Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music

Rob Young’s book Electric Eden [reviewed in #73] surveyed the British folk tradition in the 20th century and this double set puts its focus on the ‘strange folk’ that came in the wake of psychedelia, American West Coast rock, and Fairport Convention’s Liege and album. Some of the artists here are potent cults, such as Trees and Comus, and they’re set alongside famous names like Fairport, Albion Band, Traffic, Bert Jansch, Steeleye, John Martyn and Nick Drake. It’s divided into Acoustic’ and ‘Electric,’ and Peter Bellamy opens the acoustic side with ‘Oak Ash and Thorn’ (the title-track of a recent, and excellent contemporary tribute to Bellamy). Traffic’s ‘John Barleycorn Must Die’ follows, while Jansch’s ‘Waggoner’s Lad’ has a riff remarkably close to Led Zep’s later ‘Gallow’s Pole’. Fairport’s haunting ‘Stranger to Himself’ is as stunning as ever and, amongst these well-known tracks, you’ll find Archie Fisher’s sitar -driven ‘Reynardine,’ Comus’ folkish freak-out ‘Diana’ and Sweeney’s Men with the racing ‘Pipe on the Hob.’

Electric Eden opens with Richard Thompson’s ‘Roll Over Vaughan Williams,’ and there’s Fairport’s ‘A Sailor’s Life’ – one of the greatest recordings of the 1960s, that grows stronger and stranger over time. I don’t see the point of including Bowie’s ‘Black Country Rock,’ but it’s there. The focus is on the late 60s and early 70s – a period when musical freedoms ran rampant. The only gripe is, what about the electrification of Eden in the 21st century? How about a third disc featuring the likes of Alasdair Roberts, Lisa Knapp, Sam Lee, Duotone, or O’Hooley & Tidow? Britain’s visionary music-making is very much still alive with the same urge to experiment and amalgamate. But for a choice pick of some classic and rare recordings from the rock era of the 20th century, this is hard to beat.