TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

When you're at an FC gig, is there ever a song the announcement of which just makes your heart sink a bit? With me, the announcement of "Dangerous" never failed to do the job, and also to an extent "Close to You".

This topic occurred to me when I was streaming a Grateful Dead show the other day. For those who know the Dead: they started to play "Sugaree", and I realised that the mental reaction of "Oh no, I'm going to be bored" is an invariant one when I hear the opening chords of that song.

Most of Chris's 'twee' numbers....I think I would like them more as solo numbers.

I like Sugaree!  It's when the Dead start with Bob Weir singing an old rock 'n' roll chestnut that I feel like snoring.

With Fairport, hmm, I think it has to be The Hiring Fair for me.  I find it both twee and dull, I'm afraid.

Jules

I like "Sugaree" too and the longer the better, but, oh no, not another 30 minute version of "Turn On Your Lovelight".

With Fairport it has to be the late 70s "Bonny Bunch of Roses",  so infrequently played it was not a major problem. Otherwise, I'm happy to sit through just about anything.  :)

Im with senor jules on this, the hiring fair is a good excuse for a comfort break or a cheroot

Adore Sugaree.  Tend to agree with Jules on a) Bobby doing another bloody Chuck Berry cover and b) Hiring Fair, although my list of post-85 'heart sinking' Fairport songs is a pretty hefty list these days I'm afraid....in fact, its a far shorter list for those which makes me smile.  Wish that wasn't the case...  :(

In a live context, of the stuff that still gets played regularly both Rocky Road & The Wood & the Wire induce that sinking feeling. There are a number of others on record including, I'm afraid, The Bonny Black Hare. Most of the others would be post '97 but my absolute bugbear as I have said many times is My Feet Are Set For Dancing which is just irredeemably horrible in every respect.

The good thing about modern methods of listening to music however is that I only have to listen to the tunes I like. Most of the post 97 period gets excluded but much of Festival Bell survives the cull.

I've always found that 'Dangerous' is far more interesting since a TAWer was heard rather too close to the Cropredy stage, loudly offering odds on the lyrics being right.

Have they ever done that live? I know you brought it up in the recording context, but I was just wondering.

I rather like Dangerous, though I accept that it is not really a "Fairport" song. It would have fit better on one of Simon's solo albums. It used to frustrate me though that he would sometimes choose to play it live on acoustic guitar which rendered it sort of bland and anonymous. Whatever kick it has largely comes from the electric and Ric's swooping fiddle solo.

"Si tu dois partir"
The one that sounds like "He can lap dance and sing"
"Now be Thankful" (sorry, I know this is a favourite of some on this forum)
"Hiring Fair" doesn't have the same resonance these days. I think it's quite a repetative song, and it must be hard to keep it fresh.

And I'm going to commit the ultimate sacrilige now - I'm not overly keen on MOTL... I like the sentiment behind it but not the song, and I'm not a big fan of "everyone on the stage to sing your own version in your own time, like USA for Africa singing We Are The World"-style singalongs


I'll get my coat

Never mind MOTL, I'm incredulous to the nth degree that anyone would find this anything other than utterly gorgeous, moving, and peerless.

 :o :o :o

Jules

Second one is The Happy Man, though the line is somewhat less risque and goes, "He can laugh, dance and sing"  ;)

Hiring Fair still moves me though. I love the sparseness of it. True that the arrangement has not shifted much but for me it still works. Only one that I have outgrown, and by extent tend to skip is Come All Ye. In truth that may have been spoiled by Vikki Clayton's interpretations on The Cropredy Box. I love a lot of the other stuff she did with Fairport, there is just something about that one that kind of spoiled it for me

I'm not often speechless (especially about NBT which I regard as one of the finest songs ever written by anyone ever)....

Still, horses and courses and all that  :)

"Red and Gold" - I think its the 80s keyboards and the rather sedate pace of the song

I haven't seen FC since the XXXV tour, but R & G was a track I never liked on the various 80s/90s wintours and Cropredys..

And this wasn't one of those occasions.   ;)

Jules

I avoided posting the comment on Sugaree on a Dead discussion board, because I realised that Dead fans would likely see it as sacrilege!  :)

I know what you mean about the Bobby rock 'n' rollers, but at least they tend to be short!

