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- Title
Telling the Truth in Song: Subversion and Injustice in the Ballad of 'Green the Ganger'.
- Authors
RUSSELL, IAN
- Abstract
In this essay, I want to revisit the theme of 'truth in song', identified by Herbert Halpert in his seminal 1939 article. Since songs first entered print, tension has existed between the event as related and the documented facts of the incident to which a song refers. Twentieth-century folk song scholars have widened this dialectic on the nature of truth in a song text to encompass other key factors, namely context and performance, as a means of understanding a song's function and meaning, thereby acknowledging the importance of the extratextual information that certain singers attach to particular songs. The notorious 1840 Glasgow Railway Murder, to which the song 'Green the Ganger' (Roud 30616) relates, still resonates today through scholarly articles and documentary dramatization. Just as the performance of the song 'McCaffery' (Roud 1148) was perceived as undermining the military establishment, so a rendition of 'Green the Ganger' might provide the flashpoint for unrest among Irish migratory workers in the construction industry. This paper reflects on the power of truth in such songs in the light of the performer and their audience.
- Subjects
FOLK songs; BALLAD (Literary form); HALPERT, Herbert; MIGRANT labor; CONSTRUCTION industry
- Publication
Folk Music Journal, 2024, Vol 12, Issue 4, p65
- ISSN
0531-9684
- Publication type
Article