Podcasts about Nick Drake

For those who haven't heard the announcement I posted, songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the second part of a two-episode look at the song “Who Knows Where The Time Goes?” by Fairport Convention, and the intertwining careers of Joe Boyd, Sandy Denny, and Richard Thompson. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-one-minute bonus episode available, on Judy Collins’ version of this song. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by editing, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Erratum For about an hour this was uploaded with the wrong Elton John clip in place of “Saturday Sun”. This has now been fixed. Resources Because of the increasing problems with Mixcloud’s restrictions, I have decided to start sharing streaming playlists of the songs used in episodes instead of Mixcloud ones. This Tunemymusic link will let you listen to the playlist I created on your streaming platform of choice — however please note that not all the songs excerpted are currently available on streaming. The songs missing from the Tidal version are “Shanten Bells” by the Ian Campbell Folk Group, “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” by A.L. Lloyd, two by Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, three by Elton John & Linda Peters, “What Will I Do With Tomorrow” by Sandy Denny and “You Never Know” by Charlie Drake, but the other fifty-nine are there. Other songs may be missing from other services. The main books I used on Fairport Convention as a whole were Patrick Humphries' Meet On The Ledge, Clinton Heylin's What We Did Instead of Holidays, and Kevan Furbank's Fairport Convention on Track. Rob Young's Electric Eden is the most important book on the British folk-rock movement. Information on Richard Thompson comes from Patrick Humphries' Richard Thompson: Strange Affair and Thompson's own autobiography Beeswing.  Information on Sandy Denny comes from Clinton Heylin's No More Sad Refrains and Mick Houghton's I've Always Kept a Unicorn. I also used Joe Boyd's autobiography White Bicycles and Chris Blackwell's The Islander.  And this three-CD set is the best introduction to Fairport's music currently in print. Transcript Before we begin, this episode contains reference to alcohol and cocaine abuse and medical neglect leading to death. It also starts with some discussion of the fatal car accident that ended last episode. There’s also some mention of child neglect and spousal violence. If that’s likely to upset you, you might want to skip this episode or read the transcript. One of the inspirations for this podcast when I started it back in 2018 was a project by Richard Thompson, which appears (like many things in Thompson’s life) to have started out of sheer bloody-mindedness. In 1999 Playboy magazine asked various people to list their “songs of the Millennium”, and most of them, understanding the brief, chose a handful of songs from the latter half of the twentieth century. But Thompson determined that he was going to list his favourite songs *of the millennium*. He didn’t quite manage that, but he did cover seven hundred and forty years, and when Playboy chose not to publish it, he decided to turn it into a touring show, in which he covered all his favourite songs from “Sumer Is Icumen In” from 1260: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Sumer is Icumen In”] Through numerous traditional folk songs, union songs like “Blackleg Miner”, pieces by early-modern composers, Victorian and Edwardian music hall songs, and songs by the Beatles, the Ink Spots, the Kinks, and the Who, all the way to “Oops! I Did It Again”: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Oops! I Did it Again”] And to finish the show, and to show how all this music actually ties together, he would play what he described as a “medieval tune from Brittany”, “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt”: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt”] We have said many times in this podcast that there is no first anything, but there’s a reason that Liege and Lief, Fairport Convention’s third album of 1969, and the album other than Unhalfbricking on which their reputation largely rests, was advertised with the slogan “The first (literally) British folk rock album ever”. Folk-rock, as the term had come to be known, and as it is still usually used today, had very little to do with traditional folk music. Rather, the records of bands like The Byrds or Simon and Garfunkel were essentially taking the sounds of British beat groups of the early sixties, particularly the Searchers, and applying those sounds to material by contemporary singer-songwriters. People like Paul Simon and Bob Dylan had come up through folk clubs, and their songs were called folk music because of that, but they weren’t what folk music had meant up to that point — songs that had been collected after being handed down through the folk process, changed by each individual singer, with no single identifiable author. They were authored songs by very idiosyncratic writers. But over their last few albums, Fairport Convention had done one or two tracks per album that weren’t like that, that were instead recordings of traditional folk songs, but arranged with rock instrumentation. They were not necessarily the first band to try traditional folk music with electric instruments — around the same time that Fairport started experimenting with the idea, so did an Irish band named Sweeney’s Men, who brought in a young electric guitarist named Henry McCullough briefly. But they do seem to have been the first to have fully embraced the idea. They had done so to an extent with “A Sailor’s Life” on Unhalfbricking, but now they were going to go much further: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Matty Groves” (from about 4:30)] There had been some doubt as to whether Fairport Convention would even continue to exist — by the time Unhalfbricking, their second album of the year, was released, they had been through the terrible car accident that had killed Martin Lamble, the band’s drummer, and Jeannie Franklyn, Richard Thompson’s girlfriend. Most of the rest of the band had been seriously injured, and they had made a conscious decision not to discuss the future of the band until they were all out of hospital. Ashley Hutchings was hospitalised the longest, and Simon Nicol, Richard Thompson, and Sandy Denny, the other three surviving members of the band, flew over to LA with their producer and manager, Joe Boyd, to recuperate there and get to know the American music scene. When they came back, the group all met up in the flat belonging to Denny’s boyfriend Trevor Lucas, and decided that they were going to continue the band. They made a few decisions then — they needed a new drummer, and as well as a drummer they wanted to get in Dave Swarbrick. Swarbrick had played violin on several tracks on Unhalfbricking as a session player, and they had all been thrilled to work with him. Swarbrick was one of the most experienced musicians on the British folk circuit. He had started out in the fifties playing guitar with Beryl Marriott’s Ceilidh Band before switching to fiddle, and in 1963, long before Fairport had formed, he had already appeared on TV with the Ian Campbell Folk Group, led by Ian Campbell, the father of Ali and Robin Campbell, later of UB40: [Excerpt: The Ian Campbell Folk Group, “Shanten Bells (medley on Hullaballoo!)”] He’d sung with Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd: [Excerpt: A.L. Lloyd, “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” ] And he’d formed his hugely successful duo with Martin Carthy, releasing records like “Byker Hill” which are often considered among the best British folk music of all time: [Excerpt: Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, “Byker Hill”] By the time Fairport had invited him to play on Unhalfbricking, Swarbrick had already performed on twenty albums as a core band member, plus dozens more EPs, singles, and odd tracks on compilations. They had no reason to think they could actually get him to join their band. But they had three advantages. The first was that Swarbrick was sick of the traditional folk scene at the time, saying later “I didn’t like seven-eighths of the people involved in it, and it was extremely opportune to leave. I was suddenly presented with the possibilities of exploring the dramatic content of the songs to the full.” The second was that he was hugely excited to be playing with Richard Thompson, who was one of the most innovative guitarists of his generation, and Martin Carthy remembers him raving about Thompson after their initial sessions. (Carthy himself was and is no slouch on the guitar of course, and there was even talk of getting him to join the band at this point, though they decided against it — much to the relief of rhythm guitarist Simon Nicol, who is a perfectly fine player himself but didn’t want to be outclassed by *two* of the best guitarists in Britain at the same time). And the third was that Joe Boyd told him that Fairport were doing so well — they had a single just about to hit the charts with “Si Tu Dois Partir” — that he would only have to play a dozen gigs with Fairport in order to retire. As it turned out, Swarbrick would play with the group for a decade, and would never retire — I saw him on his last tour in 2015, only eight months before he died. The drummer the group picked was also a far more experienced musician than any of the rest, though in a very different genre. Dave Mattacks had no knowledge at all of the kind of music they played, having previously been a player in dance bands. When asked by Hutchings if he wanted to join the band, Mattacks’ response was “I don’t know anything about the music. I don’t understand it… I can’t tell one tune from another, they all sound the same… but if you want me to join the group, fine, because I really like it. I’m enjoying myself musically.” Mattacks brought a new level of professionalism to the band, thanks to his different background. Nicol said of him later “He was dilligent, clean, used to taking three white shirts to a gig… The application he could bring to his playing was amazing. With us, you only played well when you were feeling well.” This distinction applied to his playing as well. Nicol would later describe the difference between Mattacks’ drumming and Lamble’s by saying “Martin’s strength was as an imaginative drummer. DM came in with a strongly developed sense of rhythm, through keeping a big band of drunken saxophone players in order. A great time-keeper.” With this new line-up and a new sense of purpose, the group did as many of their contemporaries were doing and “got their heads together in the country”. Joe Boyd rented the group a mansion, Farley House, in Farley Chamberlayne, Hampshire, and they stayed there together for three months. At the start, the group seem to have thought that they were going to make another record like Unhalfbricking, with some originals, some songs by American songwriters, and a few traditional songs. Even after their stay in Farley Chamberlayne, in fact, they recorded a few of the American songs they’d rehearsed at the start of the process, Richard Farina’s “Quiet Joys of Brotherhood” and Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn’s “Ballad of Easy Rider”: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Ballad of Easy Rider”] Indeed, the whole idea of “getting our heads together in the country” (as the cliche quickly became in the late sixties as half of the bands in Britain went through much the same kind of process as Fairport were doing — but usually for reasons more to do with drug burnout or trend following than recovering from serious life-changing trauma) seems to have been inspired by Bob Dylan and the Band getting together in Big Pink. But very quickly they decided to follow the lead of Ashley Hutchings, who had had something of a Damascene conversion to the cause of traditional English folk music. They were listening mostly to Music From Big Pink by the Band, and to the first album by Sweeney’s Men: [Excerpt: Sweeney’s Men, “The Handsome Cabin Boy”] And they decided that they were going to make something that was as English as those records were North American and Irish (though in the event there were also a few Scottish songs included on the record). Hutchings in particular was becoming something of a scholar of traditional music, regularly visiting Cecil Sharp House and having long conversations with A.L. Lloyd, discovering versions of different traditional songs he’d never encountered before. This was both amusing and bemusing Sandy Denny, who had joined a rock group in part to get away from traditional music; but she was comfortable singing the material, and knew a lot of it and could make a lot of suggestions herself. Swarbrick obviously knew the repertoire intimately, and Nicol was amenable, while Mattacks was utterly clueless about the folk tradition at this point but knew this was the music he wanted to make. Thompson knew very little about traditional music, and of all the band members except Denny he was the one who has shown the least interest in the genre in his subsequent career — but as we heard at the beginning, showing the least interest in the genre is a relative thing, and while Thompson was not hugely familiar with the genre, he *was* able to work with it, and was also more than capable of writing songs that fit in with the genre. Of the eleven songs on the album, which was titled Liege and Lief (which means, roughly, Lord and Loyalty), there were no cover versions of singer-songwriters. Eight were traditional songs, and three were originals, all written in the style of traditional songs. The album opened with “Come All Ye”, an introduction written by Denny and Hutchings (the only time the two would ever write together): [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Come All Ye”] The other two originals were songs where Thompson had written new lyrics to traditional melodies. On “Crazy Man Michael”, Swarbrick had said to Thompson that the tune to which he had set his new words was weaker than the lyrics, to which Thompson had replied that if Swarbrick felt that way he should feel free to write a new melody. He did, and it became the first of the small number of Thompson/Swarbrick collaborations: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Crazy Man Michael”] Thompson and Swarbrick would become a brief songwriting team, but as much as anything else it was down to proximity — the two respected each other as musicians, but never got on very well. In 1981 Swarbrick would say “Richard and I never got on in the early days of FC… we thought we did, but we never did. We composed some bloody good songs together, but it was purely on a basis of “you write that and I’ll write this, and we’ll put it together.” But we never sat down and had real good chats.” The third original on the album, and by far the most affecting, is another song where Thompson put lyrics to a traditional tune. In this case he thought he was putting the lyrics to the tune of “Willie O'Winsbury”, but he was basing it on a recording by Sweeney’s Men. The problem was that Sweeney’s Men had accidentally sung the lyrics of “Willie O'Winsbury'” to the tune of a totally different song, “Fause Foodrage”: [Excerpt: Sweeney’s Men, “Willie O’Winsbury”] Thompson took that melody, and set to it lyrics about loss and separation. Thompson has never been one to discuss the meanings of his lyrics in any great detail, and in the case of this one has said “I really don't know what it means. This song came out of a