Alan Lomax

by John Szwed

  255 In January, 1951, Robin and Alan loaded up an old Citroën: Nicholas Carolan, unpublished notes for forthcoming CDs of Alan Lomax’s Irish recordings.

  255 “He was perfectly dressed”: Notes to World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: Ireland, Rounder CD, unpaginated.

  256 Later, there were those who complained: Robin Roberts interviewed by John Szwed, New York, 2006.

  257 When they returned to London: Broadcasts on Third Programme, August 15, 20, and 30, 1951. For my discussion of Lomax’s time in London, I am indebted to the hard work and fine research of E. David Gregory in “Alan Lomax: The European Years, 1950-58, B.C. Folklore , no. 16 (February 2002): 9-35, and especially for his “Lomax in London: Alan Lomax, the BBC, and the Folk Song Revival in England,” Folk Music Journal 8, no. 2 (December 2002): 136-69.

  257 But it was in the second series of programs that Alan found his voice: Broadcasts on Third Programme, October 3 and 31 and November 28, 1951.

  257 “Up Above My Head”: “The Art of the Negro: Trumpets of the Lord,” BBC script, 1, AL.

  257 To those who thought folk song was on the way out: Ibid., 2.

  258 “Who knows but that some future Librarian of Congress”: Ewen MacColl to Alan Lomax, November 7, 1951, AL.

  258 “He was at the microphone singing ‘Barbara Allen’ ”: Nat Hentoff, “Profile: Alan Lomax,” 75.

  259 But they had little success with practical people: Ewan MacColl, Journeyman (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1990), 272.

  259 Pickow had brought along a spring-driven Bolex camera: John Bishop, notes to ’Oss, ’Oss, Wee ’Oss, included on the DVD OssTales. (Portland, OR: MediaGeneration, 2007).

  261 “Ever since I left home”: Alan Lomax to Woody Guthrie, December 5, 1952, AL.

  261 “I know it’s worth it”: Alan Lomax, field notebook, March 1951, AL.

  262 “the vigor and charm of these living English folk songs”: Alan Lomax, England, Rounder 1741.

  263 Robin and he continued what were now long discussions: Alan Lomax, field notebook, May 1951, AL.

  263 “The conversation was extremely important”: Alan Lomax, field notebook, March 1950, AL.

  264 “I felt suddenly at the roots”: Nat Hentoff, “Profile: Alan Lomax,” 76.

  264 This was the closest he had come to hearing: Gaelic Songs of Scotland: Women at Work in the Western Isles, Rounder 1785.

  265 The faculty was suitably impressed: Alec Finlay, ed., The Armstrong Nose: Selected Letters of Hamish Henderson (Edinburgh: Polygon Press, 1996), 59.

  265 And it was the BBC who had supported him: Lomax continued to record some of the singers and get their autobiographies on tape as late as 1953 and 1957. See the World Library of Folk and Primitive Music, vol. 3: Scotland, Rounder 1743; 1951 Edinburgh People’s Festival Ceilidh, Rounder 1786; Portrait of Jeannie Robertson, Rounder 1720; Portrait of Davie Stewart, Rounder 1833; Portrait of Jimmy MacBeath: Tramps and Hawkers, Rounder 1834; Portrait of John Strachan: Songs from Aberdeen, Rounder 1835; and Two Gentlemen of the Road: Jimmy MacBeath & Davie Stewart, Rounder 1793.

  265 “As you know, however”: Alan Lomax to John A. Lomax, September 15, 1951, AL.

  266 “He brought to the task a ruthless readiness to do things”: Nat Hentoff, “Profile: Alan Lomax,” 77.

  266 Once they saw the result of Lomax’s collecting: Paul Strand and Basil Davidson, Tir a’Mhurain: Outer Hebrides (London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1962). See Fraser MacDonald, “Paul Strand and the Atlanticist Cold War,” History of Photography 28, no. 4 (Winter 2004): 357-74, esp. 369.

  267 From then on, his activities in Britain were noted in a file: National Archives, catalog reference KV/2/2701, available from the Library of Congress.

  Chapter 12: The Grand Tour

  268 The FBI was beginning to cover the same ground at home again: Alan Lomax FBI files, October 13, 1952, and October 22, 1952.

  269 He spoke of his fondness for the French: Unissued recordings of Big Bill Broonzy recorded by Alan Lomax, Paris, May 13, 1952, http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/audio-ixrecording.jsp. ?d-446288-p=2.

  270 A Romanian musicologist friend, Constantine Brailoiu: Lomax misremembered this trip date as beginning in 1953 in his “Saga of a Folksong Hunter,” 181.

  270 So the Citroën was loaded up with recording equipment: Martin Mayer, “Recordings,” Esquire, October 1959, 42-43.

  270 “Drove from Port Bou to Barcelona”: Alan Lomax, Mallorca notebook, AL.

