Category: oral literature

Song Man- Poetry and Music crossovers….

songman

I have just finished this book by Will Hodgkinson. A companion to his first tome ‘Guitar Man’ it pretty much what it says on the label. A series of encounters with various songwriters underpinning his first and possibly last recorded work being recorded at Liam Watson’s Toe Rag studios and then released as a 7″ single.

A charming book. As my drunken Rockabilly band also recorded at Liam’s Toe Rag as did a unheard of garage band called The White Stripes everything described rings true. I found the encounters with Andy Partridge, Chip Taylor and Richard Hawley the most engrossing and could possibly have done with more from their interviews.

Overall a worthwhile read if interested in songwriters and the un-pleasantries of trying to form and keep together a band. The final encounter with Shirley Collins and a brief reprise of Bert Jansch leads directly nicely onto his next book ‘ The Ballad of Britain’ which next on my reading list.

Most interestingly the musicians comments were quite pertinent to my writers block with poetry/prose. I found Hawley most entertaining with his comments where he quotes Hendrix..’learn everything, forget everything, play’...and how other people’s music ‘knocked him off his radar‘…..

Overheard: The Anthology – Oral Literature?

9781907773266frcvr.indd

http://www.saltpublishing.com/shop/proddetail.php?prod=9781907773266

Yesterday we were treated to a fine reading from selected authors in Jonathan Taylor’s 2013 anthology ‘Overheard’ as part of the Nottingham Festival of Words.

David Belbin, Claire Baldwin and editor Jonathan taylor himself read their stories and there was a brief discussion afterwards where Jonathan’s comments tallied nicely with neglected English Short Story master A.E.Coppard’s foreward to his Collected Stories from 1951. I have scanned the introduction and images below.

coppard1coppard2

 

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