dream, and I pretty much wrote it as I dreamt it (it was the sixties), and didn't spend very long analyzing it. So interpret as you wish – or replace with your own lines.” But in the context of the traffic accident that had killed his tailor girlfriend and a bandmate, and injured most of his other bandmates, the lyrics about lonely travellers, the winding road, bruised and beaten sons, saying goodbye, and never cutting cloth, seem fairly self-explanatory: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Farewell, Farewell”] The rest of the album, though, was taken up by traditional tunes. There was a long medley of four different fiddle reels; a version of “Reynardine” (a song about a seductive man — or is he a fox? Or perhaps both — which had been recorded by Swarbrick and Carthy on their most recent album); a 19th century song about a deserter saved from the firing squad by Prince Albert; and a long take on “Tam Lin”, one of the most famous pieces in the Scottish folk music canon, a song that has been adapted in different ways by everyone from the experimental noise band Current 93 to the dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah to the comics writer Grant Morrison: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Tam Lin”] And “Matty Groves”, a song about a man killing his cheating wife and her lover, which actually has a surprisingly similar story to that of “1921” from another great concept album from that year, the Who’s Tommy. “Matty Groves” became an excuse for long solos and shows of instrumental virtuosity: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Matty Groves”] The album was recorded in September 1969, after their return from their break in the country and a triumphal performance at the Royal Festival Hall, headlining over fellow Witchseason artists John and Beverly Martyn and Nick Drake. It became a classic of the traditional folk genre — arguably *the* classic of the traditional folk genre. In 2007 BBC Radio 2’s Folk Music Awards gave it an award for most influential folk album of all time, and while such things are hard to measure, I doubt there’s anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of British folk and folk-rock music who would not at least consider that a reasonable claim. But once again, by the time the album came out in November, the band had changed lineups yet again. There was a fundamental split in the band – on one side were Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson, whose stance was, roughly, that Liege and Lief was a great experiment and a fun thing to do once, but really the band had two first-rate songwriters in themselves, and that they should be concentrating on their own new material, not doing these old songs, good as they were. They wanted to take the form of the traditional songs and use that form for new material — they wanted to make British folk-rock, but with the emphasis on the rock side of things. Hutchings, on the other hand, was equally sure that he wanted to make traditional music and go further down the rabbit hole of antiquity. With the zeal of the convert he had gone in a couple of years from being the leader of a band who were labelled “the British Jefferson Airplane” to becoming a serious scholar of traditional folk music. Denny was tired of touring, as well — she wanted to spend more time at home with Trevor Lucas, who was sleeping with other women when she was away and making her insecure. When the time came for the group to go on a tour of Denmark, Denny decided she couldn’t make it, and Hutchings was jubilant — he decided he was going to get A.L. Lloyd into the band in her place and become a *real* folk group. Then Denny reconsidered, and Hutchings was crushed. He realised that while he had always been the leader, he wasn’t going to be able to lead the band any further in the traditionalist direction, and quit the group — but not before he was delegated by the other band members to fire Denny. Until the publication of Richard Thompson’s autobiography in 2022, every book on the group or its members said that Denny quit the band again, which was presumably a polite fiction that the band agreed, but according to Thompson “Before we flew home, we decided to fire Sandy. I don't remember who asked her to leave – it was probably Ashley, who usually did the dirty work. She was reportedly shocked that we would take that step. She may have been fragile beneath the confident facade, but she still knew her worth.” Thompson goes on to explain that the reasons for kicking her out were that “I suppose we felt that in her mind she had already left” and that “We were probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, though there wasn't a name for it back then.” They had considered inviting Trevor Lucas to join the band to make Denny more comfortable, but came to the (probably correct) conclusion that while he was someone they got on well with personally, he would be another big ego in a band that already had several, and that being around Denny and Lucas’ volatile relationship would, in Thompson’s phrasing, “have not always given one a feeling of peace and stability.” Hutchings originally decided he was going to join Sweeney’s Men, but that group were falling apart, and their first rehearsal with Hutchings would also be their last as a group, with only Hutchings and guitarist and mandolin player Terry Woods left in the band. They added Woods’ wife Gay, and another couple, Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, and formed a group called Steeleye Span, a name given them by Martin Carthy. That group, like Fairport, went to “get their heads together in the country” for three months and recorded an album of electric versions of traditional songs, Hark the Village Wait, on which Mattacks and another drummer, Gerry Conway, guested as Steeleye Span didn’t at the time have their own drummer: [Excerpt: Steeleye Span, “Blackleg Miner”] Steeleye Span would go on to have a moderately successful chart career in the seventies, but by that time most of the original lineup, including Hutchings, had left — Hutchings stayed with them for a few albums, then went on to form the first of a series of bands, all called the Albion Band or variations on that name, which continue to this day. And this is something that needs to be pointed out at this point — it is impossible to follow every single individual in this narrative as they move between bands. There is enough material in the history of the British folk-rock scene that someone could do a 500 Songs-style podcast just on that, and every time someone left Fairport, or Steeleye Span, or the Albion Band, or Matthews’ Southern Comfort, or any of the other bands we have mentioned or will mention, they would go off and form another band which would then fission, and some of its members would often join one of those other bands. There was a point in the mid-1970s where the Albion Band had two original members of Fairport Convention while Fairport Convention had none. So just in order to keep the narrative anything like wieldy, I’m going to keep the narrative concentrated on the two figures from Fairport — Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson — whose work outside the group has had the most influence on the wider world of rock music more broadly, and only deal with the other members when, as they often did, their careers intersected with those two. That doesn’t mean the other members are not themselves hugely important musicians, just that their importance has been primarily to the folk side of the folk-rock genre, and so somewhat outside the scope of this podcast. While Hutchings decided to form a band that would allow him to go deeper and deeper into traditional folk music, Sandy Denny’s next venture was rather different. For a long time she had been writing far more songs than she had ever played for her bandmates, like “Nothing More”, a song that many have suggested is about Thompson: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “Nothing More”] When Joe Boyd heard that Denny was leaving Fairport Convention, he was at first elated. Fairport’s records were being distributed by A&M in the US at that point, but Island Records was in the process of opening up a new US subsidiary which would then release all future Fairport product — *but*, as far as A&M were concerned, Sandy Denny *was* Fairport Convention. They were only interested in her. Boyd, on the other hand, loved Denny’s work intensely, but from his point of view *Richard Thompson* was Fairport Convention. If he could get Denny signed directly to A&M as a solo artist before Island started its US operations, Witchseason could get a huge advance on her first solo record, while Fairport could continue making records for Island — he’d have two lucrative acts, on different labels. Boyd went over and spoke to A&M and got an agreement in principle that they would give Denny a forty-thousand-dollar advance on her first solo album — twice what they were paying for Fairport albums. The problem was that Denny didn’t want to be a solo act. She wanted to be the lead singer of a band. She gave many reasons for this — the one she gave to many journalists was that she had seen a Judy Collins show and been impressed, but noticed that Collins’ band were definitely a “backing group”, and as she put it “But that's all they were – a backing group. I suddenly thought, If you're playing together on a stage you might as well be TOGETHER.” Most other people in her life, though, say that the main reason for her wanting to be in a band was her desire to be with her boyfriend, Trevor Lucas. Partly this was due to a genuine desire to spend more time with someone with whom she was very much in love, partly it was a fear that he would cheat on her if she was away from him for long periods of time, and part of it seems to have been Lucas’ dislike of being *too* overshadowed by his talented girlfriend — he didn’t mind acknowledging that she was a major talent, but he wanted to be thought of as at least a minor one. So instead of going solo, Denny formed Fotheringay, named after the song she had written for Fairport. This new band consisted at first of Denny on vocals and occasional piano, Lucas on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Lucas’ old Eclection bandmate Gerry Conway on drums. For a lead guitarist, they asked Richard Thompson who the best guitarist in Britain was, and he told them Albert Lee. Lee in turn brought in bass player Pat Donaldson, but this lineup of the band barely survived a fortnight. Lee *was* arguably the best guitarist in Britain, certainly a reasonable candidate if you could ever have a singular best (as indeed was Thompson himself), but he was the best *country* guitarist in Britain, and his style simply didn’t fit with Fotheringay’s folk-influenced songs. He was replaced by American guitarist Jerry Donahue, who was not anything like as proficient as Lee, but who was still very good, and fit the band’s style much better. The new group rehearsed together for a few weeks, did a quick tour, and then went into the recording studio to record their debut, self-titled, album. Joe Boyd produced the album, but admitted himself that he only paid attention to those songs he considered worthwhile — the album contained one song by Lucas, “The Ballad of Ned Kelly”, and two cover versions of American singer-songwriter material with Lucas singing lead. But everyone knew that the songs that actually *mattered* were Sandy Denny’s, and Boyd was far more interested in them, particularly the songs “The Sea” and “The Pond and the Stream”: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “The Pond and the Stream”] Fotheringay almost immediately hit financial problems, though. While other Witchseason acts were used to touring on the cheap, all packed together in the back of a Transit van with inexpensive equipment, Trevor Lucas had ambitions of being a rock star and wanted to put together a touring production to match, with expensive transport and equipment, including a speaker system that got nicknamed “Stonehenge” — but at the same time, Denny was unhappy being on the road, and didn’t play many gigs. As well as the band itself, the Fotheringay album also featured backing vocals from a couple of other people, including Denny’s friend Linda Peters. Peters was another singer from the folk clubs, and a good one, though less well-known than Denny — at this point she had only released a couple of singles, and those singles seemed to have been as much as anything else released as a novelty. The first of those, a version of Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” had been released as by “Paul McNeill and Linda Peters”: [Excerpt: Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”] But their second single, a version of John D. Loudermilk’s “You’re Taking My Bag”, was released on the tiny Page One label, owned by Larry Page, and was released under the name “Paul and Linda”, clearly with the intent of confusing particularly gullible members of the record-buying public into thinking this was the McCartneys: [Excerpt: Paul and Linda, “You’re Taking My Bag”] Peters was though more financially successful than almost anyone else in this story, as she was making a great deal of money as a session singer. She actually did another session involving most of Fotheringay around this time. Witchseason had a number of excellent songwriters on its roster, and had had some success getting covers by people like Judy Collins, but Joe Boyd thought that they might possibly do better at getting cover versions if they were performed in less idiosyncratic arrangements. Donahue, Donaldson, and Conway went into the studio to record backing tracks, and vocals were added by Peters and another session singer, who according to some sources also provided piano. They cut songs by Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band: [Excerpt: Linda Peters, “You Get Brighter”] Ed Carter, formerly of The New Nadir but by this time firmly ensconced in the Beach Boys’ touring band where he would remain for the next quarter-century: [Excerpt: Linda Peters, “I Don’t Mind”] John and Beverly Martyn, and Nick Drake: [Excerpt: Elton John, “Saturday Sun”] There are different lineups of musicians credited for those sessions in different sources, but I tend to believe that it’s mostly Fotheringay for the simple reason that Donahue says it was him, Donaldson and Conway who talked Lucas and Denny into the mistake that destroyed Fotheringay because of these sessions. Fotheringay were in financial trouble already, spending far more money than they were bringing in, but their album made the top twenty and they were getting respect both from critics and from the public — in September, Sandy Denny was voted best British female singer by the readers of Melody Maker in their annual poll, which led to shocked headlines in the tabloids about how this “unknown” could have beaten such big names as Dusty Springfield and Cilla Black. Only a couple of weeks after that, they were due to headline at the Albert Hall. It should have been a triumph. But Donahue, Donaldson, and Conway had asked that singing pianist to be their support act. As Donahue said later “That was a terrible miscast. It was our fault. He asked if [he] could do it. Actually Pat, Gerry and I had to talk Sandy and Trevor into [it]… We'd done these demos and the way he was playing – he was a wonderful piano player – he was sensitive enough. We knew very little about his stage-show. We thought he'd be a really good opener for us.” Unfortunately, Elton John was rather *too* good. As Donahue continued “we had no idea what he had in mind, that he