Originally published in 1983. This innovative book is a history of working-class song in Britain which concentrates not simply on the songs and the singers but attempts to locate such song in its cultural context and apply principles of literary criticism to this essentially oral medium. Song and Democratic Culture was published in a binary, Cold-War world and triggered controversy. While some critics castigated its Marxist approach, others enthused that 'such unabashed partisanship amply reveals the outstanding characteristic of Watson's book' (Janet Oppenheim, American Historical Review). Singer and musicologist Sam Richards praised it as 'a polemical, even missionary book' (Folk Music Journal). Dick Gaughan championed the author's case for 'a consistent and workable aesthetic based on a class view of folk music'; and it was Gaughan and Billy Bragg who were motivated to rearrange and record 'The Red Flag' with its original folk tune, to challenge Watson's hypothesis on labour and 'dignified' chorus music (p.216).