Although he has never been a household name, Allan Taylor has been writing, performing and recording folk songs ever since he turned professional 60 years ago.

“Allan Taylor is one of the more literate and sensitive of contemporary songwriters in terms of words and music, and one who is capable of exploring more complex subjects than most of his contemporaries… he should probably be regarded as potentially the most important songwriter of his generation.”

Dr. Frederick Woods in The Oxford Book of Traditional Verse.

Supporting Fairport Convention in the late 60s helped to secure Taylor’s reputation on the UK folk circuit. After a few years in America, he returned to the UK, forming the band, Cajun Moon. Then in 1976, he launched a solo career. His 1978 album, The Traveller, won the best European Record award at the Grand Prix du Disque de Montreaux. Wikipedia lists a further 26 albums, the latest being Behind the Mix (2017).

Taylor had planned a series of farewell concerts for the summer of 2026, but had to cancel the tour because of ill health. He might take some consolation, though, from knowing that his name has appeared in several media reports since April, when Ed Sheeran enthused about The Traveller online. (See this article on the BBC, for example.)

For this blogger, Allan Taylor’s later material has rather more depth and appeal, so I have chosen a track from his 2003 album, Hotels and Dreamers, as my gift to him on his enforced retirement.

In the late 50s and early 60s, several members of the Beat Generation occupied rooms at a cheap hotel at 9 Rue Gît-le-Cœur, in the Latin Quarter of Paris.

“It was a ‘class 13’ hotel, meaning bottom line, a place that was required by law to meet only minimum health and safety standards. It never had any proper name – ‘the Beat Hotel’ was a nickname … which stuck. The rooms had windows facing the interior stairwell and not much light. Hot water was available Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The hotel offered the opportunity for a bath – in the only bathtub, situated on the ground floor – provided the guest reserved time beforehand and paid the surcharge for hot water. Curtains and bedspreads were changed and washed every spring. The linen was (in principle) changed every month.”

Wikipedia

Ah, the good old days! The times when we were young and creature comforts were completely unnecessary. We were all looking for Nirvana once. How many of us found it, I wonder?