was going to do the most incredible rock & roll show ever. He pretty much blew us off the stage before we even got on the stage.” To make matters worse, Fotheringay’s set, which was mostly comprised of new material, was underrehearsed and sloppy, and from that point on no matter what they did people were counting the hours until the band split up. They struggled along for a while though, and started working on a second record, with Boyd again producing, though as Boyd later said “I probably shouldn't have been producing the record. My lack of respect for the group was clear, and couldn't have helped the atmosphere. We'd put out a record that had sold disappointingly, A&M was unhappy. Sandy's tracks on the first record are among the best things she ever did – the rest of it, who cares? And the artwork, Trevor's sister, was terrible. It would have been one thing if I'd been unhappy with it and it sold, and the group was working all the time, making money, but that wasn't the case … I knew what Sandy was capable of, and it was very upsetting to me.” The record would not be released for thirty-eight years: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “Wild Mountain Thyme”] Witchseason was going badly into debt. Given all the fissioning of bands that we’ve already been talking about, Boyd had been stretched thin — he produced sixteen albums in 1970, and almost all of them lost money for the company. And he was getting more and more disillusioned with the people he was producing. He loved Beverly Martyn’s work, but had little time for her abusive husband John, who was dominating her recording and life more and more and would soon become a solo artist while making her stay at home (and stealing her ideas without giving her songwriting credit). The Incredible String Band were great, but they had recently converted to Scientology, which Boyd found annoying, and while he was working with all sorts of exciting artists like Vashti Bunyan and Nico, he was finding himself less and less important to the artists he mentored. Fairport Convention were a good example of this. After Denny and Hutchings had left the group, they’d decided to carry on as an electric folk group, performing an equal mix of originals by the Swarbrick and Thompson songwriting team and arrangements of traditional songs. The group were now far enough away from the “British Jefferson Airplane” label that they decided they didn’t need a female vocalist — and more realistically, while they’d been able to replace Judy Dyble, nobody was going to replace Sandy Denny. Though it’s rather surprising when one considers Thompson’s subsequent career that nobody seems to have thought of bringing in Denny’s friend Linda Peters, who was dating Joe Boyd at the time (as Denny had been before she met Lucas) as Denny’s replacement. Instead, they decided that Swarbrick and Thompson were going to share the vocals between them. They did, though, need a bass player to replace Hutchings. Swarbrick wanted to bring in Dave Pegg, with whom he had played in the Ian Campbell Folk Group, but the other band members initially thought the idea was a bad one. At the time, while they respected Swarbrick as a musician, they didn’t think he fully understood rock and roll yet, and they thought the idea of getting in a folkie who had played double bass rather than an electric rock bassist ridiculous. But they auditioned him to mollify Swarbrick, and found that he was exactly what they needed. As Joe Boyd later said “All those bass lines were great, Ashley invented them all, but he never could play them that well. He thought of them, but he was technically not a terrific bass player. He was a very inventive, melodic, bass player, but not a very powerful one technically. But having had the part explained to him once, Pegg was playing it better than Ashley had ever played it… In some rock bands, I think, ultimately, the bands that sound great, you can generally trace it to the bass player… it was at that point they became a great band, when they had Pegg.” The new lineup of Fairport decided to move in together, and found a former pub called the Angel, into which all the band members moved, along with their partners and children (Thompson was the only one who was single at this point) and their roadies. The group lived together quite happily, and one gets the impression that this was the period when they were most comfortable with each other, even though by this point they were a disparate group with disparate tastes, in music as in everything else. Several people have said that the only music all the band members could agree they liked at this point was the first two albums by The Band. With the departure of Hutchings from the band, Swarbrick and Thompson, as the strongest personalities and soloists, became in effect the joint leaders of the group, and they became collaborators as songwriters, trying to write new songs that were inspired by traditional music. Thompson described the process as “let’s take one line of this reel and slow it down and move it up a minor third and see what that does to it; let’s take one line of this ballad and make a whole song out of it. Chopping up the tradition to find new things to do… like a collage.” Generally speaking, Swarbrick and Thompson would sit by the fire and Swarbrick would play a melody he’d been working on, the two would work on it for a while, and Thompson would then go away and write the lyrics. This is how the two came up with songs like the nine-minute “Sloth”, a highlight of the next album, Full House, and one that would remain in Fairport’s live set for much of their career: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sloth”] “Sloth” was titled that way because Thompson and Swarbrick were working on two tunes, a slow one and a fast one, and they jokingly named them “Sloth” and “Fasth”, but the latter got renamed to “Walk Awhile”, while “Sloth” kept its working title. But by this point, Boyd and Thompson were having a lot of conflict in the studio. Boyd was never the most technical of producers — he was one of those producers whose job is to gently guide the artists in the studio and create a space for the music to flourish, rather than the Joe Meek type with an intimate technical knowledge of the studio — and as the artists he was working with gained confidence in their own work they felt they had less and less need of him. During the making of the Full House album, Thompson and Boyd, according to Boyd, clashed on everything — every time Boyd thought Thompson had done a good solo, Thompson would say to erase it and let him have another go, while every time Boyd thought Thompson could do better, Thompson would say that was the take to keep. One of their biggest clashes was over Thompson’s song “Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman”, which was originally intended for release on the album, and is included in current reissues of it: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman”] Thompson had written that song inspired by what he thought was the unjust treatment of Alex Bramham, the driver in Fairport’s fatal car crash, by the courts — Bramham had been given a prison sentence of a few months for dangerous driving, while the group members thought he had not been at fault. Boyd thought it was one of the best things recorded for the album, but Thompson wasn’t happy with his vocal — there was one note at the top of the melody that he couldn’t quite hit — and insisted it be kept off the record, even though that meant it would be a shorter album than normal. He did this at such a late stage that early copies of the album actually had the title printed on the sleeve, but then blacked out. He now says in his autobiography “I could have persevered, double-tracked the voice, warmed up for longer – anything. It was a good track, and the record was lacking without it. When the album was re-released, the track was restored with a more confident vocal, and it has stayed there ever since.” During the sessions for Full House the group also recorded one non-album single, Thompson and Swarbrick’s “Now Be Thankful”: [Excerpt, Fairport Convention, “Now Be Thankful”] The B-side to that was a medley of two traditional tunes plus a Swarbrick original, but was given the deliberately ridiculous title “Sir B. McKenzie’s Daughter’s Lament For The 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat From The Straits Of Loch Knombe, In The Year Of Our Lord 1727, On The Occasion Of The Announcement Of Her Marriage To The Laird Of Kinleakie”: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sir B. McKenzie’s Daughter’s Lament For The 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat From The Straits Of Loch Knombe, In The Year Of Our Lord 1727, On The Occasion Of The Announcement Of Her Marriage To The Laird Of Kinleakie”] The B. McKenzie in the title was a reference to the comic-strip character Barry McKenzie, a stereotype drunk Australian created for Private Eye magazine by the comedian Barry Humphries (later to become better known for his Dame Edna Everage character) but the title was chosen for one reason only — to get into the Guinness Book of Records for the song with the longest title. Which they did, though they were later displaced by the industrial band Test Dept, and their song “Long Live British Democracy Which Flourishes and Is Constantly Perfected Under the Immaculate Guidance of the Great, Honourable, Generous and Correct Margaret Hilda Thatcher. She Is the Blue Sky in the Hearts of All Nations. Our People Pay Homage and Bow in Deep Respect and Gratitude to Her. The Milk of Human Kindness”. Full House got excellent reviews in the music press, with Rolling Stone saying “The music shows that England has finally gotten her own equivalent to The Band… By calling Fairport an English equivalent of the Band, I meant that they have soaked up enough of the tradition of their countryfolk that it begins to show all over, while they maintain their roots in rock.” Off the back of this, the group went on their first US tour, culminating in a series of shows at the Troubadour in LA, on the same bill as Rick Nelson, which were recorded and later released as a live album: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sloth (live)”] The Troubadour was one of the hippest venues at the time, and over their residency there the group got seen by many celebrities, some of whom joined them on stage. The first was Linda Ronstadt, who initially demurred, saying she didn’t know any of their songs. On being told they knew all of hers, she joined in with a rendition of “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”. Thompson was later asked to join Ronstadt’s backing band, who would go on to become the Eagles, but he said later of this offer “I would have hated it. I’d have hated being on the road with four or five miserable Americans — they always seem miserable. And if you see them now, they still look miserable on stage — like they don’t want to be there and they don’t like each other.” The group were also joined on stage at the Troubadour on one memorable night by some former bandmates of Pegg’s. Before joining the Ian Campbell Folk Group, Pegg had played around the Birmingham beat scene, and had been in bands with John Bonham and Robert Plant, who turned up to the Troubadour with their Led Zeppelin bandmate Jimmy Page (reports differ on whether the fourth member of Zeppelin, John Paul Jones, also came along). They all got up on stage together and jammed on songs like “Hey Joe”, “Louie Louie”, and various old Elvis tunes. The show was recorded, and the tapes are apparently still in the possession of Joe Boyd, who has said he refuses to release them in case he is murdered by the ghost of Peter Grant. According to Thompson, that night ended in a three-way drinking contest between Pegg, Bonham, and Janis Joplin, and it’s testament to how strong the drinking culture is around Fairport and the British folk scene in general that Pegg outdrank both of them. According to Thompson, Bonham was found naked by a swimming pool two days later, having missed two gigs. For all their hard rock image, Led Zeppelin were admirers of a lot of the British folk and folk-rock scene, and a few months later Sandy Denny would become the only outside vocalist ever to appear on a Led Zeppelin record when she duetted with Plant on “The Battle of Evermore” on the group’s fourth album: [Excerpt: Led Zeppelin, “The Battle of Evermore”] Denny would never actually get paid for her appearance on one of the best-selling albums of all time. That was, incidentally, not the only session that Denny was involved in around this time — she also sang on the soundtrack to a soft porn film titled Swedish Fly Girls, whose soundtrack was produced by Manfred Mann: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “What Will I Do With Tomorrow?”] Shortly after Fairport’s trip to America, Joe Boyd decided he was giving up on Witchseason. The company was now losing money, and he was finding himself having to produce work for more and more acts as the various bands fissioned. The only ones he really cared about were Richard Thompson, who he was finding it more and more difficult to work with, Nick Drake, who wanted to do his next album with just an acoustic guitar anyway, Sandy Denny, who he felt was wasting her talents in Fotheringay, and Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band, who was more distant since his conversion to Scientology. Boyd did make some attempts to keep the company going. On a trip to Sweden, he negotiated an agreement with the manager and publisher of a Swedish band whose songs he’d found intriguing, the Hep Stars. Boyd was going to publish their songs in the UK, and in return that publisher, Stig Anderson, would get the rights to Witchseason’s catalogue in Scandinavia — a straight swap, with no money changing hands. But before Boyd could get round to signing the paperwork, he got a better offer from Mo Ostin of Warners — Ostin wanted Boyd to come over to LA and head up Warners’ new film music department. Boyd sold Witchseason to Island Records and moved to LA with his fiancee Linda Peters, spending the next few years working on music for films like Deliverance and A Clockwork Orange, as well as making his own documentary about Jimi Hendrix, and thus missed out on getting the UK publishing rights for ABBA, and all the income that would have brought him, for no money. And it was that decision that led to the breakup of Fotheringay. Just before Christmas 1970, Fotheringay were having a difficult session, recording the track “John the Gun”: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “John the Gun”] Boyd got frustrated and kicked everyone out of the session, and went for a meal and several drinks with Denny. He kept insisting that she should dump the band and just go solo, and then something happened that the two of them would always describe differently. She asked him if he would continue to produce her records if she went solo, and he said he would. According to Boyd’s recollection of the events, he meant that he would fly back from California at some point to produce her records. According to Denny, he told her that if she went solo he would stay in Britain and not take the job in LA. This miscommunication was only discovered after Denny told the rest of Fotheringay after the Christmas break that she was splitting the band. Jerry Donahue has described that as the worst moment of his life, and Denny felt very guilty about breaking up a band with some of her closest friends in — and then when Boyd went over to the US anyway she felt a profound betrayal. Two days before Fotheringay’s final