Electric Eden

Just finished reading Electric Eden by Rob Young – ‘unearthing Britain's visionary music’. As a social document, it was a fascinating read, especially the earlier sections about Cecil Sharp, Arnold Bax and Vaughan Williams. As expected Fairport, Steeleye and Pentangle featured big time and all in all, it made you want to explore their work in more detail. I'm not sure I got the later connections where Talk Talk and David Sylvian were lumped in. I like their music but say something like Pulling Punches has no real links to Peggy Seeger as far as I can see. If you look at someone like Cate Le Bon, then I'd say she has much greater links to the druidic past - I kid you not. Anyway, that aside, it's a really enjoyable read which makes you dig out old albums or search the internet for tracks. The most mind-boggling for me were Dave and Toni Arthur. Toni, a legend in Play School circles, recorded a few albums with her then husband Dave. They were, shall we say, of a certain style and their album 'Harken to the Witches' Rune' was pretty intense. Not for the faint hearted, the vocals are probably the most up-front you'll ever here and I can't imagine anyone having the strength to listen to it all the way through on headphones. That said, any book that points you towards Davey Graham and Shirley Collins is alright by me. For those of a certain age, you do realise that in the 1960s, folk music was on the TV pretty regularly, even if it was the Spinners and Julie Felix. I'm off to live in a cottage with no heating and a stagnant well - it'll bring the Green Man out in me.

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