving songs and waulking songs

00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:45.000
such as for shrinking the tweed.

00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
Because Alan and I have had this interest
in work songs and waulking songs.

00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.999
Waulking is to do with the
tweed, stretching the tweed.

00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
And the tweed is soaked first of all in
urine and then …then in order to get it

00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
stretched and …and so it is ready for
people to wear out on the boats and so on,

00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.999
keep the rain off umm
…they have these parties

00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:30.000
where everybody comes to one person’s house, it’s like a
Kailey and …and they sing these songs. They improvised songs.

00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
Some people say Hebridean music grew the way it did
because the people listened to the rhythm of the sea

00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
on the Atlantic beaches. I’d rather say
it was because it was the surge and pound

00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:14.999
of these women’s work songs. The leader
chorus pattern, age old, simple,

00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.999
primordial, the working song style.
This is one of the great song forms

00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
in my belief has profound and moving as
the Blues. The Cante jondo of Spain,

00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:30.000
I could not stop the recording machine. I
was caught as were the women in the rhythm.

00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
I think the beginning of…of…of song in …

00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
in all countries all parts of the world, has been through
the work songs. They are the most …most important

00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
when it was very hard job to do, to
sing as well just helped to jog along

00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:05.000
and it just seemed half …half as long, you know, it
is much shorter time and …and …and fun with it all.

00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
Both very excited when we came across these

00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
quarry work songs from stone
quarries in …in Portland.

00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
And so we both went down
and filmed these people.

00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
Here is a gang of men working at a great
area of stone and starting to spread it at

00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
one of the natural forts. They
do this by driving in wedges.

00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
It’s very important that all the wedges shouldn’t
go in together. So the shanty man or gang leader

00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
keeps the man in time.

00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
This song is called (inaudible)
it along and has great

00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
definite links with the
American work songs.

00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
Of course, Alan would have come across something like
this in the very early days when he was recording

00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
with his father and Alan literally was on the
track, with the recording track, you know,

00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
and they went to the penitentiaries because
the earliest songs, the railroad songs

00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
and so on …work songs are still
being kept going when they were

00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
logging or hurrying on
the penitentiary farm.

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:30.000
[sil.]

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
In the summer of 1933 Thomas A.
Edison’s widow gave my father

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
an old fashioned Edison cylinder machine
so that he might record Negro tunes

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
for the …for the forthcoming book of
American ballets. For us this instrument

00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
was a way of taking down tunes quickly and
accurately, but to the singers themselves,

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
the squeaky, scratchy voice that
emerged from the speaking tube

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
meant that they had made communicative
contact with a bigger world than their own.

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
I get it. A Tennessee convict
did some fancy drumming

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
on the top of a little lard pail. When he
listened to his record, he sighed and said …

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
Umm-hmm. When that man in the White House hear how
sweet I can drum, he sure going to send down here

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:30.000
and turn me loose. I see.

00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
You are a fine songster. Thank
you (inaudible). Thank you.

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
My father had the great idea that probably
all the sinful people were in jail

00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
and that’s where we found them and that’s
where we found this incredible body

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
of music that now I think …I think it’s the
most interesting of all our folk music.

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
I don’t know, did you
hear go down old Hannah?

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
Well, I’d say that’s the
American folk of boatmen

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
umm …it addresses the sun.
Go down old Hannah

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
Well, well, well Don’t you rise no more

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
Don’t you rise no more If you rise

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
in the morning

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
Bring judgment sure

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
Where …where did you first hear it? That …that song we heard it in
Texas Penitentiary. We have the first …almost the first recording

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
we made for the Library of
Congress and that …I had heard

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
all the symphonies there were in all the
chamber music and …and the best jazz

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
and I said this is the greatest music.
There were 50 black men,

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
who were working under the whip and
the gun, and they had the soul

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:20.000
to make the most wonderful song I’ve ever heard
and they had not only that but scores more.

