Susannes
Folksong-Notizen
- [1997:] I started writing this song in Dougie
MacLean's house in Butterstone, Perthshire. I was
playing the dulcimer, an instrument I rarely play
these days, and musically 'doodling'. I wrote a
couple of lines (which turned out to be the third
verse) and threw the scrap of paper in my guitar
case and forgot about it. A week or so later I
noticed this scrap of paper and I realised that
I'd been thinking about Derroll Adams. It's an
almost impossible task to try and describe this
man in a short space of time. Now living in
Antwerp, Derroll has travelled and busked his way
around Europe, reaching a kind of legendary
status along with former travelling and playing
companions, Alex Campbell and Rambling Jack
Elliot.
I first met Derroll in Belgium around 1971, where
we were playing a gig together in a holiday
resort called, I think, Zon and Zee (the Belgian
equivalent of Butlins Holiday Camp). We played in
the middle of a grassed area in the camp without
a P.A. system and it was hoped that the holiday
crowd would come and watch. Only about ten or so
did - it was a short gig and we took the money
and left. The next time we met was three or four
years later in Bonn, Germany, in a huge concert
hall which was being used for a folk festival. I
was due to follow Derroll, and as I stood and
watched his set from backstage I got the urge to
play guitar with him. At the end of the set he
came to the side of the stage and waited to see
if there would be an encore. It was obvious the
audience wanted one, and impulsively I asked him
if we could play "Trouble in mind"
together. "Sure", he said, "Come
out on stage with me" and we went out
together and played the song. After the concert
we went to a bar and I noticed that the few
people who joined us were completely focussed on
Derroll - he had this magnetism which demanded
people's attention. Though more than twice the
age of some of the women in the company, somehow
they seemed to be transfixed by him.
Since those times we've seen more of each other
and become friends. His wonderful wife, Danny has
helped him through some real bad times of
alcoholism and provides him with the stability,
care and love he needs. She's a great woman. It
was really a joy to present this song to him, as
a measure of my affection for him. We have since
worked together on concerts and one memorable
radio programme, recorded for Radio Scotland in
1994.
Though now over 70 years old, his opinions, his
ideas and his street-learned philosophy is as
fresh and to a certain extent idealistic as a
young man of twenty. He never lost sight of the
dream that we all shared when we started out
"on the road". Not for him fame or
glory or money, just the joy of playing music and
getting by. (Taylor, Songs 9)
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