They Don’t Know Kirsty MacColl

Despite widespread critical acclaim, Kirsty MacColl never achieved commercial success commensurate with her incomparable voice and consummate songwriting skills.

Some assume that she drew musical inspiration from her father Ewan MacColl, the Scots folk singer best known for writing “Dirty Old Town” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”

In fact, he played no meaningful role in his daughter’s early life, having abandoned the family soon after her birth yesterday in 1959.

“Everyone assumes that we lived like the Waltons, sitting around a campfire and playing acoustic guitars all day,” Kirsty said. “But I grew up alone with my mother, and I spent all my time alone in my bedroom listening to records.”

It started at age four, when she first heard the Beach Boys. Transfixed and transported, she wore out every single, deciphering the harmonies and teaching herself to sing every part.

Her first recitals took place in front of the television. During his variety show, when Andy Williams would sing, “Kirsty would take her violin out of the case and accompany him,” her mother remembers. “I would have a quiet laugh to myself, but she took it very seriously. Then she’d put the violin away until Andy Williams came out for another song, and out would come the violin.”