At the other end of the scale, perhaps the most elated I have ever been at a gig was the one and only time I ever saw the Dead live, hearing that opening to Dark Star rippling through the hall!

Back to Fairport: I think I sort of agree with people about Hiring Fair too. When it comes to Dangerous, my wife got a giggle from people sitting nearby at Kendal Brewery years ago, when Simon announced the song and she said, not quietly, "Oh bloody hell! Billy Joel!".

I can take Dark Star as long as it's under a dozen minutes in length.  But that whole Drums > Space thing?  See ya!

Jules

I adore Sugaree  {:-)

and I don't like Si Tu Dois Partir which feels like the FC equivalent of the birdie song..

I am not a fan of the hiring fair anymore..  it was fab to start with but maybe it needs resting for a bit

Yes again.  Although there have been a few times when it all makes sense (although not for a couple of decades)  ;) :-\ :)

Love 'The Hiring Fair', can't stand 'Bonny Black Hare' and I always have done. My heart really sank a few years ago when Steeleye Span recorded it and began doing it live too!

Me too. A ponderous song. But I'm not keen on later Fpt in general. (Runs for cover . . :-[)

I'm sorry Jules. I'm going to listen to it again in a minute to see if I can find a redeeming factor  :)

The 1970 version hopefully. Not the remake.

I would advocate the opposite for The Hiring Fair. I can understand why people may not be fond of the original recording or some of the early live performances but the acoustic version from Old,New, Borrowed, Blue is really rather gorgeous and the recording on By Popular Request is similar, though I prefer the former.

LOL when I said that I got a bollocking for trolling

There's nothing but redeeming factors!

(And like Gub says, it's the 1970 single version you want.)

Jules

For a while, it was "Hiring Fair", but the current acoustic tour included a truly lovely rendition/arrangement.  I've never been a fan of "Western Wind played live.

(my heart sinks, nay plummets, at the intro to that "tonight's gonna be a good night" record...)

Sloth. (Ducks beneath parapet). I know this is hugely popular with many, but for me it just drags on and on........I can't be doing with it at all.  :P

I have to echo David's Now Be Thankful sentiments here. Sloth is perfect and the longer it goes on, the more perfect it becomes.  ;)

Also, please move those ducks from beneath the parapet before they hurt themselves.

You DO make me laff Al.  ;D

I can see why some folks wouldn't like Sloth.  If you're into songs rather than jamming, then it might all get a bit dull or even annoying.

But not liking Now Be Thankful is just wrong!   >:(

Jules

Don't really care much for Fotheringay.

I must admit I feel similar.  It's a bit too jazzy for me.

Jules

Do calm down Jules! Now Be Thankful is just fine by me.  :)  Don't much care for The Bonny Bunch of Roses though. Another dirge, IMO.

Anything preceded by "and this comes from Excalibur"

I'm quite inclined to agree. Whenever this one gets an airing at Cropredy I always feel as if it's time to batten down the hatches and prepare for a long, tedious, stand. It just about beats "Rosie" into first place in that respect, for me.

Additionally, on the albums, although I am fond of the vast majority of Fairports' post-85 output, I have to say that I find "My Feet Are Set for Dancing" ,and "Love on a Farmboy's Wages" from Sense of Occasion, to be entirely superfluous. In fact, quite a lot of the "Sense of Occasion" album is fairly superfluous in my view.

This is sad but true.

Am sitting here quite incredulous at some of the answers so far.

And still no-one has mentioned that damn ukulele song!

Have to say, I'm amazed that The Hiring Fair is making hearts sink. I've always thought it the quintessential post-split Fairport song. I particularly loved the way they used to do it live with DM playing keyboards. I think it sounds fantastic at Cropredy when the sun's almost gone and you can smell the night air and see the lanterns in the fields. Not saying any of you are wrong, of course. I'm just genuinely surprised  ???

I think the sound of those keyboards is one of the major problems I have with the song.  Very cheesy.

On the other hand, I thought the ukulele song was fun.

Jules

Hence my recommendation of the acoustic version where the keyboard is replaced by some rather beautiful acoustic guitar harmonics.

When in a certain field - Matty Groves; 'cos it means that Cropredy is coming to an end for another year.  :'(

Other artists - the Streets of London. There's always someone shouting out for it at a McTell gig (on one occasion I actually found myself voicing "noooo!")

