After the Second World War the new Labour Government called on the mining industry to produce a massive increase in coal production to provide the energy to rebuild Britain. The men rose to the task, only to find themselves facing redundancy a few years later as huge amounts of cheap oil became available from the Middle East.
We may think that the demise of the coal industry is a comparatively recent thing but in fact it had been sliding downhill ever since the 50’s. To prove the point, this song was written by the late Ewan MacColl for a TV documentary in 1960. In the final verse, Ewan suggests that coal will be replaced by nuclear power and at the time that certainly was the expectation. However, knowing what we know now, I didn’t want to endorse nuclear power as the energy of the future so I confess that I changed the words to ‘wind and wave and solar power’. That way we become green and clean. I believe Ewan would agree.
I found the song in ‘The Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger Songbook’ which I acquired shortly after it was published in 1963. It’s a book crammed with terrific songs. Ewan and Peggy may have been controversial characters but surely no-one could argue against their song writing skills.
We may think that the demise of the coal industry is a comparatively recent thing but in fact it had been sliding downhill ever since the 50’s. To prove the point, this song was written by the late Ewan MacColl for a TV documentary in 1960. In the final verse, Ewan suggests that coal will be replaced by nuclear power and at the time that certainly was the expectation. However, knowing what we know now, I didn’t want to endorse nuclear power as the energy of the future so I confess that I changed the words to ‘wind and wave and solar power’. That way we become green and clean. I believe Ewan would agree.
I found the song in ‘The Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger Songbook’ which I acquired shortly after it was published in 1963. It’s a book crammed with terrific songs. Ewan and Peggy may have been controversial characters but surely no-one could argue against their song writing skills.