Ralph Mctell
Wikimp3 information about the music of Ralph Mctell. On our website we have 24 albums and 61 collections of artist Ralph Mctell. You can find useful information and download songs of this artist. We also know that Ralph Mctell represents Songwriter/Lyricist genres.
Biography
[Edit]Although he's best-known for his classic folk song staple "Streets of London," which first appeared on his Spiral Staircase album in 1969, Ralph McTell is a multi-dimensional guitarist and singer/songwriter who's influenced hundreds of folk singers in Great Britain, Europe, and the U.S. Fortunately, people in the U.S. and Europe are beginning to connect to his vast body of excellent original work, and not just "Streets," which has been recorded more than 200 times by artists as diverse as Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, and even the angry punk group Anti-Nowhere League, and is still McTell's most requested song.
McTell, named Ralph May, was raised in post-WWII London with his mother and a younger brother. His father left home when he was two. He began to show musical talent when he was seven, when he began playing harmonica. When skiffle bands became all the rage in England, Scotland, and Ireland, he began playing ukulele and formed his first band. Later in his teens, he began playing guitar.
At the College Jazz Club in London, McTell first heard Ramblin' Jack Elliott sing Jesse Fuller's "San Francisco Bay Blues." Elliott's performance proved to be a revelatory experience for the shy, young, impressionable McTell. He took his earliest cues from the great blues and folk singers: Elliott, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Blake, Robert Johnson, and Blind Willie McTell. He took his adopted last name from blues singer McTell, and his songwriting inspiration from the writings of Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck. After a few years hanging around London, he took off to travel along the south coast of England and the rest of Europe, where he made his way around hitchhiking and busking. While busking around Europe, he met his wife Nanna; shortly thereafter, they had a son.
McTell tried a conventional career as a teacher, but continued playing the folk clubs around London. He began a long tenure at Les Cousins in the Soho section of London and there he began to make a name for himself. A music publisher was so impressed by McTell's early songs that he secured a recording deal for him. His first album, Eight Frames a Second, was released on the Transatlantic label in 1968. With a gentle voice, superb guitar playing skills gleaned from his days as a ukulele player, and a level of modesty that showed through on-stage, McTell began incorporating his own songs into his live shows, which were mostly blues in those days. By July 1969, he was booked at the Cambridge Folk Festival, and in December of that year was headlining his first major London concert at Hornsey Town Hall. By May 1970, McTell completely sold out the Royal Festival Hall and was booked to play the Isle of Wight Festival alongside Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan. He made his first U.S. tour in 1972 and returned to London to sell out the Royal Albert Hall in 1974, the first British solo act to accomplish such a feat in 14 years.
The third song he ever wrote, "Streets of London," was something he deliberately left off his debut album, but at a producer's insistence, he included it on his second album for Transatlantic, Spiral Staircase. After the song was re-recorded in 1974 as a single for Reprise/Warner Bros. it became a huge world-wide hit. The song reached number two on the British charts, and in Germany, there were four different versions of the song on the charts at one point, three by McTell and one by a German singer.
The pressures of world-wide success temporarily became too much for the shy, reserved McTell, and in the spring of 1975, he announced his intention to quit touring and withdraw from the music business for a while. He came to the U.S., where he relaxed and wrote songs in relative anonymity for a year before going back to the U.K. to play a Christmas benefit concert in Belfast. He continued recording for Warner Bros. in the '70s, releasing Right Side Up in 1976, Ralph, Albert and Sydney in 1977, and Slide Away the Screen in 1979. For most of the '80s, he spent his time touring and working on a children's television show called Alphabet Zoo, which led the TV network to create a show especially for him, Tickle on the Tum, and both programs introduced McTell to new generations of fans.
In 1995 and 1996, McTell returned to the U.S. and performed a series of sold-out shows on the East Coast, and his visibility in the U.S. may have been helped along by Nanci Griffith's decision to record one of his songs, "From Clare to Here," on her Grammy-winning Other Voices, Other Rooms album.
McTell's discography is very extensive and demonstrates his commitment to his craft as a songwriter. Though many of these albums are hard to locate, they're well worth seeking out, most originally recorded for Transatlantic, Reprise/Warner Bros., or Mays.
In 1992, he recorded an ambitious project about the life and times of poet Dylan Thomas, The Boy with a Note, released on Leola Music; recently, the U.S. has seen the Stateside release of From Clare to Here (1996), a U.S. release of Silver Celebration, and Sand in Your Shoes (1998). Blue Skies Black Heroes appeared the following year.
