 | | Reviews | | |  MICHAEL BROCKEN
The British Folk Revival 1944-2002
Ashgate, Hardback £47.50 ISBN 07546 3281 4; Paperback £15.99 ISBN 07546 3282 2
It is precisely a century since Cecil Sharp heard his gardener, the aptly-named John England, singing a folk song: an event which led, in turn, to Sharp becoming the pre-eminent annotator and collector of the British folk tradition.
However, like many of us born in the second half of the twentieth century, Michael Brocken's introduction to traditional English folk music came courtesy of Americans like Bob Dylan and The Byrds. Even that genuinely seminal folk-rock fusion Liege & Lief, though recorded by the thoroughly English Fairport Convention, owed as much to the influence of The Band as to the scholarship of Cecil Sharp.
To those who arrived at folk music via the '60s revival, it seemed initially that the most arresting lyrics were accompanied by acoustic guitars. Only on delving deeper did we discover that Scarborough Fair was not a Paul Simon original, and that everyone - from Led Zeppelin to Elvis Costello - had at least sipped from the folk tankard.
But schisms appeared almost immediately: how could any original composition be considered a folk song? Why should British folk clubs give floor space - literally! - to those who didn't sing authentic material? Forty years on, the debate still rages: authenticity versus popularity; tradition against adaptation. And the result - now, as then - is increased polarisation.
Today, with a genuine pop culture extending back half a century and the internet to disseminate information, the barriers should be more blurred. But sadly, folk is still regarded by many as a solitary outpost on the far frontiers of popular music.
Any study of the Folk Revival is to be welcomed, and Brocken certainly covers the waterfront: Topic Records, skiffle, the English Folk Dance & Song Society, Workers' Music Association, Fairport … But, ultimately, however rigorous the analysis, he somehow misses the heart of the story.
This book began as a PhD thesis, and its roots in academia are all too obvious. Even after bypassing chapter headings such as "Towards Post War Utopianism…", the reader soon becomes immersed in academic jargon: "This chapter will attempt to examine the socio-cultural constructions surrounding the uses of folk music… and, in doing so, will contextualise (and thus question) sectarian folk-versus-popular dichotomies."
There is a terrific book waiting to be written about this inspiring and enduring music, but Brocken's tome, though worthy, has fallen into a familiar trap: his painstakingly thorough examination - rather than bringing this lively and vibrant form of music to life - has rendered it sadly flat and lifeless.
What is so immensely moving and involving about folk music - whether sung unaccompanied or amplified - is the power of the material, and of the tradition. But the truth is that Britain remains ashamed of its folk music. Nowadays, fewer and fewer songs are written about Britain or British history, and those that are tend, almost exclusively, to be harshly critical, ironic or apologetic.
Which is why a book which not only chronicles but celebrates that music cries out to be written. Bob Dylan nailed it: "There's nobody that's going to kill traditional music. All those songs about roses growing out of people's brains and lovers who are really geese… they're not going to die!"
Details of this and other titles in Ashgate's Popular And Folk Music Series can be seen at their website.
Patrick Humphries - December 2003
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 I have not read "The British Folk Revival 1944-2002", but, knowing how much completely erroneous tripe has been written so far, and is repeated and then copied and repeated again, I feel I already know just what this book will contain.
With a background of five generations of folk practitioners and performers in my family, I started collecting, recording and broadcasting folk music in Britain in the very year of 1944 that Michael Brocken thinks the Revival began, and I was one of the main protagonists for a Post-War or Second Revival. There may be much to write about the subject but the real folk music, passed on by word of mouth, still lies with the unsung, with the people who daily and, especially nightly, are re-creating it and not with the short-lived "names" who are its exploiters, those who call themselves "folkies", and I would say that, until folks discover what this thing is, then the revival is still in its infancy. 2002 may be the year our man decided the Second Revival had ended, but perhaps it will prover to be the very year that it began. Wait till we discover the wonderful manifestations of cultural heritage that are just beginning to come to light across the globe.
Peter Kennedy, Gloucester City
"The British Folk Revival 1944-2002", is an academic work, by what I assume is a sociologist attempting to place aspects of human activity into neat boxes. The point he completely misses is that there is an extensive reperatoire dating back at least 600 years. Certainly there was a significant change in the '60s, but he doesnlt seem to acknowledge the advance of technology, amplification, new instruments, irish bouzouki, influences such as the blues and rock and roll. However, the single reason that this music is so powefull, is not the "social" context but that it has been honed over the centuries and expreses how people feel in the bad times and at times of celebration. Yet another dusty academic who doesn't seem to realise that when "summer is a cumin in" very little in terms of CDs and TV was available.
Neil Scott, York | | | | | | |  |
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Folk & Acoustic
