FROM THE ARCHIVES:Bill Meek wrote the obituary of the ballad session, ubiquitous in the 1960s, in this "Folk Scene" column. – JOE JOYCE
Perhaps it is over-dramatic to describe the decline of “ballad session” activity in terms of bursting. More accurately it has gone out with a whimper. The waning of public enthusiasm for this type of music was hardly noticeable as it took place. Yet take place it surely did. Five years ago the entertainment section of the evening papers advertised scores of venues where ballads – and I use the word loosely – were on offer every night of the week. “Ballad Concerts” were frequent and profitable.
Today, around Dublin, the “scene” is in comparison tiny.
Only about half a dozen public houses find it worthwhile to advertise such entertainment, no doubt to the relief of the regulars who once more can settle down to a quiet pint. Many singers who decided on professional careers have reason to wish that they had stuck to steady jobs, or completed education qualifications. [...] What has happened in Ireland reflects, as usual, British and American trends. Some time ago people such as Joan Baez, The Kingston Trio, and Peter, Paul and Mary could top the charts with material derived from or inspired by traditional sources. Gradually the distinction between straight pop and folk/pop became less defined. The process of integration was completed when the Beatles enthusiastically adopted Bob Dylan as a song writer.
In both Britain and America more remains of it all than in this country. [...] In Ireland the slump is more marked, just as proportionately the boom was greater than anywhere else. At one time “ballads” were practically the exclusive form of popular music entertainment. Everyone involved said that it couldn’t last – and, of course, it didn’t – but they said it with cheerful confidence as if somehow they might be wrong and that it just might go on for ever.
However, such extravagant popularity was bound, eventually, to be doomed. Elsewhere the folk thing was never more than one important ingredient among many elements in the general pop sphere. In Ireland the boom had all the characteristics of a rave, to inevitably wax and wane just as did the twist.
Now that it’s over bar the shouting – though in its heyday much of it was just that – one can view it with some perspective. Has the boom made any lasting contribution in cultural terms? Considering the vastness of the operation and the amount of energy expended the lasting benefits are disappointingly sparce [sic]. It was certainly a good thing that thousands were moved to make music. Yet wrong that so many were plunged before the public, at times almost against their will. Suddenly everyone was singing professionally, the standards lowered, and mediocrity abounded. The greatest disappointment of the whole era was that the vast majority of the young people concerned threw away a unique opportunity for creativity on a wide scale . . .