Ralph McTell (born Ralph May, 3 December 1944) is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s.
McTell is best known for his song "Streets of London", which has been covered by over two hundred artists around the world, and for his tale of Irish emigration, "From Clare to Here".
In the 1980s he wrote and played songs for two TV children's programmes, Alphabet Zoo, which also featured Nerys Hughes, followed by Tickle on the Tum, featuring Jacqueline Reddin. Albums were also released from both series. He also recorded Keith Hopwood's and Malcolm Rowe's theme song to Cosgrove Hall's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, and this was released as a single in 1984 after the series was aired on ITV.
McTell's guitar playing has been modelled on the style of the US's country blues guitar players of the early 20th century, including Blind Blake, Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell. These influences led a friend to suggest that he change his professional name to McTell as his career was beginning to take shape.
The best version of Ralph McTell singing The Streets of London through the years. Did you know the song was originally called Streets of Paris?
published: 18 Jun 2009
Ralph McTell with John Williams 70th Streets Of London Live
Ralph McTell and John Williams - 70th Birthday Concert Drury Lane 7th Dec 2014
published: 26 Mar 2016
Ralph McTell - Streets of London 1975 - "Good Quality"
Ralph McTell (born Ralph May in Farnborough, Kent, England, 3 December 1944 and raised in Croydon) is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s.
Ralph McTell is best known for the song "Streets of London", which has been covered by over two hundred artists around the world
McTell re-recorded "Streets of London" with bassist Rod Clements and backing vocalists Prelude. Released as a single late in 1974, it rocketed up the charts to No. 2 over the Christmas period, became a worldwide million-seller, and won McTell the Ivor Novello Award. - http://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/ - Courtesy Wikepedia.
published: 24 Aug 2012
Ralph McTell - "Streets of London" | The Late Late Show | RTÉ One
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world at http://www.rte.ie/player
The Late Late Show | Fridays | RTÉ One, 9:35pm Irish Time
published: 30 Jan 2016
Ralph McTell 70th Somewhere Down The Road Live
Ralph McTell and friends - 70th Birthday Concert Drury Lane 7th Dec 2014
published: 26 Mar 2016
The Unknown Soldier - Ralph McTell
The Unknown Soldier - Ralph McTell
Featuring
Sir Billy Connolly
Sir Anthony Hopkins
Liam Neeson
The Southbank Sinfonia
Ray Butcher - Trumpets
Paul Pritchard - French Horns
Produced and Arranged by Graham Preskett
More than fifty thousand names
Are carved on Ypres' Menin gate
Of soldiers who have no known graves
Just their destiny and date
Witness and last testament
Name and rank and regiment
Is now all that survives
From so many squandered lives
And for every name inscribed
The poor bereaved were left to mourn
The passing of all those who died
With no white cross on tended lawn
No place to go to contemplate
The sacrifice this wicked waste
No footprint left to show where once they trod
Allegedly known unto god
From Ypres Arras Aisne and Somme
Six unknown soldiers were exhumed
A blindf...
published: 07 Nov 2022
Ralph McTell & Friends | Streets of London Live | The Late Late Show TradFest Special
Ralph McTell Performs Streets of London as part of Tradfest's Late Late Show takeover.
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world at http://www.rte.ie/player
The Late Late Show | Fridays | RTÉ One, 9:35pm Irish Time
published: 13 Jan 2024
Folk legend Ralph McTell performs West 4th Street & Jones on Later… with Jools Holland
Ralph McTell performs West 4th Street & Jones on Later… with Jools Holland on BBC Two (25 September 2018).
For more performances and interviews from the show, subscribe now: http://bit.ly/2fKbxWg.
Watch the whole episode here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/later
published: 25 Sep 2018
Ralph McTell and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra - "Clare to here" | The Late Late Show | RTÉ One
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world at http://www.rte.ie/player
The Late Late Show | Fridays | RTÉ One, 9:35pm Irish Time
published: 30 Jan 2016
Ralph McTell - From Clare To Here
Lyrics
There's four who share this room as we work hard for the craic
And sleeping late on Sundays I never get to Mass
(Chorus)
It's a long way from Clare to here
It's a long way from Clare to here
It's a long, long way, it grows further by the day
It's a long way from Clare to here
When Friday comes around Terry's only into fighting
My ma would like a letter home but I'm too tired for writing
Chorus
It almost breaks my heart when I think of Josephine
I told her I'd be coming home with my pockets full of green
Chorus
And the only time I feel alright is when I'm into drinking
It sort of eases the pain of it and levels out my thinking
Chorus
I sometimes hear a fiddle play or maybe it's a notion
I dream I see white horses dance upon that other ...
