Pip Proud – "Adreneline & Richard" (International Polydor Production – LPHM-108) 1968

Resembling,as well as sounding like the mythical fourth Shagg. Proud Australian Philip Proud's debut album from the hippie era has very little to do with Adrenaline,even though it appears in the title; but has more in common with an anesthetic. Yeah, he can't sing,has a speech impediment,wears glasses like the bottom of a couple of beer glasses,can't play a guitar or write songs!?...not a good start for a wannabe hippie troubadour who seems to walk around in a bin-bag?.....but gimmie that anyday rather than the bore fest forced on us by any of those trendy 'singer-songwriters' from Laurel Canyon back in '68 (Judee Sill excepted by the way)......excuse me ,a bit of sick just came up into my mouth.

Whereas, Pip could have come from Stan Laurel Canyon, if it ever existed? For the hundreds, if not thousands of acoustic waving folk singer wannabees from the sixties and seventies who were just plain Awful!....not all of them were funny though,so this is why Pip stands out from the crowd of long-hair earnest strummers so much...he's fucking hilarious.Unintentionally so,but funny enough for us to still listen to this terrible dross to this day. His name will be name-dropped at hipster coffee shop get togethers,where they will stroke their beards in appreciation,....and that's just the women.He's played at Outsider Art appreciation evenings alongside the mighty Shaggs,Wesley Willis,The legendary Stardust Cowboy,and the other outsider legends that make our failed lives seem like a raging sucess. Yeah, we need these losers to make ourselves feel good, but it isn't your lost album we're playing is it? Your poetry doesn't get read out at Hipster beat soirée's does it? Oh No!...So who's the loser now eh?

Philip may no longer exist upon this mortal coil (RIP) to unveil his latest work,and he did continue making his idea of what music is well into the new millenium;but he lives on in the form of black plastic disc's,binary codes,and magnetic waves,which is a remarkable turn around for something that we all should acknowledge is patently complete rubbish as modern standards dictate......but, Fuck that shit and Fuck their modern standards.

It's funny too.

But not as funny as Mike Leigh's "Nuts In May",which includes Pip's female equivalent, Candice-Marie,who has an uncannily similar voice. 

Tracklist:

A1 Adreneline And Richard 2:25
A2 The Tennis Player 3:38
A3 There Was Melancholy 3:58
A4 Latin Version 2:12
A5 Into Elizabeth's Eyes (To Mother Whilst Dying) 4:32
A6 Sounds 3:40
B1 Purple Boy Gang 2:20
B2 De Da De Dum 2:34
B3 When Each Descends 2:18
B4 We Crossed The Atlantic 3:07
B5 The Old Servant 6:32
B6 Laughter And Laughter 2:21

DOWNLOAD the opposite of adrenaline HERE!

Pip Proud – "A Bird In The Engine" (International Polydor Production – LPHM-109) 1969

When the land mass of Australia broke away from Pangaea a billion years ago, the isolation led directly to the evolution of the marsupial . Then in the sixties,the cultural isolation directly led to the evolution of Pip Proud. A self-described singer-songwriter, poet, novelist and dramatist....when in fact he was shite at all of these vocations.....it's another way of saying I'm a lazy fucker and I ain't gonna work.No one can prove that a poet isn't working on his next 'poem',even when it looks like lying down. Not that this lisping tone deaf myopic missing Shaggs member was employable in any way.The fool who signed him to Polydor could not have even met Pip,or heard him in action until it was too late. To think that he could have been Australia's answer to Donovan,was a miscalculation of decca-esque proportions!? Whoever it was must have been sacked.Its the opposite to the prat who rejected the Beatles for Decca......having said that I would have done the same if i'd heard Love Me Do....but certainly signed Pip Proud,looking from a twenty first century perspective therein.

Pip's output, is often compared with Syd Barratt's solo work,of which Philip denied all knowledge;but this stuff makes Syd sound like more like Wagner rather than the acid casualty we know he was.Worse news for Pip is that Syd Obviously had a talent for songwriting,something no-one could say about Pip. 

Pip's song's are constructed along the same lines as The Shaggs first album,as if he had been locked away from any music in a cupboard for 18 years,then let out to make his impression of what music should like to someone who has never heard any.It's no coincidence that he even looks like the mythical fourth Shagg.There are no verses or chorus's as such,with the droning guitar chord sequences strummed in a barely conscious stream of hazy unconsciousness kind of way. His pronounced lisp is not only charming,but adds that seed of a doubt whether this is all just another of those 21st century fake band Jokes,recorded by a comedian taking the piss out of Sixties Folkies, and record collecting saddo's.....it's hilarious either way....especially if it turns out that pip Proud was actually Real!?

Something he does actually share with Syd Barratt, is his wavering time keeping,exacerbated by his glaring tone deafness.

Of course there are those who hail this work as the product of undiscovered genius,and take it deadly seriously.....Maybe I'm the idiot who got it wrong? I sincerely doubt it, but whatever is the truth of the matter, this record is fucking hilarious.

Pip does actually sound uncannily like Candice-Marie from BBC drama classic "Nuts In May" by Mike Leigh (1976)

Check out Candice's protest song(click the embedded video) that plays over the end credits. If you haven't seen it,you have never lived...you can right this dreadful wrong by watching the whole thing by clicking HERE!

Tracklist:

A1 Marie
A2 Hey Sue
A3 A Fraying Space
A4 She Says To Me
A5 She Dwindles Her Fingers
A6 A Bird In The Engine
B1 Eagle-Wise
B2 French Girls
B3 Vida
B4 There Is No Rest
B5 Nancy
B6 Lover, Lover

DOWNLOAD a cuckoo flying over the engine HERE!

Morris On - "Morris On" (Island Records – HELP 5) 1972

 

No, not a lost album by Jim Morrison as channeled by a nutter from beyond the grave. It's an album of Morris dancing jigs and reels as performed by a Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span,plus Barry Dransfield super group...that's them nutty fellows pictured in their off duty relaxation gear on the cover.

The brainchild of Ashley Hutchings,this is a funked up version of some of the tunes that the Morris Men dance to, evoking the sex gods to make these dancing lunatics fertile around human mating time.So crank up the volume, and make ready your pigs bladder,polish the bells that adorn your legs and prance around like an idiot with a handkerchief and some sticks....among other questionable acts.There's quite a few tunes that are rather rude,so you have been warned.

It sounds like the lads, plus Shirley Collins,seem to be having a jolly fine time anyway.So much so that there were several sequels to this LP over the decades,starting with "Son Of Morris On"......noooo not Jim Morrison's secret son!Although I do know someone who did actually father a child after he was dead. He finally succumbed to his fifth heart attack,but his girlfriend had insisted that his spunk should be frozen for future use...post mortem. Thankfully we won't have to suffer any surprise kids by the stiff Jim Morrison,and the potential threat of more terrible poetry springing forth from the snake king's DNA helix.Dare I suggest that death may well be preferable,unless a hell exists beyond the one we are in now,in which we are taunted by Jim Morrison's "An American Prayer" for eternity plus one.....and don't forget, Suicide is no longer an option when you are already dead.

Tracklist:

A1 Morris Call
A2 Greensleeves
A3 The Nutting Girl
A4 Old Woman Tossed Up In A Blanket / Shepherd's Hey / Trunkles
A5 Staines Morris
A6 Lads A'Bunchum / Young Collins
B1 Vandals Of Hammerwich
B2 Willow Tree / Bean Setting / Shooting
B3 I'll Go And 'List For A Sailor
B4 Princess Royal
B5 Cuckoo's Nest
B6 Morris Off

DOWNLOAD morrison's ghost HERE!

