I thnk what really upset some people was that I suggested that the present situation where the term 'folkmusic' has been appropriated, annexed and claimed as the sole property of the people performing the stuff in Cecil Sharp House Library was not only suppressing the music of 'real' folk musicians - but actually it was harming  and in some cases causing the premature deaths of them.

 

To me it was obvious  - I was only speaking of the way I had seen musicians forced out of the English folk clubs by a vociferous minority and a middle class self interested media.

 

Quite out of the blue, I happened to be reading Bix Beiderbecke's biography at the same time.  When I read about how his particular genius (which needed to be in a small jazz ensemble rather than the fashionable huge jazz orchestras of the day - full of people who could sight read music, but had none of Beiderbecke's genius) had been sidelined by the people of 'taste'.  I realised I was not writing about a peculiarly English situation.

 

This is ongoing.  We have to turf out the self appointed 'clever clogs'  types and get some reality back into the situation. We must cherish what is of value - and tell the conservertoires of clever dicks and parliaments of prats - we are the folk - we make the rules of common usage of language - not them.

 

I don't suppose we ever will.  But you know the way Beiderbecke worked out a whole new way of fingering in order to play exactly as he wanted to - that rejection of accepting what some asshole says is the correct way - that makes him a folk musician in my book.