Editing Ewan MacColl (section)

=== Traditional music ===
During this period MacColl's enthusiasm for [[folk music]] grew. Inspired by the example of [[Alan Lomax]], who had arrived in Britain and Ireland in 1950, and had done extensive fieldwork there, MacColl also began to collect and perform traditional [[ballad]]s. His long involvement with [[Topic Records]] started in 1950 with his release of a single, "The Asphalter's Song", on that label. When, in 1953 Theatre Workshop decided to move to [[Stratford, London|Stratford]], London, MacColl, who had opposed that move, left the company and changed the focus of his career from acting and playwriting to singing and composing folk and topical songs.{{Citation needed| date=December 2012}}

In 1947, MacColl visited a retired lead-miner named Mark Anderson (1874–1953) in [[Middleton-in-Teesdale]], County Durham, England, who performed to him a song called "[[Scarborough Fair (ballad)|Scarborough Fair]]"; MacColl recorded the lyrics and melody in a book of Teesdale folk songs, and later included it on his and [[Peggy Seeger]]'s ''The Singing Island'' (1960).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Famous song has roots in Dale folk|url=https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/9400217.famous-song-roots-dale-folk/|access-date=2020-11-14|website=The Northern Echo|date=3 December 2011 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Harvey|first=Todd|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m9MHAQAAMAAJ&q=scarborough+fair+mark+anderson|title=The Formative Dylan: Transmission and Stylistic Influences, 1961–1963|date=2001|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-4115-4|pages=33|language=en}}</ref><ref name="vwml.org"/> [[Martin Carthy]] learnt the song from MacColl's book, before teaching it to [[Paul Simon]]; [[Simon & Garfunkel]] released the song as "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" on their album ''[[Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme]]'', popularising the obscure and unique folk tune.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> Ewan MacColl, a decade after collecting the song, released his own version accompanied by [[Peggy Seeger]] on guitar in 1957 on the LP "Matching Songs of the British Isles and America"<ref>{{Cite web|title=Matching Songs of the British Isles and America : Ewan MacColl at theBalladeers|url=https://www.theballadeers.com/eng/ewm_1957_rlp637_matching.htm|access-date=2020-11-14|website=www.theballadeers.com|archive-date=16 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116104029/https://www.theballadeers.com/eng/ewm_1957_rlp637_matching.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> and an a capella rendition another decade later on "The Long Harvest" (1967).<ref>{{Cite web|last=totsie|title=The Long Harvest traditional English and Scottish ballads sung by Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl|url=http://www.peggyseeger.com/listen-buy/the-long-harvest/the-long-harvest|access-date=2020-11-14|website=www.peggyseeger.com|language=en-us}}</ref>

Over the years MacColl recorded and produced upwards of a hundred albums, many with English folk song collector and singer [[A. L. Lloyd]]. The pair released an ambitious series of eight LP albums of some 70 of the 305 [[Child Ballads]]. MacColl produced a number of LPs with Irish singer songwriter [[Dominic Behan]], a brother of Irish playwright [[Brendan Behan]].<ref name="Bailie">{{cite book |last=Bailie |first=Stuart |date=2018 |title=Trouble Songs |location=Belfast |publisher=Bloomfield |page=164 |isbn=978-1-5272-2047-8}}</ref>

In 1956, MacColl caused a scandal when he fell in love with 21-year-old [[Peggy Seeger]], who had come to [[UK|Britain]] to transcribe the music for [[Alan Lomax]]'s anthology ''Folk Songs of North America'' (published in 1961). At the time MacColl, who was twenty years older than Peggy,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/25/ewan-maccoll-godfather-folk-adored-and-feared|title=Ewan MacColl: the godfather of folk who was adored – and feared|first=Neil|last=Spencer|date=25 January 2015|website=Theguardian.com|access-date=7 October 2019}}</ref> was still married to his second wife.