Matt’s back in charts
McGinn has French hit
A Rutherglen folk music hero who died 41 years ago is still making hits from beyond the grave — in the French triphop market.
The music of Matt McGinn — one of Scotland’s greatest folk singers –— inspired Marseille-based ensemble Chinese Man to cover one of his tracks, Get On, Get Up, back in 2011.
The catchy tune appeared on the band’s album Racing With The Sun, but its name was shortened to just Get Up and the link to Matt was lost, with the song’s subsequent video going on to garner an incredible 15 million views on YouTube.
However, this year the track has once again came to the fore, after French telecommunications giant Iliad used the chorus of the Chinese Man’s cover version in an expensive advertising campaign.
In the midst of all of the hype surrounding the advert and its song, Matt’s family were made aware of the track’s new-found popularity. And fittingly,the information is now being corrected on the copyright — with Matt receiving his rightful credit.
His son, Matt Junior, told the Reformer: “I was very surprised but actually I love the track. I am not a big ‘chipmunk’ type vocals fan and at first did not take to it, but after hearing a couple of times it grew on me.
“I tend to like soul, R&B, and hip-hop — as my kids keep me on my toes — so it was pleasing and very surprising that it had been covered in this way.”
Matt McGinn senior was raised in the Calton area of Glasgow, but the popular Scottish folk singer moved to Rutherglen in 1952.
He lived in Fernhill and later Spittal before his death in 1977.
Matt met Pete Seeger, a member of the iconic Weavers who went on to become his lifelong friend, and Seeger recorded many of Matt’s songs while retaining their original Scottish form.
One of these, which he recorded with the Weavers in New York’s iconic Carnegie Hall in 1965, was Get Up, Get Out. Itt went on to be played extensively on radio stations across America.
Now, almost half-a-century later the song was picked up by France’s Chinese Man.
McGinn was a prolific songwriter and is recognised as an influential figure in the British folk music revival of the late 50s and early 60s.
Pete Seeger championed Matt’s music in the United States and arranged for him to take part in a concert at the aforementioned Carnegie Hall, where Matt met a young Bob Dylan.
McGinn’s other well-known songs include Gallowgate Calypso, If it Wisnae for the Union, Rich Man’s Paradise and Ru’glen Jean.
He died in 1977 in a house fire just days short of his 49th birthday.
Musicians influenced by McGinn have staged numerous shows in his memory, while a group of fans launched a campaign earlier this year for a memorial to Matt on Ross Street in the Gallowgate, where he was born 90 years ago.