Leon Rosselson – Chronicling The Times
I’ve been at this too long – I thought this would be some elder statesman folk singer pontificating about every hardship since 1900. But his voice sounds like an older Noel Harrison (“Suzanne,” “Life Is a Dream” & “The Windmills of Your Mind”). He’s actually quite good. When I noticed the guitar on cut 1 “Song of the Old Communist,” was performed by the legendary Martin Carthy bells went off in my head.
It’s an old history with Communism, Lenin, Franco in Spain & Fascism but Leon Rosselson (vocal/guitar/piano) does it a good turn. He has that edge that makes people listen – the same kind of edge & determination the late Phil Ochs had. The 17 songs are a retrospective — previously recorded & released on earlier LPs. Chronicling The Times (Dropped Oct 27–PM Press/Free Dirt Records) is laid out in a neat 18-page stitched lyric insert the way Pete Seeger used to like it so everyone could sing along.
Track 2 has humor with Leon alone on guitar during “Stand Firm.” The tune would be a novelty song if it wasn’t so serious & clever. It’s a live recording made in 1964 & though it’s a protest song of the old guard it’s done with taste & sensibility. A little more mainstream in sound the well-recorded “Across the Hills,” features the superb voice of Liz Mansfield with Leon (guitar) & Martin Carthy. It’s typical English-based 60s folk music sung often at anti-nuclear events. But the performance sounds like something that gave birth to bands like Fairport Convention, Pentangle & Curved Air.
Billy Bragg (electric guitar) joins Leon along with one of my personal favorites the exciting Oyster Band on “Ballad of a Spycatcher,” (written in 1987) addressed Thatcher’s government’s censorship. Nothing really nasty because the song attacks with truth, is serious & humorous, it doesn’t embellish the issue. Rosselson has been a pivotal folk songwriter from England for over 60 years. The equivalent of Woody Guthrie, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, & Pete Seeger in America. A political satirist he possessed a versatile entertaining manner that was never biting though it had its teeth.
He’s well into his 80s now & his mark has been made. He created an oeuvre comparable to other social critics as the late Phil Ochs. These are his favorite 17.
This is protest folk with topical songs & satire – but it’s music that in some ways as Billy Bragg suggested is the embodiment of the original ideals of punk rock – I agree. The band Frank Tovey & the Pyros (“Grand Union”) CD has many songs that sound like they were influenced by Leon’s tunes like “The Ghost of Georges Brassens.” Some songs on this set are a little thin & dated because it’s only Leon with vocals & guitar recorded long ago. But several songs are powerful & rich, well-arranged, performed & highly influential.
Highlights – “Song of the Old Communist,” “Stand Firm,” “Across the Hills,” “Ballad of a Spycatcher,” “She Was Crazy, He Was Mad,” “Topside Down Party,” the exceptional “Postcards From Cuba,” “Bringing the News From Nowhere,” “Wo Sind Die Elefanten?” (Where Are the Elephants?), “World Turned Upside Down (Part 2)” & “Stand Up for Judas.”
Musicians – The Oysterband: Alan Prosser (electric guitar), John Jones (melodeon), Ian Kearney (electric bass), Ian Telfer (fiddle) & Russell Lax (percussion). With Adrian Mitchell (poet), Martin Carthy (guitar/rhythm, guitar/harmony vocals/drum), Fiz Shapur (keys/French horn/piano/trumpet), Paul Jayasinha & Howard Evans (trumpet), Frankie Armstrong, Roy Bailey & Ruth Rosselson (vocals), Roger Williams (trombone) & Miranda Sykes (bass).
B&W cover photo courtesy of Theo Michael. Good liner notes on the inner sleeve. The 78-minute CD @ https://leonrosselson.bandcamp.com/album/chronicling-the-times & https://leonrosselson.co.uk/