There's a bloke on fb who is running a "get fc into the r&r hall of fame campaign". I have had occasion to take him to task more than once about his evidence, but his latest one was to cite that awful uke song.
     I thought he was a pisstaker at first but he he seems deluded enough to think it's going to help his one man campaign.

 Re "hiring fair" , while never having read any, it sounds to me like it was written for a mills and boon novelette. Horrible song, never liked it.

Did you ever see the Big Train sketch about sort of the opposite of that situation? Very funny, if a little cruel.  ;D

Never seen it, so I just looked for it on YouTube:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1YNEtaHbzA

Jules

I loved Big Train. One of the funniest and most surreal things the BBC has ever done and pretty much the starting point for Simon Pegg & Kevin Eldon amongst others. If you enjoyed that, try Chairman Mao singing Roxy Music (if I remember rightly). Sorry, can't link to it from here. the complete series DVD is well worth your time.

Thanks Jules, really enjoyed the clip

Chris

You are right Jim, Hiring Fair is very Mills and Boon...  all that sentimentality and bodice ripping..

But Sloth is a track for the gods themselves..

That did make me laugh  ;D  Spot on though...seriously lacking any quality control whatsoever, the whole project imho  :-\

Yep - I find a decent Sloth almost transcendent (up there with A Sailor's Life for folkedelic loveliness to me).  I'm particularly thinking of some of the Jerry/Richard guitar duelling Cropredy versions of old.  Happy memories.... :)

I like Sloth - any track that goes on for over 8 minutes is good with me!

I love Hiring Fair, but prefer the version on In Real Time (the first FC album I heard). I'm not so keen on how they do it these days.

I loved the Excalibur project, and thoroughly enjoyed it live a few years back at Copredy (yes, I was the one!)

I think the words to the Uke song are quite clever but I'm not that bothered with it

But I did spend some time yesterday listening to various versions of Now Be Thankful, and I'm still not keen on it. I think it's because (for me) it drags along. Sorry - I did try, really I did, but I'm uninspired   :-\

Oh - and I despair when I see Ric get his wah wah peddle out tho   :o it's just wrong!  

But it's only two and a half minutes long!   :o  ???  :'(

Jules

Killer chorus too.

The Wood and The Wire (title track) has been overplayed, there must be other songs from that album they could play.
Love Sloth - if only they'd surprise us and dust it off on a Winter Tour instead of saving it for Cropredy.
Hiring Fair is still deservedly part of the core repertoire...

Wild think.

It makes my heart sink.


Sorry I hab a code.

Bud I dope think Fairbort sank id anyway.

'Choo.......

Really? it seems so much longer....

Worse thing is, because I listened to it continuously for about 30 minutes it's STUCK IN MY BL**DY HEAD EARWIGGING ME AND I CAN'T STOP SINGING IT  >:(

 :-X

You see how catchy it is!

Conversely, I have to play it three times in a row because it's so short that I'm left wanting more.

Jules

Is that a very slow version of Love Cats?

 ;D

If there were a version of "Sloth" featuring drum solos from DM, Bruce and Gerry, would it be a "Three Toad Sloth"?  ::)

Now, be thankful there's no more puns.

'White Dress'. Too soppy- - only romantics need apply.  I think it's a Ralph McTell song, and I might even tolerate Ralph singing it, but I can't take it on Rising etc. The rest of the album is fine. 8)

It was written by Swarb for Sandy...

  :o  :o I think 'White dress' is utterly exquisite! I know there are many 'if only' s in the Fairport story, but I do wish Swarb and Sandy had done more in tandem - I think her version of 'It suits me well' is terrific......mind you, so is Swarb's  [;-)

A Swarb/Ralph co-composition, I believe. Ralph did a version which is fine, but I love the Sandy/FC  version. It appeals to my soppy romantic side.

I stand corrected. Ralph recorded it, but didn't write it.

Actually having checked, Ralph is on the PRS site as co writer at one stage..  :)

Interesting:

The original LP lists Swarb as the composer.
The original CD issue lists it as a Swarbrick/McTell composition.
The recent CD issue reverts back to Swarbrick.

