The Sound of History: Songs and Social Comment

Part anthology, part social history, this book explores the relationship between popular song and the events in Britain over the last 400 years that rise to it. On subjects as diverse as crime, war, love, disarmament, politics, and industry, song has always been a vehicle for the expression of popular feeling, often as the voice of the minority or oppressed. Concentrating on the overlapping categories of oral songs, street ballads, and the work of singer/songwriters who employ a traditional idiom, the book presents fifty-four songs in full (forty with music), quotations from many others, a bibliography and discography, and numerous illustrations including facsimile ballads, engravings, and photographs of contemporary scenes.