Spriguns Of Tolgus – "Jack With A Feather" (Alida Star – ASC 7755) 1971

Another pale blue off the shelf standard jacket,and another Fairport Convention emulator,and every line-up of Fairport and Steeleye Span is represented,but all on one LP. 

Noticed that an original copy of this private pressing is up for sale on Discogs for a very reasonable four grand!?....does anyone actually pay these prices? How they can look at themselves in the mirror I'll never understand.Sorry African children you'll have to continue to die horribly of disease and hunger 'cus I just bought a Spriguns Of Tolgus original pressing for Four grand! Luckily for us mentally normal persons there exists Cd's that we can rip and distribute to the poor, Robin Hood style.

It's not bad musically, but when a disc is judged mainly for its rarity rather than quality,it can cloud certain person's vision. They did however get signed to a proper record label on the basis of this,and now enjoy a 'cult' following in Scandinavia,which is what we all dream of in our nascent adolescent pop stardom fantasies is it not?

The band photo's on the cover are rather amusing anyway,dressed up as knights, wizards and jesters.....which ,may I suggest, should be made compulsory for at least one day a month during the full moon?

On later records,they did get darker,and so should it be.

Listen carefully for Singer Mandy Morton's Bongo's.

Tracklist:

1.Lambton Worm
2.Let No Man Steal Your Thyme
3.Derby Ram
4.Jigs:Rakes Of Malo / St. Patrick's Day / Ten Penny Bit
5.Flodden Field
6.Troopers Nag

7.Curragh Of Kildare
8.Keys Of Canterbury
9.Twa Magicians
10.Seamus The Showman
11.Barren Banks Of Aden

DOWNLOAD and pay no less than zero quid HERE!

Gallery – "The Wind That Shakes The Barley" (Midas Recordings – MFHR 046) 1972

On the aptly named Midas label.Anyone who touches this turns it into gold.Fetching up to a grand for this Folk Wave long missing pastel blue progressive folk rarity.

A lot of these independent releases seemed to go for the pastel shade jacket around 1972 to '76.....obviously it was either cheap,or it was a take it or leave it situation.

Of course, I don't own an original copy.If I did it'd be straight to eBay. However, as with most bands from rediscovered genres, it got a re-released version,adding some bonus home-recordings, which are included here for all you rabid Gallery-ettes out there...of which I'm sure there are dozens?

Tracklist:

1 Seven Gypsies 2:54
2 False Bridge 4:36
3 Queen Of Hearts 3:45
4 Gilderoy/Staten Island/Harvest Home 22:36
5 Let No Man Steal Your Thyme 2:28
6 Dowie Dens Of Yarrow 4:03
7 The Wind That Shakes The Barley 4:22
8 Broomfield Wager 2:46
9 Chaconne 2:58
10 The Baron Of Brackley 4:27
11 Icy Acres 5:01
12 Home Recordings 20:06

DOWNLOAD a folk art gallery HERE!

Fresh Maggots – "Fresh Maggots... Hatched" (Sunbeam Records – SBR2LP5002) 1971

 It wasn't the Punx who first sang about life on the Dole (unemployment Benefit) apparently?Among a lot of other traits that they shared with earlier times,like all those ridiculous 'Punk before Punk' groups that get discovered everyday,just to put that to bed,Punk Rock only existed when it had a name,which was basically all it was about musically,but there were some good clothes at least;unlike the Hippies. Two of which can be heard on this sunk without trace Psychedelic Folk monster from 1971,singing about The Dole...among other topics, including anti-war and anti-monarchy tunes.

This Nuneaton#(UK) based pair  obviously heard The Incredible String Band,and Donovan,and realised just a couple of acoustic guitars and a penny whistle could possibly get them on the Hippie Folk bandwagon,and maybe, able to sign off the Dole? This may have occurred, but by 1972 they were back on the Dole after failing to shift enough units to make a second album economically viable..... a familiar tale.

#The Home town of the great Larry Grayson if anyone's interested.So its very possible that the good Larry would have heard Fresh Maggots at some point while walking up and down Nuneaton high street.I can just imagine he,Slack Alice, Non-Stick Nell,Apricot Lil and Once a Week Nora, standing at the back of the hall while the Maggots were going off on one. Any late comers would have been swiftly advised to "Shut that Door!"......just don't tell Everard for christs sake!

Ooooh look at the muck in 'ere!

Tracklist:

A1 Dole Song 3:27
A2 Rosemary Hill 3:34
A3 Quickie 1:21
A4 Everyone's Gone To War 3:55
A5 And When She Laughs 2:49
A6 Spring 3:22
B1 Balloon Song 3:56
B2 Guzz Up 1:37
B3 Who's To Die? 3:55
B4 Elizabeth R 2:53
B5 Frustration 5:58
C1 Car Song 4:06
C2 What Would You Do? 2:47
D1 Frustration (Live) 5:54
D2 Rosemary Hill (Live) 3:49
D3 Quickie (Live) 1:29
D4 And When She Laughs (Live) 1:29
D5 Spring (Live) 3:06

DOWNLOAD the flys that hatched from the maggots HERE!

Trees – "On The Shore (Expanded Edition)" (CBS – 64168) 1970

Following on from Forest, the group, not the crap footy team, comes another contender for the fourth best Folk-Rock group in the UK and Ireland.

So what makes up a Forest?.....yeah,very good,...Trees.

They were on CBS , got the sleeve designed by Hipgnosis, and sold about twenty two copies of their debut album,and even less, probably 17 of this follow up. It has a very recognisable cover photo,and i hear there's a new pressing on coloured vinyl that i may purchase to leave out on my coffee table for my regular fine wine and cheese fondue soirées. That should cement my place in the bourgeoisie as a newly qualified permanent resident of France under the Brexit agreement......they took my fingerprints the fookers! I get a plastic card with my face and biometric data on it,which leaves an empty feeling after four years of being used as a negotiating chip by both the European Union and dear old blighty........Kuntz!....There was a German footballer called Kuntz i seem to recall.He was a Cunt too.

Its all fine stuff,but some of the acid guitar playing does irk somewhat.It's that fizzy transistor distortion,of which there was rather too much of, that spoils the overall sound a tad.Great for The Gang Of Four, but for progressive Folk....Nah!

There's,naturally, a lovely lady sharing the singing duties again, the recently deceased, Celia Humphris.This one can actually sing to boot.....Mmmmm nice. Apparently Cecilia lived in France too,probably next door to me.....i'm that sociable that i would never know.Hopefully she not stressed out by our bastard politician chums in her last days?...cunts!

So to make up for all this bureaucratic fascism i've only gone and  knocked up an expanded edition of the Tree's second and best album "On The Shore",padded out with peel sessions,demo's, and unreleased third album demo's too!?  

Tracklist:


On The Shore

1 Soldiers Three 1:50
2 Murdoch 5:09
3 Streets Of Derry 7:34
4 Sally Free And Easy 10:08
5 Fool 5:22
6 Adam's Toon 1:12
7 Geordie 5:05
8 While The Iron Is Hot 3:20
9 Little Sadie 3:10
10 Polly On The Shore 6:09

Demo's and Sessions:

11 Polly On The Shore (Demo 1970) 5:45
12 Streets Of Derry (Demo 1970) 6:12
13 She Moved Thro' The Fair (Demo 1969) 5:28
14 Pretty Polly (Demo 1969) 4:54
15 The Great Silkie (BBC Session 1970) 6:51
16 Soldiers Three (BBC Session 1970) 1:42
17 Little Black Cloud (Demo 1969) 2:16
18 Forest Fire (BBC Session 1970) 4:09

Demo's for Unreleased Third album (1971):

19 Prince Heathern 4:33

20 Tom Of Bedlam 7:56

21 Cry Of Morning 2:56

22 Bergen Polka 3:33

23 Friar Tuck 6:49

24 Innocent Hare 2:05

25 Van Dieman's Land 7:13

DOWNLOAD if you're really shore HERE!