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
This is where we keep some of our old

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
field recording equipments. See here an
old wax cylinder Edison recorder that was

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
first used to record. Then over
here, we had the kind of machine

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
that Alan Lomax would have
used in the field in the 1940s

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
or a bit earlier, and we can see
it’s a large disc cutting machine

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
that has several different
components to it. It’s got a handle

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
so supposedly it’s portable. You can take this
out of the field but it’s …its pretty heavy.

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
You can take a disc and put
it on the on the turntable

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
like this and set the mechanism
over it and this would record

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
the sound from the microphone with
etched into the acetate disc.

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
A microphone might look something like
this here. Of course, this isn’t connected

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
but imagine, the cable going from
here into the machine and Alan Lomax

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
sitting there holding the microphone or perhaps
it’s on a stand and recording a fiddle or a singer

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
or whatever happened to be. Musicians and
sociologists can now study American folk songs

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
that have never been transcribed
and would otherwise be lost

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
if the library officials did not go into the
field to record unknown primitive singers.

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
But the (inaudible)

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
In the dead hours of night

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
She rose from

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
her blanket A battle

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
to fight She rose

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
from her blanket

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
With a gun in each hand

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
So come all of you …

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
We have perhaps 30,000
field recordings here,

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
many done by the Lomax’s,
John and Alan Lomax.

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
Field Recordings …disc old field
recordings come in a variety of forms.

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
We have aluminum discs. These were discs that
were put right on a disc cutting machine

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
for recording music or
spoken word and they were

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
blank aluminum disc looking like this
and a needle would etch the sound

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
right into the disc. Here’s
an example, here a lacquer

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
or acetate disc with grooves cut into it.
The base on this one

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
is probably aluminum but some of the bases
were glass and some were cardboard or …

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
How many of them are by Lomaxes?
Perhaps 10000 recordings

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
by John and Alan Lomax.

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:28.000
[music]

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
[music]

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
At the age of 20, I came to live in
New York. I was a very gifted pianist

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
but somewhere along the line I decided that
I was not going to be a concert pianist.

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
Can I do that again? Sure.

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
Folk songs were not a concern of anybody.
I mean, in New York of course,

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
we had the harp if we could afford it, and we
went to a concert if we couldn’t afford it.

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
But, 1936 was the time when there was,

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
I’d say a change, and this is where the
important thing that happened is that

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
somebody who really puts folk
music, shall we say on …

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
on the map and that was Alan Lomax.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
Alan did it an extremely important
thing that really changed

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
the view that Americans have a society

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
outside of the elite society. You know, we
have a learned society of books and authors

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
and …and a snobbish upper class

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
that really thought that all of culture
had to be according to their design.

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
But Alan is the one that really
makes the nation as a whole,

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
conscious of the fact that poor
people also have a culture,

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:50.000
not only have a culture but a culture that is worth
everything that is as good as the other culture.

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
[music]

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:10.000
Hey welcome. How wonderful to see you.

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
[music]

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
Hello there Peter. Hi there. What
a nice music you’re making Pete.

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
Oh I’m just warming up. What’s that funny looking
guitar you’re playing? Oh! This isn’t a guitar,

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
this is a banjo. Well tell me
is the banjo something new?

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
New? New as America is.
I know that’s a banjo.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
In 1937, Alan was 22 years old

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
and his father was in his
60s, he wanted to retire

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
and he told the library, I’m appointing
my son to be the acting curator.

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
Well in effect he was in charge.
It was a room not

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
bigger than this apartment,
stacks of records gathering dust.

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
He had to catalog them. So
I did a preliminary job

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
of listening to records and I’d listen
to them and say \"Oh! This is a good one.