concert, in January 1971, Sandy Denny signed a solo deal with Island records, but her first solo album would not end up produced by Joe Boyd. Instead, The North Star Grassman and the Ravens was co-produced by Denny, John Wood — the engineer who had worked with Boyd on pretty much everything he’d produced, and Richard Thompson, who had just quit Fairport Convention, though he continued living with them at the Angel, at least until a truck crashed into the building in February 1971, destroying its entire front wall and forcing them to relocate. The songs chosen for The North Star Grassman and the Ravens reflected the kind of choices Denny would make on her future albums, and her eclectic taste in music. There was, of course, the obligatory Dylan cover, and the traditional folk ballad “Blackwaterside”, but there was also a cover version of Brenda Lee’s “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”] Most of the album, though, was made up of originals about various people in Denny’s life, like “Next Time Around”, about her ex-boyfriend Jackson C Frank: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Next Time Around”] The album made the top forty in the UK — Denny’s only solo album to do so — and led to her once again winning the “best female singer” award in Melody Maker’s readers’ poll that year — the male singer award was won by Rod Stewart. Both Stewart and Denny appeared the next year on the London Symphony Orchestra’s all-star version of The Who’s Tommy, which had originally been intended as a vehicle for Stewart before Roger Daltrey got involved. Stewart’s role was reduced to a single song, “Pinball Wizard”, while Denny sang on “It’s a Boy”: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “It’s a Boy”] While Fotheringay had split up, all the band members play on The North Star Grassman and the Ravens. Guitarists Donahue and Lucas only play on a couple of the tracks, with Richard Thompson playing most of the guitar on the record. But Fotheringay’s rhythm section of Pat Donaldson and Gerry Conway play on almost every track. Another musician on the album, Ian Whiteman, would possibly have a profound effect on the future direction of Richard Thompson’s career and life. Whiteman was the former keyboard player for the mod band The Action, having joined them just before they became the blues-rock band Mighty Baby. But Mighty Baby had split up when all of the band except the lead singer had converted to Islam. Richard Thompson was on his own spiritual journey at this point, and became a Sufi – the same branch of Islam as Whiteman – soon after the session, though Thompson has said that his conversion was independent of Whiteman’s. The two did become very close and work together a lot in the mid-seventies though. Thompson had supposedly left Fairport because he was writing material that wasn’t suited to the band, but he spent more than a year after quitting the group working on sessions rather than doing anything with his own material, and these sessions tended to involve the same core group of musicians. One of the more unusual was a folk-rock supergroup called The Bunch, put together by Trevor Lucas. Richard Branson had recently bought a recording studio, and wanted a band to test it out before opening it up for commercial customers, so with this free studio time Lucas decided to record a set of fifties rock and roll covers. He gathered together Thompson, Denny, Whiteman, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Pat Donaldson, Gerry Conway, pianist Tony Cox, the horn section that would later form the core of the Average White Band, and Linda Peters, who had now split up with Joe Boyd and returned to the UK, and who had started dating Thompson. They recorded an album of covers of songs by Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Johnny Otis and others: [Excerpt: The Bunch, “Willie and the Hand Jive”] The early seventies was a hugely productive time for this group of musicians, as they all continued playing on each other’s projects. One notable album was No Roses by Shirley Collins, which featured Thompson, Mattacks, Whiteman, Simon Nicol, Lal and Mike Waterson, and Ashley Hutchings, who was at that point married to Collins, as well as some more unusual musicians like the free jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill: [Excerpt: Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band, “Claudy Banks”] Collins was at the time the most respected female singer in British traditional music, and already had a substantial career including a series of important records made with her sister Dolly, work with guitarists like Davey Graham, and time spent in the 1950s collecting folk songs in the Southern US with her then partner Alan Lomax – according to Collins she did much of the actual work, but Lomax only mentioned her in a single sentence in his book on this work. Some of the same group of musicians went on to work on an album of traditional Morris dancing tunes, titled Morris On, credited to “Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield”, with Collins singing lead on two tracks: [Excerpt: Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield with Shirley Collins, “The Willow Tree”] Thompson thought that that album was the best of the various side projects he was involved in at the time, comparing it favourably to Rock On, which he thought was rather slight, saying later “Conceptually, Fairport, Ashley and myself and Sandy were developing a more fragile style of music that nobody else was particularly interested in, a British Folk Rock idea that had a logical development to it, although we all presented it our own way. Morris On was rather more true to what we were doing. Rock On was rather a retro step. I'm not sure it was lasting enough as a record but Sandy did sing really well on the Buddy Holly songs.” Hutchings used the musicians on No Roses and Morris On as the basis for his band the Albion Band, which continues to this day. Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks both quit Fairport to join the Albion Band, though Mattacks soon returned. Nicol would not return to Fairport for several years, though, and for a long period in the mid-seventies Fairport Convention had no original members. Unfortunately, while Collins was involved in the Albion Band early on, she and Hutchings ended up divorcing, and the stress from the divorce led to Collins developing spasmodic dysphonia, a stress-related illness which makes it impossible for the sufferer to sing. She did eventually regain her vocal ability, but between 1978 and 2016 she was unable to perform at all, and lost decades of her career. Richard Thompson occasionally performed with the Albion Band early on, but he was getting stretched a little thin with all these sessions. Linda Peters said later of him “When I came back from America, he was working in Sandy’s band, and doing sessions by the score. Always with Pat Donaldson and Dave Mattacks. Richard would turn up with his guitar, one day he went along to do a session with one of those folkie lady singers — and there were Pat and DM. They all cracked. Richard smashed his amp and said “Right! No more sessions!” In 1972 he got round to releasing his first solo album, Henry the Human Fly, which featured guest appearances by Linda Peters and Sandy Denny among others: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “The Angels Took My Racehorse Away”] Unfortunately, while that album has later become regarded as one of the classics of its genre, at the time it was absolutely slated by the music press. The review in Melody Maker, for example, read in part “Some of Richard Thompson’s ideas sound great – which is really the saving grace of this album, because most of the music doesn’t. The tragedy is that Thompson’s “British rock music” is such an unconvincing concoction… Even the songs that do integrate rock and traditional styles of electric guitar rhythms and accordion and fiddle decoration – and also include explicit, meaningful lyrics are marred by bottle-up vocals, uninspiring guitar phrases and a general lack of conviction in performance.” Henry the Human Fly was released in the US by Warners, who had a reciprocal licensing deal with Island (and for whom Joe Boyd was working at the time, which may have had something to do with that) but according to Thompson it became the lowest-selling record that Warners ever put out (though I’ve also seen that claim made about Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle, another album that has later been rediscovered). Thompson was hugely depressed by this reaction, and blamed his own singing. Happily, though, by this point he and Linda had become a couple — they would marry in 1972 — and they started playing folk clubs as a duo, or sometimes in a trio with Simon Nicol. Thompson was also playing with Sandy Denny’s backing band at this point, and played on every track on her second solo album, Sandy. This album was meant to be her big commercial breakthrough, with a glamorous cover photo by David Bailey, and with a more American sound, including steel guitar by Sneaky Pete Kleinow of the Flying Burrito Brothers (whose overdubs were supervised in LA by Joe Boyd): [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Tomorrow is a Long Time”] The album was given a big marketing push by Island, and “Listen, Listen” was made single of the week on the Radio 1 Breakfast show: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Listen, Listen”] But it did even worse than the previous album, sending her into something of a depression. Linda Thompson (as the former Linda Peters now was) said of this period “After the Sandy album, it got her down that her popularity didn't suddenly increase in leaps and bounds, and that was the start of her really fretting about the way her career was going. Things only escalated after that. People like me or Martin Carthy or Norma Waterson would think, ‘What are you on about? This is folk music.'” After Sandy’s release, Denny realised she could no longer afford to tour with a band, and so went back to performing just acoustically or on piano. The only new music to be released by either of these ex-members of Fairport Convention in 1973 was, oddly, on an album by the band they were no longer members of. After Thompson had left Fairport, the group had managed to release two whole albums with the same lineup — Swarbrick, Nicol, Pegg, and Mattacks. But then Nicol and Mattacks had both quit the band to join the Albion Band with their former bandmate Ashley Hutchings, leading to a situation where the Albion Band had two original members of Fairport plus their longtime drummer while Fairport Convention itself had no original members and was down to just Swarbrick and Pegg. Needing to fulfil their contracts, they then recruited three former members of Fotheringay — Lucas on vocals and rhythm guitar, Donahue on lead guitar, and Conway on drums. Conway was only a session player at the time, and Mattacks soon returned to the band, but Lucas and Donahue became full-time members. This new lineup of Fairport Convention released two albums in 1973, widely regarded as the group’s most inconsistent records, and on the title track of the first, “Rosie”, Richard Thompson guested on guitar, with Sandy Denny and Linda Thompson on backing vocals: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Rosie”] Neither Sandy Denny nor Richard Thompson released a record themselves in 1973, but in neither case was this through the artists’ choice. The record industry was changing in the early 1970s, as we’ll see in later episodes, and was less inclined to throw good money after bad in the pursuit of art. Island Records prided itself on being a home for great artists, but it was still a business, and needed to make money. We’ll talk about the OPEC oil crisis and its effect on the music industry much more when the podcast gets to 1973, but in brief, the production of oil by the US peaked in 1970 and started to decrease, leading to them importing more and more oil from the Middle East. As a result of this, oil prices rose slowly between 1971 and 1973, then very quickly towards the end of 1973 as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict that year. As vinyl is made of oil, suddenly producing records became much more expensive, and in this period a lot of labels decided not to release already-completed albums, until what they hoped would be a brief period of shortages passed. Both Denny and Thompson recorded albums at this point that got put to one side by Island. In the case of Thompson, it was the first album by Richard and Linda as a duo, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”] Today, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, and as one of the two masterpieces that bookended Richard and Linda’s career as a duo and their marriage. But when they recorded the album, full of Richard’s dark songs, it was the opposite of commercial. Even a song that’s more or less a boy-girl song, like “Has He Got a Friend for Me?” has lyrics like “He wouldn’t notice me passing by/I could be in the gutter, or dangling down from a tree” [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “Has He got a Friend For Me?”] While something like “The Calvary Cross” is oblique and haunted, and seems to cast a pall over the entire album: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “The Calvary Cross”] The album itself had been cheap to make — it had been recorded in only a week, with Thompson bringing in musicians he knew well and had worked with a lot previously to cut the tracks as-live in only a handful of takes — but Island didn’t think it was worth releasing. The record stayed on the shelf for nearly a year after recording, until Island got a new head of A&R, Richard Williams. Williams said of the album’s release “Muff Winwood had been doing A&R, but he was more interested in production… I had a conversation with Muff as soon as I got there, and he said there are a few hangovers, some outstanding problems. And one of them was Richard Thompson. He said there’s this album we gave him the money to make — which was I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight — and nobody’s very interested in it. Henry the Human Fly had been a bit of a commercial disappointment, and although Island was altruistic and independent and known for only recording good stuff, success was important… Either a record had to do well or somebody had to believe in it a lot. And it seemed as if neither of those things were true at that point of Richard.” Williams, though, was hugely impressed when he listened to the album. He compared Richard Thompson’s guitar playing to John Coltrane’s sax, and called Thompson “the folk poet of the rainy streets”, but also said “Linda brightened it, made it more commercial. and I thought that “Bright Lights” itself seemed a really commercial song.” The rest of the management at Island got caught up in Williams’ enthusiasm, and even decided to release the title track as a single: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”] Neither single nor album charted — indeed it would not be until 1991 that Richard Thompson would make a record that made the top forty in the UK — but the album got enough critical respect that Richard and Linda released two albums the year after. The first of these, Hokey Pokey, is a much more upbeat record than their previous one — Richard Thompson has called it “quite a music-hall influenced record” and cited the influence of George Formby and Harry Lauder. For once, the claim of music hall influence is audible in the music. Usually when a British musician is claimed to have a music ha

