Ewan Maccoll Quotes

All you freeborn men of the travelling people Every tinker, rolling stone and gypsy rover Winds of change are blowing, old ways are going Your travelling days will soon be over

The first time ever I saw your face I thought the sun rose in your eyes And the moon and the stars were the gifts you gave To the night and the empty skies my love To the night and the empty skies The first time ever I kissed your mouth I felt the earth turn in my hand Like the trembling heart of a captive bird That was there at my command my love That was there at my command The first time ever I lay with you And felt your heart beat close to mine I thought our joy would fill the earth And would last 'till the end of time my love And would last 'till the end of time The first time ever I saw your face I thought the sun rose in your eyes And the moon and the stars were the gifts you gave To the night and the empty skies my love To the night and the empty skies

The first to free itself from the transatlantic influence was 1966’s Jack Orion, with its open-tuning arrangements of traditionals such as ‘The Waggoner’s Lad’, ‘Nottamun Town’, ‘Pretty Polly’, ‘Henry Martin’, ‘Blackwaterside’ and even Ewan MacColl’s ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’. The ten-minute title track was a semi-improvised but utterly transfixing ramble across the fretboard. By the end of 1965 he had been anointed the London folk-blues scene’s de facto king.