Article on Sandy Denny's songwriting

[Philip W]

An article of mine on Sandy's songwriting is now available on my website: http://www.pemward.co.uk. In slightly different form this appeared briefly on a Richard Thompson fansite last year as a download. Although it never found a print publisher and I came in for some stick from certain quarters, I had very warm responses from - to drop a few names! - Joe Boyd, Vikki Clayton, Trevor Dann, and Robin Frederick, who encouraged me to self-publish. So here it is. Enjoy/criticise/emote according to taste.

[WestWind]

Thanks for posting this; I found it quite interesting on a quick read-through (while at work!).  Intriguing correlation of the changes in Sandy's personality over the course of her career with the changes in the menu of songs she was performing (e.g. trad./covers vs. self-composed).

Cheers ///  Tom***

[Sir Robert Peel]

Good grief, Philip - what an impressive article.  You call it an article, but it is more than that - it is thoroughly researched, complete with bibliography, with an achingly honest introduction and a striking, thought provoking post-script.  I like your 'voice'. 

I thank you very much for sharing it with us, but feel that it is almost wasted as an unpublished piece.  I'm going to put a 'sticky' marker on it for at least four weeks, so that it will not get lost in the back pages. 

Admirable! 

Sir Robert Peel
Global Moderator

 

[Waterloo Wonderer]

Is this an academic piece of writing or a recreational one. Either way it read very well and was excellently referenced.

Who's next?

Should we make suggestions. I'll start with Roy Harper.

WW

[Neil]

Should we make suggestions. I'll start with Roy Harper.

WW

I'll look forward to reading that I've been trying to understand him for years.

[Edthefolkie]

This is a really splendid article; just about the best thing I've read about Sandy for many years.

And have a look at the rest of Pete/Philip's website - there is a lot of thought provoking stuff

Cheers - Ed

[Philip W]

Thanks for your comments, and double thanks to Sir Robert for rescuing me from the back pages. Several people have asked: 1) why isn’t this in print? and 2) why don’t you turn it into a book? The answer to both – I touch on this in my Postscript – is that, outside the oasis of good taste that is TalkAwhile, nobody gives a stuff about this kind of thing. I pitched the book idea once to a publisher. He thought for a bit, then said: “Sandy Denny? Was she the girl in The Seekers?” There’s another problem. Although I have a few more ideas that I didn’t use, I sense that to take it very much further I’d need the cooperation of those who knew her and worked with her - and this, with a couple of exceptions, I can’t get. Those around her – friends, the Fairports - close ranks. “The gent with the Mulliner Bentley”, the bet on the Kentucky Derby: she worked so hard at her songwriting that surely no detail is there by accident. People must Know Things, but they see it as a breach of confidence to Sandy to make public what they know. And who am I to question such fierce loyalty?

I’d love to be proved wrong on all this… if there are any publishers of vision and taste reading this!

Philip (aka Pete)