LOOKING moodily over the photographer’s shoulder is one of Scotland’s cleverest song-writers -–Matt McGinn, who helped revive folk music and protest songs in the 60s.
Alas, he died too young at the age of 49 in 1977.
Born in Calton, Glasgow, he spent time in an approved school before getting a job in a Hillington factory. But, thanks to a trade union scholarship, he was later able to attend Ruskin College in Oxford and returned to Glasgow to work as a teacher.
The songs he wrote ranged from ditties for children, to the daftness of The Big Effan Bee - a bee in the fictional town of Effan. But many other songs hit home on the plight of the working classes. His Three Nights And A Sunday (Double Time) was an attack on smug workers who grabbed all the overtime going at the expense of other workers’ jobs.
American protest singer Pete Seeger took Matt over to the Carnegie Hall in New York for a gig at which a young Bob Dylan was further down the list.
Matt also entertained audiences with his stories and jokes, which was a style later adopted and polished by Billy Connolly. In fact, a young Billy was on the bill at a Glasgow University gig with Matt but had to pull out at the last minute. Matt went on stage and announced: “Our next act Billy Connolly needs no introduction – because the b****** didnae turn up.”
Oh and collectors of graffiti will appreciate the “Tongs Ya Bass” on the wall behind him. Whatever happened to them?
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel