Matt McGinn (Scottish songwriter)

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McGinn, c. 1954

Matthew McGinn (17 January 1928 – 5 January 1977) was a Scottish folk singer-songwriter, actor, author and poet.[1] Born in Glasgow in 1928, McGinn was a prolific songwriter and is recognised as an influential figure in the British folk music revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Biography

Matt McGinn was born in Ross Street at the corner of the

Hillington factory of GKN, spending his spare time at evening classes and reading. He gained a Trade Union scholarship to study economics and political science at Ruskin College in Oxford when he was 31. After graduating, he trained to become a teacher at Huddersfield Teachers' Training College and went on to work as a teacher in Lanarkshire for three years before becoming the organiser of the Gorbals
Adventure Playground.

McGinn joined the folk scene after winning a song contest with a song entitled "The Foreman O'Rourke". He met

Grammy
in the Best Historical Album category in 2001.

Matt McGinn embraced the "Folk Song Revival" of the 60s and brought to this his talent as a poet, his humour and his wealth of knowledge and experience of the ordinary folk of Glasgow and West of Scotland. It was never his ambition to be a singer/songwriter but considered tunes and melodies as a vehicle to express and propagate his beliefs and politics.

Perhaps a recent description of him as a people's historian is fitting. McGinn brought together his musical abilities, perception, humour, knowledge, politics and personal experience, to leave a history in words and music of the life and times of Scottish people, in particular Glasgow and the West.

McGinn also wrote songs for children, one of which, "Little Ticks of Time," was frequently used in the

Un amour de jeunesse) directed by Mia Hansen-Løve. Well known recordings of McGinn include "Loch Lomond
", ″The Rolling Hills of the Border″, ″I have seen the Highlands″, ″The Jeely Piece Song″ (written by another stalwart of Glasgow music, Adam McNaughtan), ″The Big Effen Bee″, ″Skinny Malinky Longlegs″, ″The Red Yo Yo″, ″Gallowgate Calypso″, ″The Ibrox Disaster″ and ″The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede″.

McGinn's first novel about his time in approved school Fry the Little Fishes was first published in 1975 (

ISBN 978-1-873586-06-8
)

There is a wealth of information about McGinn, as well as the words and music of some of his songs in the book McGinn of the Calton, collated by Janette McGinn, and originally published by Glasgow District Libraries in 1987 (

ISBN 0-906169-15-1
).

McGinn's songs are still performed by folk musicians in Scotland

Rachel Unthank and the Winterset
, among others.

In Jim Hosking's 2018 movie An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn, McGinn's songs "Little Ticks of Time" and "Why Did I Ever Become a Football Referee?" are sung by Craig Robinson, performing alongside Matt Berry.

McGinn died on 5 January 1977 of smoke inhalation, aged 48 (12 days short of his 49th birthday), after falling asleep with a lit cigarette in his hand. The post mortem revealed that there was no trace of alcohol in McGinn's blood.

In January 2019 a blue plaque for McGinn was installed in the Calton district of Glasgow's East End.[3]

Discography

A partial list of musical recordings:

The Iron Muse(A Panorama of Industrial Folk Song) 1963 Topic

A thematic album which features Matt McGinn as one of the singers and a songwriter

Matt McGinn 1966 Transatlantic

Matt McGinn Again 1967 Transatlantic

"The Boys From Lisbon" (7-inch Single) 1968 Transatlantic

"I Have Seen The Highlands" & "I'll Be Coming Home To Glasgow" (7-inch Single) 1968 Transatlantic

Honesty Is Out of The Fashion 1968 Transatlantic

Little Ticks of Time 1969 Transatlantic

The Matt McGinn Sampler 1969 Transatlantic

Take Me Back to the Jungle 1971 RCA INTS

Tinny Can on My Tail 1972 RCA INTS

The Two Heided Man 1972 Emerald Gem

Magic Shadow Show (7-inch EP) 1973 Moonbeam

The Two Heided Man Strikes Again 1974 Emerald Gem

Screwtops Are Falling on My Head 1975 Pye

Ma Wee Auntie Sarah & Granda 1975 Pye

Currently available CDs

  • Revival in Britain Volume 1 (first side only, other side various artists – compiled by Ewan MacColl in 1962)
  • The Best of Matt McGinn (comprising around 50% of McGinn's 1966–69 output on Transatlantic Records)
  • The Best of Matt McGinn Volume Two (comprising McGinn's albums Take Me Back to the Jungle (1971) and Tinny Can on My Tail (1972) plus 1 track from the Magic Shadow Show EP). (Now deleted)
  • The Return of the Two Heided Man (comprising most of the live albums The Two Heided Man (1973) and The Two Heided Man Strikes Again (1974))
  • On The Road From Aldermaston: Complete Transatlantic Recordings (1966-1969) (2017)

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-55652-754-8
    .
  2. ^ "Linlithgow Folk Festival Association". Linlithgowfolk.com. 6 March 2010. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
  3. ISSN 0029-7712
    . Retrieved 20 January 2019.

External links
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