New releases from Public Image Ltd, William Basinski, John Luther Adams
The Electric Muse Revisited
Engrossing account of an era when the crossover between folk and rock began
Electric Muse pic: Roy Harper
[Man Alive/Creative Commons]
Banksy’s identity may have been published – but was the investigation in the public interest, asks PETER BENGTSEN
RON JACOBS recommends a book that charts the disparate circumstances that defined the lives of two prominent black Afro-Americans — one a communist, the other an anti-communist
CHRIS MOSS joins the hunt in Argentina for the works of Poland’s most enigmatic exile
SYLVIA HIKINS welcomes a survey of successful contemporary worker co-operatives and economy-based co-operative systems
DAVID NICHOLSON recommends the staging of this Wagnerian classic minus one or two insignificant quibbles
THE ORIGINAL Electric Muse was written by Karl Dallas (Melody Maker), Dave Laing (Let It Rock), Robert Shelton (New York Times) and Robin Denselow (The Guardian) and published in 1975.
It traced British folk music from its mid-1960s revival up till the mid-1970s. Sadly, only Denselow is alive to see its significantly updated publication accompanied by a wonderful 4-CD box set.
Its early chapters compare the 1960s British folk boom with the US, where folk music consisted of Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Hank Williams, Pete Seeger, Johnny Cash, Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan and The Byrds — not forgetting the 1920s and ‘30s musicians who recorded hillbilly, blues and gospel, music that Rolling Stone columnist Greil Marcus called “old weird America.”
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