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
It’s the real thing\" or I’d say
\"This is just commercial junk.\"

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
Well, he had the energy of a young
man and during the next six years

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
he did more …probably than most
men would do in their lifetime.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
What shall I say! A man
with a colossally ego,

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
confidence, I mean he was so powerful,

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
I mean he just overwhelmed everybody. I think
you know when you got to know Alan and I’m sure

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
that that helped him
enormously when he spoke

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
to the big record companies, radio. He
certainly didn’t go with his hotness hand

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
as we said him, he won’t beg, no.
He went there saying

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
\"Look this thing that I’m talking about,
this folk music I’m talking about

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
really should be known to the world, and
you should be proud to disseminate it.\"

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:15.000
[music]

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
While you’re in Greenwich
Village now where people come

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
to get away from America. It’s not jazz
that I hear anymore, its folk music.

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
Jazz is hot head and aging. The young
people have gone mad over Ballads

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
and Blues, guitar playing
and banjo binding.

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
We’re recording here tonight, we’re
having a party, so come on in.

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
Where did the Blues come from? Memphis says

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
from the Tsars of the
south and that’s true.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
But they also had a root in the
lonesome love songs of Great Britain

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
that lived on in the backwoods of the
south as Jean and her Jean Ritchie

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
and her dulcimer would explain.

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:23.000
[music]

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
I first met Alan Lomax in 1947 umm …when
I first, when I came to New York City

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
from Kentucky. He said sing
me a song so I sang him

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
an old ballad and he said,
\"Do you know anymore?\"

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
And I said \"A few more with the family
repertory.\" So he said, \"Well, I want to record

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
everything you know for
the Library of Congress.\"

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
[music]

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
He was very single-minded about music.

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
Almost everything that he did
or talked about had something

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
to do with music and he was always looking for
different kinds of music even in those days.

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
He had a big picture in his mind

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
of all the things he wanted to
get before he left the world.

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
And so he just …he was in a hurry. He knew
that he didn’t have time to do it all.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
And even when I first met him I could see that
this thing is the view of the big picture

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
started to form and he started telling me all
the things that he wanted to do in the world.

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
[sil.]

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:58.000
[music]

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
Pontevedra, Spain,

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
December 3rd 1952. Dear Elizabeth.
Here is a check

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
for December. I also send you a Christmas
check. Buy something pretty with it,

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
a dress or something that you
need and buy something for Anna,

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
something that I would buy for her.

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
You know I adored my father.

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
He is a very seductive person in a way.
He, you know,

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
he sort of seems to promise everything.
He’s all yours

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
but the thing about Alan was
that he wasn’t around a lot.

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
He was absent many times going
off on various missions.

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
And then in umm …1950
he sailed off to Europe

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
and I was really heartbroken. My mother
said that I made a huge fuss about it

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
and you know, it was
very difficult about it.

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
[music]

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
I cross over the mountains into
the Great Plains of Aragon.

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
This is the land of the Horta embraced by
the official fascist folklore revival.

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
However, one must admit
that despite the influence

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
of Italian opera, Horta of
Zaragoza is quite magnificent.

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
[music]

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
The singer is a wiry, tough
little man of about 40.

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
His voice never seems to tire.

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:50.000
[non-English narration]

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:08.000
[non-English narration]

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:48.000
[non-English narration]

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:40.000
[sil.]

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:25.000
[non-English narration]

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
I think by the time I was
eight or nine years old,

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
he told me that he had to make certain
choices in his life and very tough ones,

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
and one of them was that,
you know, he had to…

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
there was no one else around who could
…who would do what he was doing

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
and he felt that …that was his
first thing and that family life

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
had to come second. He didn’t mean that
he would abandon me but he meant that,

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
you know, he couldn’t have a settled
family life and he couldn’t offer stable

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
economic situation for anyone.

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
[music]

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
If I have not been writing
to you lately it’s because

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
I’ve been engrossed in this strange, beautiful,
exhausting and time-consuming profession of mine.

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
I don’t know why I’m doing this. I’ve
tossed away my two years of vacation

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
on a job others could have done as well.
Timidity and technical difficulties

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
still hold up my albums at Columbia.
It will require another two months

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
to get the first 10 out and another month to
get the BBC programs done. So, I’m hitching up

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
my britches and hoping
to manage to stand it.

