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Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music (2010)

by Rob Young(Favorite Author)

4.1 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0571237525 (ISBN13: 9780571237524)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Faber & Faber

review 1: Wonderful book -- Young situates British folk music of the 60s and 70s in a larger context -- Romantic nostalgia for the countryside, the resurgence of British concert music with figures like Vaughan Williams and Delius, and the exploration of pagan traditions. He is sensitive to the powerful spiritual weirdness of albums like Fairport Convention's Leige and Leif, and sees how important that was to 60s culture in general and how connected that was to (in my view if not his) debased forms such as Led Zeppelin. It is a valuable guide to that whole family of genres, full of good recommendations for your Spotify pleasure. I also appreciate Young's sensitivity to how "authenticity" -- whether in music, lyrics, or spiritual traditions, is an amorphous and elusive notion -- wh... moreich does not entail that there is no continuity by which people in the present cannot connect with the past and reach into the future. The book drags a bit -- but skimming is permitted -- and I would have placed the emphases differently -- his tracing of post-punk Arcadian elements in British music is somewhat idiosyncratic -- I would have had a totally different focus, but the book is strongly recommended.
review 2: a reasonably good book about the history of folk and folk-rock music in the united kingdom. unfortunately, i found parts of the book to be downright tedious, and at over 600 pages, it was just too long. so i basically skipped through the last 100 pages or so. having said that, the book would definitely be of some interest to fans of that kind of music. and there are some great bands...fairport convention, pentangle and steeleye span, to name just a few. and there is a very useful discography at the end of the book, which lists the key albums from the uk folk genre. less

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