  270 “At that time, I did not know”: Alan Lomax, “Saga of a Folksong Hunter,” 181.

  271 “This is a great country”: Alan Lomax, Mallorca notebook, AL.

  271 “For a month or so, I wandered erratically”: Alan Lomax, “Saga of a Folksong Hunter,” 181.

  272 “Only a few sheep manage to live here”: Alan Lomax, Mallorca notebook, AL. I am also indebted here to Antoni Pizâ, “A Passionate Visual Curiosity: Alan Lomax’s Leica in Mallorca, Ibiza, and Formentera,” in Alan Lomax: Mirades, Miradas Glances, ed. Antoni Pizâ (Barcelona and Madrid: Lunwerg Editores, 2006), 134-42.

  272 “No matter in what God-forsaken, unlikely spot”: Alan Lomax, “Saga of a Folksong Hunter,” 182.

  273 Efforts were under way to eliminate non-Spanish languages: See Judith R. Cohen’s essay “The Spanish Recordings,” in the notes to all of Rounder Records’ Spanish recordings on CD.

  273 Most of all, the police were interested in Lomax: U.S. embassy records, October 30, 1952, quoted in the Alan Lomax files of the Metropolitan Police (British) National Archives.

  273 Things became even more complicated: Alan Lomax FBI files, July 2, 1953.

  273 The police in Madrid went through the mail: U.S. embassy records, October 30, 1952.

  273 “The Spanish musical landscape is divided into three parts”: Alan Lomax, quoted in Martin Mayer, “Recordings.”

  274 “The folk songs of rural Europe and America are linked”: Antoni Pizâ, “A Passionate Visual Curiosity.”

  274 “Recording folk songs works like a candid cameraman”: Martin Mayer, “Recordings.”

  274 A hundred hours of tape were recorded: Judith Cohen, “Spain: Lomax Remembered,” Canadian Folk Music 36, no. 4 (Winter 2002): 22.

  275 This music was largely unknown outside of Spain: “Alborda de Vigo” was retitled as “Toques de Chifro” in The Spanish Recordings: Galicia, Rounder 1761, in 2001.

  275 “Los Mayos . . . sung by a group of 6 ten year old boys”: Manuscript sent to “Mr. Frank,” Music Division, Oxford University Press, n.d., AL.

  275 “[We had been told that] it was absolutely essential”: Alan Lomax, Galician notebooks, n.d., AL

  276 Just before Christmas 1952, Alan wrote Elizabeth: Alan Lomax to Elizabeth Harold, December 3, 1952, AL.

  276 “At the front of the town there is a little harbor”: Alan Lomax to Woody Guthrie, December 5, 1952, AL.

  276 “I live in a tiny room”: Alan Lomax to Elizabeth Harold, unsent, ca. 1953, AL.

  277 “would discover Italy”: Alan Lomax, “Ascoltate, le colline cantano!” (“Listen, the Hills are Singing!”), Santa Cecilia, anno V, no. 4 (1956): 84-85, quoted in Goffredo Plastino, “Un sentimento antico,” in Alan Lomax L’anno più felice della mia vita Un viaggio in Italia 1954-1955, ed. Goffredo Plastino (Milano: il Saggiatore, 2008), 3. For help with understanding the Lomax Italian project, I am indebted to Goffredo Plastino, both for his advice and for his excellent book Alan Lomax L’anno più felice della mia vita Un viaggio in Italia 1954-1955, which also includes Anna Lomax Wood’s memoir, “Il doppio solittario” (“Double Solitaire”), 8-15. I also thank Sara Villa and Luca Formenton for their help and kindness in translating this book.

  277 “I was on the edge of nothing”: Alan Lomax, unpublished and partly finished book on the Spanish journey, AL.

  278 True enough, the folksingers turned out not to be problems: Peter Kennedy, Notes to Folk Songs of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales CDs, Rounder 11661-1775-2, 11661-1776-2, and 11661-1778-2, 2000.

 
278 And just getting Ewan on the show was a problem: Peter Cox, Set into Song: Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker, Peggy Seeger and the Radio Ballads (Cambridge, UK: Labatie Books, 2008), 45.

  278 “In due course,” Attenborough recalled: David Attenborough, Life on Air: Memories of a Broadcaster (London: BBC, 2002), 28.

  278 Alan was so annoyed by this staging: Ibid., 30.

  279 The director and camera operators were forced to follow them: Nat Hentoff, “Profile: Alan Lomax—Surprising the Folk Song,” January 18, 1969, 81, unpublished, The New Yorker Records, c. 1924-1984, New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division, Box 1506, folders 7-8.

  279 “Unlike several of the other collections I’d received”: Ibid., 80-81.

  279 The albums all received positive reviews: Howard LaFay, “To Fourteen Corners of the World with Alan Lomax,” High Fidelity, March 1955.

