The Pentangle

Yeah, go ahead buy the LP. I've got the CD reissue which is somewhat spoiled by the bonus tracks, mostly two unreleased takes of "Sally Go 'Round the Roses," which is already on the album. Makes my head to spin.

I like the Bert Jansch album I have a lot, I don't remember the title, maybe it's self-titled, but it's got Needle of Death on it. And the CD bonus tracks are good too.

http://www.tarot-card.net/tarot-cards/aceofpents.jpg

Dipping my toe in the water with a copy of 'Basket Of Light' after having their first 4 albums recommended to me by a very enthusiastic guy on Monday night.

How are they holding up live, these days? They're playing the RFH on Monday and there are tonnes of tickets still available. Think i might have to go.

I'd love to see them. "Solomon's Seal" and "Cruel Sister" and the first album are all totally classic.

would love to see them. listening recently i was struck by how cool the rhythm section is, total jazz dudes mixing it up with british folk. seems unlikely but they make it work.

They were absolutely wonderful last night. If you ever get the chance to see them, grab it with both hands.

was great yes

don't suppose there's a US tour in the works...

Wow, I didn't even realize they had reformed. I've seen Jansch and I've seen Renbourn and McShee together but I'd love to see them all reunited.

pentangle is the best band

they'd have to be up there in terms of position-by-position most talented bands ever

yeah! and maybe it was because they all had other things going (solo or session kinda gigs), but it all seems ego-less. every point of the star shines. (there was probably plenty of ego in the band, but it just doesn't come across that much in the music).

Someone MUST have sampled the drums from the start of this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3Ipmg0in9Q

Don't really get the singer being seated, but good song

that was her thing -- i think she just said she sang better sitting down?

pentangle is a sit-down kinda band

yeah I guess, although it's weird, because most singing teachers would tell you no one sings better sitting down.

Don't usually like to see musos sitting, but Jaqui always sounded so coool--if that's what it took, right on. Speaking of the rhythm section, m check Danny Thompson's work with Richard T (no relation). And don't forget Omnivore's reissue of Bert Jansch's Heartbreak.Vinyl's sold out, but CD incl, prev unreleased Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop, recorded between Heartbreak sessions, which were commissioned by two Cali brothers---well, read on: http://omnivorerecordings.com/artists/bert-jansch/

Pentangle is one of my most revered (and liked) bands of all time.

I went through a weird phase few years back where I would see Jacqui and Bert in my dreams and other strange things.

So yeah, you could say I was obsessed. Maybe a smidgen.

Also, Danny Thompson has played with them, John Martyn, Kate Bush and David Sylvian. That's a fuckin' resume.

Only recently noticed Terry Cox is on Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ album, makes sense

"That's a fuckin' resume" - you left out Nick Drake. And his most recent appearance was on Viv Albertine's album.

He played on with Tim Buckley live too, as per the Dream Letter album.

Oh, he was on a couple of Talk Talk albums as well including Spirit of Eden of course.

Anyway, was listening to Sweet Child again the other day, think I could definitely live without Terry's glockenspiel medley. The crowd sound like they're going apeshit after that though, so maybe it's just me.

ha yeah it must've been visually entertaining.
anyone have any good pentangle live stuff? i've just got that berkeley 1970 show (which is awesome, though I think my copy is sort of flawed?)

this is COOL
https://tv.nrk.no/serie/visefestival-i-kroa/FBUA07005768/07-06-1968

good find!

I went into a lot of detail about Renbourn's roving, ever-intriguing The Attic Tapes---Davy Graham had been to many of those living rooms before him, current occupants would play what they could of what DG had played; JR continued the griot round (later Graham himself turns up, ditto Beverly Martin)(Renbourn was finishing the annotations when he died, but the comments he left us are excellent)---and live adventures with Wizz Jones, Joint Control, the first legit posthumous release, far as I know---in a couple of posts here, last year and this 'un:

ILX Gonna Shine in My Backdoor Someday (new post-Fahey folk for ppl posting in Takoma/Tompkins Square threads Pt II)

Found out recently that Jacqui McShee did a Pentangle that didn't have guitars in it. There was a torrent of a live set somewhere i think last week.
It was recorded in Tokyo in July apparently.
http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=127788&highlight=Pentangle
just found it.

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/PENTANGLE-box-set-contents-mock_1000px.jpg

PENTANGLE – THE ALBUMS: 1968-1972

For the first time ever, these PENTANGLE albums are available as a deluxe 7CD box set to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the band’s formation. Each record has been remastered from the best available sources, referencing original tapes and vinyl where relevant. Each album has been expanded with a wealth of bonus material, including choice selections from contemporaneous solo LPs by Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, out-takes and live tracks. Across the package, there are an impressive 22 recordings which are previously unreleased.

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/pentangle-the-albums-1968-1972/

Just picked this up. Lovely

That looks like an amazing set; even for someone like who already has all of the proper albums.

