JOHN BARLEYCORN MUST DIE

I was searching for a source of inspiration to aid my imaginations journey into the past when I recalled a song 'Hole in my shoe' by Traffic who also produced an album with the same title as this piece.

I have always disliked labels especially unsuitable ones blithely bestowed by some media moron. The one I'm thinking of is 'Progressive Rock' because frankly its a load of bollockss. Bands like Traffic simply had a better musical knowledge than the run of the mill pop singers. Their sound was different and refreshing because it broke the cliche ridden mould of 'She loves you' etc.

Some of the so called prog rock bands were pretentious wankers, there's no getting around that but I won't name any names Gawd 'ELP me for my tact! There were some great sounds came out of the early 60's, records that really made an impact even if you never would have bought the album yourself, King Crimson comes to mind and I'd only ever buy a YES album for the cover art!

So having just played John Barleycorn for my wife's benefit, I had been trying to educate her about real folk music and its history. Then I remembered those BBC Home Service 2pm programs for schools when they played such like songs and explained about their origin. Some of the ones I still recall are as much historical record as music. Ballads in particular.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Patrick_Spens

https://allpoetry.com/Inchcape-Rock

This memory jogging brought back two more to mind:-