Albert Lancaster Lloyd (29 February 1908 – 29 September 1982),[1] usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English
folk singer and collector of folk songs, and as such was a key figure in the
British folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. While Lloyd is most widely known for his work with British folk music, he had a keen interest in the music of
Spain,
Latin America,
Southeastern Europe and Australia. He recorded at least six discs of Australian Bush ballads and folk music.
Lloyd also helped establish the folk music subgenre of
industrial folk music through his books, recordings, collecting and theoretical writings.
Early life
Lloyd was born in the
Wandsworth district of London. His father was an
AA Patrolman and failed
smallholder. His mother sang songs around the house and according to Lloyd mimicked the gypsy singers that she had heard. By the age of fifteen his mother had died and his father, an ex-soldier, was a semi-invalid, and Lloyd was sent as an assisted migrant to Australia in a scheme organised by the
British Legion.[2] There, from 1924 to 1930, he worked on various sheep stations in
New South Wales and it was during this time that he began to write down folksongs he learned.[3] In the outback of New South Wales he discovered that he could access the State Library and order books. His special interests being art and music he could get a grasp of those topics without seeing a painting or hearing any music. He also bought a wind-up gramophone and began to investigate some of the classical music he had previously read about.
Career as folklorist
When Lloyd returned to the UK in 1935, during the
Great Depression,[1] in the absence of a permanent job he pursued his interests in studying folk music and social and economic history, doing much of his research at the
British Museum; he is quoted as saying that there is "nothing like unemployment for educating oneself".[4] In 1937, he signed on board a factory whaling ship, the Southern Empress, bound for the southern whaling grounds of the
Antarctic.[5]
During this decade, Lloyd joined the
Communist Party of Great Britain[6] and was strongly influenced by the writings of the Marxist historian,
A. L. Morton, particularly his 1938 book A People's History of England.[7] In 1937, Lloyd's article "The People's own Poetry" was published in the Daily Worker (since 1966 renamed Morning Star) newspaper.[6]
In 1938, the
BBC hired Lloyd to write a radio documentary about seafaring life, and from then on he worked as a journalist and singer.[1] As a proponent of
communism, he was staunchly opposed to
Adolf Hitler, and, in 1939, was commissioned by the BBC to produce a series of programmes on the rise of
Nazism. Between 1940 and 1950 he was employed as a journalist by Picture Post magazine but he left the job in an act of solidarity with one of his colleagues.[7]
By the 1950s, Lloyd had established himself as a professional folklorist—as
Colin Harper puts it "in a field of one".[8] Harper went to note that, at a time when the English folk revival was dominated by young people who wore jeans and pullovers, Lloyd was rarely seen in anything other than a suit (and a wide grin).
Ewan MacColl is quoted as describing Lloyd affectionately as "a walking
toby jug".[9] In 1959, Lloyd's collaboration with
Ralph Vaughan Williams, The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, was published.
The 1956 film Moby Dick, directed by
John Huston, featured Lloyd singing a sea shanty as the
Pequod first sets sail. There is also a brief visual clip of him.[1]
In the early 1960s, Lloyd became associated with an enterprise known as "
Centre 42" which arose from Resolution 42 of the 1960
Trades Union Congress, concerning the importance of arts in the community. Centre 42 was a touring festival aimed at devolving art and culture from London to the other main working class towns of Britain. It was led by
Arnold Wesker, with MacColl and Lloyd providing the musical content and
Charles Parker on production. Centre 42 was important in bringing a range of folk performers to the public attention:
Anne Briggs, the
Ian Campbell Folk Group,
The Spinners and
The Watersons.[10]
Lloyd recorded many albums of English folk music, most notably several albums of the
Child Ballads with MacColl. He also published many books on folk music and related topics, including The Singing Englishman, Come All Ye Bold Miners, and Folk Song in England. He was a founder-member of
Topic Records and remained as their artistic director until his death.
The accompanying book to the Topic Records 70 year anniversary boxed set Three Score and Ten includes a short biography and lists two albums he is closely associated with as classic albums, The Iron Muse[11]: 30 and Frost and Fire by The Watersons.[11]: 34 Track five on the second CD has Lloyd singing The Two Magicians from another album he was closely associated with, being The Bird in the Bush (Traditional Erotic Songs).
Mark Gregory interviewed him in 1970 for the National Library of Australia,[12] and Michael Grosvenor Myer for Folk Review magazine in September 1974.
Folk Music of Bulgaria, Topic Records (UK) LP, 1964
Folk Music of Albania, Topic Records (12T154) (UK) LP, 1966
Bibliography
García Lorca, Federico (1937) Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter and other poems; translated by A. L. Lloyd. London: Heinemann
Kafka, Franz (1937) The Metamorphosis; translated by A. L. Lloyd. London: Parton Press; published as Metamorphosis (1946) by Vanguard Press, Inc.
Fallada, Hans (1952) The Drinker; translated by C. Lloyd and A. L. Lloyd: Melville House, Hoboken, N.J.
Lloyd, A. L. & Vinogradoff, Igor (1940) Shadow of the Swastika, London: John Lane The Bodley Head
Lloyd, A. L. (1944) The Singing Englishman: an introduction to folksong. London: Workers' Music Association
Lloyd, A. L. (compiler) (1945) Corn on the Cob (Popular and Traditional Poetry of the USA) London: Fore Publications
Lloyd, A. L. (1951) Singing Englishmen: a collection of folk-songs specially prepared for a Festival of Britain concert given in association with the Arts Council of Great Britain
Lloyd, A. L. (compiler) (1952) Coaldust Ballads (Part-songs by various composers). London: Workers' Music Association
Lloyd, A. L. (compiler) (1952) Come All Ye Bold Miners (Ballads & Songs of the Coalfield) London: Lawrence & Wishart
^Particularly in the period after World War I, Australia had a policy of recruiting child migrants from the United Kingdom, financially assisted by the British Government's Empire Settlement legislation. See, for example, the
Department of Health website
^Britta Sweers, Electric Folk: The Changing Face of English Traditional Music, Oxford University Press, 2005,
ISBN0-19-515878-4