They put out a defiant political message with "I may be a wage slave on Monday / But I am a free man on Sunday". MacColl published the "Manchester Youth Song" in 1933, singing of "Workers in Cheetham, who slave every day / In waterproof factories at starvation pay". [5], "The Manchester Rambler", written in 1932 not long after the Kinder trespass and inspired by that event, was Ewan MacColl's first important song, according to Harker,[3] who argues that it "marks a departure from the [singer's] leaden-footed and slogan-heavy juvenilia". Like the melody, the lyrics are witty and playful. It was inspired by his participation in the Kinder trespass, a protest by the urban Young Communist League of Manchester, and was the work that began MacColl's career as a singer-songwriter. [19] The British Mountaineering Council's booklet issued in 2012 to commemorate 80 years of the Kinder mass trespass reproduced the lyrics of "The Manchester Rambler" in full. He played a major part in organising the publicity for the trespass, duplicating and handing out leaflets, though this role is disputed. "[16] "[5] MacColl was a keen rambler, travelling out of Manchester by bus into the Peak District, like thousands of other young unemployed people with time on their hands. [6], The song names the following places: Snowdon (North Wales); Crowden (by the Woodhead pass road in Derbyshire); the Wainstones (on the Bleaklow plateau in Derbyshire); Kinder Scout; Manchester; Grindsbrook and Upper Tor (both Edale, Derbyshire). Its swinging, jaunty melody demonstrates MacColl's ability to combine musical forms and popular rhythms to create a song which is at once familiar and unique. [9] Kirsty MacColl (daughter of Ewan) covered the song on her 1991 album The One And Only,[10] while Casey Neill covered it on his eponymous album in 1999. " The Manchester Rambler ", also known as " I'm a Rambler " and " The Rambler's Song ", is a song written in 1932 by the English folk singer Ewan MacColl. Since the 1950s, the song has become a standard among folk musicians, as it was for MacColl himself. A young man called James Henry Miller, better known as Ewan MacColl, was a keen rambler and an enthusiastic member of the Young Communist League. Most nights in the pub we would sing the Manchester Rambler, only too aware that it was people like Rothman and Stephenson who had fought to get the hills opened up for us. His friends used to sing it as they rambled in the hills. "The Manchester Rambler", also known as "I'm a Rambler" and "The Rambler's Song", is a song written in 1932 by the English folk singer Ewan MacColl. [5] He also wrote the song "Mass Trespass 1932", setting words like "For the mass trespass is the only way there is / To gain access to the mountains once again" to the old Scottish tune of "The Road to the Isles". It crystallises his songwriting and that's the first time it happens. [15], The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography writes of MacColl that "One of his first and finest protest songs, ‘The Manchester Rambler’, dealt with the ‘mass trespass’ campaigns of the 1930s, in which hikers fought pitched battles with gamekeepers when they invaded privately owned grouse moors. [2], In his biographer Ben Harker's view, "It would be difficult to overstate the extent to which MacColl was shaped by the 1930s. "The Manchester Rambler", also known as "I'm a Rambler" and "The Rambler's Song", is a song written by the English folk singer Ewan MacColl. [18], The song was sung at Kinder Downfall (the waterfall on Kinder Scout) in 2009 when Kinder was designated as a National Nature Reserve (NNR); in attendance were establishment figures including three Members of Parliament, the Chief Executive Officers of three National Parks and the leaders of Natural England. [11] The Houghton Weavers covered it on their 1978 album Sit Thi Deawn,[12] and in 2005 Mick Groves of The Spinners performed it on his album Fellow Journeyman. It was inspired by his participation in the Kinder trespass, a protest by the urban Young Communist League of Manchester, and was the work that began MacColl's career as a singer-songwriter. [5], Groups of ramblers often sang songs such as "I'm Happy When I'm Hiking", as well as bawdy songs, ballads and radical American protest songs at their camps. It was inspired by his participation in the Kinder trespass, a protest by the urban Young Communist League of Manchester, and was the work that began MacColl's career as a singer-songwriter. The 'ramblers', led by Benny Rothman, walked from Bowden Bridge Quarry, near Hayfield to climb the hill called Kinder Scout in the Derbyshire Peak District on 24 April 1932. [6], "The Manchester Rambler" is published by Green Linnet on Ewan MacColl's 1996 CD "Black and White: The Definitive Collection", also released by Cooking Vinyl Records; the recording lasts 4 minutes 42 seconds, and MacColl is assisted on vocals by his wife, the folk singer Peggy Seeger. The lyrics are suitably comical on the confrontation between the ramblers and the gamekeepers in the style of musical theatre, argues Harker, with lines such as "He called me a louse and said 'Think of the grouse'".

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