Forest – "The Full Circle" (Harvest – SHVL 784) 1970

On this weekend that sees all leading sports clubs,especially Football clubs and their sickening playing staff boycott social media for four days(????),why not forever if they really gave a shit(?), in a fruitless attempt to end online abuse,and general offensive behaviour(sounds good to me...the abuse stuff not the protest shit). Another small step for a small mind,but another giant leap for mankind towards that magnolia existence that is creeping ever closer.

I for one is gonna have to go through this blog with a fine tooth-comb to eek out anything that could make a poor social media user cry or angry or sad.Usually this manifests itself by myself being labelled racist, or a neo fascist for not being a fan of Reggae,and other absurd notions such as that!?

 I've backed it all up by the way,so fuck 'em. I demand my right to offend and to be offended,we're all grown-ups here thanks.

So how does this tie in with my current interest in Hippie and traditional Folk,which inexplicably seems to offend a few of our visitors,so they might complain to our Google masters and get this site deleted,alongside other similar arseholes. An internet full of fluffy bunnies,pink unicorns and rainbows......I may slash my wrists right now!Zog's drummer has already done that with an angle-grinder (true!) but survived,leaving him without the ability to either Drum, wank or work! All he has is the Internet.....naturally now avoiding the copious amounts of free Porn, for obvious reasons;which, alas will also soon be erased from this increasingly dull medium.

Right, time to get offensive,abusive and display acts of mild bullying.

I fucking HATE Forest!....down in the deepest sewers of my black heart.

Noooooo Not Forest, the superb progressive Folk band from the early seventies, that fucking shit Football team from Nottingham, whose staff are also going on this silly half-arsed boycott.

For those too sensible to have any interest in this petty triballism to know, Nottingham is the  neighbouring city to Leicester (my personal Bethlehem)festering in the East Midlands hinterlands of the UK. 

In my yoof  Forest were rather successful,and we Leicester fans never heard the last of it. These Notts... (they hate being called 'Notts' Forest hehehe),i'll say it again, Notts Forest Fans, forgot that old showbiz rule of, be careful how you treat people on the way up,for you will surely meet them again on the way down......and down they went,as far as one can go. Suitably humbled by Leicesters continuing success post 2016 Premier league triumph,we long passed these crowing reprobates ,and for the runners-up prize the same fate befell those other lesser rivals,Derby County,and Coventry City. Shame innit?

Enough Gloating.....well maybe......but,one Forest I do love is this Acid Folk masterpiece  which travels a full circle from Football,of which there is actually very little to like,ne'r mind love? We sad fans are a captive audience,emotionally blackmailed by the super rich and despicable mercenary playing staff....fuck 'em I say. Love my club, but everything else about footy makes my stomach contents defy gravity.

Forest,the folky groop, however, are the opposite of stupidity,greed and big business.They also make some delightfully dark progressive folk music, that strangely ,at times, remind one of The Pale Saints if the 4AD legends had long hair and acoustic instruments.

Thankfully, neither Forest the Band,or The Pale Saints, came from Nottingham, so they're definitely ok by me.

Grimsby gave birth to Forest,thanks to their connections to Hull on the other shore of the Humber estuary,where legendary folkers, 'The Watersons' hung out in the sixties.But, disquietingly too close to Lincolnshire,which does in fact harbor some Forest Fans, and is full of Gammon faced Brexit voters.....double stupid. 

Tracklist:

A1 Hawk The Hawker
A2 Bluebell Dance
A3 The Midnight Hanging Of A Runaway Serf
A4 To Julie
A5 Gypsy Girl & Rambleaway
B1 Do Not Walk In The Rain
B2 Much Ado About Nothing
B3 Graveyard
B4 Famine Song
B5 Autumn Childhood

DOWNLOAD a good argument for the deforestation of football HERE!

Swordedge – "Swordedge" (Swordedge Records SW001) 1980

We look back at 1980,and dream up images of the public walking around looking like Joy Division or The Birthday Party.The fact is that everyone looked like Swordedge,.... except for hip dudes like me of course, I was always embarrassingly too cool for school. I envy Swordedge,who had the guts to walk around the north east of England looking like that......that's real COOL with a 'K' in my book. When I....Yawn...went to see The Clash in 1978, like a twat, the whole audience, save a few clash clones in the front looked like this. Long greasy hair in a side parting, non-mohair woolly jumpers and flares. Exactly the kit that real outsider Punk Groups wore,Johnny Moped style.

I'd love to go back to 1977 and form a Folk group ,not that i can play guitar good enough,or sing, but the sheer 'Up-Yours'- ness of it would have been impressive.

Also, while the DIY Punk groups were getting deals with Rough Trade and Virgin, charming folk trios like Swordedge were laughed out of town."You guys should be on the stage....the next stage OUTTA HERE!"

So they had to actually, really, 'Do it' themselves.Saving up a tenner a week from their jobs with the council Social services and Citizens advice Bureau's, maybe even,as trainee teachers, to record and release their own album. Swordedge's eponymous effort being an exact reflection of life for real people outside the music press,being a prime example. It was always the Folk scene,both trad and prog, that actually lived the Punk Ethos as eulogized by......ugh!That name again!...The Clash, and other part-time evangelists of the Epoch. Supporting the Clash that notorious evening was some actual 'Real' Punk, by Suicide,who made real inner city Folk music from New York City. Ironically Joe "Woody" Strummer was in fact a self proclaimed Troubadour before he saw Dr Feelgood,boring everyone with his renditions of Woody Guthrie songs. Probably where he got his predictable Politics from.......yeah you guessed it, I don't like the Clash.....good debut album though, but....! 

Musical outsiders for 1980, Swordedge's material, was strictly 'Trad'.Zero self-penned ditties in a Folk-Rock stylee.....and why not? Rather pleasant Stuff,but their actual existence in the Post punk continuum, boths amuses and titillates.Sometimes being a Naff bastard is Kool with a capital 'C' or 'K'.

Tracklist:

1.Rosemary Lane
2.No Pain
3.Squire Of Hainborough
4.My Ladye Constance
5.Brave Wolfe
6.Greenfields Of America
7.Party On Mars
8.Voilà Le Printemps
9.The Pavement Artist
10.The Shearing's Not For You

DOWNLOAD something totally not edgey HERE!

Mellow Candle – "Swaddling Songs" (Deram – SDL 7) 1972

 Not all Irish Folk is about pixie dancing,and playing the same tunes with different titles on a penny whistle. Here in France,if you play any Folk Music, even Fairport Convention, the French cannot help themselves from exclaiming with great joy, "Ahhh! La Musique Irelandaise".

It's all Irish music to them,from Steeleye Span,Jethro Tull to A.L.Lloyd and the Watersons. Which is rich coming from a place that has precisely zero traditional music,except for some funny stuff from Brittany,whose very name is a big clue as to where that came from.

Mellow Candle, although not 100% Irish, were Ireland's answer to Sandy Denny's Fairport Convention, and were almost as good as The Pentangle......someone said.