The confusion probably arose when Ralph recorded his version and altered the lyrics to be able to sing it from a man's perspective

Original:

WHITE DRESS
(Dave Swarbrick)

Feel how the wind blows, December despair
Bring me a ribbon to tie up my hair
I'll be your bride, go where you go
All of my life you'll be my beau

Chorus:
Kiss me and I might
Put on the white dress
If you'll take me dancing tonight

The night's in your face, the sky's in your eyes
The days in my arms when you're by my side
Whenever you're weary I'll sing you a song
Whenever you're lonely I'll show you you're wrong
Chorus

Come from the window, let's climb the stairs
All of my sorrows are none of your cares
While life is in us let's love all we can
I'll be your woman if you'll be my man
Chorus

Ralph's version:

WHITE DRESS
(Swarbrick/McTell)

Feel how the wind blows, December despair
Bring me a ribbon to tie back your hair
You stayed by my side, you've gone where I've gone
Don't cling to the past love, while time's moving on

Chorus:
Come and kiss me it's gonna be all right
Put on your white dress
And I'll take you dancing tonight

All of my sorrows are none of your cares
Come from the window, tread soft on the stairs
While life is in us let's love all we can
If you be my woman then I'll be your man
Chorus

And if you get weary I'll sing you this song
And if you feel lonely I'll show you you're wrong
The nights in your face, the sky's in your eyes
And the morning's before us, lets dance 'til sunrise
Chorus

I love 'It Suits me Well'. One of the best, if not the best, tracks on Sandy.

Amen.

Best "solo" Swarb track too, IMO.

Jules

Sloth...

A song that whenever I compile a cd of fairport stuff, it HAS to be included. And when it comes round to being played, I regularly think that I wish I hadn't included it.

What you need there is the live version with Vikki Clayton on vocals in about 2000 & something.

And who said 'The Happy Man'?
It's a thing of great joy. Especially if you are 6X enhanced and standing in an Oxfordshire field.

I've always liked it. It has a great melody and it's 'like a hymn'. But - lyrically - I find it wanting. What's it actually about?

I beg to differ. I've never read any Mills & Boon (although I love their early stand-up stuff ;)) but I am familiar with Thomas Hardy and D.H. Lawrence and I think The Hiring Fair has much more in common with the restrained, stifled lives of the characters in some of their novels. Less bodice ripping, more turnip picking (in the mud and the rain)...

IMHO of course  :)

I suppose it was RT's attempt to, as you say, write a hymn, just as his words on Liege & Lief had been his take on traditional folk lyrics.  I think it's about strength/faith through adversity, and the wheel of life.

Jules

That is a question that could be levelled at any number of RT's lyrics of the period. Crazy Man Michael? Meet On The Ledge? Sloth? They are all somewhat opaque. We take from them whatever we find and maybe whatever we need.

Nicely put, GubGub.  8)

 Night Time Girl ruins a potentially great album, London Danny has no place in anyone's set list, most of Sense of Occasion is not welcome, and can Neil Gow leave the building.

DW

But not always. Sometimes it fits the bill exactly.

Why do I think it's going to say 'Just  roll and a bun', every time I hear it?

Oh, I like it. It's Fpt's 'DArk Star', after all.  8)

Recorded ho - hum, live can be awesome.

Hehe no Sense of Occasion is not the greatest album. At all.
But what's wrong with London Danny? It is not overplayed (never played?) and I think it has a great arrangement set to a nice tune.

Now Be Thankful, Banks of the Sweet Primroses... time for a nap.

I'd welcome 50% of Sense Of Occasion, not including the remakes, which are OK, but, like all the others that have appeared on recent CDs, they seem out of context on a new album.
Unless it's 'By Popular Request' in which case it is the context, of course.
I do subscribe to the theory, though, made by whoever it was on this forum, that if an FC song has London in the title, it's not particulary good.

I thought London Danny was on Jewel in the Crown (which is definitely not a duffer!)

Oops - just read the previous pages and understand the context (I'm tired!). Anyhow, the inevitability of walk awhile makes my mind wander when I hear it live....

From what I have read here we can deduce that there is no great love for much of the post 1985 material or much of the "classic" pre 1985 material.  Ideal setlist would be Matty and MOTL played alternately for 90 minutes..

I'd just got over people knocking Now Be Thankful, and now the wonderful Banks Of Sweet Primroses is getting stick?!  Oy vey!!   ::)

Jules

It's interesting to see that The Hiring Fair seems to grate on a few people. I assumed most Fairport fans viewed it as a classic, but always thought this was a dreadful song (and found the Mills & Boone comparison very funny and accurate). And I heartily agree that Dangerous is toe-curling stuff.

