Sandy Denny albums poll

I don't have much besides Sandy, but Sandy is great.

― calumerio, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 16:57 (9 months ago) Permalink

hard to have the solo stuff go up against the fairport records she was on... favorite solo record is probably The North Star Grassman and the Ravens.

― tylerw, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 18:13 (9 months ago) Permalink

write in for Led Zeppelin IV

north star grassman is really fucking great

― Jandek at the Disco (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 18:18 (9 months ago) Permalink

don't know if it's in print still, but the three disc Who Knows Where The Time Goes comp from the 80s is amazing, that's the Sandy thing I've listened to the most.

― tylerw, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 18:19 (9 months ago) Permalink

damn i just checked discogs and that thing used to be super expensive but there's a VG+ one that's $30 right now, i remember seeing it for like $300

― Jandek at the Disco (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 18:21 (9 months ago) Permalink

worth getting -- i dunno, the "rarity" stuff has probably been spread around on various reissues now, but for a while it was the only place you could get a lot of it. something about the sequencing is just right, too.

― tylerw, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 18:23 (9 months ago) Permalink

Heyday is a more enjoyable listen than any Fairport's released albums - I wouldn't consider it a "comp" since it was all unreleased material of mostly unreleased songs. Of the "real" albums, Unhalfbricking followed by Holidays.

IIRC, Who Knows Where the Time Goes is OOP, replaced by another SD box set.

― Lee626, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 18:29 (9 months ago) Permalink

My personal favorite is the first Fotheringay record, but the first two she did with Fairport Convention and The North Star Grassman and the Ravens are not that far behind.

I wasn't aware of Heyday; gonna have to track that one down!

― cwkiii, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 18:39 (9 months ago) Permalink

it's a "BBC Sessions" disc, but I swear they all sound like studio recordings

― Lee626, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 18:42 (9 months ago) Permalink

.... it catches the Unhalfbricking lineup at their absolute peak. Close call between those two for my favorite Fairport album.

― Lee626, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 18:44 (9 months ago) Permalink

Hard not to vote for Liege & Lief on any poll cos that is all-time top 5 for me.

― mod night at the oasis (NickB), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 18:45 (9 months ago) Permalink

mental notes for later contemplation:
unhalfbricking > fotheringay > what we did on our holiday > sandy > northstar grassmen > liege > like an old fashioned waltz >> the rest?

― one dis leads to another (ian), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 21:30 (9 months ago) Permalink

heydey is great too, but i dunno about better than the studio albums.

― one dis leads to another (ian), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 21:30 (9 months ago) Permalink

Sandy's one of those artists whose work I only know from comp and BBC sessions, I have no sense of one album or another.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 22 August 2012 22:32 (9 months ago) Permalink

where is an ILMer who would take sandy's solo records over the richard/linda thompson records? anyone? i can't imagine trading henry the human fly & the first three R&L records for anything..

― one dis leads to another (ian), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 22:54 (9 months ago) Permalink

I don't know... I probably listen to more Sandy solo than anything else she's been a part of but, if I had to choose I doubt I could choose Liege & Lief out of existence...

― Frobisher the (Viceroy), Wednesday, 22 August 2012 23:53 (9 months ago) Permalink

i would take grassman and sandy over henry the human fly and hokey pokey but much love for all these records

― buzza, Thursday, 23 August 2012 01:28 (9 months ago) Permalink

― buzza, Thursday, 23 August 2012 01:31 (9 months ago) Permalink

As far as 24 months in anyone's life goes it's pretty tough to beat this run:

Fairport Convention - What We Did on Our Holidays (1969)
Fairport Convention - Unhalfbricking (1969)
Fairport Convention - Liege & Lief (1969)
Fotheringay - Fotheringay (1970)
Sandy Denny - The North Star Grassman and the Ravens (1971)

― Oblique Strategies, Thursday, 23 August 2012 02:54 (9 months ago) Permalink

Can you still get Heyday or was it replaced by the longer BBC sessions box? & didn't that have a sampler 1cd version anyway?

I picked up the cd version which had expanded somewhat on the original tape. That was going back an age, early noughties or before?

― Stevolende, Thursday, 23 August 2012 10:11 (9 months ago) Permalink

Kinda difficult, between "Sandy" and "North Star", I don't think she ever really fulifilled her potential on the solo albums tho

― Hello, Good Evening and Expenses (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 August 2012 11:35 (9 months ago) Permalink

She came pretty close on the first one, I think. It's a shame Fotheringay split up; they were pretty much her ideal backing band.

― cwkiii, Thursday, 23 August 2012 12:36 (9 months ago) Permalink

But they were pretty much around for the rest of her solo career tho, more or less? Maybe not Jerry Donahue.

