TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

I expect you will have heard /heard about the three 'tracks' from Babbacombe Lee that FC are currently performing on this wintour...

Have you heard them and if so what do you think of the interpretations?

I havent heard them as of yet, are they close to the originals? its amazing the interest world wide now concerning babbacombe, lots of company's are setting up to do it live. funny old world aint it?

I would say they are very close to the originals...  Simon sings Breakfast in Mayfair in a much more mature voice than the original.  Chris sings a lovely version of the Cell Song and a gripping Hanging Song (is that the correct title.. they aren't individually titled on the cd)

They will be in Brum Town Hall tomorrow night..  will you be there?

No I am too busy, give em my love though please.

I will if I get the opportunity!  ;D ;)

I can recall from interviews a long while back (a few decades, actually) that you were very critical to Babbacombe Lee. I think you went as far as saying "I think it stinks now". But, as I said, that was a number of years ago. How do you regard that record now?

Thor-Rune

I never said that, I always loved it, critics though said it stinks, many of em,noone at the time took it seriously.

Hi Swarb,

I loved the album as well. I was suprised to read that the album didn't sell many copies. By the way, do you still have the original newspaper clippings that inspired the album?

Pat

I've always loved it as well.  Somewhere I've got the book that Musikfolk put out that you did the foreward to.  Wasn't that taken from your source material?

(Still available: http://www.musikfolk.co.uk/cat-f.html

I remember it being played in its entirety at Cropredy '82 and there being something of a collapse in the Sailor's Alphabet.  Then a mate and I tried to do it at a folk club .... it's a sod to sing, isn't it?  Always trying to remember where in the alphabet you've got to ....


(note to self - dig out the book and play the album)

yes i always had the same problem, trying to remember where you are etc, no I sold the papers to musikfolk.

I really like 'Babbacombe' Lee too.  Two notable things for me - 1) Peggy has never written or co-written better songs than his contributions, Dream Song is particularly strong; and 2) DM plays out of his skin on the album, especially on John Lee and Hanging Song, brilliant!

"Shake the holy water, summon up the guard!"

Jules

I was moved by how well Chris sang those songs. Obviously he's not you but he did a fantastic job of them that was very remeniscent of your phrasing etc.

I'm delighted to hear that as this album was very, very special to me when it came out. And the closing section with "Dream" and "Hanging Song" was a strong finish to this record. Your vocals on "The Time Is Near" is deeply moving - some of the most emotional I ever heard you sing, in fact. But how was the experience of performing the whole thing live back then?

Thor-Rune

it was good, performing it was hard but satisfying.Its always good to get yr teeth into something a bit out of the ordinary. and of course its good to hear that people like it, and maybe even the critics may come round ,but who really cares?

That's right. Who really cares about the critics. Most of them couldn't play a note much less write a song. As my father said '' Those that can do and those that can't write about it.

Pat

This critic liked it! ;D ;D

Fairport Convention: Babbacombe Lee
Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 13 April 1972

"JOHN LEE, the jury has found you guilty of willful murder, and the sentence of the court upon you is that you be taken from this place to a lawful prison, and there to a place of execution, and there suffer death by hanging ... And may the Lord have mercy on your soul."

Humble John Lee of Babbacombe doesn't have the mythic nature of a Tommy, but he is sure-fire folk-hero material. Briefly, his true story is this: At the age of 20, Lee was convicted of murdering his elderly employer; he was sent to the gallows, where three times in succession the trap door failed to open, thus (by a delightful formality of British law) obviating the death penalty.

It's a simple little drama, acted by the most mundane of characters. Fairport's accomplishment lies in their bestowing upon it a universality and culling from it some rather cosmic implications, giving us, in the process, their finest record and certainly one of the best "concept albums".

We first meet Lee as a lad and observe (it's a very visual album, the music often functioning more like a film soundtrack than a direct narrative) his first meeting with Mr. Keyes (the victim) and his departure for the Navy. In this first section the music is brisk, exhilarating, rosy and bursting with youthful exuberance. But then Lee contracts pneumonia, and as Fairport's tightly performed, beautifully sung music gathers steam and winds up into a tense, rousing chorus that seems to foreshadow troubles to come, we begin to sense, almost imperceptibly, that our John is in the hands of something close to Destiny, a pawn in some bizarre Divine game. Soon thereafter, the grisly crime is perpetrated.

Side two consists of an extended approach to the harrowing climax. Rather than escalate the intensities in a straight, obvious line, though, Fairport have wisely chosen to take the time, to limn the complex. They present wavering states of mind that possessed the incarcerated Mr. Lee with three long, slow selections which simultaneously concoct a devilish degree of suspenseful anticipation.

Fairport's concise, poetic and detailed translation of the story into verse is perhaps their most impressive achievement, but running a close second is the assured performance of their eclectic British folk-cum-rock music and the manner in which they have employed same to heighten the drama that unfolds in the libretto: the prayer he never expected to be answered is a touching lament; the dream a haunting ballad of slow-motion beauty; and the rousing climax is milked for all it's worth with tension-accumulating violin breaks (Dave Swarbrick) and stirring drumming (Dave Mattacks). It's more remarkable still that they have managed to do it all while remaining within the strict limits of the folk format.

In the end we have become fascinated with Lee as a character, a man whose naive, stolid faith in his innocence apparently worked a magical deliverance (though Fairport leaves such conclusions strictly to the listener), and have encountered such suddenly real creatures as Fate, Hope, and Death.

In both concept and execution, Fairport Convention have done a masterful job. This could and should be the album to bring them the attention they've deserved for a long time.
© Richard Cromelin, 1972

many thanks, i shall print it out and frame it  fantastic  

I see the bloke who wrote it is still about he's currently on the staff at the Los Angeles Times. :)

I wish him well, obviously a most cultivated and intelligent sod.

Priceless.   ;D

Jules

One of the bands I play with (called "Full House" - spot the influence!) performed the whole thing at the Chester Folk festival, I think it was in 2003.  We included Farewell to a Poor Man's Son and the Carthy ballad from the TV programme plus a bit of extra narration.  We got through it with scarcely a skipped beat and the audience loved it.   So sod the critics, it's a great piece of work, Mr S.

another fine upstanding gentleman.

As a slight aside to the Babbacombe Lee story. While at Cropredy last year and standing in the queue for my T shirt I got into conversation with a very elderly grey whiskered gentleman.  He told me that this was his first time at Cropredy and he had only heard of FC recently after coming across the album while doing research on Babbacombe where he was born and bred.  He then went on to tell me that his grandmother had told him that her Grandmother( or mother or whoever ) knew Mrs Lee and that each time they tried to hang him, his grandmother was up on the moors dancing around a " Lightning Tree" !!!  Magic or what?

streuth.

Coincidence!! (that kept him hanging there...)

enough already

Wasnt the bit about the old biddy and the lightning tree mentioned in the bbc docu-musical?

I seem to remember it was.