Title: You Well-Meaning Brought Me Here
Artist: Ralph Mctell
Genre: Folk Rock, World Music, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Affairs of the Heart
Artist: Ralph Mctell
Genre: Rock, World Music, Songwriter/Lyricist, Folk
Title: Streets of London: Best of Ralph McTell
Artist: Ralph Mctell
Genre: Rock, World Music, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Streets of London (feat. The Crisis Choir & guest vocalist Annie Lennox) - Single
Artist: Ralph Mctell
Genre: Pop
Title: Streets of London and Other Story Songs
Artist: Ralph Mctell
Genre: World Music, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Streets Of London: The Best Of Ralph McTell
Artist: Ralph Mctell
Genre: Folk Rock, World Music, Songwriter/Lyricist, Folk
Title: Not Till Tomorrow
Artist: Ralph Mctell
Genre: Rock, Punk Rock, World Music, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: The Things You Wish Yourself - Single
Artist: Ralph Mctell
Genre: World Music, Songwriter/Lyricist, Folk
Title: Acoustic Routes (Music from the Television Documentary)
Artist: Ralph Mctell, Bert Jansch, Davy Graham, Martin Carthy
Genre: Blues, Songwriter/Lyricist
Collections
Title: As Good as It Gets: Folk
Genre: Folk Rock, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Harbour of Songs
Genre: World Music, Songwriter/Lyricist, Folk
Title: The Folk Box
Genre: Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Best of Folk
Genre: World Music, Pop, Songwriter/Lyricist, Folk
Title: The Best Of Folk
Genre: Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Festival Folk, Vol. 2
Genre: Pop
Title: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan : A Folk Tribute
Genre: Pop, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: People On The Highway
Genre: Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: The Ultimate Folk Collection
Genre: Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Folk Collection
Genre: Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Rubber Folk: A Folk Tribute to the Beatles
Genre: World Music, Pop, Songwriter/Lyricist, Folk
Title: Banjoman A Tribute to Derroll Adams
Genre: Blues, Pop, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Millennium - 1970 - 1974 CD2
Title: 100 Huge Hits Of The 60s & 70s (Disc 2)
Genre: Pop
Title: 100 Hits Of The 70'S - CD 4
Title: The Acoustic Folk Box (Disc 1)
Genre: Blues, World Music, Pop
Title: Greatest Hits Of The Millenium! 1970 - 1974 (CD4)
Genre: Pop
Title: Sounds Of The The 70s - 1974 (CD2)
Genre: Pop
Title: Magic Of The Seventies (CD2)
Title: One Hit Wonders - 1972-74 (CD3)
Genre: Pop
Title: The Beginners Guide To English Folk (CD2)
Genre: World Music, Country
Title: 60's Classics The Ultimate Collection (CD4)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Rock, Pop
Title: Latest & Greatest Relaxing Songs (CD2)
Genre: Soul, Jazz, Rock, Alternative
Title: Latest & Greatest Relaxing Songs (CD2)
Genre: Pop
Title: Scarborough Fair ~ The Best Of English Folk (CD1)
Genre: Blues, World Music, Country, Folk
Title: 100 Hits: 70s Pop
Genre: Pop
Title: Summer Of Love - Das Original! (CD1)
Genre: Rock, Pop, Psychedelic Pop
Title: Transatlantic Folk Box Set (CD1)
Genre: World Music, Country, Folk
Title: Transatlantic Folk Box Set (CD3)
Genre: World Music, Country, Folk
Title: Perfect Day Box Set (CD2)
Genre: Soul, Jazz, Alternative Rock, Synth Pop
Title: The Ultimate 70s Compilation (Pop & Chart Edition) (CD1)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Soul, Blues, Rock, World Music, Country, Disco, Funk, Folk
Title: The Best World Ballads Vol. 8 (CD2)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Rap, Blues, Rock, Pop
Title: WDR 4 - Ab In Die 70er
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Soul, Jazz, World Music, Disco, Funk, Folk
Title: Greatest Ever! Rock The Collection Vol. 1 (CD1)
Genre: Rock
Title: 70s - School Days - The Ultimate Collection 5CD (CD4)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Soul, Rock, Punk Rock, Dancefloor, Country, Disco, Dance Pop, Funk
Title: Stand By Me: Ultimate Golden Anthems (CD5)
Genre: Soul, Jazz, World Music, Pop, Folk
Title: Greatest Ever Golden Anthems (CD2)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Rock, Punk Rock, Pop
Title: Ultimate Dad: BMG Company 5CD (CD3)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Jazz, Rock, Alternative Rock, Punk Rock, Reggae, World Music, Pop, Classical, Folk
Title: 1970s Singer / Songwriter Gold
Genre: Rock, Punk Rock, World Music, Pop, Songwriter/Lyricist, Folk
Title: Mastermix Classic Cuts 097 - M. O. R
Genre: Pop