After Swarb departed Fairport didn't record much "trad" material anymore, which I thought was a pity, but they also seemed to develop a blind spot for rather mawkish and twee songs. Some of their songs are, to steal a line from Blackadder, "wetter than a fish's wet bits".

From a Distance.  Any version.  Dreadful.

Yes, I tend to agree. I first heard it in a version by Nanci Griffith long before it was a well known song and I quite liked it at the time but it has subsequently been murdered by so many people that I can no longer listen to it.

At least when Simon released it originally on Before Your Time he dropped the "God Is Watching Us" part unlike Bette Midler's popular version. Made it a bit more salvageable for me anyway but still not one I would play often

+1

Jules

+2

I used to really like Nanci but she got ever more earnest and ever more twee and FOAD started being sung in spanish and i lost all interest in her. She used to be real good fun.

I'd forgotten FOAD was a staple of the FC set in the early 90's.."thanks"..I do recall now FC playing it at Croppers in 90 or 91 and a friend shouting out "It's Cliff!".

1.  Jewel in the Crown.

2.  Most of Chris Leslie's songs - especially that one about sea shells....

Rosie. Never liked the song. Sorry Swarb
I just find it twee and it brings back memories of the lousy tv prog for which it was the theme music.
Why would a policeman want to 'rosin up his bow?' :)
Incidentally,I love White Dress, including Vikki Clayton's versions, and Sloth is iconic for me, it being, along with Sailor's Life, one of the songs in the late 60's that got me into Fairports in the first place.
If you haven't, listen to Carolyn Evans of Red Shoes doing White Dress. She's not a sandy copyist but there's something special about this version.
Hiring fair is a great song imho

Why does everyone keep typing FOAD?  What does the O stand for?   ???

Jules

Nothing ,it's superfluous, just like the song
I think it was my fault

Its always your fault Jim.

Ah! You've noticed!

At one time in the early Eighties, it meant Go Away And Die.

Did Cliff sing that too?

No, people sang it to Cliff.

 ;D

 ;D +1

Jules

15 minutes of the bonny bunch of roses live is enough to make anyone's heart sink.

Paul

I'd agree, but I have a lingering memory that - originally - the sentiment was meant to be ironic (the clue being in the title), and, therefore, very un Cliff-like. I could be talking shite, mind  ???

Hmmmm...the lyrics are there for all to see (and hide from).

From a distance the world looks blue and green
And the snow-capped mountains white
From a distance the ocean meets the stream
And the eagle takes to flight
From a distance there is harmony
And it echoes through the land
It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace
It's the voice of every man
From a distance we all have enough
And no one is in need
There are no guns, no bombs, no diseases
No hungry mouths to feed
From a distance we are instruments
Marching in a common band
Playing songs of home, playing songs of peace
They're the songs of every man
God is watching us, God is watching us
God is watching us from a distance
From a distance you look like my friend
Even though we are at war
From a distance I can't comprehend
What all this war is for
From a distance there is harmony
And it echoes through the land
It's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves
It's the heart of every man
It's the hope of hopes, It's the love of loves
It's the song of every man

To me those lyrics seem to say that everything in the world seems fine on the surface but when you look closely, you see that they're not. (Can't say I agree with that sentiment except maybe in some specific circumstances.) For me, it is the melody and the arrangement that make the song particularly twee although the two 'God' lines don't help!

I don't like any of it and I particularly don't like the Bette Midler's version, and don't even get me started on that affront to the ears Wind Beneath My Wings. Double yuk!

Like the opening bars from Eastenders, this song gets me racing to the tv/radio to turn it off!!  >:(

The Wind Beneath My Wings always makes ne think of that parping noise that can be made by squeezing a hand under your oxter (armpit)

Nobody, but nobody else in the world has made that connection!  ;D

And I salute you for it.

Bette's entire oeuvre is a bit on the ripe and gamey side. I forgive her though because of The Rose soundtrack album for which I have a considerable soft spot.

As I said its not a particular favorite of mine, and I think it is a very 80's/90's type of song. I doubt Julie Gold would have written it the same way now and that is probably the reason I scarcely play it. There is a truth (however twee it may come out) that all our problems and issues in the world really do amount to little when Earth is viewed from afar, and I think that is the real intention of the song.

