A Sailor's Life - Marmite or Wine?

[GubGub (Al)]

I was going to post this in the Fairport Album Vote thread after hendo's eloquent eulogy for the song but I figured it probably deserves its own thread.

I suspect that A Sailor's Life is a Marmite song, either loved or hated by Fairport fans depending on where they climbed on board the bus (boat?). My own journey with the song has seen me progress from one extreme to the other in my affections for it.

I found Fairport many years after their Heyday, enticed by the Richard Thompson connection, whose solo work I was aware of prior to the band's. Working backwards from my point of entry, when I came to the History album and subsequently Unhalfbricking, I found A Sailor's Life to be a painful and unlistenable squawl that for years I skipped during any play through of those albums.

I started to re-think things upon hearing the Swarbless recording on RT's Watching The Dark anthology, which was a real eye opener and gave me a way into the song. Perhaps it was the screeching fiddle I was having trouble with. I still love the Swarbless version but found that I was now able to listen to the original also, though it still did not rank amongst my Fairport favourites.

Two things changed that. The first was the majestic performance at the 1969 show at the Barbican a few years back. It was one of the most electrifying performances I have ever seen by anyone. It closed the first half of the show and brought the house down. The second was a voyage that I took up the coast of Norway and into the Arctic Circle on the postal "steamer" service that ploughs the route daily. It was winter and snow and ice covered every inch of the dramatic landscape, forming on the surface of the sea and even piling up to a depth of several inches on the ship's deck. A Sailor's Life on my Ipod formed the perfect soundtrack to this almost overwhelming but bleak spectacle and to the pace of the journey so my love for the song deepened with that experience.

For me then, the marmite qualities of the song were converted to those of a fine wine which requires time and experience from which to appreciate it. I would never direct any new listener to start with that song but it is surely some sort of pinnacle towards which they should work.

[Greg]

While I wouldn't go as far as to say I found it unlistenable, I have to say that story pretty much matches my experience exactly!

I'd always found it a bit dull to be honest, and would end up skipping onto the next track after a while.  Until the Barbican.  What an amazing performance!  It seems quite a long time ago now, but I can remember it as though it was yesterday.  I couldn't get up out of my seat for a good few minutes afterwards.  Now I'd describe it as 'essential Fairport'.  One of the first tracks I turn to if I come back to FC music after a bit of a break.

I also think, although it features two fantastic instrumentalists soloing, and one of the greatest vocalists, the real stars of the track are Simon, Ashley and Martin.  They have the difficult job of driving what is, at heart, a really simple piece of music across ten minutes.  And they do it splendidly.  I think it really hows off Martin's skill as a drummer.  The standard narrative of Fairport seems to cast him as 'the drummer who died' which I think really overlooks his ability as a musician.  I've always been a huge admirer of DM, but the more I listen to the early albums, the more I come to appreciate Martin's extreme talent.

[Greg]

I should add that possibly my biggest Fairport wish (which sadly I suspect will never be fulfilled) would be to hear a recording of one of the original live performances of this.  There's a bit in the Ashley biography where the writers talk about the band opening the set with it to a half full club that was packed by the end of the song.  I wish I could have seen the band back then, but sadly I was about 30 years too late!

[Jules Gray]

I tend to prefer songs that are more structured and less built around jamming, but then I'm a huge fan of Neil Young & Crazy Horse, so that doesn't always apply.  A Sailor's Life is a milestone in the history of folk rock, but I confess that it wouldn't make my personal best-of Fairport.

Jules

[Bridgwit (Bridget)]

I waiver between disliking it strongly and tolerating it. I don't think it does Sandy's voice justice, but I love the drumming on the original so I tend to leave it on when it comes up on random play. I don't like Chris Leslie's version though. Sorry Chris I love most of what you do but not this!

[hendo (Dave)]

I'll be brief cos i've said it before but it was a genuine Damascean moment, 17, sat on my bedroom floor alone with Dansette clutching a borrowed copy of
Unhalfbricking. Sailor's Life just did it, as if Swarb and RT were just jamming.
It's one of those late at night, on my own, return to, songs and almost 50 years just dissipate.

[GubGub (Al)]

I tend to prefer songs that are more structured and less built around jamming
Jules

Ahem...Grateful Dead...ahem!

[Dan O.]

An essential part of Unhalfbricking, and the Swarb-less version on Watching The Dark is just as good.
The rendition at The Barbican in 2009 (by Kellie While, Chris Leslie, Simon, Ashley, Richard and DM), was one of the many highlights of the evening.

