This song from 2013 borrows its title from Nicholas Barton's book and celebrates the network of waterways hidden below the modern city of London. The facts are more complex, not all the 'lost' rivers are always lost, the River Wandle at Morden Hall Park, for example, being very visible, and beautiful. Here, the Lost Rivers do service as metaphor for the survival of our common heritage of traditional music.

The Lost Rivers Of London

Inspired by a visit to Greenwich, on a day in May 2009. From the top of the Hill, by the Observatory, the radomness of white blossom falling from the trees and of people sitting and playing in scattered groups seemed to contrast with the certainty of the River and the Meridian.

From Greenwich Hill

Two songs from the 1976 album, The Beggar and the Sand, recorded as a single track. I was in Manchester doing Social Work training when I encountered the bleak north of city estate, Collyhurst. Colin Foster's lovely violin playing enhances the move to waltz time in the second song. The picture is of the original sleeve. Many years later, copies of this one changed hands for £100s as 'rare vinyl'.

Collyhurst Hill And City Limits

Our daughters lived for a few years in the south London suburb of Tooting and I grew to love the vibrant, mutli-racial community there and the pubs and restaurants where we drank and dined. No moon, so here's a picnic on Tooting Common.

Tooting Moon

This one is from 1972 and has allusions to the Greek myth of Icarus, a cautionary tale warning against hubris. But somehow the ''wise other' in my song is Joseph, not Daedalus, father of Icarus in the Greek original. It is the closing track on my Beautiful Islands.

Never Lose Your Soul In The Sunshine

A song from 1978, the sea serving as metaphor.

A Sea Too Sad To Care

For a certain generation (of which I am one)the Shipping Forecast was  a familiar litany though one of little relevance to the landlubbing majority. I suppose these days with forecasts readily available from anywhere at any time the Shipping Forecast has less importance. All the more reason for celebrating it in a song.

The Shipping Forecast Song

The Best Of Me

Bright Balloons

A song about the first snowman in our Katie's life, 35 and a half years ago. A tribute to the late Raymond Briggs whose life came to an end on 9th August 2022.  Surely there is a little of his Snowman in my song.

The Snowman

A half serious satirical take on the strange world of Facebook and other soial media applications. As an 'older' person, it is all a bit bewildering.

Facebookland

A tongue-in-cheek jest at the world of social media.

The song gives a voice to Dr Kurt Reuber, a German army medic and chaplain who drew the charcoal image known as the Stalingrad Madonna, during the Basttle of Stalingrad, in December 1942. My picture is a copy of the original which is now in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin. Reuber was taken prisoner and died i ncaptivity in Russia.

The Stalingrad Madonna

This Sound Cloud page is linked to my website.  Here you will find information about me and my song-making, some on-line video content plus physical media for sale and a Contact Form.  Just click on the Atkinsongs link below.

Dave Atkinson, Songmaker

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