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A Fairport Chronology
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Liege and Lief
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Heyday: BBC Radio Sessions, 1968-1969
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Fairport Live At The BBC
It All Came Round Again

 Most Influential Folk Album of All Time

The Masterpiece

Liege & Lief lineup [click for larger image]

Ashley: "After the crash, we got together for a meeting and decided we'd carry on, bring in Dave Swarbrick on fiddle and audition for a new drummer. We'd opened a whole new can of worms with A Sailor's Life and we decided there and then to go wholeheartedly in that folk rock direction. So that was quite an auspicious meeting. We rented this big old Queen Anne house in a viilage named  Farley Chamberlayne, near Winchester and began work on Liege and Lief. Being in that house certainly helped form the music. We didn't dwell on the crash. There was a sense of adventure. It was uplifting. We were there for about 8 weeks. It was a very remarkable group. I'd say it's maturity was unmatched. Because we lived in that house all kinds of combinations were possible. And I wouldn't separate Sandy and Richard, everyone contributed to Liege and Lief sounding the way it did, Swarb, Mattacks...and Simon was such an important steadying influence. I remember it being a great shock to people when we appeared for that classic Royal Festival Hall concert where Nick Drake supported us and Dave played a solid electric fiddle for the first time and it blew people apart."

 Recorded at Sound Techniques Studio,
October 16 - November 2, 1969
Engineer: John Wood,
Sound Techniques Ltd.
Producer: Joe Boyd,
Witchseason Productions Ltd.
with special thanks to the
English Folk Dance & Song Society at
Cecil Sharp House

Sandy Denny, vocals
 
Dave Mattacks, drums
 
Ashley Hutchings, bass guitar
 
 Simon Nicol, guitars
 
 Dave Swarbrick, violin and viola
 
Richard Thompson, guitars.

Cecil Sharp 1859-1924

Crazy Man Michael
Thompson/Swarbrick

Within the fire and out upon the sea
Crazy man Michael was walking
He met with a raven with eyes black as coals
And shortly they were a-talking
Your future, your future I would tell to you
Your future you often have asked me
Your true love will die by your own right hand
And crazy man Michael will cursčd be

Michael he ranted and Michael he raved
And beat up the four winds with his fists o
He laughed and he cried, he shouted and he swore
For his mad mind had trapped him with a kiss o
You speak with an evil, you speak with a hate
You speak for the devil that haunts me
For is she not the fairest in all the broad land
Your sorcereršs words are to taunt me

He took out his dagger of fire and of steel
And struck down the raven through the heart o
The bird fluttered long and the sky it did spin
And the cold earth did wonder and startle
O where is the raven that I struck down dead
And here did lie on the ground o
I see that my true love with a wound so red
Where her loveršs heart it did pound o

Crazy man Michael he wanders and calls
And talks to the night and the day o
But his eyes they are sane and his speech it is plain
And he longs to be far away o
Michael he whistles the simplest of tunes
And asks of the wild wolves their pardon
For his true love is flown into every flower grown
And he must be keeper of the garden

most influential folk album of all time
Island ILPS 9115 LP, UK, December 1969

side 1

side 2

 
 *The Lark in the Morning;
*Rakish Paddy;
*Fox-Hunter's Jig;
*Toss the Feathers 4:00
 
 

All tracks Trad. arr. Fairport Convention
except Track 1 Sandy Denny / Ashley Hutchings
Track 4 Richard Thompson
Track 8 Richard Thompson /
Dave Swarbrick

Liege and Lief 1969

Knees Up Cecil Sharp

AH's one man show
about Cecil Sharp
this page is from our
Ashley Hutchings website
 

AH's second venture into the life
of Cecil Sharp. this page is also from
our Ashley Hutchings website

A conference to commemorate
 Sharp's collection of his first folksong
in August 1903. Details of venue and programme.

Article about his tour collecting
Appalachian folk music.
this article id from the always
great Music Traditions Magazine

On August 22 1903 Cecil Sharp
noted his first folk song,
The Seeds of Love, from
John England in Hambridge
village in Somerset.

Tam Lin Balladry: A website
of folklore and discovery.

Liege and Lief. inside the sleeve

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albionchronicles
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