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:48.000
[music]

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
See he …he had embarked on this serious,

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
this project of this, a little project as
I call it of recording the whole world.

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
He went to Spain and nobody
had done the recording

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
so he did it himself. He didn’t
…he …there was nobody there like

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
I had in England umm …so he did the
job himself, one wonderful job.

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:20.000
[sil.]

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:45.000
[sil.]

00:44:55.000 --> 00:45:00.000
[sil.]

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:33.000
[non-English narration]

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:40.000
[music]

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:55.000
[music]

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:13.000
[music]

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
[music]

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
Once the field recording habit takes
hold of you, it is hard to break.

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
One remembers those times when the
moment in the field recording situations

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
is just right. There arises
an intimacy close to love.

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
The performer gives you his strongest
feeling and if he is a folk singer,

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
this emotion can reveal the
character of his whole community.

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:33.000
[music]

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:53.000
[music]

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
Alan was able to

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
build an old almost …almost instant rapport
with people and I think they sensed

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
how he felt or I mean because he …he
was big bloke, big man, you know,

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
and he could have looked threatening but he
…he had such friendly manners and he had

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
a southern manners, you know, graceful
manners. I think people instantly

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
sort of recognized his sincerity
his …his love of them.

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
He just was …was with them
and often when he was there

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
and he …he …it was just the same
wherever we went and you know,

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
with white mountaineers he was …he
was able just to be part of the …

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
part of the family really.
You really adored him?

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
Well, I’m not …I’m not adoring him.
What I …well I did but I…

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
just watching this man at work
was a revelation. When I sang,

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
he always said \"Oh you’re wonderful.
Fantastic,\"

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
which is …not always constructive
to at least somebody like me

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
but collecting is the right thing
to do I think and Alan said that

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
he could …he could get music out of a stone
just by telling that stone it was wonderful.

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
(inaudible) was my partner and
he worked with Alan Lomax

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
a lot and said that he was the best
collector that he had ever seen

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
and one of his main features was that he
made the person he was collecting from

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:40.000
believe that they were the best in the
world, absolute best in the world.

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:50.000
[sil.]

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:35.000
[sil.]

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
[sil.]

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
Yes of course, you want good songs

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
but you are after the spirit
of the place and the person

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
because in all these songs, in all different fragments,
you know all the good songs and all the bad songs

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
what you have is…is the
history of the people.

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
You have it’s …it’s the memory of the people.
It’s how they feel about so many things.

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
It’s …it’s the wonder of the language
in the songs as well because the words

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
are quite extraordinary and it’s not written
down it’s …it’s been in somebody’s mind

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
and passed from mind to mind for centuries.
And that I just think it’s …

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
it’s just such a …such a miracle.

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:35.000
[sil.]

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:19.999
I was …would have described this

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
as obstetric which means
it’s like a baby being born

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
that you got to draw these old …perhaps they have
been thought about it for fifty years or more

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
and so you are drawing something
from out of their bodies

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
that they don’t even know that. It’s almost when you
finish this, they say \"Oho, I …I didn’t know I knew that,\"

00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
you know and the children of course,
say we never heard that before.

00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
And Alan was stressed yes, yes.

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:58.000
[music]

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
[sil.]

00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:18.000
That was a long time ago.

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:25.000
Everyone is looking at the
young girl in the street.

00:56:55.000 --> 00:57:00.000
[non-English narration]

00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:13.000
[non-English narration]

00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:33.000
[music]

00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:39.999
Canizo is the last village in Galicia
on the road from Orense to Cantabria.

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:44.999
I’ll never forget this miserable
little village which wandered vaguely

00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:49.999
over a gullied out hill like a
simple stone gourd vine. We recorded

00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:55.000
in the middle of the night in the bar.

00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:14.999
[non-English narration]

00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:20.000
[sil.]

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:30.000
[sil.]

00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:55.000
[music]

00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:05.000
[music]

00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:29.999
[non-English narration]

00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:35.000
[music]

00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:53.000
[non-English narration]

00:59:55.000 --> 01:00:03.000
[music]

01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:39.999
I will never forget this little village.

