by Robert Wilkinson
Today is the birthday of one of the UK’s most beloved folk singer-songwriters, the great Ralph McTell. He wrote one of the most covered songs in folk history, and is still going strong! Contemplate the beauty of this tune.....
Ralph McTell (3 December 1944) has been around since the 60s and is still going strong! Here’s his most famous song, covered countless times by countless musicians!
A pretty good video using stills and solo acoustic footage of Ralph, as well as an interview exploring how he came to call the song “Streets of London” rather than “Streets of Paris.” “Streets of London”
Here’s the studio version of “Streets of London”
From 1975, Ralph in an acoustic live performance of “Streets Of London”
Here’s his “second most famous song,” the great “From Clare to Here”
This is a great live performance on the Irish tv Late Late Show with the RTE Concert Orchestra of “From Clare to Here”
From 1973, here’s a great live acoustic performance of a tune from the album Albert and Sydney, “Zimmerman Blues”
A live acoustic performance of “The Setting”
From 2000 at Bristol, Ralph live doing “When Maddy Dances”
From 2002 in Bristol, Ralph doing “Candyman”
From Kitchen Songs, Ralph in a solo acoustic performance of “After Rain”
From the DVD, "Live from the Royal Festival Hall" in 2004 with guest Wizz Jones, “San Francisco Bay Blues” and “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos, the latter written by Woody Guthrie.
From the same show, Ralph performing “Slow Burning Companion,” “Earls Court Breakdown,” and “Mrs Adlam`s Angels”
Here’s an audio-only live version of his haunting “Jesus Wept”
We’ll close today with a great 45 minute clip from 1975 of Bert Jansch, Ralph McTell, Stefan Grossman, and Jan Akkerman, on a show called "Fire Guitarrer" (Four Guitars) originally broadcast on DR2-TV Denmark.
"Lady Nothing," "Moonshine" "In the Bleak Midwinter," and "Come Back Baby" and more
For our encore, from Dublin in 2016, here’s Ralph still singing strong! This is 17 minutes of Ralph at the Templebar Tradfest – Dublin 2016
We’ll close with a solo performance also from 2016! Here’s Ralph on keyboard giving us the poignant “England”
For more about this gear fab Sag, please visit Ralph McTell official website
Thanks for the tunes, Ralph, and may you have many more years to sing them!
© Copyright 2022 Robert Wilkinson
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