Originally published in 1983. Song has always been a natural way to record everyday experiences – an expression of celebration, commiseration, complaint and protest. This innovative book is a study of popular and working-class song combining several approaches to the subject. It is a history of working-class song in Britain which concentrates not simply on the songs and the singers but attempts to locate such song in its cultural context and apply principles of literary criticism to this essentially oral medium. It triggered controversy: some critics castigated its Marxist approach, others enthused that ‘such unabashed partisanship amply reveals the outstanding characteristic of Watson's book’. The author discusses the way in which the popular song, from Victorian times onwards, has been forced by the entertainment industry out of its roots in popular culture, to become a blander form of art with minimal critical potential. The book ends by considering the possibilities for a continued flourishing of a genuine popular song culture in an electronic age. It has become a standard title in bibliographies and curricula. Much has changed since 1983, not least in music; but this then innovative book still has a lot to say about popular song in its social and historical context.

Song and Democratic Culture in Britain: An Approach to Popular Culture in Social Movements

Arts & Photography

Ian WATSON

Music

Croom Helm, Ltd.

A collection of 29 horror short stories based on the central theme of superstition. The contributors include Ray Bradbury, Ramsey Campbell, Richard T. Chizmar, Jonathan Carroll, Pat Cadigan, Nancy A. Collins, Pauline E. Dungate, Christopher Fowler, Stephen Gallagher and Ed Gorman.

Narrow houses

Literature & Fiction

Robert Holdstock

Nicholas Royle

Nancy A. Collins

PAT CADIGAN

Darrell Schweitzer

Chet Williamson

Rick Hautala

Rex Miller

Ed. Gorman

Stephen Gallagher

Stephen Laws

Ray. Bradbury

Pauline E. Dungate

Genre Fiction

Little,Brown

Ace Books, 1978. Paperback, first American edition. In 22nd-century Africa, a young girl is selected by the Space Communications Administration, and will travel to the stars to communicate and exchange knowledge with their alien inhabitants.

Alien Embassy

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Science Fiction

Ace Books

Under Heaven's Bridge

<p>Although no one knows whether the Kybers are machines or living beings, Dr. Keiko Takihashi, ship's linguist, is determined to save some of them from the approaching nova of one of their planet's suns</p>

Michael Bishop

The Very Slow Time Machine

1st edition 1st printing paperback, vg++ In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

Corgi Childrens

Gollancz: 1977. First edition hardcover with dustjacket. In 22nd-century Africa, a young girl is selected by the Space Communications Administration, and will travel to the stars to communicate and exchange knowledge with their alien inhabitants.

Alien embassy

Victor Gollancz, Ltd.

The very slow time machine: Science fiction stories (Gollancz SF)

Victor Gollancz

Searching a mysterious planet for the colony founded by an earlier spaceship, the crew of the Schiaparelli discover a strange society that resembles Breugel's apocalyptic paintings

The gardens of delight

London experimenters condition a group of completely segregated orphans with an artificially implanted language, an Amazon Indian tribe employs hallucinatory powers against an American-Brazilian dam project, and the extraterrestrial Sp'thra seek to maintain their endangered communications systems

EMBEDDING, The

Fantasy

VGSF

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Books by Ian WATSON