01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:44.999
The people were simply transformed
whenever the music began.

01:00:45.000 --> 01:00:49.999
When I left them at 3 a.m., they
were still dancing like sages.

01:00:50.000 --> 01:00:58.000
[music]

01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:19.999
Seven months of wine drenched adventures
had passed. It was time to leave Spain.

01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:24.999
I had 75 hours of tapes with
beautiful songs from every province

01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:29.999
and rising in my mind’s eye, a
map of Spanish folk song style.

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:34.999
[sil.]

01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:39.999
[music]

01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:44.999
(inaudible) spin it down.
(inaudible) go on? Yes.

01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:49.999
You’ll listen? Perhaps this music
seems far away, very far away

01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:54.999
from the Mississippi Valley.

01:01:55.000 --> 01:02:03.000
[music]

01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:19.999
I don’t know (inaudible).

01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:24.999
I don’t know quite whether to talk.
You don’t have to talk.

01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:29.999
That one (inaudible) two or three, five,
six or seven. Yeah. But there were many.

01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:34.999
I can …I cannot really understand what
you want to make … That’s what I can.

01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:43.000
[music]

01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:49.999
Well, he was very warm and affectionate

01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:54.999
on one hand but he was also
pretty much of a tyrant

01:02:55.000 --> 01:02:59.999
and very demanding. He
had kind of rigid ideas

01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:04.999
about what you should ought to do.
He had a big Calvinist

01:03:05.000 --> 01:03:09.999
streak in him, I think, Scotch Presbyterian. He
and his father, I mean, they were capable of

01:03:10.000 --> 01:03:14.999
suddenly breaking into this
thunderous, you know, lectures

01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:19.999
and ranting and criticizing.

01:03:20.000 --> 01:03:24.999
[sil.]

01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:29.999
Most people in England would have said he
was a very difficult person but he can’t …

01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:34.999
basically because he …he really turned
the place upside down, you know,

01:03:35.000 --> 01:03:39.999
rather like television people coming into your home and taking
pictures, you know, they turned the whole place upside down.

01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:44.999
He was intensely interested
in people stories.

01:03:45.000 --> 01:03:49.999
You could sit down and tell him something that
happened to you that day and he’d be there like this,

01:03:50.000 --> 01:03:54.999
you know. And then what did he
say and then what did she say

01:03:55.000 --> 01:03:59.999
and why did you do that. And then in
the middle of it, he was very rude,

01:04:00.000 --> 01:04:04.999
not in the middle of it when he got tired he’d say \"Okay
I am going to work now\" and you could be in the middle

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:09.999
spilling your guts out, your heart story and
he just gets up, \"I’m going to work now.\"

01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:14.999
He was always so busy, he
was driving himself so hard

01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:19.999
because he always felt there was so much
to be done and of course, he was right.

01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:24.999
The music? Well, the
music, I mean ever since

01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:29.999
the turn of the last century,

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.999
people have been aware that… that
traditional music is in danger of dying out

01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:39.999
because music is a big
business now and you get music

01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:44.999
pumped at you from radios and televisions
and this is big music industry that

01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:49.999
is just damping down on
…on other forms of music.

01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:54.999
[music]

01:04:55.000 --> 01:04:59.999
Most Italians however, it seems unfamiliar
and even un-Italian. You must listen again

01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:04.999
and hear the docker who thrums guitar noises
out of his throat, the tram conductor soprano

01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:09.999
with his florist southern arabesques of melody,
the Tuscan operatic bravura of the (inaudible)

01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:14.999
and the incredible Sardinian bases.
Listen to this

01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:19.999
and realize that (inaudible) is the
musical sum of Italian folk song.