Ralph McTell (born Ralph May in Farnborough, Kent, England, 3 December 1944 and raised in Croydon) is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player w...
Ralph McTell (born Ralph May in Farnborough, Kent, England, 3 December 1944 and raised in Croydon) is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s.
Ralph McTell is best known for the song "Streets of London", which has been covered by over two hundred artists around the world
McTell re-recorded "Streets of London" with bassist Rod Clements and backing vocalists Prelude. Released as a single late in 1974, it rocketed up the charts to No. 2 over the Christmas period, became a worldwide million-seller, and won McTell the Ivor Novello Award. - http://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/ - Courtesy Wikepedia.
Ralph McTell (born Ralph May in Farnborough, Kent, England, 3 December 1944 and raised in Croydon) is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s.
Ralph McTell is best known for the song "Streets of London", which has been covered by over two hundred artists around the world
McTell re-recorded "Streets of London" with bassist Rod Clements and backing vocalists Prelude. Released as a single late in 1974, it rocketed up the charts to No. 2 over the Christmas period, became a worldwide million-seller, and won McTell the Ivor Novello Award. - http://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/ - Courtesy Wikepedia.
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world at http://www.rte.ie/player
The Late Late Show | Fridays | RTÉ One, 9:35pm Irish Time
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world at http://www.rte.ie/player
The Late Late Show | Fridays | RTÉ One, 9:35pm Irish Time
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world at http://www.rte.ie/player
The Late Late Show | Fridays | RTÉ One, 9:35pm Irish Time
The Unknown Soldier - Ralph McTell
Featuring
Sir Billy Connolly
Sir Anthony Hopkins
Liam Neeson
The Southbank Sinfonia
Ray Butcher - Trumpets
Paul Pritchard - ...
The Unknown Soldier - Ralph McTell
Featuring
Sir Billy Connolly
Sir Anthony Hopkins
Liam Neeson
The Southbank Sinfonia
Ray Butcher - Trumpets
Paul Pritchard - French Horns
Produced and Arranged by Graham Preskett
More than fifty thousand names
Are carved on Ypres' Menin gate
Of soldiers who have no known graves
Just their destiny and date
Witness and last testament
Name and rank and regiment
Is now all that survives
From so many squandered lives
And for every name inscribed
The poor bereaved were left to mourn
The passing of all those who died
With no white cross on tended lawn
No place to go to contemplate
The sacrifice this wicked waste
No footprint left to show where once they trod
Allegedly known unto god
From Ypres Arras Aisne and Somme
Six unknown soldiers were exhumed
A blindfold general picked one man
And reverently they brought him home
Six black horses drew the hearse
Through silent London crowds immersed
In deepest thought belief or wishful prayer
That it might be their own boy there
The metal tyres on the carriage wheels
Played the tuneless requiem
The sky as grey as bayonet steel
Above the sombre hatless men
One more enemy to kill
That remaining sense of guilt
That through it all somehow they had survived
Returned to mothers sweethearts wives
Familiar streets their own backyards
Their medals and all praise ignored
Relieved to be his honour guard
And walk with him their true reward
While far from pomp and circumstance
Across the autumn fields of France
The trenches start to slowly fill and fade
The bloody page turned by the ploughman's blade
Thankfully we'll never know
If he was constant strong or frail
Scared or brave in equal parts
Country tanned or city pale
A carefree youth or thoughtful lad
Not wholly good or wholly bad
A bomb does not judge how you played your part
A bullet stops a lions heart
With softest cloth and gentlest broom
To sweep and wipe cathedral dust
Like dried tears from this marble tomb
Take care for he was one of us
In perfect irony and grief
The bride's bouquet becomes a wreath
And wrapped beneath dark angels folded wings
Tommy Atkins rests with kings
The Unknown Soldier - Ralph McTell
Featuring
Sir Billy Connolly
Sir Anthony Hopkins
Liam Neeson
The Southbank Sinfonia
Ray Butcher - Trumpets
Paul Pritchard - French Horns
Produced and Arranged by Graham Preskett
More than fifty thousand names
Are carved on Ypres' Menin gate
Of soldiers who have no known graves
Just their destiny and date
Witness and last testament
Name and rank and regiment
Is now all that survives
From so many squandered lives
And for every name inscribed
The poor bereaved were left to mourn
The passing of all those who died
With no white cross on tended lawn
No place to go to contemplate
The sacrifice this wicked waste
No footprint left to show where once they trod
Allegedly known unto god
From Ypres Arras Aisne and Somme
Six unknown soldiers were exhumed
A blindfold general picked one man
And reverently they brought him home
Six black horses drew the hearse
Through silent London crowds immersed
In deepest thought belief or wishful prayer
That it might be their own boy there
The metal tyres on the carriage wheels
Played the tuneless requiem
The sky as grey as bayonet steel
Above the sombre hatless men
One more enemy to kill
That remaining sense of guilt
That through it all somehow they had survived
Returned to mothers sweethearts wives
Familiar streets their own backyards
Their medals and all praise ignored
Relieved to be his honour guard
And walk with him their true reward
While far from pomp and circumstance
Across the autumn fields of France
The trenches start to slowly fill and fade
The bloody page turned by the ploughman's blade
Thankfully we'll never know
If he was constant strong or frail
Scared or brave in equal parts
Country tanned or city pale
A carefree youth or thoughtful lad
Not wholly good or wholly bad
A bomb does not judge how you played your part
A bullet stops a lions heart
With softest cloth and gentlest broom
To sweep and wipe cathedral dust
Like dried tears from this marble tomb
Take care for he was one of us
In perfect irony and grief
The bride's bouquet becomes a wreath
And wrapped beneath dark angels folded wings
Tommy Atkins rests with kings
Ralph McTell Performs Streets of London as part of Tradfest's Late Late Show takeover.