[RobertD]

 I will go with wine, and I too like the Unhalfbricking version and the Swarb less version. If I sometimes skip it while playing either album it is usually because I like to listen to lengthy jams from any artist, be it the Grateful Dead, Neil Young or Indian ragas with devoted attention, and not just as background sounds. When I do listen to it, there is much to dissect, so complex is it. Of course there is Sandy's vocal, Richard's guitar and Swarb's violin, but there is also Ashley's weaving bass lines, Martin's fabulous drumming ascending and descending deftly, and Simon's rhythm guitar part. In fact on the Watching The Dark version, I have listened to the song just for Simon's part which IMHO would make the entire song fall flat if not for his playing. Then there is that moment when Sandy's vocal drops out, before the jam begins, and then around 7 minutes in when the drama builds. Richard's guitar becomes a little louder, the bass steps up in the mix, the fiddling becomes slightly faster, and Martin Lamble trades keeping time with drum rolls and more insistent cymbal work. Must play it again today after typing all of this in fact as it has been awhile since I played it.

So definitely wine. Maybe a nice 1968 Merlot if I had a choice?  

[DarrenWilliams]

I think it's a stellar track but one I need to be in right mood for, or at least have time for. I think it deserves to be listened to, not just background music. It's obviously a precursor to the material on Leige and Lief, and shares the majority of the same personnel, but would/does it sit comfortably amongst L&L tracks, or is it to stylistically different? It's certainly has more of a 'jam' feel than the L&L tracks, and I think highlights the difference between Martin Lamble's drumming with his decorative rolls, and DM's more 'disciplined' approach. Not knocking either BTW, quite the opposite.

[Jim]

Its a great, great track, wonderful arrangement exquisite playing by all concerned and topped off with a marvellous vocal performance. This was one of the songs that cemented Fairports place in the hall of greats.
    Sandy was so good no other performance of the song has ever come close to doing it justice.

[David V B]

Definitely wine and the very finest vintage.  The one that started it all for me and led to almost 40 years of pleasure.

Have probably told it before but I was lying in the sun at the Charnock Richard festival in the summer of 1976 when between acts this amazing piece of music came over the PA. I thought it was stunning then and I do know, though I accept one has to be the right mood. A tour de force by all the band but for me it is Ashley's finest hour. Sadly I have never heard the band play it - hopefully 2017 Cropedy will put that right.

[mickf]

Never really liked it. Sorry, but that's just me

[RobertD]

As an aside, I note that in the last verse of Grace and Favour on Myths and Heroes are the opening lines of A Sailor's Life

[Jules Gray]

Ahem...Grateful Dead...ahem!

Yeah.  I prefer them when they're doing songs and all.  

Jules

[Chris]

As an aside, I note that in the last verse of Grace and Favour on Myths and Heroes are the opening lines of A Sailor's Life

Good spot!

[bassline (Mike)]

Wine. Prog. Marvelous.  

[davidmjs]

One of my finest moments in nearly three and a half decades of gig going was A Sailor's Life at the majestic Barbican gig in 2009.  Transcendental music.  It doesn't get much better in my book.

[Alan2]

Well I really like it, the Unhalfbricking version that is.. I remember playing the album to a friend who was very much a rock music fan, a lot of years ago, and he was bowled over by 'SL'. Along with many people, i thought at the time it was a single take, no dubs, not that it makes any difference to me now.

Actually I think it's the vocal by Sandy that really makes the track for me, rather than the rest of the group banging and jangling away. If I wanted to be really critical I could say they were trying too hard, but that 's what you do when you're young, even when things are going your way. I recently re-read the Flashback feature on Trees, which reproduces a recording contract - -the ages of the musicians stuck me forcibly -   Celia aged 19, the others barely into their 20s.  

[Tony F]

I should add that possibly my biggest Fairport wish (which sadly I suspect will never be fulfilled) would be to hear a recording of one of the original live performances of this.  There's a bit in the Ashley biography where the writers talk about the band opening the set with it to a half full club that was packed by the end of the song.  I wish I could have seen the band back then, but sadly I was about 30 years too late!

Greg, do you know about the Fairport Unconventional box?  If not (unless I'm misreading your wish), you're in for a treat.  It contains a nine-and-a-half-minute live performance from '69, exact date unknown but the booklet implies it's from somewhere between Feb & April.

Meanwhile, I love a Sailor's Life.  Now that it's been mentioned, perhaps it was my inner Deadhead that was immediately open to its slow-building journey.  (I always enjoyed the parts that weren't songs, as well  , sometimes moreso depending on how well they were singing on a give night  )  The Coltrane quartet and the sublime experience of Ravi Shankar in performance provided other precedents for me for the gathering of musical momentum.  But the song also encapsulates that melancholy that the early Fairport, Sandy especially, could evoke so affectingly.  It evokes seas and oceans, as well.  

I'll echo that the Barbican performance was my favorite moment of that concert and a highlight of concert-going.  I mused that they might end the 2nd half with Sloth as its counterpart, but alas...sometimes one just needs to be grateful for the riches already received.