01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:28.000
[music]

01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:09.999
Our journey through Sicily
which will choir wagon

01:06:10.000 --> 01:06:14.999
to the accompaniment of Jew’s harp, the typical Sicilian
instrument, we come into the sulfur-mining country,

01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:19.999
Italy’s richest mineral area.
The miners were 1500 feet down

01:06:20.000 --> 01:06:24.999
stripped almost naked in the insufferable
heat. Many of them and children

01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:29.999
were sold into the mines for a few pounds.
One of the miners,

01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:34.999
an old man with a ragged face, takes
the Jew’s harp between his teeth

01:06:35.000 --> 01:06:40.000
began the song as wide, high and
lonely as the Sicilian sky.

01:07:40.000 --> 01:07:45.000
[music]

01:08:25.000 --> 01:08:30.000
[music]

01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:33.000
[music]

01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:54.999
High on the cliffs of (inaudible)

01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:59.999
overlooking the transparent sea (inaudible)
sailed a fisherman’s lookouts scans the water

01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.999
for the blue grey shadow of a swordfish.
And when he (inaudible) one

01:10:05.000 --> 01:10:09.999
he calls to his (inaudible) on the sword
fishing boat in a (inaudible) classical Greek.

01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:14.999
His voice floating across the narrow
blue sea channel to corrupt this.

01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:23.000
[sil.]

01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:53.000
[sil.]

01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:43.000
[sil.]

01:11:50.000 --> 01:11:58.000
[non-English narration]

01:12:00.000 --> 01:12:08.000
[music]

01:13:00.000 --> 01:13:05.000
[sil.]

01:13:45.000 --> 01:13:53.000
[music]

01:14:20.000 --> 01:14:24.999
The voice of a shepherd soaring high
and wide over the sweet baritone

01:14:25.000 --> 01:14:29.999
of his bagpipe, this today is
still the voice of Calabria,

01:14:30.000 --> 01:14:34.999
the peninsula that makes the toe of the Italian
boot, an ancient land whose dark mountain forests

01:14:35.000 --> 01:14:39.999
and gray eroded hills hold more
mysteries than any other part of Italy.

01:14:40.000 --> 01:14:48.000
[music]

01:15:15.000 --> 01:15:23.000
[sil.]

01:15:25.000 --> 01:15:33.000
[music]

01:16:20.000 --> 01:16:28.000
[music]

01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:34.999
I think what (inaudible) from hearing music

01:16:35.000 --> 01:16:39.999
from the (inaudible), you know, that
he heard music that was of a different

01:16:40.000 --> 01:16:44.999
source than British music, I think
it must have just sort of gone

01:16:45.000 --> 01:16:49.999
into his mind and he … because
ultimately he would start thinking

01:16:50.000 --> 01:16:54.999
and same with Italian
music and Spanish music

01:16:55.000 --> 01:16:59.999
he realized that there was more to this
music than European or American music

01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:04.999
that it was world music. I don’t think he
realized how important it was going to be

01:17:05.000 --> 01:17:09.999
but when he had got these recordings not
only the ones he made but other recordings

01:17:10.000 --> 01:17:14.999
coming from Russia, for example,
and he was then able to listen

01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:19.999
and to decide how climate affects
people, how the heights of the

01:17:20.000 --> 01:17:24.999
mountains or whether they are down in the
bottom affects people, all these things

01:17:25.000 --> 01:17:29.999
uh… he could then start to
make a map which was not based

01:17:30.000 --> 01:17:34.999
on Geography but it was based
on how the voice … very often

01:17:35.000 --> 01:17:39.999
how the voice is constrained and the
very first time he… he had the idea

01:17:40.000 --> 01:17:44.999
about this after he’d been doing a number of
records, he came and gave a lecture in London

01:17:45.000 --> 01:17:49.999
which was entirely based on the
idea that the music varies

01:17:50.000 --> 01:17:54.999
throughout the world according
to sexual restraint

01:17:55.000 --> 01:17:59.999
and how much freedom there was in sex in
each country, I mean this was electrifying.

