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Reviews for The World Turned Upside Down

Posted on February 12, 2012October 19, 2021 by admin

A selection of recent reviews for The World Turned Upside Down, Leon’s 4-CD boxed set. 

***** review in Songlines January 2012
“It’s the life work of of one of Britain’s finest contemporary writers – not just songwriters but writers in any form…. The World Turned Upside Down concludes with ‘The Power of Song’, to which this magnificent retrospective is a living testament.”

fRoots May 2012

“Sitting here with a four-CD boxed set, including an extensive booklet offering valuable insights into the whys and wherefores of it all…. you not only get the full benefit of his stinging satire , you get a sharp sense of the times for which they were written. This is a remarkable achievement for any songwriter, whether it’s the 17th century stories recounted in The World Turned Upside Down and Abiezer Coppe – sung so powerfully by Roy Bailey – to the modern follies depicted by the likes of They’re Going to Build a Motorway, Ballad of a Spycatcher and The Wall that Stands Between.

…a well-rounded picture of a remarkable artist who’s never taken his eyes off the ball even – or especially – when that ball is bouncing in a determinedly anti-popular direction.” 

Taplas January 2012
” …to my mind, one of the best songs ever written is Song of the Olive Tree, about the fate of a tree and the people of Palestine. It’s a song that is at once beautiful, depressing, anger-inducing and, finally, hopeful and inspiring.” 

Tykes News Winter 2011/2012 
“I’ve sung his children’s songs to my children (and other people’s children) and his grown-up’s songs to my grown-ups (and, more than likely, to other people’s grown-ups) and in the process of singing, have never ceased to marvel at the skill and care of Leon’s writing. We’ll not see his like again, even if we wait for fifty years…”

The Living Tradition May 2012
“And along with the 4 CDs (the first three covering the best of his output in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and the fourth the 90s/noughties) we have a quite magnificent liner booklet with nearly 80 pages of text and photos. Really informative text on the writing of each song, as there was no need to waste space filling it with song lyrics; if there is a better enunciator of song lyrics than Leon, then I’d like to know where that person is. Every word he sings is crystal clear. “

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This is my letter to the Guardian which it refused to publish though it had well over 100 signatories:

"Since Gaza is uninhabitable, because Israel has made it so, and since most of Gaza’s citizens are refugees or the children of refugees, because Israel has made them so, the only just and humane solution is for them to be allowed to return to their homes in what was Palestine until Israel usurped it. Another Great March of Return, only this time without the violence inflicted on the marchers by Israeli snipers."

Leon Rosselson is a singer, songwriter and children's book author.
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