They also had a few under-age teenage girlies doing the vocal duties.....whoops...nearly said oral duities then, for which I apologise profusely. Alison Williams and Clodagh Simonds,provide fair Denny and McShee impressions ,which could have ,in a more just world, won them the accolade of Fourth Best Folk-Rock group in the UK...and Ireland,and beyond.

Clodagh Simonds,was also the chief Songwriter, contributing to most of the tracks on this LP,enabling them to steer clear from that quagmire of Rocked up traditional tunes.

And, of course, Mellow Candle was snuffed out by that equally traditional Rock malady of near zero album sales.Which is a pity for one of the most consistent Progressive Folk albums ever made....100% prog with no terrible Rock'n'Roll,Bob Dylan, or jazz covers that blighted the career of Sandy and Fairport.And even better....No bloody String Sections.....just some Mellotron,a fact which is a recommendation in itself is it not?

Tracklist:

1.Heaven Heath
2.Sheep Season
3.Silver Song
4.The Poet And The Witch
5.Messenger Birds
6.Dan The Wing
7.Reverend Sisters
8.Break Your Token
9.Buy Or Beware
10.Vile Excesses
11.Lonely Man
12.Boulders On My Grave

DOWNLOAD something astonishingly mellow HERE!

Midwinter – "The Waters Of Sweet Sorrow" (Porcelain – PCN 001) 1996/1973

By 1973 every urban street had a Progressive Folk Band with a lady singer of questionable ability singing about country life,while the blokes squabbled over who was gonna be the Bert Jansch of the group.

Alas, also by 1973 the kids were turning a blind ear to these urban folkies and went in a very ill advised ELP direction. So it was unlikely you were gonna get your album released by Island or any other previously Folk orientated label. So your tapes were stored on the shelf until the crate diggers of the nineties 'rediscovered' your rejected efforts,and burnt it to CD for the Japanese market.

Midwinter were one of these doomed ,too late for the wave, kind of things, which rose up from deepest darkest Great Yarmouth; a grim seaside town, that had less than nothing happening during the Winter season...except for the Folk Club,where our anti-heroes met up.......during the bleak Midwinter of 1972.

The tapes were indeed found in guitarist Ken's Attic, and now they enjoy the cult status that was denied them when it was most needed.Better late than never I guess?

Impressively this is quite good indeed,despite yet another version of "Scarborough Fair". Jill Child's singing comes from a Jacqui McShee via Shirley Collins direction,but,of course lacking either of their charisma's or talent, .Lets face it you ain't gonna find a Sandy Denny living down your street in Great Yarmouth are you?....Probably in the eighties if she fell on hard times maybe, but we'll never know......so Jill Child it is.However, her simple understatedness suits the music much more authentically than any of those Female Folk legendesses.

Tracklist:

1.Sanctuary Stone
2.To Find A Reason
3.The Skater
4.Scaborough Fair
5.The Oak Tree Grove
6.Dirge
7.Maids And Gentlemen
8.The Waters Of Sweet Sorrow
9.All Things Are Quite Silent
10.The Two Sisters
11. Winter Song

DOWNLOAD the midwinter of discontent HERE!

Sandy Denny - "York University 14th October 1972" (Bootleg)

Yep, it's 43 years today since Sandy Denny's life support systems were turned off, following a brain hemorrhage probably incurred after falling down the stairs of a rented cottage in Cornwall while on holiday with her parents....better known as the two middle aged persons on the front cover of "Unhalfbricking" ...and hitting her head on the stone floor.Falling down some stairs was something she tended to do quite regularly apparently. She was discovered, by chance, at a friends house unconscious on the floor.She never regained consciousness,and basically died alone......Sandy would not have liked that eventuality at all.

I should write my own Candle In The Wind" for her really I suppose,as like Reg, I was just a kid when she ,the bucket, did kick. Ironically, 'twas Elton's entertaining performance at the Albert Hall in 1970,supporting Fotheringay, that was the final nail in the coffin for Sandy's ill-fated band of chums......so thanks for that Elton you fat bastard. Choosing an act whose specialty was audience pleasing entertainment as support was rather ill-advised for Sandy's preference for the add doomy lyric and a group not exactly renowned for jumping around too much.

It was also Sandy's flaccid contractual obligation recording of "Candle In The Wind" as a desperate single, that ended her tenure on Island, and likely her career.I'm sure she could have made a comeback in the nineties however,June Tabor managed it.

However detrimental the break up of her group was for her confidence and drinking problem, I prefer Sandy Solo,with minimal backing...check out her Demo's for justification.

This solo concert at York University,is classic Sandy, nervously joking between songs,but the joking stops when she starts to sing.

Its got another nicely doomy version of "Late November",my personal fave,which recounts the fatal Fairport Convention bus crash on the M1 in late november 1968,for which she never got over her survivors guilt,but at least it got channeled lyrically.

Hard to believe she would have been an old lady now,although she smoked like a chimney and drank like a fish,so that's debatable. Alas, she remains another case of die young and stay pretty.

Tracklist:

1 It'll Take A Long Time
2 Bushes And Briars
3 Sweet Rosemary
4 It Suits Me Well
5 The Sea Captain
6 Tomorrow Is A Long Time
7 The Lady
8 John The Gun
9 Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood
10 Late November
11 The Music Weaver

DOWNLOAD one the few things worth going to university for HERE!

 

Anne Briggs – "The Complete Topic Recordings(1963 - 71)" (Bo'Weavil Recordings – weavil 10) 2006

A fine East Midlands lass,with flowing dark hair and an intense stare.....just like your scribe;-).Anne Briggs was only sixteen when she started performing her puritanical solo and unaccompanied Folk singing career at the Nottingham Goose Fair back in 1960. No interest in Johnny Kidd or Cliff and The Shadows for young Anne.When she sings its as if Rock'n'Roll had never happened.....Jazz either for that matter. Instruments???.. that's for sell-outs...the 'please like me' brigade.Or the rogue folkies who formed pop groups, 'The please please like me' brigade, like The Beatles and The Hollies,who were for all intents and purposes electrified Folk groups with a backbeat. Her first EP was out on legendary folk label 'Topic' during the height of Beatlemania in '64,as if from the times before electricity.She sang about the less happy aspects of love and life, unlike our luvable mop-tops.This was about how crap progress was,and the pitfalls of love.Kinda like a sixties version of Straight Edge Punk.

She shunned the spotlight,even refusing to record anything for a while,music was in the moment and shouldn't be repeated.She had no interest in the feminist movement because she WAS feminism.No need for bra burning,she did whatever she wanted without permission from men or women alike.Patronisingly labelled a 'Wild Child' for her attitude to life,especially because she was female,and ladies didn't do things like get drunk and sleep around did they?Er...yes they did.....still do apparently,but now they can play Football or Rugby.....that's progress????

Eventually,of course, the odd bazouki or guitar cropped up,and she even started writing her own songs;but by 1973 she gave up music to live in the scottish wilderness with her Forester hubby, and had a family.Hardly ever to been seen or heard again.One of the very few musicians never to really sell-out to the man,or men.

She was also the source for several of the traditional songs which were popified by The Pentangle and Fairport among others, including "Blackwaterside." Of which former dalliance Bert Jansch's instrumental accompaniment to this song was later copied ,read as 'Ripped Off' by Led Zeppelin's Jimmy 'I ran off with a fourteen year old and nobodies done anything about it' Page; who recorded it as "Black Mountain Side”(notice any similarities there?) and credited himself as the writer....Not the first time Jim was known to do that.....for example probably 'that song', currently in litigation, also? Never forgiven those hairy fuckers for not paying Sandy Denny for her work on Led Zep IV.Twats!