01:18:00.000 --> 01:18:04.999
For instance, in Spain, I map
Spain, I zig-zagged back and forth

01:18:05.000 --> 01:18:09.999
across it and I listened to the people in
Southern Spain and they are all singing this

01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:14.999
kind of voice but that was true
not only in the love songs,

01:18:15.000 --> 01:18:19.999
it was in the funeral (inaudible), it was
in the lullabies and it was in everything

01:18:20.000 --> 01:18:24.999
and then as you moved further north, the
voice that opened up and was the best

01:18:25.000 --> 01:18:29.999
(inaudible) worldwide
and open and I realized

01:18:30.000 --> 01:18:34.999
that in the south, the girls and… girls
were walked away and almost (inaudible)

01:18:35.000 --> 01:18:39.999
and up north, the young men and the women were
walking out in the meadows in the evening

01:18:40.000 --> 01:18:44.999
and they are courting freely without any
censorship and I said, hey maybe that is

01:18:45.000 --> 01:18:49.999
why the voice tenses up.

01:18:50.000 --> 01:18:54.999
Probably my most upsetting
experience with him was when he was

01:18:55.000 --> 01:18:59.999
showing his work uh… with (inaudible)
to the American Folklore Society

01:19:00.000 --> 01:19:04.999
in Philadelphia. He gave this impassionate

01:19:05.000 --> 01:19:09.999
talk about the connection between the way you
work, your gender relations and the way you sing

01:19:10.000 --> 01:19:14.999
and they tore him to ribbons
because he hadn’t done

01:19:15.000 --> 01:19:19.999
all of his homework and because he made
some very sweeping generalizations

01:19:20.000 --> 01:19:24.999
that you could find exceptions
to and he was devastated,

01:19:25.000 --> 01:19:29.999
absolutely devastated because this was where he wanted
to be, to validate his work in front of the experts.

01:19:30.000 --> 01:19:34.999
[sil.]

01:19:35.000 --> 01:19:39.999
Usually scientist scuff

01:19:40.000 --> 01:19:44.999
at social scientist and say you are
not scientist, you just have opinions

01:19:45.000 --> 01:19:49.999
but to be a scientist you must use numbers.
So, we got an IVM card,

01:19:50.000 --> 01:19:54.999
in those days they used piece of
paper with 37 different categories.

01:19:55.000 --> 01:19:59.999
[music]

01:20:00.000 --> 01:20:04.999
Is the song loud or soft,
is it on high or low,

01:20:05.000 --> 01:20:09.999
is it long or short, does
it have a lot of repetition

01:20:10.000 --> 01:20:14.999
or no repetition. Is it sung
with a nasal tone of voice

01:20:15.000 --> 01:20:19.999
or sung with a throaty
tone of voice and he would

01:20:20.000 --> 01:20:24.999
put a little dot on this IVM
card from 1 to 10 and when he

01:20:25.000 --> 01:20:29.999
had categorized 36 letters, he drew
a line between them and called

01:20:30.000 --> 01:20:34.999
this is a profile of that style of music.

01:20:35.000 --> 01:20:43.000
[music]

01:20:50.000 --> 01:20:54.999
I can’t comprehend how
anyone would try to… to map

01:20:55.000 --> 01:20:59.999
world music, you know, with all
these different categories in it

01:21:00.000 --> 01:21:04.999
when you realize there are so many thousands
of types of folk music in the world

01:21:05.000 --> 01:21:09.999
but that didn’t deter him.
Why did he do it?

01:21:10.000 --> 01:21:14.999
He was driven, he loved, I think he just

01:21:15.000 --> 01:21:19.999
loved this music so much and I think he
wanted to understand it perfectly himself.

01:21:20.000 --> 01:21:24.999
I asked my nephew who is
an Ethnomusicologist,

01:21:25.000 --> 01:21:29.999
who worked at Smithsonian
many years, why is it that

01:21:30.000 --> 01:21:34.999
not everybody agreed with Alan
and he said, well he makes

01:21:35.000 --> 01:21:39.999
uh… leaps of intuition
which he can’t prove.

