http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewan_MacColl Ewan MacColl was born Jimmie Miller in Salford, Lancashire, England in 1915. His father, William Miller, was an iron-moulder, militant trade-unionist and communist who had left his native Stirlingshire, Scotland in his mid-twenties. His mother, Betsy Hendry, was from Auchterarder, Perthshire, Scotland. Both parents were active left-wing socialists and from his earliest days, MacColl was familiar with the cut-and-thrust of political discussion and argument. He died in London in 1989.
For sixty years he was in the cultural forefront of numerous political struggles, producing plays, songs and scripts on the subjects of apartheid, fascism, industrial strife and human rights. It has been said that he was an enormous fish in a small pond - but the ocean of traditional song and speech upon which he navigated and hunted owes him a great debt for the treasures that he returned to it.
In 1956, he met American folk singer Peggy Seeger (sister of Pete Seeger) and they embarked upon a life-partnership. It was for Peggy that Ewan wrote one of his most famous songs The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_SeegerBut here I have chosen to post another of his most well known compositions Dirty Old Town as performed by The Pogues.
http://www.pegseeger.com/html/ewan.html
