Electric eden : unearthing Britain's visionary music

Rob Young's Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music is a seminal book on British music and cultural heritage, that spans the visionary classical and folk tradition from the nineteenth-century to the present day. 'A thoroughly enjoyable read and likely to remain the best-written overview for a long time.' GUARDIAN 'A perfectly timed, perfectly pitched alternative history of English folk music . . . wide-ranging, insightful, authoritative, thoroughly entertaining.' NEW STATESMAN 'A stunning achievement.' SIMON REYNOLDS 'A masterpiece.' CAUGHT BY THE RIVER 'Excellent . . . blissfully quotable.' NEW YORK TIMES 'An authoritative account.' THE TIMES 'Consistently absorbing.' INDEPENDENT 'An impassioned and infectious rallying cry of a book.' SUNDAY TIMES In this groundbreaking survey of more than a century of music making in the British Isles, Rob Young investigates how the idea of folk has been handed down and transformed by successive generations - song collectors, composers, Marxist revivalists, folk-rockers, psychedelic voyagers, free festival-goers, experimental pop stars and electronic innovators. In a sweeping panorama of Albion's soundscape that takes in the pioneer spirit of Cecil Sharp; the pastoral classicism of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Peter Warlock; the industrial folk revival of Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd; the folk-rock of Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, Shirley Collins, John Martyn and Pentangle; the bucolic psychedelia of The Incredible String Band, The Beatles and Pink Floyd; the acid folk of Comus, Forest, Mr Fox and Trees; The Wicker Man and occult folklore; the early Glastonbury and Stonehenge festivals; and the visionary pop of Kate Bush, Julian Cope and Talk Talk, Electric Eden maps out a native British musical voice that reflects the complex relationships between town and country, progress and nostalgia, radicalism and conservatism. An attempt to isolate the 'Britishness' of British music - a wild combination of pagan echoes, spiritual quest, imaginative time-travel, pastoral innocence and electrified creativity - Electric Eden will be treasured by anyone interested in the tangled story of Britain's folk music and Arcadian dreams. 'A treat.' TIME OUT 'Young is a fine writer.' MOJO 'Young's immense narrative is both educative and gripping.' UNCUT 'A multitudinous, fascinating and beautifully written account.' TLS Electric Eden Documents One Of The Great Untold Stories Of British Music Over The Past Century. While Ostensibly Purporting To Be A History Of That Much Derided (though Currently Fashionable) Four-letter Word, 'folk', Electric Eden Will Be A Magnificent Survey Of The Visionary, Topographic And Esoteric Impulses That Have Driven The Margins Of British Visionary Folk Music From Vaughan Williams And Holst To The Incredible String Band, Nick Drake, John Martyn And Aphex Twin. For The First Time The Full Story Of The Extraordinary Period Of Folk Rock From The Mid 1960s To The Mid 1970s Will Be Told In A Book With The Breadth Of A Social History Touching On Sonic Worship, Pagan Architecture, Land Art, Ley Lines And Ther Outer Fringes Of The Avant Garde. Electric Eden Identifies A Particularly English Wellspring Of Imagery And Imagination, An Undercurrent That Has Fed Into The Creative And Organic Strand Of Britain's Music Over The Past Century. From Edwardian Composers Assimilations Of Folk Song And Visionary Poetry, Via Folk Rock Of The 60s And 70s, The Story Is Brought Up To Date By Placing These Earlier Movements In A Continuum That Links Through Significant Figures In 21st Century Pastoral Electronica.