sandy denny
Posted by: Andy1912 on 13 July 2010
Someone (I think ROTF) recently posted on Sandy Denny and Strawbs singing Who knows where the time goes. So, I have been doing some research on her, and I am wondering which LP that she has been involved with people who know better than me would recommend (Sandy Denny/Strawbs/Fotheringay/Fairport Convention?
Thanks for your thoughts
Andy
Thanks for your thoughts
Andy
Sandy Denny is one of the greatest figures ever to enter the folk rock scene - I think only Shirley Collins could claim to be a more influential and important person in the revival of folk music in the UK than Sandy and Shirley is far too modest for that.
Sandy died tragically young - she was a great singer. I would recommended her amazing debut on
Although Dave Cousins (no bad thing) contributes many of the songs on this album and it is not recorded at perfect pitch; it does contain Sandy in great form and the first studio outing of probably the greatest contemporary song ever written Who Knows Where The Time Goes. I love Kate Rusby's work, but she isn't Sandy Denny, and I don't think even Kate at her best can match the impact of Sandy on this elpee.
Sandy joined Fairport for their second album - Fairport's first featured Judy Dyble and is thoroughly recommended as it is one the sixty's great elpees, especially as the latest re-master contains the debut single Ribbon Bow. But this thread is about Sandy.
What We Did On Our Holidays is a fine fine album. Some great tracks by Richard Thompson and Sandy's vocal. She wrote the opening track - the haunting Fotheringay.
Unhalfbricking is the follow-up and a natural progression for the Fairport Convention. It is more English in its approach and contains two Sandy gems Autopsy and the Fairport Convention's version of Who Knows Where The Time Goes. Sandy also contributes to the arrangements on other tracks such as the epic Sailor's Tale which is a landmark track.
Enough has been written about Liege and Lief and only by listening to it can one fully appreciate just how good this album is. It is better and more significant than many often touted great albums and it deserves inclusion in anybody's desert island disks. Sandy contributes Come All Ye as well as lead vocals throughout. Dave Swarbrick is on board on his fiddle. If you haven't got this buy it.
However, don't stop there .... Sandy left the Fairports and formed Fotheringay - Sandy leads everything and wrote 5 of the songs.
After which she went solo and ... well continued to make great albums ... The North Star Grassman and the Ravens is a beautiful elpee and is every bit as good as anything Fairport made save possibly Liege. Just listen to Late November - what an inspired song.
Which brings me to the best album of the lot .... an album entitled Sandy
Of course you could ignore my plea to listen to this album and you could continue happily through life without hearing one of the greatest collection of songs and the greatest singing ever committed to vinyl. Well I'm bound to be controversial, but forget all those so called great female singers and listen to this - nobody does it better. Whether the genre be classical, jazz or pop Sandy's performance is in a different class.
So if you only want to buy one album by Sandy then buy Sandy - this is an incredible record and the template for many a singer songwriter and for those it is not it should be. I'm not silly enough to say this is as good as anything released by Dylan, Cohen or Mitchell, it is much better than that (and I love the music of all three of those). This is as good as MCC at her best, this is up there with Folk Roots New Routes and Anthems in Eden, it is that good.
The follow up Like an Old Fashioned Waltz is not as good as Sandy - it is not a bad record and neither is her return to the Fairport's with 1975's Rising for the Moon nor her next solo effort Rendezvous.
If you want an anthology then No More Sad Refrains is great. It covers Sandy's career from Fairport onwards.
However, my favourite collection is yet to come
In October we should see the release of a 19 CD set containing Sandy's complete studio recordings with Alex Campbell, Johnny Silvo, Fotheringay, Strawbs, Fairport Convention and solo and 8 CDs worth of live recordings and previously unreleased material. Well this may be extreme, but it is definitive and you get the assembled works of one of the three greatest singers ever recorded (Shirley and Annie Haslam are the other two).
Yes I'm OTT, but you are asking about one of Britain's national treasurers - 'The Lady' Alexandra Elene MacLean Lucas (Sandy Denny) 6.1.47 - 21.4.78.