"Just a perfect dayDrink sangria in the parkAnd then later, when it gets darkWe go homeOh, it's such a perfect dayI'm glad I spent it with you" Please make our day perfect and spend 2 hours of your Sunday with me on this week's Super Sounds Of the 70's. I've invited Nick Drake, Laura Nyro, Dire Straits, Bob Dylan, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Chicago Transit Authority, Minnie Riperton, Love, Judy Collins, Allman Brothers, Orleans, George Harrison, Led Zeppelin, Ambrosia,  Pink Floyd, Yes, Humble Pie, Traffic, Jethro Tull and Lou Reed...

O calor vai chegando e as nossas playlists começam a revelar toda uma luz especial. Trazemos quatro canções que relembram o quanto a música é capaz de nos envolver e nos guiar até mundos novos. Mesmo em tempos bizarros e absurdos, resistir é precisamente deixarmos essa luz entrar. Se quiserem juntar-se a nós, são garantidas recomendações, descobertas e até reflexões para fazermos em conjunto.Playlist:"Transe", Zé Ibarra"Hoje Já Não É Tarde", Salvador Sobral e Sílvia Pérez Cruz"O Amor Abriu em Queda", André Henriques feat. Clã"Time Of No Reply", Nick Drake

In this special episode, we sit down with Belfast-born, Berlin-based songwriter Mahuna, whose debut album Forever Is Mine is a deeply personal, 25-year journey through memory, place, and emotional evolution. With the lead single Shimmering Light already setting the tone with its nostalgic glow and lyrical warmth, Mahuna opens up about the stories behind his evocative tracks—from the stillness of Berlin winters to amber dawns in Paris and the windswept fields of Monaghan.We explore the raw, live-recorded nature of the album, his reflections on fatherhood, the role of grief and healing in songwriting, and how time can transform both music and memory. For fans of Nick Drake, Glen Hansard, and Damien Jurado, this is an intimate look into the making of a debut that's taken a lifetime to arrive.Discover more here : https://www.mahunamusic.com/Join us as Mahuna unpacks Forever Is Mine—a sonic memoir shaped by stillness, sorrow, and shimmering light.