  280 It would begin with ex-slave reminiscences: Alan Lomax to Lewis Jones, February 10, 1954, AL.

  280 He wrote his brother, John Jr.: Alan Lomax to John Lomax Jr., n.d., AL.

  280 The surveillance of Alan’s life was expanding rapidly: Alan Lomax FBI files, May 5, 1954.

  280 The American embassy asked him to sign a statement: Alan Lomax FBI files, September 2, 1953.

  280 He sometimes brought Margaret Barry along: Theo Bikel, Theo: The Autobiography of Theodore Bikel (New York: HarperCollins, 1964), 83-90.

  280 The London police had begun to monitor his radio programs: Metropolitan Police report, July 3, 1954 (British) National Archives.

  280 The conditions for his employment were changed: Ibid.

  281 “a 20th century museum”: Tradition Records notes, quoted by Nat Hentoff, “Profile: Alan Lomax,” 82.

  281 “a Mediterranean tense-voiced South”: Alan Lomax, notes for untitled, undated talk in Italy, AL.

  282 “In the mountains above San Remo”: Alan Lomax, “Saga of a Folksong Hunter,” 183.

  283 Being a foreigner might even be an advantage: Goffredo Plastino, Alan Lomax, 36.

  283 “He told me that he didn’t personally care”: Alan Lomax to “Dear Family,” n.d., ca. November 1954, AL.

  284 “Neither the gaiety of Neapolitan song nor the tarantella”: Alan Lomax, script for “Italy: Puglia to Genoa,” part of “Memories of a Ballad Hunter,” February 5, 1957, quoted in E. David Gregory, “Alan Lomax: The European Years, 1950-58,” B.C. Folklore, no 16 (February 2002): 21-22.

  285 In the town of Caggiano: Nat Hentoff, “Profile: Alan Lomax,” 82-84.

  285 To encounter cultures that required a two-thousand-year perspective: Alan Lomax, “Italy: Puglia to Genoa,” 21.

  285 “The regions or localities which did not conform”: Ibid.

  285 “Music for most people”: Alan Lomax to “Dear Family,” n.d., ca. November 1954, AL.

  287 But when his Roman friends finally understood: Alan Lomax, notes for untitled, undated talk in Italy, AL

  287 “Soon that same music would appear on film”: Later Alan found himself losing control over the work he had done in Italy. He discovered that Diego had sold the rights to Alan’s Sicilian tapes to be used as the music for the second half of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1971 film, II Decameron, though Alan would receive no credit or money and Ennio Morricone would be listed as the music consultant. It caused a rift between them, but such was their relationship that Alan quickly forgave him. There was also trouble later, after the death of Diego, when the professorial committee that directed the ethnic music archive of the Accademia Santa Cecilia urged the Accademia to sue Alan and Rounder Records for using the recordings Alan and Diego had made.

  287 Anne accompanied Elizabeth and Herbert to Spain: Elizabeth Lyttleton and Herbert Sturz, Reapers of the Storm (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1958).

  289 The play only ran for a week: Script and handbill; review in the Times of London, December 28, 1955, 5, AL.

  289 The children’s script’s success: Alan Lomax, Harriet and Her Harmonium (London: Faber and Faber, 1955).

  Chapter 13: Skiffle: From Folk to Pop

  291 “the melting pot of the American frontier”: Alan Lomax, “Skiffle: Why Is It So Popular?” Melody Maker, August 31, 1957, 3.

  291 “learn too much”: Alan Lomax, “Skiffle: Where Is It Going?” Melody Maker, September 1957, 5.

  292 All were collected in a songbook: Published by Chappell & Co. in 1957, and republished in 1963 as The Folk Song Album.

  292 “a folksinger could not claim to be an interpretive performer”: Col. Bouvé to V. W. Clapp, June 18, 1942, LC.

  292 When Alan heard the colonel’s interpretation of the law: One of two memos from Lomax responding to Ben Botkin on this matter is missing from the Library of Congress, though the second memo concerning releases exists. But both Lomax memos are summarized in another memo from Harold Spivake to V. W. Clapp, LC.

  292 “In certain cultures, you have to pay”: Nat Hentoff, “Profile: Alan Lomax—Surprising the Folk Song,” January 18, 1969, 83-84, unpublished, The New Yorker Records, c. 1924-1984, New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division, Box 1506, folders 7-8.

  293 Neither he nor his father had ever copyrighted individual songs: Harold Spivacke, “Copyright,” in “Conference on Character and State of Studies in Folklore,” Journal of American Folklore 59, no. 34 (October-December 1946): 324-30.

  293 When Alan received his share of the royalties: It may have indeed been “unearned” by all parties involved, since the Weavers’ version of the song was different from Lead Belly’s.

