Ralph McTell is the leading singer songwriter of his generation and has built up a formidable catalogue of songs and poems. His reputation is for carefully constructed songs with sensitive lyrics and exquisite melodies. In this book, Michael Grenfell explores the way biography features in Ralph’s work: his own background in London, those who surrounded him and his personal life experiences, his contemporaries, and artistic influences. It also considers various characters Ralph invented for his songs – Michael in the Garden, Dancing Doreen, Clown, and many others – as a way of getting his message across.
The chapters are based around Ralph’s work and personal life story, and include extensive extracts from interviews the author conducted with him. There is also extended coverage of Ralph’s attachment to the poets Dylan Thomas and Sylvia Plath, as well as the influence of the Blues on his musicianship. The discussion is set within the story of the times in which Ralph grew up and the music field which shaped him. There are also interludes that explore the nature of artistic creativity from socio-cultural, psychological and ‘spiritual’ perspectives as a way of uncovering the artistic processes of discovery.
What emerges is a highly engaging account, which ends up examining the impact of music and the arts on their audience, and indeed the nature of biography itself.
A fascinating and truly original book about a unique and influential musician.
With two editions now sold out, this new eBook comes fully revised, and with an additional Foreword and Post-script in which the author gives further insights into what the book tells us about Ralph, his work, and the nature of artists’ biographies in relation to their audience.
‘It has been a revealing and emotional experience working with Mike Grenfell on this book. His scholarly interpretations and evaluations of my songs are most gratifying and I have been moved very much by what he has written. His perceptiveness and conclusions are truly illuminating to me.’ Ralph McTell 2016 Second Edition