A CAT Club presentationAN AUDIENCE WITH JOHN ALTMANJohn Altman has four Lifetime Achievement Awards and four Grammy Participation Certificates. He has composed music for over fifty movies – winning, and being nominated for BAFTAS, Golden Globes, Golden Reels and Emmy Awards long the way for Titanic, Monty Python's Life Of Brian, Goldeneye, Hear My Song, Sheltering Sky, Léon: The Professional, RKO281, The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone, Little Voice and No Time To Die.A gifted arranger, John has worked on 19 platinum albums, including George Michael's 1989 album Faith, which won several Grammys (he was also nominated for The Rutles film, All You Need Is Cash).Some of the artists he has written for include Simple Minds, Barry White, Tina Turner, Björk, Diana Ross, Tom Jones, Pretenders, Rod Stewart and Michael Jackson.As an in-demand woodwind player, he has played with artists as diverse as Prince, Nick Drake, Muddy Waters, Peter Green, Kevin Ayers, Amy Winehouse (whom he mentored) and he was also musical director for Hot Chocolate and Van Morrison. As a jazz musician and band leader John has played with Chet Baker, Slim Gaillard, Quincy Jones, Bud Freeman, Les McCann and many others.A renowned raconteur, Altman's acclaimed autobiography, Hidden Man was published in 2022 by Equinox.This terrific CAT Club gathering saw JASON BARNARD in the interviewer's chair doing a splendid job opposite the truly wonderful JOHN ALTMAN.Please note: John was also our guest for George Michael's Faith album. Podcast also available and well worth a listen!Happy TrailsThis event took place on 24th April 2025 in the Pigeon Loft at The Robin Hood, Pontefract, West Yorkshire.To find out more about the CAT Club please visit: www.thecatclub.co.ukThis podcast has been edited for content and for copyright reasons.Happy Trails.

En esta entrega de La Ruleta Rusa hemos escuchado y comentado los discos:ÁLBUM DESTACADO. Motorpsycho. Motorpsycho (2025).King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizzard. Flight B741 (2024).Korekyojinn. Tundra (2011).Baker Gurvitz Army. Hearts of Fire (1976).Airbag. Dysphoria (2024).Hevdig Mollestad Trio. Shoot! (2011).Nick Drake. Pink Moon (1972).

Nos 1ers invités sont le duo formé par le saxophoniste Jacques Schwarz-Bart et le pianiste Grégory Privat pour la sortie de l'album 22. Grégory Privat, né le 22 décembre 1984 en Martinique, est un pianiste et compositeur de jazz. Il grandit à Saint-Joseph, en Martinique, dans une famille de musiciens. Son père, José Privat, est compositeur et pianiste du groupe martiniquais Malavoi. C'est lui qui l'encourage à apprendre le piano dès l'âge de six ans. Après dix ans de formation classique, Grégory se met à la composition et à l'improvisation, particulièrement dans le jazz.De 2004 à 2007, il mène une double vie, suivant l'enseignement d'une école d'ingénieur à Toulouse le jour, jouant dans des clubs de jazz la nuit. Il commence à écrire ses premières compositions et fait la première partie du Biguine Jazz Festival à Sainte-Marie en 2005. Il crée son propre groupe à Paris, et sort un premier album en 2011, Ki Koté. L'année suivante, âgé de 27 ans, il abandonne son emploi, pourtant confortable, pour devenir musicien professionnel et se consacrer entièrement à la musique. Bientôt, il joue avec des pointures caribéennes du jazz, comme le saxophoniste Jacques Schwarz-Bart, le trompettiste Franck Nicolas et le percussionniste Sonny Troupé, maître du Gwoka, qui devient un ami proche. Puis en 2014, paraît l'album concept Tales of Cyparis. Le nom de l'album est une référence à Cyparis, survivant de l'éruption de la Montagne Pelée en 1902. L'année suivante, il sort Luminescence avec Sonny Troupé : un album en duo reflétant un mélange de jazz et de sonorités Gwoka. Toujours en 2015, Grégory Privat est nommé aux Victoires du Jazz dans la catégorie «Révélation de l'année, prix Frank- Ténot». Son album Family Tree suit en 2016, il y présente son premier trio avec Linley Marthe et Tilo Bertholo sur le label ACT. En 2024, Grégory Privat sort Phoenix, nouvel album en trio qu'il considère comme une continuité de son album Soley et reçoit la même année le Prix Django Reinhardt de l'Académie du Jazz. En 2025 Jacques Schwarz-Bart…Artiste International, d'origine guadeloupéenne, Jacques Schwarz-Bart vit à New York depuis plus de 20 ans. Musicien, compositeur et arrangeur, il est le fils de Simone et d'André Schwarz-Bart, le célèbre couple d'écrivains.Jacques Schwarz-Bart abandonne rapidement une carrière diplomatique dans l'administration française pour se lancer dans la musique et choisit son instrument de prédilection : le saxophone ténor. Il étudie à Berklee school à Boston où il développe son identité musicale au carrefour du Jazz de la Soul et des musiques afro-caribéennes. Jacques collabore avec les plus grands de la scène Nu soul et jazz comme le trompettiste Roy Hargrove, Herbie Hancock, d'Angelo, Me'shell Ndegeocello, ErykahBadu, et d'autres.En 2004, il monte son Gwoka Project et enregistre deux albums pour UNIVERSAL, Soné Ka-La et Abyss, qui ont construit sa carrière actuelle en tant que leader reconnu au plan international.Titres interprétés dans le grand studio- The Crossing Live RFI- The Most Beautiful, extrait de l'album- Isaïah Live RFI.Line Up : Jacques Schwarz-Bart, saxophone, Grégory Privat, piano.Son : Mathias Taylor, Benoît LetirantRéalisation : Hadrien Touraud & Donatien Cahu.►  Album 22 (Buddham Jazz 2025).- Live Isaäh YouTube- Site Grégory Privat - Fb Jacques Schwarz-Bart.   Puis nous recevons JJH Potter pour la sortie de Ghosts Unveiled.Et c'est en famille que ce Strasbourgeois vient présenter son nouvel album.Auteur-compositeur-interprète né dans les années 70, basé à Strasbourg, compose des chansons aussi intimistes qu'authentiques. Ce guitariste-pianiste et chanteur se produit sous le nom de JJH Potter en hommage à sa grand-mère maternelle qui s'appelait Jeanne, Joséphine, Henriette Pottier. Il crée de la musique indie-folk intimiste depuis son adolescence et promène ses balades aux accents feutrés de café-concerts en rencontres musicales improvisées en s'inspirant des sentiments humains pour révéler des histoires sincères et touchantes. Influencé par la folk américaine et anglaise, il a pour icônes Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Nick Drake ou encore John Martyn. Et il chante avec ses filles Noan et Selma !Titres interprétés dans le grand studio- Sketches (avec Noan) Live RFI- Moth (avec Selma + piano) Live RFI- Contagious Live RFI.Line Up : Pierric L'Homme, alias JJH Potter (guitare, piano, voix), Noan L'Homme et Selma L'Homme (chœurs), Cédric Lemaire (batterie) et Sébastien Marcesche (basse).Son : Mathias Taylor, Benoît Letirant.► Album Ghosts Unveiled (Daydream 2025).- JJH Potter EPK - Bandcamp - Daydream Music. 

Nos 1ers invités sont le duo formé par le saxophoniste Jacques Schwarz-Bart et le pianiste Grégory Privat pour la sortie de l'album 22. Grégory Privat, né le 22 décembre 1984 en Martinique, est un pianiste et compositeur de jazz. Il grandit à Saint-Joseph, en Martinique, dans une famille de musiciens. Son père, José Privat, est compositeur et pianiste du groupe martiniquais Malavoi. C'est lui qui l'encourage à apprendre le piano dès l'âge de six ans. Après dix ans de formation classique, Grégory se met à la composition et à l'improvisation, particulièrement dans le jazz.De 2004 à 2007, il mène une double vie, suivant l'enseignement d'une école d'ingénieur à Toulouse le jour, jouant dans des clubs de jazz la nuit. Il commence à écrire ses premières compositions et fait la première partie du Biguine Jazz Festival à Sainte-Marie en 2005. Il crée son propre groupe à Paris, et sort un premier album en 2011, Ki Koté. L'année suivante, âgé de 27 ans, il abandonne son emploi, pourtant confortable, pour devenir musicien professionnel et se consacrer entièrement à la musique. Bientôt, il joue avec des pointures caribéennes du jazz, comme le saxophoniste Jacques Schwarz-Bart, le trompettiste Franck Nicolas et le percussionniste Sonny Troupé, maître du Gwoka, qui devient un ami proche. Puis en 2014, paraît l'album concept Tales of Cyparis. Le nom de l'album est une référence à Cyparis, survivant de l'éruption de la Montagne Pelée en 1902. L'année suivante, il sort Luminescence avec Sonny Troupé : un album en duo reflétant un mélange de jazz et de sonorités Gwoka. Toujours en 2015, Grégory Privat est nommé aux Victoires du Jazz dans la catégorie «Révélation de l'année, prix Frank- Ténot». Son album Family Tree suit en 2016, il y présente son premier trio avec Linley Marthe et Tilo Bertholo sur le label ACT. En 2024, Grégory Privat sort Phoenix, nouvel album en trio qu'il considère comme une continuité de son album Soley et reçoit la même année le Prix Django Reinhardt de l'Académie du Jazz. En 2025 Jacques Schwarz-Bart…Artiste International, d'origine guadeloupéenne, Jacques Schwarz-Bart vit à New York depuis plus de 20 ans. Musicien, compositeur et arrangeur, il est le fils de Simone et d'André Schwarz-Bart, le célèbre couple d'écrivains.Jacques Schwarz-Bart abandonne rapidement une carrière diplomatique dans l'administration française pour se lancer dans la musique et choisit son instrument de prédilection : le saxophone ténor. Il étudie à Berklee school à Boston où il développe son identité musicale au carrefour du Jazz de la Soul et des musiques afro-caribéennes. Jacques collabore avec les plus grands de la scène Nu soul et jazz comme le trompettiste Roy Hargrove, Herbie Hancock, d'Angelo, Me'shell Ndegeocello, ErykahBadu, et d'autres.En 2004, il monte son Gwoka Project et enregistre deux albums pour UNIVERSAL, Soné Ka-La et Abyss, qui ont construit sa carrière actuelle en tant que leader reconnu au plan international.Titres interprétés dans le grand studio- The Crossing Live RFI- The Most Beautiful, extrait de l'album- Isaïah Live RFI.Line Up : Jacques Schwarz-Bart, saxophone, Grégory Privat, piano.Son : Mathias Taylor, Benoît LetirantRéalisation : Hadrien Touraud & Donatien Cahu.►  Album 22 (Buddham Jazz 2025).- Live Isaäh YouTube- Site Grégory Privat - Fb Jacques Schwarz-Bart.   Puis nous recevons JJH Potter pour la sortie de Ghosts Unveiled.Et c'est en famille que ce Strasbourgeois vient présenter son nouvel album.Auteur-compositeur-interprète né dans les années 70, basé à Strasbourg, compose des chansons aussi intimistes qu'authentiques. Ce guitariste-pianiste et chanteur se produit sous le nom de JJH Potter en hommage à sa grand-mère maternelle qui s'appelait Jeanne, Joséphine, Henriette Pottier. Il crée de la musique indie-folk intimiste depuis son adolescence et promène ses balades aux accents feutrés de café-concerts en rencontres musicales improvisées en s'inspirant des sentiments humains pour révéler des histoires sincères et touchantes. Influencé par la folk américaine et anglaise, il a pour icônes Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Nick Drake ou encore John Martyn. Et il chante avec ses filles Noan et Selma !Titres interprétés dans le grand studio- Sketches (avec Noan) Live RFI- Moth (avec Selma + piano) Live RFI- Contagious Live RFI.Line Up : Pierric L'Homme, alias JJH Potter (guitare, piano, voix), Noan L'Homme et Selma L'Homme (chœurs), Cédric Lemaire (batterie) et Sébastien Marcesche (basse).Son : Mathias Taylor, Benoît Letirant.► Album Ghosts Unveiled (Daydream 2025).- JJH Potter EPK - Bandcamp - Daydream Music. 

