A. L. Lloyd (1908–1982)

My third copy of this book...

This is one of the seminal books produced by the '2nd Folk revival', originally published in 1967.

See an earlier review of my second copy of this book.

Some regard the book as suffering a little from Lloyds tendencies to pepper his writing with (mild) left
wing bias, too many East European examples, a little romanticism regarding his own biography and an
inclination to re-write songs to fit the situation in which he found himself (singing, writing, radio production).

All of this may be true, but this is still a damn good book and the EFDSS have done a good job by
re-publishing it.… (mere)

The late Bert Lloyd was an important figure in the English Folk Revival of the Sixties - and earlier - and later!

I first encountered his whimsical and individual style in a Radio 3 programme (it may even still have been
The Third Programme!), entitled 'Albanian Folk Music' which I listened to out of curiosity. The music wasn't
for me, but the style of the presenter was!

A few years later, I became interested in 'folk music' (and in the beer which was almost invariably served at
such venues), and I was privileged to see Bert perform on a couple of occasions. Wonderful stuff!

When 'Folk Song In England' was published a few years later, I bought a copy and it was so good that when
I started playing the concertina recently, I realised that I needed the book to refresh my memory on modal
tunes. I am not an expert in musical theory, but a slight working knowledge of modes is very handy for a
budding folk musician.

Disaster! I couldn't find the book so I had to buy a second-hand copy, and re-reading it the second time around
merely confirms what a first rate book this is.… (mere)