  293 The $3,000 he received: As he wrote the IRS from England in 1951, “You can see by my bank statements that I have already spent the entire sum in getting the project going.” Alan Lomax to “Mr. Income Tax Man,” ca. spring 1951, AL.

  293 Nevertheless, he thought the huge success of “Irene” was a pop culture anomaly: My thanks to Don Fleming for guiding me through the thickets of copyright.

  293 This was a song he and his father had recorded with Lead Belly: It’s more likely that he knew about Donegan’s use of these recordings earlier than this: “Rock Island Line” had been recorded by Donegan a year earlier, a song that Lead Belly had learned from inmate Kelly Pace in the Arkansas State Penitentiary in 1934.

  294 It was no surprise: Alan Lomax to Kelly Pace, January 14, 1958; Kelly Pace to Alan Lomax, March 23, 1958, and April 22, 1958, AL.

  294 “When I looked into the story back of this piece of outright knavery”: Alan Lomax, “On the Subject of Copyrights,” ca. 1960, unpaginated, unpublished article, AL.

  294 A dismayed Alan was persuaded: Alan Lomax to Denton, Hall & Burgen, April 17, 1956; L. Kirby of Denton, Hall & Burgen to Alan Lomax, April 18, 1956, AL. The Lead Belly songs continued to be a copyright problem for years. When planning for Gordon Parks’s Leadbelly film was beginning in the mid-1970s, Alan learned that the same publishing company with which he had been working had discovered that he had let the copyright to the Lead Belly book expire without renewing it, and they had copyrighted the book in the name of Lead Belly’s deceased widow as their coauthor without informing Alan. Paramount, the film’s producers, then made a deal with the music publisher and Lead Belly’s heir for film rights to the book. Alan only became aware of this when Paramount gave him a fee to see if the script contained anything offensive in the characterization of his father and himself. When he retained a lawyer to help him regain his rights, he was informed that since he had not renewed the copyright and had accepted money from the film’s producers he was in no position to sue. Finally he was given a small screen credit and a “minuscule” percent of the film’s royalties.

  294 Alan once sketched out an article: Alan Lomax, “On the Subject of Copyrights,” undated manuscript, ca. 1950-51, AL.

  295 Charles Seeger, for example: Charles Seeger, “Who Owns Folklore—A Rejoinder,” Western Folklore 21, no. 2 (April 1962): 98.

  296 On the other hand, Seeger also said: Ibid., 97.

  296 “the only person who could step into Oxfor
d Street”: Nat Hentoff, “Profile: Alan Lomax,” 66.

  296 His BBC friend Bridson said: Ibid., 88.

  297 “I lost weight, grew a beard, grew up somewhat”: Alan Lomax to John Faulk, November 13, 1955, AL.

  297 Once it was approved, Elizabeth and Herbert Sturz moved into Alan’s flat: Elizabeth Lomax to Alan Lomax, March 4, 1956, and March 19, 1956, AL.

  297 She had been brought to London to live with her father: Anna Lomax Wood interviewed by John Szwed, 2009.

  297 “His enthusiasm and initiative had spread”: Nat Hentoff, “Profile: Alan Lomax,” 87-88. Alan also wrote with Peggy’s help American Folk Guitar, an instruction book on playing guitar. It was published by Robbins in London in 1957.

  298 When Alan’s article on the concept of song style and song families: “Nuova ipotesi sul canto folkloristico italiano,” Nuovi Argomenti 17/18 (November/February 1955-56): 109-35.

  298 “First of all, by using the musical style as a diagnostic instrument”: Alan Lomax, “The Psychological Patterns of Folk Songs,” proposal for a grant from the University of London, 1957, AL.

  299 “The purpose of this study is to establish the psychological and physiological bases of song”: Ibid.

  300 “the first mapping of the musical styles of mankind”: Alan Lomax, “The Psychological Patterns of Folk Songs.”

  300 Margaret Mead addressed his problem bluntly: Nat Hentoff, “Profile: Alan Lomax,” 92.

  300 Alan was hurt, and wrote Seeger defending his work: Alan Lomax to Charles Seeger, May 3, 1956, AL.

  300 This time Hoover was looking for additional assistance: Alan Lomax FBI files, May 11, 1956, May 15, 1956, August 6, 1956.

  301 Yet even he was unable to provide evidence: Alan Lomax FBI files, June 6, 1956.

  301 Seven months and a hundred pages of documentation later: Alan Lomax FBI files, December 13, 1956.

  301 She approved, and suggested that they could work on a few other songs: Zora Neale Hurston to Alan Lomax, February 4, 1957, AL.

  302 Rossellini seemed doubtful: Alan Lomax to del Papa, January 9, 1957, AL.

  302 When the programs were broadcast: E. David Gregory, “Lomax in London,” Folk Music Journal 8, no. 2 (2002): 154-55.