"Vielleicht sollte man das schöne Schimpfen als eine Sprache der Liebe etablieren" - diese Idee formuliert Juliane Liebert in ihrem neuen Buch "Hurensöhne". Die Literaturagenten sprechen mit ihr über die Schönheit und Notwendigkeit des Schimpfens. Mit Bestsellerautorin Rachel Kushner und ihrer skrupellosen Ex-FBI-Agentin Sadie Smith unterwandern wir in "See der Schöpfung" eine linke Umweltaktivisten-Kommune. Und in der Buchbehandlung sucht Hörer ein Buch über Männer, die verlassen wurden.

Nick Drake was an outstanding artist: a gifted songwriter, a wonderful singer, and one of the greatest guitarists you'll ever hear. But his personality was entirely unsuited to the world of popular music, and his art didn't gain the popularity it deserves until decades after his death. Ever since he unwittingly helped Volkswagen sell cars in 1999, more and more music lovers have discovered his beautiful sincerity, and he's more popular now than ever. Amanda, Mike, and Rich are among Nick Drake's many fans and we're here today to talk about what makes his music so special.Cohosts: Amanda Rodgers, Rich Bunnell, Mike DeFabioComplete show notes: https://discordpod.com/listen/160-nick-drake-bryter-layter-1971Discord & Rhyme's merch store: http://tee.pub/lic/discordpodSupport the podcast! https://www.patreon.com/discordpod

Lynn & Carl talk to Nick Drake from the Fabulous Fox's production of & Juliet opening May 20th. They are then joined by Reginald Wilson starring in Radio Golf at The Black Rep opening My 14th. Plus they discuss new releases: Thunderbolts*, Another Simple Favor & Tina Fey's The Four Seasons.

How do we cultivate resilient worship, praise in the valley? Nick Drake opens up Rev 1 to look at how we can draw from the facts of our faith and our relationship with Christ for our reasons to praise. Praise that doesn't rely on emotion but intention.

Edición especial de nuestro podcast en la que repasamos algunas de las versiones que ha grabado el trompetista y cantante alemán Till Brönner dentro de su selecta discografía. Entre ellas, las realizadas sobre temas de Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Michael Franks, Nick Drake, Chico Buarque, The Beatles o Burt Bacharach.

Johnny's got a cold but with the help of James, his brother in arms, the boys continue their important work curating the perfect playlist of lost gems and resurrected classics. Artists mentioned include: Karen Dalton, Nick Drake, Bobby Charles, Big Star, Lee Hazelwood, Shuggie Otis, Judee Sill, Dwight Twilley, Marlena Shaw, Link Wray, Scott Walker. 

Nueva entrega de Música de Contrabando, semanario de actualidad musical (10/04/2025)Entrevistas: - Lori Meyers , protagonistas de la Primavera Sardinera. - Pink Floyd live at Pompeii regresa restaurada. José Abellán, de Animals Pink Floyd Magazine, nos habla del estreno en cines. Novedades discográficas:Lana del rey, Girl and Girl, Galician Army y Jordana B, M(h)aol, Daughter of Swords, Jim Legxacy, Repion, Bon Iver, Rata, La La Love You, Alba Morena, Rufus T Firefly, Gryffin y Band Of Horses, Rauw Alejandro, Annapurna, The Sand, Feedbacks, Vera Fauna, Lifeguard, Gallopedro, Aló Presidente, Ruge Boreal, JoseLuis, Noticias:Pulp anuncian nuevo albúm para junio. Imagine that: The lost recordings (1954-1963) recupera grabaciones inéditas de Patsy Cline. Sonorama completa su cartel. Beth Gibbons, de Portishead, interpreta ‘Glory Box' en Coachella. Tennis se despedirán con ‘Face down in the garden'. La película-concierto ‘Cornucopia' de Björk llegará a los cines en mayo. Weezer anuncian que están trabajando en una película. Depeche Mode anuncian en sus redes el estreno de un nuevo dicumental, ‘M'. Llega el vídeo de ‘One of these days' nuevo adelanto de Pink Floys en Pompeya. Se reedita ampliado el primer disco de Nick Drake. Agenda de conciertos:Lori Meyers, vera Fauna, Lara Fichera, Colectivo Da Silva, Mala Cotton, Slowkiss, Karmacadabra, Orquesta Mondragón, 25 aniversario ONG Cirugía Solidaria, María de Juan…

Guests: Joe Boyd, Record Producer & Author of And the Roots of Rhythm Remain Joe Boyd is a legend in music. He was the soundman when Dylan went electric at Newport, the founder of the legendary UFO club in London, and the producer of seminal works by Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, John Martyn, Fairport Convention, R.E.M., and many more. In the 1980s, Boyd pioneered global music through his label Hannibal Records, which brought the world everything from the greatest in Cuban music to Bulgarian throat singing and Afropop. Joe's experience in the 1960s was profiled in his 2007 memoir, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. Now, Joe has created a comprehensive history of world music in his new book, And the Roots of Rhythm Remain. Boyd explores centuries of fascinating backstories to these sounds in this sweeping 900-page history, compiled from more than a decade of travel, research, interviews, and deep listening. He shows how personalities, events, and politics in places such as Havana, Lagos, Budapest, Kingston, and Rio are as colorful and momentous as anything in New Orleans, Harlem, Laurel Canyon, or Liverpool. Moreover, jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock 'n' roll would never have happened if it weren't for the notes and rhythms emanating from over the horizon. "Reading is Funktamental" is a monthly one-hour show about great books written about music and music-makers. In each episode, host Sal Cataldi speaks to the authors of some of the best reads about rock, jazz, punk, world, experimental music, and much more. From time to time, the host and authors will be joined by notable musicians, writers, and artists who are die-hard fans of the subject matter covered. Expect lively conversation and a playlist of great music to go with it. "Reading Is Funktamental" can be heard the second Wednesday of every month from 10 – 11 AM on Wave Farm: WGXC 90.7 FM and online at wavefarm.org. It can also be found as a podcast on Apple, Spotify and other platforms. Sal Cataldi is a musician and writer based in Saugerties. He is best known for his work with his genre-leaping solo project, Spaghetti Eastern Music, and is also a member of the ambient guitar duo, Guitars A Go Go, the poetry and music duo, Vapor Vespers, and the quartet, Spaceheater. His writing on music, books and film has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, PopMatters, Seattle Times, Huffington Post, Inside+Out Upstate NY, and NYSMusic.com, where he is the book reviewer.

