Today is the anniversary of English singer/songwriter Sandy Denny’s untimely demise. Here she is in 1969 as a member of Fairport Convention with a mysterious recording of ‘A Sailor’s Life’, a song that (in its released version with fiddler Dave Swarbrick) more or less started ‘British folk-rock’, the genre that never quite goes away. This version is mysterious in that the standard tale for years was that Swarbrick joined the ‘Vench in a studio and instantaneously created a magic improvised duel with lead guitarist Dicky Thompo. But then this acetate of a presumably earlier version recorded without Dave turned up 30 years later. Happily, it’s also sensational.
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My favourite version of this song, Colin, and second only to Who Knows Where The Time Goes as my favourite Fairport performance.
I’ve really listened to this version before – but just have four times in row, now. Compelling.
Didn’t Sandy bring this to Fairport as she had been singing it in her folk club days. So they had probably worked on it before and as Swarb was sessioning for the band he was asked to contribute.
M Carthy said Swarb had been quite scathing before the session but came back raving about playing with Thompson.
Wiki
So it wasn’t unknown to either of both Sandy and Swarb.
Indeed – but that wasn’t my point. The point was that nobody seems to recall recording a version of ‘A Sailor’s Life’ pre / without Dave S and yet there it is.
But the main point is: Sandy Denny died 45 years ago today. I just happened to illustrate her talent with this recording.
Respect to you. Colin, for reminding us of her passing.
Here’s a 1971 session from the BBC.
Thanks Colin! You’ve brightened my evening enormously with this.
What you and Hubert don’t know about the Fairports is not worth knowing!
Yet what the Fairports don’t know about this mystery version of ‘A Sailor’s Life’ IS worth knowing! If only someone knew it. 🙂
A Sailor’s Life, whether this version or the Unhalfbricking one, are obviously highlights of Sandy’s canon, but I think of it as a triumph of the whole band. If I wanted to illustrate Sandy’s brilliance as a stand out performer within a band then I would play this from Fotheringay.
I can’t disagree, Gatz – one of her greatest vocals, undoubtedly.
I hadn’t realised that they hadn’t recalled recording it previously.
Sandy’s death came as a great shock, the first musician’s death that really affected me.
Still seems odd that they didn’t recall recording it before.
I was in a friend’s record shop he’d bought some acetates from John Wood, among them was one labelled ‘French Song’ he put it on and I realised what it was going to be.
I believe it was planned as a single.
That is gorgeous. She really sounds at home singing in French.
I wonder if she translated the lyrics herself.
Love it, however late to the party
Beautiful – thanks for posting. How can that remain hidden?
1. “The Notes and the Words” is a wonderful 4CD set. I can’t praise it highly enough. It makes an excellent consolation prize for those of us who didn’t or couldn’t buy the full, ultra-comprehensive 19CD “Sandy Denny” box. That latter set now goes for prices on the second hand market that the Sultan of Brunei would balk at.
2. Is it just me, or does the illustration of Sandy on the front of “The Notes and the Words” (shown in the YouTube frame at the top of this thread) make her look a bit like Jennifer Saunders?
No, it’s not just you.
I won a framed screen print of the cover in a Word competition, with my winning prose described by Heppo as “the purplest”
I take that as praise indeed!
Excellent! 😀
I won one of the runner up prizes, a sampler CD of selections from the box set. A week or so after it turned up another winner complained on the blog board that theirs hadn’t arrived. Fraser said there had been some sort of cock up and he was looking into it. Shortly after that I received a second copy of the sampler disc, which I promptly flogged on eBay.
Certainly makes her look like a Mucha babe. Nothing wrong with that.
Isn’t this the version used on RT’s Watching the Dark compilation in 1993?
It is.