Sandy,influenced by all aspects 'Anne' since she was a 16 year old witnessing a woman on stage in the folk clubs of London,was a good friend,as well as a Fan of Briggs,but could no way match her purist approach to the Folk Lifestyle.As much as she would love to give up the quest for fame or her luxuries,she couldn't.So she wrote a song for Fotheringay about her barrier busting chum, "The Pond and The Stream.

Anne's pure unadorned voice is a beacon for honest simplicity,and intensity,the very opposite to the vocal acrobatics that the modern wave of pop singers torture our ears and minds with today.It was a back to basics approach that would inform the punk music of the future.After all, Punk music ,IS, Folk music innit?

Tracklist:

The EP & Compilations:

A1 The Recruited Collier 2:42
A2 The Doffing Mistress 1:27
A3 Lowlands 3:15
A4 My Bonnie Boy 2:53
A5 Polly Vaughan 4:25
B1 Rosemary Lane 2:44
B2 Gathering Rushes In The Month Of May 4:51
B3 The Whirly Whorl 1:17
B4 The Stonecutter Boy 1:57
B5 Martinmas Time 4:56

The LP:

C1 Blackwater Side 3:54
C2 The Snow It Melts The Soonest 2:23
C3 Willie O Winsbury 5:33
C4 Go Your Way 4:14
C5 Thorneymoor Woods 3:36
D1 The Cuckoo 3:11
D2 Reynardine 3:00
D3 Young Tambling 10:44
D4 Living By The Water 3:55
D5 Maa Bonny Lad 1:18

DOWNLOAD here maa bonny lads'n'lasses

Jackson C. Frank – "The Complete Recordings" (Ba Da Bing! – BING 105) 2015

Just as Space Aliens are reluctant to make themselves visible to humankind to avoid starting a new religion,and Just as Eggs Over Easy lit the spark of a new religion in 1972 with the inspiration for Pub Rock....I suppose you had to be there to understand why?.....Jackson C. Frank was an American ignored in his own country but found acceptance in England,where he was rather influential for a lot of the Brit Folkers who had probably never met an American before (except for Paul Simon,who doesn't count),or even met a Space Alien for that matter.One of these being the young, impressionable, Sandy Denny, who drew great inspiration for her own nascent songwriting.....not something many young women did before the latter part of the 1960's.Incredibly she was only 19 when she penned "Who Knows Where The Time Goes",one of thee greatest tunes ever written,by anyone,ever,even by them shy Space Alien chaps.

Jackson himself,resembled,as well as felt like, an Alien.A living tragedy with a life-story of pain and failure that you just couldn't make up.

There was a member of "The Happy Flowers" (Improv Noise Punk duo who sang about freak childhood accidents from the child's perspective) called 'Mr Horribly Charred Infant'.Whether he was named after Jackson C Frank is up for conjecture, but Jackson C was indeed horribly charred as an infant as a survivor of a raging school fire that killed many of his school chums,and girlfriend Marlene,but Frank survived with something like 50% burns.Which would explain his uncanny resemblance to Top British Buffoon Bastard Boris Pfeffel Johnson

Boris P. Johnson as Jackson C. Frank

Jackson C. Frank as Boris P. Johnson

Jackson was also minted,thanks to the Hundred grand compensation he was awarded for his injuries.Which is about a cool million dollars in today's currency.So upon receipt of this booty, the 21 year old Frank hoped on a boat bound for England to do the folk circuit with his finely honed Guitar and songwriting skills he had developed during his long,lonely recovery from his horrific burns.

He was an instant hit in the Folk clubs of London in 1965,The Troubadour,Les Cousins, etc.;there weren't too many Americans around, so he and Paul Simon cleaned up. Future doomed starlets Nick Drake and Sandy Denny were both smitten, and it was only natural that Jackson made his first and only album, with Paul Simon producing;Frank was so shy during the recording that he asked to be shielded by screens so that no-one could see him, claiming: 'I can't play. You're looking at me.'...This shyness didn't seem to stop him playing live however,or,have a short romance with Sandy Denny.The romance with Britain's fast rising Folk star was short and tempestuous.Denny's Father was less than impressed by him,or her other boyfriends,especially future bed-hopping hubby Trevor Lucas,and who can blame him?

Sandy wrote a song about Frank called "Next Time Around" that sums up the enigma that never was quite nicely.

Jackson,understandably suffered from what we now call PTSD,so his moods were somewhat changeable. He also spent money as if it was going out of fashion, as they say?....don't they??? He had a new flash car every month,most of which got smashed up due to his soon to be well displayed self-destructive tendencies.

He once told Denny that he couldn't bend down and cut his own toenails because of the scar tissue,so he would allow them to grow long enough so that if he kicked a wall they would snap off.....always the charmer huh?

Soon his visa was due to expire,and he was running out of money fast,and even quicker he was running out of healthy brain cells! So he had to return to the States and total anonymity, for a couple of years,where things went rapidly downhill.

Returning to England in '68,he was by now a bona-fide nutjob,and struggled to find gigs.

Quote from erstwhile Chum Al 'Year Of The Cat' Stewart:

"He [Frank] proceeded to fall apart before our very eyes. His style that everyone loved was melancholy, very tuneful things. He started doing things that were completely impenetrable. They were basically about psychological angst, played at full volume with lots of thrashing. I don't remember a single word of them – it just did not work. There was one review that said he belonged on a psychologist's couch. Then shortly after that, he hightailed it back to Woodstock again, because he wasn't getting any work."

Back in Woodstock, he married an ex-model, had two kids, and when the male heir to his chaos died from Cystic Fibrosis, he descended further into Depression and mental illness.He left for New York in a vane attempt to find Paul Simon,but ended up down and out on the streets for several years. Which included an episode when a kid blinded him in his left eye with a pellet gun.The weight piled on and he began to look like Inspector Clay from Plan Nine From Outer Space...post mortem.

One-eyed Jackson on the comeback trail to Oblivion

Jackson ended his short harrowing life moving from Mental Institution to funny farm and back....but surely there's a happy ending where being rediscovered he received past royalties, and acknowledgment of his past work and influence?....yeah?.....nope.... Frank died of pneumonia on March 3, 1999, at the age of 56,the stuff of Hollywood biopics....not.....yet Bono still lives?

His sole album from 1965 is a rather haunting work,from someone who knew what pain and the Blues really were in close-up.He could have been Bob Dylan but he weren't no oil painting,horribly scarred,and quite mental...not the main attributes of a pop star I suggest?

He apparently made more recordings,including,remarkably, a Peel Session!?...somehow?....But they make for an interesting document demonstrating the pure futility of trying to get anywhere when you just haven't got the right coloured hair!?

Of these 67 tracks....67???....I advise you stick to the first 10,and single versions there of, which made up his debut and only album.They are quite brilliant,and touching, even without his depressingly tragic life story.The message is 'Why Bother?'

But....at least he got to meet Elvis.....

The doomed gruesome twosome on set at the Club Tropicana video shoot back in '83,six years after Elvis faked his own death to become Andrew Ridgely aka, the other one from Wham!