I wholeheartedly agree with assessment of The Wind Beneath My Wings  ;D

Not really a fan of Bette the singer, but a massive fan of what she has done for NYC Parks over the years.

My Feet Are Set For Dancing.
I mean the song (not that mine are, you see, nor ever have been).
A scar on an otherwise fine album (Gladys' Leap). When I got into all things Fairport, Cathy Lesurf was still a member of the Albion Band and I wasn't fond of her vocals then (a very acquired taste), even though at the time I did dig a number of Albion Band albums with her singing (up to a point). I do remember reading in Hokey Pokey (remember that?) that that line up disbanded and Cathy had left, and I wasn't sorry to read it.
After years and years I recently played an old Albion-with-Cathy album and I found out the years weren't kind to my appreciation of her vocals. So if one song makes my heart sink, it's the Feet Are Set one ... and the 80s sound doesn't help there either.

I'd almost forgiven her until I heard/saw that Christmas horror from a year or two ago. Brought back some horrible memories.  I remember her doing some Sandy songs at Cropredy in the 80's with affection, though...  I tried to listen to Gladys a couple of years ago...not aged well at all I thought, although there's some decent songs on there, of course.

On the plus side the chances of My Feet..being part of any FC set must be remote.  I don't recall ever seeing it performed by FC.  Cathy LeSurf's vocal style reminds me too much of the similar style of the presenter of Andy Pandy..

I thought Cathy was just fine at the 1983 Croppers.

Jules

There are some great songs on the Festival Bell album but Festival Bell itself I've always found rather twee and a bit annoying.

She was certainly great the following year.  I also saw an Albion Band gig at Bohunt School, Liphook featuring Tyger, Simon and DM c.'83/4 where she played and was fantastic.

I remember going to Comedy Night at the Teenage Cancer Trust season with Peter Kay compering.  He came on as brian Potter in his wheelchair and sang The Wind Beneath My Wheels.  I have never heard the song any other way since

A perfect send up :)

Well, if we're going to move on to songs not by tge Fairport bunch, can I include that Roy Orbison classic, Crying, which I used to love, but now whenever I hear it all I can hear is Philip Pope on Only Fools an Norses singing "Cwying"!  :'(

No please let's at least attempt to keep it Fairport related  ;D

Neil

I really don't get all the love for A Sailor's Life. The first time I heard it, it was June Tabor's infamous "interpretation" at Cropredy from the "It All Comes Round Again" VHS, and I had to wind it on. I haven't been able to get into it since, it's just an interminable drone to me.

Sloth similarly has me mentally switching off and hoping that the next song will be better. And, if I'm honest, so do most of the songs from 1997 onwards (and I've not heard Sense of Occasion or The Festival Bell). There are a few standouts, but I think the best track they've done in the last 15 years is The Heart Of The Song, nothing else comes close for me. The last FC album that I can really say I like without reservation is Old New Borrowed Blue.

FWIW, Swarb's Rosie wasn't used for the TV sitcom Rosie. It had its own theme song, written and sung by Paul Greenwood (who also starred as PC "Rosie" Penrose). All four series of it are on YouTube if you want to revel in limp sitcom nostalgia and confirm for yourself ;)

I didn't either for a long time. I started to change my mind when I heard the Swarbless version on RT's Watching The Dark anthology but the scales really fell from my eyes when Fairport 1969 played it at their showcase at the Barbican a few years back. A blistering, spellbinding performance and one of the live highlights of my life.

I think we would be an odd lot if we liked all the songs in th FCC repertoire.. Bonny Bunch of Roses is my weak track.
Thank heaven for our own choice option.... ;D

Am I the only person who likes Bonny Bunch of Roses? I admit to preferring the Sandy version from the Liege & Lief sessions, but both are good.

It wasnt the best way to discover the song with June searching for a tune and failing horribly.Iit's bound to put you off it, whereas i am in the happy band that heard it first on Unhalfbricking and consider it to be  one of the finest 13 minutes ever committed to vinyl.

I'll happily second Al and Jim on this. First heard at Bradford Uni, live, and it was absolutely amazing. Then it was there on Unhalfbricking, reminding me of Bradford... Something very special.

I like it.  never heard a Sandy version though.  Are you sure, Ollie?  There was a 1970 outtake on the expanded Full House, but that had Swarb singing.  It's the best version I've heard.

