The Masterpiece
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.
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
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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
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
noted his first folk song,
The Seeds of Love, from
village in Somerset.
Tam Lin Balladry: A website
of folklore and discovery.
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