Tracklist:

1-1 Blues Run The Game
1-2 Don't Look Back
1-3 Kimbie
1-4 Yellow Walls
1-5 Here Come The Blues
1-6 Milk And Honey
1-7 My Name Is Carnival
1-8 Dialogue (I Want To Be Alone)
1-9 Just Like Anything
1-10 You Never Wanted Me
1-11 I've Been 'Buked & I've Been Scorned
1-12 Gospel Plow
1-13 CC Rider
1-14 Banana Boat Song
1-15 Frankie & Johnny
1-16 John Henry
1-17 In The Pines
1-18 John Henry's Hammer
1-19 Ananias
1-20 Borrow Love And Go
1-21 Jesse James
1-22 Last Month Of The Year
1-23 Washington Jail
2-1 Blues Run The Game
2-2 Can't Get Away From My Love
2-3 Marlene
2-4 Marcy's Song
2-5 Madonna Of Swans
2-6 Relations
2-7 Cover Me With Roses
2-8 Cryin' Like A Baby
2-9 Spanish Moss
2-10 The Visit
2-11 Have You Seen The Unicorns
2-12 Juliette
2-13 China Blue
2-14 Madonna Of Swans
2-15 Box Canyon
2-16 Cover Me With Roses
2-17 Spanish Moss
2-18 Stitch In Time
2-19 Heartbreak Hotel
2-20 Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me / Precious Lord
3-1 Blues Run The Game
3-2 My Name Is Carnival
3-3 Jimmy Clay
3-4 Just Like Anything
3-5 You Never Wanted Me
3-6 Juliette
3-7 Instrumental
3-8 Night Of The Blues
3-9 (Tumble) In The Wind
3-10 The Spectre
3-11 Half The Distance
3-12 Bull Men
3-13 Maria Spanish Rose
3-14 Singing Sailors
3-15 Night Of The Blues
3-16 (Tumble) In The Wind
3-17 Goodbye (To My Loving You)
3-18 October
3-19 Mystery
3-20 I Don't Want To Love You No More
3-21 Child Fixin' To Die
3-22 Halloween Is Black As Night
3-23 In The Pines
3-24 On My Way To The Canaan Land

DOWNLOAD the soundtrack to the least likely rock biopic that Hollywood never made HERE!

Sandy Denny – "Studio Outtakes - Home Demos - Unheard Songs" (2010)

These are the "Studio Outtakes ,Home Demos ,and Unheard Songs" section of that massive 19CD box set of everything Sandy recorded ever!?..which would set you back quite a few hundred quid,mostly for stuff you already have...but not these 127 intimate versions of her future studio work,plus songs that were never heard beyond Sandy's various living rooms.Everything from Fairport to Fotheringay,from the Folk Club years to the record company compliant Adult Orientated rock of 'Rendezvous',is here in a superior, stripped down form with Sandy's perfect Voice whispering in your ears.Its like she's in the room singing you to sleep......i'm welling up now!.....just don't tell me mates!

Early Home Demos:
12-1 Sandy Denny– Blues Run The Game (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-2 Sandy Denny– Milk And Honey (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-3 Sandy Denny– Soho (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-4 Sandy Denny– It Ain't Me Babe (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-5 Sandy Denny– East Virginia (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-6 Sandy Denny– Geordie (Home Demo)
12-7 Sandy Denny– In Memory (The Tender Years) (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-8 Sandy Denny– I Love My True Love (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-9 Sandy Denny– Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-10 Sandy Denny– Ethusel (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-11 Sandy Denny– Carnival (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-12 Sandy Denny– Setting Of The Sun (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-13 Sandy Denny– Boxful Of Treasures (Home Demo)
12-14 Sandy Denny– They Don't Seem To Know You (Home Demo)
12-15 Sandy Denny– Gerrard Street (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-16 Sandy Denny– Fotheringay (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-17 Sandy Denny– She Moves Through The Fair (Home Demo)
12-18 Sandy Denny– The Time Has Come (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-19 Sandy Denny– Seven Virgins (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-20 Sandy Denny– A Little Bit Of Rain (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-21 Sandy Denny– Go Your Own Way My Love (Home Demo)
12-22 Sandy Denny– Cradle Song (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-23 Sandy Denny– Blue Tattoo (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-24 Sandy Denny– The Quiet Land Of Erin (Unreleased Home Demo)
12-25 Sandy Denny– Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Unreleased Home Demo)

Sandy Denny Solo And Fairport Convention:
13-1 Sandy Denny– Who Knows Where The Time Goes (Unreleased Home Demo)
13-2 Sandy Denny– Motherless Children (Unreleased Home Demo)
13-3 Sandy Denny– Milk And Honey (Unreleased BBC Session)
13-4 Sandy Denny– Been On The Road So Long
13-5 Sandy Denny– Quiet Land Of Erin
13-6 Sandy Denny– Autopsy (Demo)
13-7 Sandy Denny– Now And Then (Demo)
13-8 Sandy Denny– Fotheringay (Unreleased Version)
13-9 Sandy Denny– She Moved Through The Fair (Unreleased Version)
13-10 Fairport Convention– Mr. Lacey (Unreleased BBC Session)
13-11 Fairport Convention– Throwaway Street Puzzle
13-12 Fairport Convention– Ballad Of Easy Rider (Outtake)
13-13 Fairport Convention– Dear Landlord (Outtake)
13-14 Fairport Convention– A Sailors Life (Alternative Version)
13-15 Fairport Convention– Sir Patrick Spens (Outtake)
13-16 Fairport Convention– Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood (Take 1)
13-17 Fairport Convention– Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood (Take 4)

Fotheringay:
14-1 Fotheringay– The Sea (Unreleased Studio Demo)
14-2 Fotheringay– Winter Winds (Unreleased Studio Demo)
14-3 Fotheringay– The Pond And The Stream (Unreleased Studio Demo)
14-4 Fotheringay– The Way I Feel (Unreleased Alternative Take)
14-5 Fotheringay– Banks Of The Nile (Unreleased Alternate Take)
14-6 Fotheringay– Winter Winds (Unreleased Alternate Take)
14-7 Fotheringay– Silver Threads And Golden Needles (Outtake)
14-8 Fotheringay– The Sea (Unreleased)
14-9 Fotheringay– Two Weeks Last Summer
14-10 Fotheringay– Nothing More
14-11 Fotheringay– Banks Of The Nile
14-12 Fotheringay– Memphis Tennessee
14-13 Fotheringay– Trouble In Mind (Unreleased)
14-14 Fotheringay– Bruton Town (Unreleasedl)

Sandy Denny: The North Star Grassman And The Ravens:
15-1 Sandy Denny– The Sea Captain (Unreleased Demo)
15-2 Sandy Denny– Next Time Around (Unreleased Demo)
15-3 Sandy Denny– The Optimist (Unreleased Demo)
15-4 Sandy Denny– Wretched Wilbur (Unreleased Demo)
15-5 Sandy Denny– Crazy Lady Blues (Unreleased Demo)
15-6 Sandy Denny– Lord Bateman (Unreleased Demo)
15-7 Sandy Denny With Richard Thompson– Walking The Floor Over You (Unreleased)
15-8 Sandy Denny– Losing Game (Outtake)
15-9 Sandy Denny– The Northstar Grassman And The Ravens (Unreleased)
15-10 Sandy Denny– Crazy Lady Blues (Unreleased)
15-11 Sandy Denny– Late November
15-12 Sandy Denny With Ian Matthews– If You Saw Thru My Eyes
15-13 Sandy Denny With The London Symphony Orchestra– It's A Boy (From 'Tommy')
15-14 Sandy Denny– The Northstar Grassman And The Ravens
15-15 Sandy Denny– The 12th Of Never (Unreleased Studio Demo)
15-16 Sandy Denny– Sweet Rosemary (Demo)
15-17 Sandy Denny– The Lady (Demo)
15-18 Sandy Denny– After Halloween (Demo)