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world a...
Ralph McTell Performs Streets of London as part of Tradfest's Late Late Show takeover.
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world at http://www.rte.ie/player
The Late Late Show | Fridays | RTÉ One, 9:35pm Irish Time
Ralph McTell Performs Streets of London as part of Tradfest's Late Late Show takeover.
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world at http://www.rte.ie/player
The Late Late Show | Fridays | RTÉ One, 9:35pm Irish Time
Ralph McTell performs West 4th Street & Jones on Later… with Jools Holland on BBC Two (25 September 2018).
For more performances and interviews from the show,...
Ralph McTell performs West 4th Street & Jones on Later… with Jools Holland on BBC Two (25 September 2018).
For more performances and interviews from the show, subscribe now: http://bit.ly/2fKbxWg.
Watch the whole episode here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/later
Ralph McTell performs West 4th Street & Jones on Later… with Jools Holland on BBC Two (25 September 2018).
For more performances and interviews from the show, subscribe now: http://bit.ly/2fKbxWg.
Watch the whole episode here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/later
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world at http://www.rte.ie/player
The Late Late Show | Fridays | RTÉ One, 9:35pm Irish Time
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world at http://www.rte.ie/player
The Late Late Show | Fridays | RTÉ One, 9:35pm Irish Time
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world at http://www.rte.ie/player
The Late Late Show | Fridays | RTÉ One, 9:35pm Irish Time
Lyrics
There's four who share this room as we work hard for the craic
And sleeping late on Sundays I never get to Mass
(Chorus)
It's a long way from Cl...
Lyrics
There's four who share this room as we work hard for the craic
And sleeping late on Sundays I never get to Mass
(Chorus)
It's a long way from Clare to here
It's a long way from Clare to here
It's a long, long way, it grows further by the day
It's a long way from Clare to here
When Friday comes around Terry's only into fighting
My ma would like a letter home but I'm too tired for writing
Chorus
It almost breaks my heart when I think of Josephine
I told her I'd be coming home with my pockets full of green
Chorus
And the only time I feel alright is when I'm into drinking
It sort of eases the pain of it and levels out my thinking
Chorus
I sometimes hear a fiddle play or maybe it's a notion
I dream I see white horses dance upon that other ocean
Chorus
It's a long, long way from Clare to here.
Lyrics
There's four who share this room as we work hard for the craic
And sleeping late on Sundays I never get to Mass
(Chorus)
It's a long way from Clare to here
It's a long way from Clare to here
It's a long, long way, it grows further by the day
It's a long way from Clare to here
When Friday comes around Terry's only into fighting
My ma would like a letter home but I'm too tired for writing
Chorus
It almost breaks my heart when I think of Josephine
I told her I'd be coming home with my pockets full of green
Chorus
And the only time I feel alright is when I'm into drinking
It sort of eases the pain of it and levels out my thinking
Chorus
I sometimes hear a fiddle play or maybe it's a notion
I dream I see white horses dance upon that other ocean
Chorus
It's a long, long way from Clare to here.
Ralph McTell (born Ralph May in Farnborough, Kent, England, 3 December 1944 and raised in Croydon) is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s.
