The Imagined Village - John Barleycorn - Wychwood 2008

[ItsNotJustGuitar]

@nolicnotrut Well... you're an utter bastard.

[63Brummie]

My only critism is that Billy Btagg should NOT WEAR lycra in public LOL :-)

[hottunasandwich]

bullshit ... nlicnotrut or whoever ... this is awesome ... what are your criticisms exactly ,.. martins guitar work is magnificent for a start ... where do you get off .. what instruments do you play ... ?

[lelapindore]

I've heard countless versions of this song, this one is totally unique and I love it!

[LiverpoolPhilHall]

The Imagined Village are touring in 2010! Catch them live at: Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, 18 January 2010.

[nolicnotrut]

This is the first negative comment I have ever made. I am sorry it had to be you!

I think Carthy/Waterson et al ( who are fine musicians) would be embarassed to see this video in the public domain.

This is a professional line-up behaving and sounding like amateurs. And who invited Billy Bragg?!

This is a good song. There are may finer renditions out there on youtube.

This substandard performance helps me understand why folk music is a 'minority interest'.

Unimpressed of near-to-Bognor.

[festivalspy]

No need for apologies, nothing wrong with criticism so long as its constructive. Funnily enough most of the people who have commented favourably or otherwise all agree there was no need for Bragg to be there, he was good doing his own set at Beautiful Days a few years back though.

[nolicnotrut]

Thank you. I am so pleased that you take no personal offence.

None was intended.

I am, however, sorry that I couldn't be more 'constructive'. After all, who am I to try to educate the Waterson/Carthy combo?

Perhaps this is just a matter of personal taste. I like folk music, but, to my mind, this was something else ... parody, maybe?

[MrTpalmer1]

Paul Weller did a great job on the album shame he didn,t do any of the gigs

[stormbird11]

love the imagined village and i was there

[Maddy4Me]

Wonderful, but it doesn't beat Steeleye Span.

[gaspode18]

Steeleye have been phoning it in for about ten years now. Their last decent lineup was Mattacks/Knight/Kemp/Harries/W­oods.

[Maddy4Me]

Ouch! Probably one of the weakest lineups there! What's wrong with Maddy??! Or even Bob Johnson?!

[gaspode18]

Nothing wrong with Maddy - she is still making brilliant solo albums. Bob Johnson was good in his day - That day was in the 1970's (Well, maybe early 80's).

But Steeleye Span as a band have seemed to me to be just going through the motions since the reform of the so-called 'classic lineup'. Ken Nicol does his best, but.....

[Maddy4Me]

Yeah, I think the band would benefit from a return of Bob Johnson, but I still see Maddy as virtually "making" the band. Horkstow Grange and Bedlam Born I think are the two weakest albums and Maddy is conspicuous only by her absence.

I think Ken Nicol's OK. Maybe slightly hit-or-miss. I think there's a lot of mileage left.

[meium]

English - Half English fits so well to this tune!! And it's not just pc it's a great song celebrating our culture and roots.

[Aberforthette]

Great song, but would have been better if they hadn't seen fit to include a completely incongruous nod to politically correctness at the end. Fine, be tolerant of immigrant cultures, but please stop going overboard with your attempts to indoctrinate us all in that vein. One gets enough of it in the media, without having someone spring it on one unexpectedly when one is trying to enjoy some good music.

[ExceedinglyGrumpy]

You seem to be missing the point of The Imagined Village. It takes its inspiration from both recent and historical immigration into these islands. The Imagined Village embraces what they have bought to this country and if that sounds to you like "indocrination" then I suggest you may find another band more to your taste...

Oh, and you don't have to "tolerant" of immigrant cultures - that implies there is something wrong with them.

[RangerGordon]

I didn't see it as, er ... "politically correct" at all (the culture that values English trad songs like "John Barleycorn" obviously has no use for that which paranoid folks conceive of as multicultural "indoctrination.")

Seemed to me more like an inside joke; probably a teasing reference to a bandmate's girlfriend who comes from one of those awful cultures who refuse to drink alcohol.

Just me own thoughts.

[Travelinglyse]

I think I can hear my own whooping when Billy comes on! Thanks for the extra videos!