― Hello, Good Evening and Expenses (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 August 2012 13:10 (9 months ago) Permalink

That Bunch record has a ton of great stuff on it -- her and linda thompson harmonizing on "when will i be loved" is heavenly. too bad there's not more of them singing together. funny to read about those sessions in Electric Eden, how they were these drug and drink soaked days. not really how i imagine the fairport group (aside from Denny, I suppose), but i guess they were rockin' in the 70s.

― tylerw, Thursday, 23 August 2012 14:54 (9 months ago) Permalink

kinda depends, orig fairport lineup with thompson and matthews probably not but by time swarbrick and pegg show up it's super boozy (look up the famous troubador bar bill story). also lucas and the other fotheringay dudes big boozers/druggies i think.
i wrote about this on another thread but denny was massively insecure and the breakup of fotheringay, due to joe boyd, was a major mistake as they were the only setting where she felt safe and supported.

― buzza, Thursday, 23 August 2012 15:01 (9 months ago) Permalink

yeah i think it's mainly my image of richard thompson as a muslim ascetic that makes me surprised. but according to the book, he was indulging as much as anyone at that time -- those sessions might've been what led him towards religion in the first place.

― tylerw, Thursday, 23 August 2012 15:53 (9 months ago) Permalink

I had to google buzza's story:

TERRY: I heard a story about a time when Fairport Convention played at The Troubadour during the club's golden period in the late 60s?

RICHARD: Yes. Yes. When you'd play The Troubadour you were booked for a week. There would be two shows a night for six days. It was perfectly criminal, really. It was our first shows in LA. There was one period where we'd made $2,000.00 in a two weeks and our bar bill was $3,000.00.

― sleeve, Thursday, 23 August 2012 20:00 (9 months ago) Permalink

btw Unhalfbricking always wins my vote in any poll that includes it

― sleeve, Thursday, 23 August 2012 20:02 (9 months ago) Permalink

I like Sandy solo a lot, but can't vote it over the Fairport stuff, esp. "Liege".

― o. nate, Thursday, 23 August 2012 20:46 (9 months ago) Permalink

might've been posted in another sandy thread, but this

too bad it's incomplete!

― tylerw, Thursday, 23 August 2012 22:01 (9 months ago) Permalink

i think one of the fairport guys says the only time he saw richard drunk was at the troubador.

speaking of over-imbibing there was this story from dave pegg as well

"When I joined Fairport I was a big fan of The Band so Rick Danko, who unfortunately passed away last year, has to be up there as one of my all time favourite bass players. I’ve also had the great privilege of meeting him. I met him at this festival we did over in Denmark a couple of years back. I was so excited to meet Rick that I drank so much Whisky I passed out in the bar of the hotel and had to be taken to hospital and given a stomach pump. It was the first time I had ever had a stomach pump and the next day I felt absolutely fantastic. I could recommend it to people."

― buzza, Friday, 24 August 2012 01:57 (9 months ago) Permalink

kinda depends, orig fairport lineup with thompson and matthews probably not but by time swarbrick and pegg show up it's super boozy

Yeah, Ashley Hutchings has never struck me as a crack open the beers and let's get stupid kinda guy

― Hello, Good Evening and Expenses (Tom D.), Friday, 24 August 2012 10:02 (9 months ago) Permalink

... more the type to fine band members who showed up to rehearsals smelling of booze

― Hello, Good Evening and Expenses (Tom D.), Friday, 24 August 2012 10:11 (9 months ago) Permalink

kind of cool, john peel interviewing sandy in 1974

― tylerw, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 20:51 (8 months ago) Permalink

I wasn't aware of Heyday; gonna have to track that one down!

― cwkiii, Wednesday, August 22, 2012 2:39 PM

No need - all of the tracks from the original release (late '80s, of recordings from '68-'69) are on the 4-disc Live at the BBC set (which I somehow missed, and may well have voted for over Unhalfbricking).

Can you still get Heyday or was it replaced by the longer BBC sessions box? & didn't that have a sampler 1cd version anyway?

I picked up the cd version which had expanded somewhat on the original tape. That was going back an age, early noughties or before?

― Stevolende, Thursday, August 23, 2012 6:11 AM

I have the original release of Heyday (from 1987) - on an early CD, before it was expanded with additional songs on the 2002 reissue. The one-disc BBC sessions sampler does not include any of the original Heyday recordings (and thus, little from the Holidays/Unhalfbricking lineup), and was likely intended more for fans who already had Heyday - despite what the cover claims, it's not really the best of the box set. Not sure of the current availability of either version of Heyday, but I'd probably opt for the 4-disc box set anyway now that it's available. Even though I prefer the Heyday song sequencing.

― Lee626, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 22:40 (8 months ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― System, Friday, 21 September 2012 00:01 (8 months ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

― System, Saturday, 22 September 2012 00:01 (8 months ago) Permalink

reasonable.

― one dis leads to another (ian), Saturday, 22 September 2012 03:20 (8 months ago) Permalink

Pretty interesting. Who voted for The Bunch?

― cwkiii, Sunday, 23 September 2012 03:31 (8 months ago) Permalink