Ralph McTell is best known for the song "Streets of London", which has been covered by over two hundred artists around the world
McTell re-recorded "Streets of London" with bassist Rod Clements and backing vocalists Prelude. Released as a single late in 1974, it rocketed up the charts to No. 2 over the Christmas period, became a worldwide million-seller, and won McTell the Ivor Novello Award. - http://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/ - Courtesy Wikepedia.
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world at http://www.rte.ie/player
The Late Late Show | Fridays | RTÉ One, 9:35pm Irish Time
The Unknown Soldier - Ralph McTell
Featuring
Sir Billy Connolly
Sir Anthony Hopkins
Liam Neeson
The Southbank Sinfonia
Ray Butcher - Trumpets
Paul Pritchard - French Horns
Produced and Arranged by Graham Preskett
More than fifty thousand names
Are carved on Ypres' Menin gate
Of soldiers who have no known graves
Just their destiny and date
Witness and last testament
Name and rank and regiment
Is now all that survives
From so many squandered lives
And for every name inscribed
The poor bereaved were left to mourn
The passing of all those who died
With no white cross on tended lawn
No place to go to contemplate
The sacrifice this wicked waste
No footprint left to show where once they trod
Allegedly known unto god
From Ypres Arras Aisne and Somme
Six unknown soldiers were exhumed
A blindfold general picked one man
And reverently they brought him home
Six black horses drew the hearse
Through silent London crowds immersed
In deepest thought belief or wishful prayer
That it might be their own boy there
The metal tyres on the carriage wheels
Played the tuneless requiem
The sky as grey as bayonet steel
Above the sombre hatless men
One more enemy to kill
That remaining sense of guilt
That through it all somehow they had survived
Returned to mothers sweethearts wives
Familiar streets their own backyards
Their medals and all praise ignored
Relieved to be his honour guard
And walk with him their true reward
While far from pomp and circumstance
Across the autumn fields of France
The trenches start to slowly fill and fade
The bloody page turned by the ploughman's blade
Thankfully we'll never know
If he was constant strong or frail
Scared or brave in equal parts
Country tanned or city pale
A carefree youth or thoughtful lad
Not wholly good or wholly bad
A bomb does not judge how you played your part
A bullet stops a lions heart
With softest cloth and gentlest broom
To sweep and wipe cathedral dust
Like dried tears from this marble tomb
Take care for he was one of us
In perfect irony and grief
The bride's bouquet becomes a wreath
And wrapped beneath dark angels folded wings
Tommy Atkins rests with kings
Ralph McTell Performs Streets of London as part of Tradfest's Late Late Show takeover.
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world at http://www.rte.ie/player
The Late Late Show | Fridays | RTÉ One, 9:35pm Irish Time
Ralph McTell performs West 4th Street & Jones on Later… with Jools Holland on BBC Two (25 September 2018).
For more performances and interviews from the show, subscribe now: http://bit.ly/2fKbxWg.
Watch the whole episode here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/later
Watch The Late Late Show live and on-demand from anywhere in the world at http://www.rte.ie/player
The Late Late Show | Fridays | RTÉ One, 9:35pm Irish Time
Lyrics
There's four who share this room as we work hard for the craic
And sleeping late on Sundays I never get to Mass
(Chorus)
It's a long way from Clare to here
It's a long way from Clare to here
It's a long, long way, it grows further by the day
It's a long way from Clare to here
When Friday comes around Terry's only into fighting
My ma would like a letter home but I'm too tired for writing
Chorus
It almost breaks my heart when I think of Josephine
I told her I'd be coming home with my pockets full of green
Chorus
And the only time I feel alright is when I'm into drinking
It sort of eases the pain of it and levels out my thinking
Chorus
I sometimes hear a fiddle play or maybe it's a notion
I dream I see white horses dance upon that other ocean
Chorus
It's a long, long way from Clare to here.
Ralph McTell (born Ralph May, 3 December 1944) is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s.
McTell is best known for his song "Streets of London", which has been covered by over two hundred artists around the world, and for his tale of Irish emigration, "From Clare to Here".
In the 1980s he wrote and played songs for two TV children's programmes, Alphabet Zoo, which also featured Nerys Hughes, followed by Tickle on the Tum, featuring Jacqueline Reddin. Albums were also released from both series. He also recorded Keith Hopwood's and Malcolm Rowe's theme song to Cosgrove Hall's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, and this was released as a single in 1984 after the series was aired on ITV.
McTell's guitar playing has been modelled on the style of the US's country blues guitar players of the early 20th century, including Blind Blake, Robert Johnson and Blind Willie McTell. These influences led a friend to suggest that he change his professional name to McTell as his career was beginning to take shape.