Sandy died tragically young - she was a great singer. I would recommended her amazing debut on
Although Dave Cousins (no bad thing) contributes many of the songs on this album and it is not recorded at perfect pitch; it does contain Sandy in great form and the first studio outing of probably the greatest contemporary song ever written Who Knows Where The Time Goes. I love Kate Rusby's work, but she isn't Sandy Denny, and I don't think even Kate at her best can match the impact of Sandy on this elpee.
Sandy joined Fairport for their second album - Fairport's first featured Judy Dyble and is thoroughly recommended as it is one the sixty's great elpees, especially as the latest re-master contains the debut single Ribbon Bow. But this thread is about Sandy.
What We Did On Our Holidays is a fine fine album. Some great tracks by Richard Thompson and Sandy's vocal. She wrote the opening track - the haunting Fotheringay.
Unhalfbricking is the follow-up and a natural progression for the Fairport Convention. It is more English in its approach and contains two Sandy gems Autopsy and the Fairport Convention's version of Who Knows Where The Time Goes. Sandy also contributes to the arrangements on other tracks such as the epic Sailor's Tale which is a landmark track.
Enough has been written about Liege and Lief and only by listening to it can one fully appreciate just how good this album is. It is better and more significant than many often touted great albums and it deserves inclusion in anybody's desert island disks. Sandy contributes Come All Ye as well as lead vocals throughout. Dave Swarbrick is on board on his fiddle. If you haven't got this buy it.
However, don't stop there .... Sandy left the Fairports and formed Fotheringay - Sandy leads everything and wrote 5 of the songs.
After which she went solo and ... well continued to make great albums ... The North Star Grassman and the Ravens is a beautiful elpee and is every bit as good as anything Fairport made save possibly Liege. Just listen to Late November - what an inspired song.
Which brings me to the best album of the lot .... an album entitled Sandy
Of course you could ignore my plea to listen to this album and you could continue happily through life without hearing one of the greatest collection of songs and the greatest singing ever committed to vinyl. Well I'm bound to be controversial, but forget all those so called great female singers and listen to this - nobody does it better. Whether the genre be classical, jazz or pop Sandy's performance is in a different class.
So if you only want to buy one album by Sandy then buy Sandy - this is an incredible record and the template for many a singer songwriter and for those it is not it should be. I'm not silly enough to say this is as good as anything released by Dylan, Cohen or Mitchell, it is much better than that (and I love the music of all three of those). This is as good as MCC at her best, this is up there with Folk Roots New Routes and Anthems in Eden, it is that good.
The follow up Like an Old Fashioned Waltz is not as good as Sandy - it is not a bad record and neither is her return to the Fairport's with 1975's Rising for the Moon nor her next solo effort Rendezvous.
If you want an anthology then No More Sad Refrains is great. It covers Sandy's career from Fairport onwards.
However, my favourite collection is yet to come
In October we should see the release of a 19 CD set containing Sandy's complete studio recordings with Alex Campbell, Johnny Silvo, Fotheringay, Strawbs, Fairport Convention and solo and 8 CDs worth of live recordings and previously unreleased material. Well this may be extreme, but it is definitive and you get the assembled works of one of the three greatest singers ever recorded (Shirley and Annie Haslam are the other two).
Yes I'm OTT, but you are asking about one of Britain's national treasurers - 'The Lady' Alexandra Elene MacLean Lucas (Sandy Denny) 6.1.47 - 21.4.78.
I don't think it was Sandy's best ever - I think it was Led Zeppelin's best ever - IMHO being Sandy's backing band was the pinnacle for the Strawbs, Fairport Convention and Led Zeppelinquote:Originally posted by munch:
I dont know if it was her best ever? but it has to be up there as a all time great vocal work.
Stu
I like all three of those bands of course - doesn't everybody?
I'd have like to have heard more of Led Zeppelin backing Sandy.
Nearly all my favourite singers are female - Shirley, Sandy, Annie, Melanie, Karine, Basia, Chapin, Kate, Polly, Celia, Mary, Joni, Lucinda, Loreena, Angie, Sonja, Judy, Vashti, Dusty, Petula, Grace, Rachel, Jackie, Cara, Laura, Gracie, Tori, Florence .... the list goes on.