Bill Taylor

Songs within songs – going undercover

Bill Taylor writes: If I had another penny, I would have another gill… Even I’m not old enough to remember when beer cost tuppence a pint (“And it was beer then, not like the muck you get nowadays”), but I... Read more →


Song of the Day: Bill Barclay and Mr Sax. In search of a singer and a song

Bill Taylor writes: take it from me, when you’re getting well into your 70s, it’s a bonus if you can remember what you had for breakfast. Don’t push me on that, though I know it always includes coffee. And as... Read more →


The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem: Uncovering the bedrock

Bill Taylor writes: Can’t see the wood for the trees? For the longest time, I couldn’t see the wool for the sweaters… Those chunky off-white Aran jumpers that became their trademark, and which my mother – “why can’t you dress... Read more →


Dylan: 'a real artist, a true poet.' The 'Judas' tour recalled, the man and his work acclaimed

Colin Randall writes: before Bill Taylor and I met and became friends as well as journalistic confreres, we were both fans of Bob Dylan. Had I caught the famed 1966 tour on which he 'went electric', I might have been... Read more →


Dylan: our favourite early covers - and yours

Colin Randall writes: Salut! Live’s editors - Andrew Curry, Bill Taylor and I - are all Dylan fans to one degree or another. So are and have been lots of other artists and countless among them have dipped gratefully for... Read more →


Dirty Old Town: enduring fascination with - and debate on - Ewan MacColl's song, now 75 years old

When Bill Taylor compared very different versions of Dirty Old Town - the song about Salford that Ewan MacColl wrote for a play in 1949 - in our Cover Story series, there was lively if modest interest. Bill's piece first... Read more →