01:21:40.000 --> 01:21:44.999
Oh I said, I trust Alan’s intuition
more than somebody else’s proof of him

01:21:45.000 --> 01:21:49.999
because he did have a great intuition.

01:21:50.000 --> 01:21:58.000
[sil.]

01:22:00.000 --> 01:22:04.999
Early 90s Alan was really rolling
along at a very fast and furious pace

01:22:05.000 --> 01:22:09.999
getting into his late 70s at
that point, he wanted to finish

01:22:10.000 --> 01:22:14.999
all of his work before
he could no longer work.

01:22:15.000 --> 01:22:19.999
Just at the beginning of September 95,

01:22:20.000 --> 01:22:24.999
he finally decided

01:22:25.000 --> 01:22:29.999
after seven years of negotiation to sign
this contract with Rhonda Records to produce

01:22:30.000 --> 01:22:34.999
a 100 CDs of his recordings.
About three days later,

01:22:35.000 --> 01:22:39.999
I got a call down here saying that

01:22:40.000 --> 01:22:44.999
he was in the hospital and he’d
had a terrible brain hemorrhage.

01:22:45.000 --> 01:22:49.999
[sil.]

01:22:50.000 --> 01:22:54.999
He was totally demoralized
and he was crying

01:22:55.000 --> 01:22:59.999
all the time but at the same time he
was tremendously disturbed, you know,

01:23:00.000 --> 01:23:04.999
he was like … almost like a
wild beast, he was so upset,

01:23:05.000 --> 01:23:09.999
he was aware that he was
incapacitated and that,

01:23:10.000 --> 01:23:14.999
you know, that he’d been checkmated
as it were, you know, by life.

01:23:15.000 --> 01:23:23.000
[sil.]

01:23:55.000 --> 01:24:03.000
[music]

01:24:45.000 --> 01:24:49.999
I think our job is to represent all
the submerged cultures in the world.

01:24:50.000 --> 01:24:54.999
I mean you and your CBS and… and all
the big amusement industries represent

01:24:55.000 --> 01:24:59.999
a way of silencing everybody, you know,
communication was supposed to be two ways

01:25:00.000 --> 01:25:04.999
but it’s turned out to be basically one
way. From those people who can afford

01:25:05.000 --> 01:25:09.999
to own a transmitter which
costs a few million dollars

01:25:10.000 --> 01:25:14.999
to this little guy who can afford to
own a receiver that cost a few bucks.

01:25:15.000 --> 01:25:19.999
So there are millions of receivers and people at the
other end and only a few transmitters and I think

01:25:20.000 --> 01:25:24.999
that is one of the major, if not
the major human problem now

01:25:25.000 --> 01:25:29.999
because everybody is off the air.

01:25:30.000 --> 01:25:38.000
[non-English narration]

01:25:45.000 --> 01:25:49.999
I think the most important thing that anybody can
do is to try to restore the balance. I call this

01:25:50.000 --> 01:25:54.999
cultural equity, the slogan is
everybody with a … every culture with

01:25:55.000 --> 01:25:59.999
its equal time on the air
and in the classroom.

01:26:00.000 --> 01:26:04.999
Cultural equity should join all the
other important principles of human

01:26:05.000 --> 01:26:09.999
uh… dignity, freedom of speech,

01:26:10.000 --> 01:26:14.999
freedom of movement, freedom to
work and live and enjoy yourself

01:26:15.000 --> 01:26:19.999
and freedom for your culture to express
itself because that’s all we’ve got you know,

01:26:20.000 --> 01:26:24.999
we are just culture.

01:26:25.000 --> 01:26:33.000
[music]

01:26:45.000 --> 01:26:53.000
[music]

01:27:15.000 --> 01:27:19.999
Yeah that’s the song,
yeah that is the song.

01:27:20.000 --> 01:27:28.000
[music]

01:28:05.000 --> 01:28:10.000
[sil.]

01:29:55.000 --> 01:30:03.000
[music]

01:32:15.000 --> 01:32:23.000
[sil.]