Jules

I agree on the Gold Star Sessions cut. I'd love to be surprised by a Sandy version, though!!!

Until this past Wednesday (no kidding), I really didn't like the version of "Bonny Bunch" on the "BBOR" album and had kind of forsaken the whole album because of it. I got a hankering for 'new (to me)' Fairport, though, and ended up finishing the album out (the only side of pre-80s Fairport I haven't heard). Ended up enjoying the whole album a LOT and have a little more appreciation for the title track.

That's the one that I meant. Brain f**t, sorry.  ::)

I figured as much.  Hell, we all have 'em (especially us older guys).

Jules

Well I read this, too, and thought nothing odd about it. In fact I'd convinced myself how much the Sandy version of Bonny Bunch was one of my favourites and how I loved listening to it on the end of L&L, even though it doesn't exist. Our brains can mess with us sometimes...

I think we may have both been getting the FH version of Bonny Bunch of Roses mixed up with The Quiet Joys of Brotherhood, which is on the extended edition of L&L. Both tracks have a similar feel.

yes, you're right of course

It is funny how one's taste changes over the years, some songs I used to love I now can't listen to anymore and as far as Fairport is concerned it are only the long instrumental parts of songs like A sailor's life, Matty Groves, Tam Lin and Sloth but I still do love the vocal part of the songs.

Not FC, but if I hear another cover version of Mr Cohen's "Hallelujah" I will wear an involuntary grimace for a day. Great song, but.....

I like the version on the album of the same name. It stretches the attention span somewhat, but it's worth it.  8)

I first heard it on a LC Documentary about Mr. Cohen- - it must have been in the '80s and there was some live footage. Fast forward a few years at least, and you couldn't turn around without hearing a cover version.

RAdio 4 did a documentary about that one song, and there were some awful versions. Jeff Buckley's is fine, though.

And so is John Cale's.

You've not lived until you've heard the synth-pop arrangement that I did for my A level Music Tech course. Truly, a masterpiece.  ::)

Is your cover of Hallelujah available?

I have heard many. I liked Cohen's original, and Buckley's cover, but most others - Meh!

Bonus secret track on the new CD?

I'll see if I still have the file somewhere, and I might pop it up on Soundcloud.

Bring it on, Ollie!  8) ;D

Anything by French (so called) singer Daniel Balavoine. If you feel you might have some time that you are willing to lose, give a listen to it...

Now Be Thankful -   There was a YouTube clip some time ago which seems to have vanished, but was illustrated with pictures of medieval Christian martyrdom, people being broken on the wheel or tried in the fire. And the "red rose" was supposed to be Christ's blood.
Whatever, like many RT songs, we'll never know what's behind it, but must just appreciate - I do!

Hmmm... am I the only person who puts "Tam Lin" at the head of the list? ???   Have never gotten into this one.... must be the Yank in me !
 

'Travelling By Steam' on 'Jewel in the Crown' is (in my humble opinion) an awful song. I'm just glad I've never heard it done live. I also think that the album, although generally pretty good, contains some other awful duffers too ('London Danny', 'Home is Where the Heart Is', for example).

Completely agree with you about London Danny. The other two are interesting. I don't like them by Fairport either but like them very much by their original authors, Huw Williams in the case of the former and Clive Gregson in the case of the latter. Indeed I think Home Is Where The Heart Is is one of Gregson's finest songs but it should be heard like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E64PxV3cEFU

As the modern youngsters would say 'OH EMM GEE!'

That is a totally different experience, what a great song when sung in that stripped down style. Thanks for pointing me in that direction, Al.

"home" is one of those songs that for me sounds like Simon sang it for a 45 rpm but played it on a 33 rpm - love the song but just sounds laboured on JITC.

DW

Isn't London Danny a Jez Lowe song?  Some songs don't benefit from the 'big band' treatment and the stripped down versions are often far more engaging.

Another vote for Hiring Fair. I like so much of Ralph's stuff but this has always left me cold.

For my own part I don't think there is a FC song that's inclusion makes my heart sink. If anything it's some of the ones that they omit that make my heart yearn . Dangerous was given an airing at Cropredy with Maart as part of the line up and I quite took to it afterwards in a way that I hadn't previously. I'd like to hear Golden Glove included in the set at some stage.
 

i think my particular loathing of the hiring fair is well known