It's essentially like "The Complete Pentangle", isn't it? At least for their initial run with the original lineup, anyway.

That box is great - I bought it last year when it was first announced. The remastering is fantastic.

dang

It's pretty exhaustive. Often more bonus tracks than album cuts

And £40 is a fair price

I was thinking I had most of the contents cos I had the individual cds anr the old box set. Now looking more essential so should have grabbed it when it came out and appeared in the then open alternative record shop which closed in the new year.
Think I need a new Basket of Light anyway.
Shame they didn't scoop up the video footage at the same time. There's some good stuff around. A couple of near half hour sets in colour and a few shorter bits in b+w.

Colin Harper's Dazzling Stranger biography of Bert jansch covers the band quite well from what I can remember. been a few years from when i read it. Not sure where else they're covered in depth.
Looks like there are several new essays etc in the new box so I assume that must include something of a band history. Are the linernotes good?

Harper book mentions taht the guy who promoted the later solo San francisco dates by jansch was teh dad of Flipper's Bruce Loose btw.
I think loose started using Bert's name as a slang term for extreme inebriation or something.

I haven't read all of the liner notes. The book has for each album the recording details etc. Then a three page (CD sized pages) essay on each album. Also several pages of interview excerpts ("Pentangle in their own words"); lots of photos and press clippings; and a band chronology - listing all gigs, recording sessions etc

Open The Door is SUCH a great album. seriously. and i feel like its an album that even a lot of people who like Pentangle might not own. I don't know if its because its a post-reformation album or because its from the 80s or what. but it deserves more love. it wasn't even an option on the Pentangle albums poll someone did on ILM! i love it from beginning to end.

never heard it (renbourn's not on it, right?). but i'll definitely check it out ... i feel like i need to dig into more 80s britfolk leftovers albums, I was just listening to a pretty great 80s June Tabor record.

"child of the winter" has spidery guitar / flute duet magick

wanted to revive this to big up open the door and "child of the winter" specifically. i found a sealed cutout copy of the album years ago in the dollar bin. thought i was crazy after getting it to the turntable and being absolutely floored by how good it is.

just because-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLhMqiGwiDU

xpost to music from your dreams:
had a series of recurring dreams some years ago that i was in a closed off community (like the old tv program the prisoner, except not menacing at all). jacqui mcshee and john renbourn made regular appearances in the village square, often singing "child of the winter" or "wedding dress."

I went through a weird phase few years back where I would see Jacqui and Bert in my dreams and other strange things.

― Austin, Monday, July 1, 2013 5:27 PM

ahh. i see i've already mentioned this. i remember it being john, but either way, yeah: weird but pleasant dreams.

I would love to have such a dream.

new to me & sound definitely ain't great, but pentangle playing the grande ballroom on their 69 us tour...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvu1zFUqOVQ

amazing band.

i have liked bert jansch and john renbourn, separately and together, for many years without really taking the time to hear the pentangle records.

so, really enjoying those, and also this live footage which was suggested to me recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3DFCXaqLrg

Thanks! I really enjoy Terry Cox x Danny Thompson too---D still awes on Richard Thompson Trio's Live From Honolulu, posted on R's Bandcamp.

Also good live footage on YouTube is the Set of Six performances to promote Solomon's Seal. Seeing the “Willy O’Winsbury” from that for the first time – I knew nothing of Pentangle before – is one of those few musical memories that will be forever etched in my mind.

Funny that Pentangle and Richard Thompson are so closely linked now, since RT collabored with Danny Thompson for decades, but in his autobiography RT claims that he never warmed to Pentangle’s work.

Thanks for posting that. I think I've seen parts of it but not the whole thing together. They look like such weirdo scuzzoids. I want to just smoke a j and sit on the floor of the studio and let it wash over me.

Absolutely incredible band - I put them up there with my all-time favorites.

That rhythm section can just do anything. The jazzy swing in Reflection is something a lot of other folk bands didn't have in their repertoire.

I recently (finally) found my way into this band when I heard the Cox/Thompson interplay on "Reflection"

Yah! You can still get their records for sort of cheap, at least you could in 2018-2020.

Also good live footage on YouTube is the Set of Six performances to promote Solomon's Seal. Seeing the “Willy O’Winsbury” from that for the first time – I knew nothing of Pentangle before – is one of those few musical memories that will be forever etched in my mind.

― Melomane, Wednesday, June 28, 2023 7:22 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

YES that "Willy O'Winsbury" is so gorgeous.

I recently watched The Ballad of Tam Lin, very odd verging-on-folk horror movie that they did the soundtrack for, worth a watch imo!

I'm going to have to check that out.

Yes, their records are still pretty cheap — sometimes very cheap if you look hard enough. You should be able to get at the very least Cruel Sister for $5 or less. The other ones for $10-20 generally.