Motley Moose – Archive

I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in “Cheers & Jeers”.

OK, you’ve been warned – here is this week’s tomfoolery material that I posted.

ART NOTES – paintings and drawings by the film-maker David Lynch will be at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia – where he had been a student in the late 1960’s – to January 4th.

MUSIC NOTES #1 – there’s only 3 more weeks for your FM station to declare this to be …… ROCKTOBER.

WHILE IT WAS ONCE referred to as “sleepy London town” by the Rolling Stones, Britain’s capital is now becoming a 24-hour city – due in part to a changing population, late-night buses/trains and liquor law changes.

THURSDAY’s CHILD is Buttercup the Cat – a Key West kitteh who received a lifesaving blood transfusion … from a dog.

ONE REASON why the mid-sized, privately-held (often family-owned) firms known as Germany’s Mittelstand thrive without being controlled by the money-boyz: citizens are willing to buy their small-denomination bonds, making them even-less dependent upon commission-driven banks.

BRAIN TEASER – try this Quiz of the Week’s News from the BBC.

FRIDAY’s CHILD is Timmy the Cat – an English kitteh that a shelter feared would be hard-to-place: a black cat whose teeth appear to be fangs … but who now has found a new home.

MUSIC NOTES #2 – in advance of their 50th anniversary tour, The Who have released their first new song in eight years – Be Lucky includes references to both AC/DC and Daft Punk – and will be included in a double album of greatest hits, with royalties from the new song going to teenage cancer sufferers.

THE LIBRARY of CONGRESS has just released some short clips from Game 7 of the 1924 World Series – where the Washington Senators defeated the New York Giants – from ninety years ago, with this very concise analysis from ESPN’s David Schoenfield.

UNDER THE CONSTITUTION of the African nation of Zambia – should the poor health of its president (who missed his annual UN speech) make him unfit to carryout his duties, he would be replaced by his vice-president …. making him the first white leader of an African nation since the fall of apartheid.

By Request MOTHER-DAUGHTER? from Cedwyn – a young Teri Garr and TV star Alyson Hannigan (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “How I Met Your Mother”). Whaddya think?

   

…… and finally, for a song of the week ………………………… a group which began as an interpreter of West Coast 60’s folk/rock stylings yet rapidly grew into the premier English-folk band is Fairport Convention – who have been-together (on and off) for over forty-five years and whose alumni have reached the pinnacle of British popular music. They weren’t the first English bands to add traditional English folk tunes to their repertoire (such as Pentangle and the Strawbs), yet Fairport Convention were the most avid and successful practitioners.

Their origins date back to 1966, when bassist Ashley Hutchings met guitarist Simon Nicol, and the two rehearsed in space above Nicol’s father’s medical practice. The building was known as ‘Fairport’, located in the Muswell Hill section of London (where Ray and Dave Davies of the Kinks grew-up). Eventually they formed a band named after the building that featured Martin Lamble on drums, Judy Dyble on vocals as well as guitarists Iain Matthews and Richard Thompson – whose career after Fairport grew into stardom.

Their self-titled 1968 debut album showed their North American influences (such as The Byrds, Bob Dylan and a then little-known Joni Mitchell) and which gained good reviews yet low sales. In much the same way that the Jefferson Airplane’s folk-rock sound was transformed by a change in female singers (Signe Anderson being replaced by Grace Slick) – so did Fairport when Judy Dyble left the band and her replacement was Sandy Denny – who had experience both with the Strawbs and as a solo singer. She was to Fairport what Jacqui McShee was to Pentangle and Maddy Prior was to Steeleye Span – a female voice in an otherwise all-male band that distinguished each ensemble’s sound in a crowded field of music in the UK.

Signed to Island Records, their next two releases established them as a major band in 1969. What We Did on Our Holidays and Unhalfbricking saw them edge away from US pop towards their own style, with Richard Thompson emerging as a key songwriter – his song Meet on the Ledge has become the band’s unofficial anthem. Perhaps the band’s best-known song is Sandy Denny’s Who Knows Where the Time Goes – which was made famous by a noted cover by Judy Collins even before its appearance on Unhalfbricking. In 2007, it was voted by BBC Radio 2 listeners as their favorite folk-rock track of all time.

In a recurring theme of the band, the personnel changes resemble what Richie Unterberger (of the All-Music Guide) refers to as a revolving-door. One was the guest appearance of fiddler Dave Swarbrick on the traditional tune A Sailor’s Life – which led to his later joining as a member. The other involved a terrible van accident in May, 1969 – which led to several injuries and the death of drummer Martin Lamble (still only in his teens), who was later replaced on drums by Dave Mattacks. Another fatality was the (American-born) rock music fashion designer Jeannie Franklyn – then Richard Thompson’s girlfriend – who was the inspiration for the title of Cream bassist Jack Bruce’s Songs for a Tailor debut solo album.

Iain Matthews also decided to leave, forming Matthews Southern Comfort. The rest gathered in a rented home in Hampshire, where the result was the band’s fourth album, Liege & Leaf – considered by many to be their magnum opus. Part concept album (with some epic-length tracks) and part a blend of original tunes with revamped traditional songs, it has been one of those albums that (in recent years) the band has performed in-full at concerts. It marked the band’s full turn away from North American pop towards their own sound, rooted in English folk.

The dawn of 1970 saw more personnel changes, with Ashley Hutchings leaving to join Steeleye Span who was replaced by Dave Pegg on bass.

Sandy Denny also left to form the band Fotheringay (which was the title of a song she popularized as a member of Fairport). She had a solo career, and famously sang a duet with Robert Plant on The Battle of Evermore – the only guest vocalist Led Zeppelin ever utilized. She made a brief return to the band (for their 1975 Rising for the Moon album) before her life began to spin out of control due to substance abuse problems. She died in 1978 (at only age thirty-one) after a fall down a flight of stairs.

The band’s 1970 Full House album was the last for Richard Thompson, before he left to begin his enduring solo career. The next year saw the band move into a former country pub called The Angel – which led to their 1971 album Angel Delight, which was their highest-charting album in the UK (reaching the Top Ten) and their first to reach the lower rungs of the US charts. Both Dave Mattacks and Simon Nicol left the band, and by 1979 the folk scene had dried-up enough that Fairport Convention decided to disband, holding a final concert in the Oxfordshire town of Cropredy.

They began holding annual reunions in the 1980’s, which became known as the Cropredy Festival – and they have continued in that vein ever since, with some occasional UK tours and studio recordings.

The current line-up (photo right below) includes classic members Simon Nicol and Dave Pegg – and they will be having a short UK tour later this month.  

Some of their former members have re-joined them at various reunions, including Richard Thompson. Dave Swarbrick and Iain Matthews made some solo recordings, Dave Pegg for years was the bassist with Jethro Tull and Ashley Hutchings was a featured player with Steeleye Span and also with the Albion Band.

The band’s most recent studio album is 2011’s Festival Bell and a thirty-fifth reunion album was recorded in 2002. From earlier times, there are two live albums, one with Sandy Denny and one with Richard Thompson’s last tour.

For a compilation album, try Meet on the Ledge covering the band’s heyday (1967-1975). And as long as their sound is held in high esteem by their fans, there should be a 50th reunion show at Cropredy in 2017.

   

Of all of their songs, my favorite is one that (initially) I mistook for a Jethro Tull song, due to its iconic guitar riff. One of the highlights from Liege & Leaf is Tam Lin – an old Scottish ballad about a young woman named Janet, a traditional tale centered on female daring and bravery. And below you can listen to it.