Sandy Denny: Sandy And Like An Old Fashioned Waltz:
16-1 Sandy Denny– It'll Take A Long Time (Unreleased Demo)
16-2 Sandy Denny– Sweet Rosemary (Demo)
16-3 Sandy Denny– For Nobody To Hear (Unreleased Demo)
16-4 Sandy Denny– Tomorrow Is A Long Time (Unreleased Demo)
16-5 Sandy Denny– Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood (Unreleased Demo)
16-6 Sandy Denny– Listen, Listen (Unreleased Demo)
16-7 Sandy Denny– The Lady (Unreleased Demo)
16-8 Sandy Denny– Bushes And Briars (Unreleased Demo)
16-9 Sandy Denny– It Suits Me Well (Unreleased Demo)
16-10 Sandy Denny– The Music Weaver (Demo)
16-11 Sandy Denny– No End (Unreleased Alternate Take)
16-12 Sandy Denny– Whispering Grass (Unreleased Demo)
16-13 Sandy Denny– Until The Real Thing Comes Along (Unreleased Demo)
16-14 Sandy Denny– Walking The Floor Over You (Alternative Version)
16-15 Sandy Denny– No End (Alternative Version)

Sandy Denny - Rendezvous:
18-1 Sandy Denny– Blackwaterside (Unreleased Granada TV Show 1975)
18-2 Sandy Denny– No More Sad Refrains (Unreleased Granada TV Show 1975)
18-3 Sandy Denny– By The Time It Gets Dark (Unreleased Acoustic Demo)
18-4 Sandy Denny– One Way Donkey Ride (Unreleased Acoustic Version)
18-5 Sandy Denny With Jess Roden– Losing Game
18-6 Sandy Denny– Easy To Slip (Outtake)
18-7 Sandy Denny– By The Time It Gets Dark (Demo)
18-8 Sandy Denny– No More Sad Refrains (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-9 Sandy Denny– I'm A Dreamer (Unreleased Live In The Studio)
18-10 Sandy Denny– All Our Days (Unreleased Choral Version)
18-11 Sandy Denny– By The Time It Gets Dark (Demo)
18-12 Sandy Denny– Still Waters Run Deep (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-13 Sandy Denny– Full Moon (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-14 Sandy Denny– Candle In The Wind (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-15 Sandy Denny– Moments (Outtake)
18-16 Sandy Denny– I Wish I Was A Fool For You (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-17 Sandy Denny– Gold Dust (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-18 Sandy Denny– Still Waters Run Deep (Unreleased Alternative Version)
18-19 Sandy Denny– Moments (Unreleased Alternative Version)

Sandy Denny: Home Demos 1974-1977:
19-1 Sandy Denny– The King And Queen Of England (Demo)
19-2 Sandy Denny– Rising For The Moon (Demo)
19-3 Sandy Denny– One More Chance (Demo)
19-4 Sandy Denny– The King And Queen Of England (Unreleased Demo)
19-5 Sandy Denny– After Halloween (Unreleased Demo)
19-6 Sandy Denny– What Is True? (Demo)
19-7 Sandy Denny– Stranger To Himself (Demo)
19-8 Sandy Denny– Take Away The Load (Demo)
19-9 Sandy Denny– By The Time It Gets Dark (Demo)
19-10 Sandy Denny– I'm A Dreamer (Demo)
19-11 Sandy Denny– Full Moon (Demo)
19-12 Sandy Denny– Take Me Away (Demo)
19-13 Sandy Denny– All Our Days (Demo)
19-14 Sandy Denny– No More Sad Refrains (Demo)
19-15 Sandy Denny– Still Waters Run Deep (Demo)
19-16 Sandy Denny– One Way Donkey Ride (Demo)
19-17 Sandy Denny– I'm A Dreamer (Unreleased Demo)
19-18 Sandy Denny– Full Moon 2(Unreleased Demo)
19-19 Sandy Denny– Makes Me Think Of You (Unreleased Demo)

DOWNLOAD to hear the unheard here Folkies!

Zchivago's Disco Dystopia -April 2nd 2021 - "A Dark Light From A Black Sun"

 Here's the latest Disco Dystopia:

Disco Dystopia April 2nd 2021:

“A DARK LIGHT FROM A BLACK SUN”

1. YO LA TENGO - “Let's Save Tony Orlando's House”

2. THE MANSON FAMILY - “Never Say Never To Always”

3. THE THIRD EAR BAND - “Fleance”

4. FOREST - “Graveyard”

5. COMUS - “The Herald”

6. PAUL GIOVANNI & MAGENTA - “Gently Johnny”

7. JANDEK - “Nancy Sings”

8. SANDRA KERR & JOHN FAULKNER - “The Princess Suite from Bagpuss”

9. CURRENT 93 - “All The Pretty Little Horses”

10. CURRENT 93 AND SHIRLEY COLLINS - “All The Pretty Little Horses”

11. COIL - “All The Pretty Little Horses”

12. NICO - “Evening Of Light”

13. BRIDGET St. JOHN - “Ask Me No Questions”

Stream it HERE!

DOWNLOAD it HERE:

Sandy Denny and the Happy Blunderers - "Lincoln Folk Festival 24th July 1971" (Bootleg)

The highpoint of Contemporary Folk Rock in the summer of 1971 was on full display in Lincoln of all places. With Denny listed half way up the bill.The Americans seem to be the stars at this one.It could have easily been inverted.Never been a great fan of James Taylor myself.

The Happy Blunderers contained Richard Thompson and Gerry Conway in the same line-up,with the dependable Dave Pegg,and seem to have done a good job on this wobbly audience cassette recording,but survive it does,and there's plenty of Sandy's intra-song banter which always amuses. The dodgy quality just adds to the pathos for me.

Oh!Sandy why????.... WHYYYYY?!...yeah that's right I love her like a screaming girlie at a Beatles gig.

Sandy leaving the stage at Lincoln sporting one of her best hairstyles

Tracklisting:

1. Late November

2. The Northstar Grassman and The Ravens

3. Down in the Flood

4. Blackwaterside

5. The Optimist

6. Next Time Around

7. Crazy Lady Blues

8. John The Gun

DOWNLOAD when Sandy wuz a star on earth rather than a star in heaven HERE!

Sandy Denny – "Live At The BBC (1966-1973)" (Island Records – 984 992-8)

Staying on the Folk singers at the Beeb kinda thing,here's a personal fav/obsession,the late,great, Sandy Denny.Of course Y'all have all her works i expect,so i'll restrict it to BBC appearances and the odd bootleg....you may be relieved to hear?

To use a maritime expression,something that Sandy often turned to in her lyrics,She sailed too close to the rocks of the Singer/Songwriter category on several occasions; but the lighthouse shone a dark light in her doomed direction, and she went under like most of the crews of the sea-faring vessels she wrote about.

The sheer nerve that Island Records have in releasing Sandy's BBC appearances after dropping her in '76,and after trying to get her to lighten up her material a bit is nothing short of despicable.They deserve all the illegal downloads we can muster.Of course they panicked because of Punk Rock,not only dropping some great acts,but ruining The Slits to boot!

