A review by rzahradnik
Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World by Billy Bragg

4.0

Love Billy Bragg. Always wondered what a skiffle band was, since that's what the Beatles started as (the Quarryman). I come to learn, to my surprise, from this great pop culture history they were primitive guitar-based bands in Britain that played American roots music--Led Belly, Woody Guthrie. Excellent history of a critical link in the development of rock and roll that had been lost, at least to me until I read this book. Sometimes over detailed. I had to plow through a lot of names I didn't know. But worth it for the insights into what was happening in music in Britain, and to an extent, in the U.S. in 1950-1960.