Late November

[Adam]

Am I the only one who finds Sandy's Late November a very unsettling song? To my mind it has real Cthulu-like qualities, especially the last verse:

"The pilot he flew all across the sky and woke me.
He flew solo on the mercury sea.
The dream it came back, all about the tall brown people,
The sacred young herd on the phosphorus sand."

Does anyone have a theory what it is about?

Adam (should get out more!)

[Big Dave]

It's described in Clinton Helyn's book.  Can't remeber exact details as I am work at the moment and would need to check properly.  Something to do with Sandy walking along a beach and seeing a low flying aircraft then dreaming about the plane crashing?

[Andy]

Miranda Ward comments on Denny’s ‘100 per cent emotional recall’ (Heylin 2000, p. 47). A troubling incident from years before could be raised in conversation and within no time ‘she was as upset as when it first happened’. Something similar is occurring in the songs: their intensely personal contents, their jealously guarded ‘meanings’, are re-enacted at each performance of the song. ‘Late November’ illustrates the process. It ends, as we have seen, with a profusion of baffling surreal imagery (the ‘mercury sea’, the ‘phosphorus sand’, etc) rooted in a worrying dream that Denny had in February 1969 and recorded at great length in her notebook. This same dream contained an apparent premonition of the road accident in May 1969 which cost the lives of Fairport’s original drummer and Richard Thompson’s then girlfriend and might have ended her own, had she not accepted a lift from her boyfriend (Heylin 2000, pp. 128, 96).

From http://www.pemward.co.uk/page_1158049150671.html

[Adam]

Many thanks Andy!

Adam

[Adam]

and Big Dave!

[Jim]

Cthulu.......
durr..... wtf does that mean?

[davidmjs]

Cthulu.......
durr..... wtf does that mean?

I was a bit confused by that too... This might (or might not) help...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu

[Malcolm]

Cthulu.......
durr..... wtf does that mean?

I was a bit confused by that too... This might (or might not) help...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu

The author (never heard of him) died of tertiary syphillis - no wonder he wrote such b****x

[Andy]

Lovecraft was indeed quite the nutter.

[davidmjs]

Cthulu.......
durr..... wtf does that mean?

I was a bit confused by that too... This might (or might not) help...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu

The author (never heard of him) died of tertiary syphillis - no wonder he wrote such b****x

I've read about him rather than read him...first came across him because of the band...called, er, H.P. Lovecraft...

[Albie]

Stephen King has suggested that Cthulhu represents "a gigantic, tentacle-equipped, killer vagina from beyond space and time."[28]

I must be slipping, just cannot think of a joke to make about that. Sorry. 

[fat Billy(Bill)]

there is nothing funny about a a gigantic, tentacle-equipped, killer vagina from beyond space and time


but I think it says a lot about the author

[Pat Helms]

Damn.......who would have thought that Sandy was conjuring such bizarre stuff?  Although, I've always suspected that Bushes & Briars might have alluded to that ghoul undertaker with the razor ball from PHANTASM......now, I'm sure of it!! 

[Edthefolkie]

Miranda Ward comments on Denny’s ‘100 per cent emotional recall’ (Heylin 2000, p. 47).

From http://www.pemward.co.uk/page_1158049150671.html

Errr..I'm getting slightly confused here. Sure the remark about Sandy's 100% emotional recall was Miranda's, but I thought the main quote was from Philip Ward, who wrote a very good essay about Sandy which is on his website. I believe he's a part time researcher at the House of Commons and told me in an e-mail that he tried and failed to get the essay published in print.

Miranda Ward is a nice lady who used to be Sandy's best mate and owned the flat where Sandy was when she was taken ill or whatever. Miranda features, or did feature, as one of Sandy's friends on MySpace would you believe.

Or are they related? Do I need something stronger than the Waitrose tea I am supping? Is it Fluff's death that has unhinged me?

Anyway Adam, Late November is indeed deeply unsettling & I thought that long before the explanations and analyses surfaced. Bit of an insight into a tortured soul if you arsts me guvnor.
 
Cheers - Ed   

[Chris]

Or are they related?

Hmmm - I was thinking the same thing....maybe I'll call her & ask.

[Philip W]

Or are they related?

Hmmm - I was thinking the same thing....maybe I'll call her & ask.

No need, Chris. Miranda and I are not related - just a coincidence of surnames. She was kind enough to help me with my article on Sandy's songwriting. I've never heard her comments on the finished piece and suspect she doesn't like it. But there are people - and I respect their opinion - who feel that any form of interpretation is, in Keats's phrase, like "unweaving the rainbow". Incidentally, wileytown, you'll find my interpretation of Bushes and Briars - less exciting than yours - at
http://www.pemward.co.uk/page_1157990551812.html

Philip

[Pat Helms]

Great website, Philip, and a compelling essay on Sandy, as well! 

Incidentally, I read somewhere Sandy later found out that the minister actually had a congregation.  Not huge, but okay. 

That aside, I can relate to Sandy's reaction - feeling sympathy for the poor minister, but not willing to conform to a dogma required to commune with him. 

Then again, I might be a Presbyterian.   

[Edthefolkie]

Talking of Bushes and Briars - I forgot what Peggy said at Cropredy 2006 when it was performed. Where was the "location" so to speak which gave Sandy the idea for the song?

I know it was a churchyard somewhere near Banbury, not far from Croppers. I'd love to have a look one day - I've been meaning to go and look at the original of "Lark Rise" too. Which book incidentally is anything but the cosy little country diary most people suppose it to be.   

[jjjudy]

Thrupp!?!

[Malcolm]

Lovecraft was indeed quite the nutter.

From never having heard of him a week ago, I now see there is a programme about him tonight on Radio 3.