"I'm Not Hearing A Single Here?", was often mentioned by the record executive twats,who were responsible for making her record a limp version of Reg's "Candle In The Wind" to release as a chart flop.Not to mention "Whispering Grass" and several terrible Rockers that spoilt all of her otherwise great albums.She should have kept those Dark and diminished chord structures. She herself thought she was gonna be a big star,and failed to realise that her material was an acquired taste,suitable for cult audiences only.That coupled with a drink problem,falling down stairs for fun, and having a boyfriend/Husband with a wildly roving eye...not that Randy Sandy was innocent of this too?...it all added up to the inevitable tragic ending that bewitched anyone that had anything to do with Joe Boyd,which reads like a list of Pop Star Do's and Don't's(Syd Barratt, Nick Drake, and the lovely Sandy). Failed fame's a killer kids,be content with anonymity and live a full life.

Tracklist:

In Session:
CD1-1 Fhir A' Bhata (BBC - Folk Song Cellar)
CD1-2 Green Grow the Laurels (BBC - Folk Song Cellar 2/12/66)
CD1-3 Hold On To Me Babe (BBC - Cellarful Of Folk 6/3/67)
CD1-4 Blues Run The Game (BBC - Cellarful Of Folk 6/3/67)
CD1-5 Late November (BBC Session - Bob Harris 24/8/71)
CD1-6 The Optimist (BBC Session - Bob Harris 24/8/71)
CD1-7 Crazy Lady Blues (BBC Session - Bob Harris 24/8/71)
CD1-8 The Lowlands Of Holland (BBC Session - Bob Harris 24/8/71)
CD1-9 It Suits Me Well (BBC Session - Bob Harris 25/10/72)
CD1-10 The Music Weaver (BBC Session - Bob Harris 25/10/72)
CD1-11 Bushes And Briars (BBC Session - Bob Harris 25/10/72)
CD1-12 It'll Take A Long Time (BBC Session - Bob Harris 25/10/72)
CD1-13 Solo (BBC Session - John Peel 11/9/73)
CD1-14 Like An Old Fashioned Waltz (BBC Session - John Peel 11/9/73)
CD1-15 Who Knows Where The Time Goes? (BBC Session - John Peel 11/9/73)
CD1-16 Until The Real Thing Comes Along (BBC Session - Bob Harris 14/11/73)
CD1-17 Whispering Grass (BBC Session - Bob Harris 14/11/73)
CD1-18 Dark The Night (BBC Session - Bob Harris 14/11/73)
CD1-19 Solo (BBC Session - Bob Harris 14/11/73)

In Concert:
CD2-1 The North Star Grassman And The Ravens (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-2 Sweet Rosemary (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-3 The Lady (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-4 Bruton Town (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-5 Next Time Around (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-6 Blackwaterside (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-7 John The Gun (BBC In Concert - Paris Theatre 16/3/72)
CD2-8 The Lady (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-9 Bushes And Briars (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-10 It Suits Me Well (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-11 Blackwaterside (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-12 The Music Weaver (BBc - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-13 The Sea Captain (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-14 John The Gun (BBC - Sounds On Sunday 14/11/73)
CD2-15 Dialogue - Interview (Tomorrow's People BBC World Service Programme 1972)

DVD.....you can see these on you tube by clicking below:
DVD3-1 The North Star Grassman And The Ravens (BBC - One In Ten 15/09/71 - Stereo)
DVD3-2 Crazy Lady Blues (BBC - One In Ten 15/09/71 - Stereo)
DVD3-3 Late November (BBC - One In Ten 15/09/71 - Stereo)

"Off-Air" Recordings:
CD4-1 This Train (BBC World Service - June 1967)
CD4-2 Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor (BBC World Service - June 1967)
CD4-3 The Last Thing On My Mind (BBC World Service - June 1967)
CD4-4 You Never Wanted Me (BBC World Service - June 1967)
CD4-5 Been On The Road So Long (BBC - My Kind Of Folk 26/6/68)
CD4-6 The Quiet Land Of Erin (BBC - My Kind Of Folk 26/6/68)
CD4-7 Sweet Nightingale (BBC - Spinners TV Show 22/4/71)
CD4-8 Blackwaterside (BBC - Spinners TV Show 22/4/71)
CD4-9 The North Star Grassman And The Ravens (BBC - Sounds Of The 70s)

DOWNLOAD Sandy at the Beeb HERE!

Bridget St. John – "BBC Radio 1968-1976" (Hux Records – HUX114) 2010

Like I said in the "Ask Me No Questions" review,Peel made sure Bridget would get plenty sessions and radio appearances he having a glad eye for the ladies. So here's the small matter of 40 -odd 'odd' tunes as preserved by the venerable British Broadcasting Corporation;and it's not gone beyond my notice that the final track has a reference to Peel and Wife (the Pig).There's also an amusing anecdote spewed forth by the laconic Peel about how they 'slept' together once.

What strikes me most about these tunes, and especially her spoken explanations of her songs, that is uncannily like Sandy Denny.If i didn't know better, her speaking voice is almost exactly that of the late Alexandra Denny,although her earlier excursions have that splash of Nico's lower register about them that would haunt any review in the music press.She was a better guitar player than Denny (That Bert Jansch influence?),and far less depressing than Nico,but her songwriting has that same seldom used diminished 5th chord so favored by Sandy Denny in her more unpopular songs for it's distinctive dark timbre,as well as that vibrato free folkie singing style that was the ex-Fairport chanteuse's trademark;although obviously not copyrighted.

And, yes, Kevin Ayers makes a guest appearance on a few tracks too.Also interesting to note that Ms St.John is the only one of these names to remain alive,and gigging, to this day.

Tracklist:

1-1 I Don't Know If I Can Take It
1-2 Some Kind Of Beautiful
1-3 Jumblequeen
1-4 Fly High
1-5 Sparrowpit
1-6 Want To Be With You
1-7 Curious And Woolly
1-8 Head And Heart
1-9 Long Long Time
1-10 Come Up And See Me Sometime
1-11 Catch A Falling Star
1-12 Love Lie Easy
1-13 The River
1-14 Song To Keep You Company
1-15 Night In The City
1-16 Lazarus
1-17 Curl Your Toes
1-18 Thank You For...
2-1 Sparrowpit
2-2 Nancy Alice
2-3 Plain And Pearl
2-4 Make Me Whole
2-5 She Used To Play Harmonium
2-6 Crazy, Have You Eton
2-7 Peel 'sleeping Anecdote'
2-8 Bumper To Bumper
2-9 Leaves Of Lime
2-10 City Crazy
2-11 The Pebble And The Man
2-12 Back To Stay
2-13 Song For The Laird Of Connaught Hall - Part 2
2-14 Jolie Madame
2-15 The Spider And The Fly
2-16 The Oyster And The Flying Fish
2-17 To B Without A Hitch
2-18 Ask Me No Questions
2-19 Many Happy Returns
2-20 Hello Again (of Course)
2-21 Rochefort
2-22 Lizard Long Tongue Boy
2-23 The Present Song/Pig & Peel

CD1 1-9 Radio 1 In Concert 1st August 1974; CD1 10-12 Top Gear Session 6th January 1976 CD1 13-16 John Peel Presents Top Gear 1969; CD1 17 Peter Sarstedt Session 1969; CD1 18 Bob Harris Session 22nd March 1972; CD2 1-8 Radio 1 In Concert 3rd May 1975; CD2 9-16 Radio 1 In Concert 31st January 1971; CD2 17-22 Night Ride Session 21st August 1968; CD2 23 Top Gear Session 12th August 1974

DOWNLOAD the bastard offspring of Sandy and Nico HERE!