This week on the Rockonteurs podcast, we are delighted to welcome PP Arnold to the show. She is a true ‘Soul Survivor' and her career is nothing short of extraordinary. In this episode she chats to Guy and Gary sharing some incredible stories of her life in music. From a chance opportunity to join Ike and Tina Turner, to working with the Small Faces, Nick Drake, Ocean Colour Scene, Mick Jagger and Roger Waters. It is a career that just keeps on giving and PP is still as full of energy as always and her voice is utterly sublime. Find out more about her career spanning collection of tracks 'Soul Survivor' - A Life in Song, which is out now, here: https://lnk.to/pparnoldInstagram @rockonteurs @pp_arnold @guyprattofficial @garyjkemp @gimmesugarproductions Listen to the podcast and watch some of our latest episodes on our Rockonteurs YouTube channel.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rockonteursFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/RockonteursTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@therockonteursProduced for WMG UK by Ben Jones at Gimme Sugar Productionswww.gimmesugar.co.ukEmail the show at rockonteurschannel@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the Rockonteurs podcast, we are delighted to welcome PP Arnold to the show. She is a true ‘Soul Survivor' and her career is nothing short of extraordinary. In this episode she chats to Guy and Gary sharing some incredible stories of her life in music. From a chance opportunity to join Ike and Tina Turner, to working with the Small Faces, Nick Drake, Ocean Colour Scene, Mick Jagger and Roger Waters. It is a career that just keeps on giving and PP is still as full of energy as always and her voice is utterly sublime. Find out more about her career spanning collection of tracks 'Soul Survivor' - A Life in Song, which is out now, here: https://lnk.to/pparnoldInstagram @rockonteurs @pp_arnold @guyprattofficial @garyjkemp @gimmesugarproductions Listen to the podcast and watch some of our latest episodes on our Rockonteurs YouTube channel.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rockonteursFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/RockonteursTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@therockonteursProduced for WMG UK by Ben Jones at Gimme Sugar Productionswww.gimmesugar.co.ukEmail the show at rockonteurschannel@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Enjoy a set featuring three of the most exciting European large ensembles, the WDR Big Band, the Brussels Jazz Orchestra and the Ensō Ensemble, delving into compelling original music, and covers of gems by Joe Jackson and Nick Drake. The playlist features 3 Cohens, WDR Big Band; Kurt Elling; Brussels Jazz Orchestra, Naima Joris; Josephine Davies [pictured], and The Ensō Ensemble. Detailed playlist at https://spinitron.com/RFB/pl/20350038/Mondo-Jazz [from "Footsteps & Smiles" to "Gaia's Breath (Winter Solstice)"]. Happy listening! Photo credit: Rob Blackham.

This will probably be the only sequel episode Drifter's will ever do on one artist... solely because Nick Drake has such a dense story that had never fully been told until this new book arrived ("Nick Drake: The Life by Richard Morton Jack"). Pat Sansone (Wilco, Autumn Defense) joins Emil again to hash out the more difficult, back half of Nick's story and provide some light on just how quickly Nick had become mentally ill by the time he recorded Pink Moon. Joe Boyd fittingly gets the last word on Drake's legacy and helps us understand how his disappearance inadvertently set up the autonomy of the space we meet these timeless records in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're back after an unexpected week off and making our cases for the #1 BEST character in the Harry Potter universe. While Amanda's pick will surprise no one, Kevin's might throw you for a loop. Plus- the characters we think get overlooked, who we'd want to actually hang out with for a day, and Nick Drake impressions!Support the showSupport FFH on Patreon: patreon.com/thefoxandthefoxhoundFollow us!IG: @thefoxandthefoxhoundTikTok: @thefoxandthefoxhound

Pat Arnold has had quite a life. Born in 1946 she grew up in LA, and was in an abusive marriage with two kids while still a teenager. In 1965 she got a chance to audition for Ike and Tina Turner's band as an “Ikette”. She got the gig and left her children in the care of her parents. This eventually took her to London where she fell into the orbit of The Rolling Stones, and she decided to stay behind there to establish herself as a solo artist, signing to Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham's label Immediate Records, home of the Small Faces, members of whom ended up writing songs for her and backing her on some of her recordings. She also toured with them, and is the backing vocalist on Itchycoo Park and Tin Soldier, two of their biggest hits. She had hits under her own name too, including her recordings of Angel Of The Morning and The First Cut Is The Deepest. She also recorded with Rod Stewart. In the 70s she appeared on recordings by the likes of Nick Drake, Graham Nash, and Nils Lofgren. She toured with Eric Clapton and recorded with Barry Gibb although most of these recordings remained unreleased for decades. She sadly lost a daughter in a car accident in the mid-70s, and along with not being able to further her career as a solo artist, she seems to view this as somewhat of a lost decade. As well as being cast in Starlight Express, the 80s saw her work with Steel Pulse, The Beatmasters and Roger Waters, as well appearing on Peter Gabriel's smash hit Sledgehammer. She first came into my orbit in the late 90s through her collaboration with Ocean Colour Scene, and the early 2000s saw her tour extensively with Roger Waters. In recent years she finally completed the album she started with Barry Gibb and Eric Clapton decades earlier, as well as a brand new studio album recorded and produced by former podcast guest Steve Craddock of Ocean Colour Scene and Paul Weller fame. She has a new career spanning box set entitled “Soul Survivor - A Life In Song” and I had a fantastic time talking to Pat about her life and career. Instagram: @sendingsignalspodcast

For this months episode we head back to 1971 for a batch of epicly long prog epics, peppered with the occasional bit of folk rock, powerpop, metal, jazz, and afrobeat. Our longest playlist yet, and lots of fun along the way! We've each chosen our 10 favourite songs of the year and sent them over to Colin's wife Helen, who put the playlists together and distributed them so we were each given a playlist of the 20 songs from the other two hosts, along with our own 10. We then ranked the playlists in order of preference and sent them back to Helen, who totalled up the points and worked out the order.She also joined us on the episode to read out the countdown, which we found out as we recorded so all reactions are genuine.Now, admittedly, in parts we're a little bit brutal to some of the songs in the list as we're three separate people with differing music tastes, but please remember that to be in this episode at all the songs have to have been in one of our top 10's of that year.Bands featured in this episode include (In alphabetical order, no spoilers here!) - Badfinger, The Beach Boys, Black Sabbath, David Bowie, Can, Caravan, Neil Diamond, Nick Drake, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Flower Travelin' Band, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Focus, Hampton Grease Band, Jimi Hendrix, The Hollies, Billy Joel, King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Nazz, Harry Nilsson, The Norman Haines Band, Osibisa, Pink FLoyd, The Rolling Stones, Pharoah Sanders, Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood, Stephen Stills, Traffic, Van Der Graaf Generator & The WhoFind all songs in alphabetical order here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/36GaQbyuHTepSEAQkXubCN?si=24673026411f4e51Find our We Dig Music Pollwinners Party playlist (featuring all of the winning songs up until now) here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/45zfDHo8zm6VqrvoEQSt3z?si=Ivt0oMj6SmitimvumYfFrQIf you want to listen to megalength playlists of all the songs we've individually picked since we started doing best of the year episodes (which need updating but I plan on doing them over the next few months or so), you can listen to Colin's here – https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5x3Vy5Jry2IxG9JNOtabRT?si=HhcVKRCtRhWCK1KucyrDdgIan's here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2H0hnxe6WX50QNQdlfRH5T?si=XmEjnRqISNqDwi30p1uLqAand Tracey's here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2p3K0n8dKhjHb2nKBSYnKi?si=7a-cyDvSSuugdV1m5md9NwThe playlist of 20 songs from the other two hosts was scored as usual, our favourite song got 20 points, counting down incrementally to our least favourite which got 1 point. The scoring of our own list of 10 is now slightly more complicated in order to give a truer level of points to our own favourites. So rather than them only being able to score as many points as our 10th favourite in the other list, the points in our own list were distributed as follows -1st place - 20 points2nd place - 18 points3rd place – 16 points4th place – 14 points5th place – 12 points6th place – 9 points7th place – 7 points8th place – 5 points9th place – 3 points10th place -1 pointHosts - Ian Clarke, Colin Jackson-Brown & Tracey BGuest starring Helen Jackson-Brown.Playlist compiling/distributing – Helen Jackson-BrownRecorded/Edited/Mixed/Original Music by Colin Jackson-Brown for We Dig PodcastsThanks to Peter Latimer for help with the scoring system.Part of the We Dig Podcasts network along with Free With This Months Issue & Pick A Disc.Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/wedigmusic.bsky.socialInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/wedigmusicpcast/Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wedigpusicpcast/Find our other episodes & podcasts at www.wedigpodcasts.com 

The 2nd part of a series we're calling "Posthumous Success & Cult Fame," focusing on the artist that was significantly appreciated after he was gone - Nick Drake

Welcome Hellhounds! In today's episode, we step into the shadowy world of the black dog—a figure both feared and revered in folklore, magick, and music. From the spectral hounds of British legends to the symbol of depression and fate, we unravel the deeper meanings behind this haunting archetype.We'll then analyze the Black Dog in the film - was it there to warn Michael of his impending doom? Or was it the grim reaper coming to collect his soul? And was Michael himself, the Black Dog? We'll also take a look at Michael's fashion choices which could be subtle nods to his destiny! Was he in fact a sacrifice the aunts made to the gods of the Owens curse? This leads us to the connection the Black Dog also has to the Resurrection scene and the crossroads deity Hekate (Mighty Hectate Make it Right!)We'll also take a closer look at Nick Drake's chilling song Black Eyed Dog—a track steeped in mystery, sorrow, and the inescapable pull of mortality. Was Drake drawing from the ancient legends of black dogs as omens of death? Or was he channeling the metaphor Winston Churchill once used to describe his own battle with depression?Light a candle, settle in, and keep watch—because once the black dog comes calling, it's hard to ignore!SOCIALSLinktreePatreonInstagramHero SourcesDISCLAIMERThe Magnolia Street Podcast intends to discuss the movie, “Practical Magic” in its entirety. This will evidently result in spoilers and it is recommended that you watch and or read the following. Alice Hoffman's: Practical Magic, Rules of Magic, Magic Lessons, Book of Magic.The Magnolia Street Podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes and should not be used as a substitute for professional or medical advice. Do not attempt any of the discussed actions, solutions, or remedies without first consulting a qualified professional. It should be noted that we are not medical professionals and therefore we are not responsible or liable for any injuries or illnesses resulting from the use of any information on our website or in our media.The Magnolia Street Podcast presenters, Kristina Babich and Justina Carubia are passionate fans of Alice Hoffman's work and the Practical Magic word she has created. There is no copyright infringement intended, all characters and story lines are that of Alice Hoffman. We do not own any of that material as well as any of the move score music shared within the podcast.All intellectual property rights concerning personally written music and or shared art are vested in Magnolia Street Podcast. Copying, distributing and any other use of these materials is not permitted without the written permission from Kristina Babich and Justina Carubia.

durée : 00:53:50 - Very Good Trip - par : Michka Assayas - Very Good Trip célèbre un grand absent qui revient dans l'actualité. Mais au fond, malgré la brièveté de son œuvre et le temps qui s'est écoulé depuis sa disparition, il a toujours été actuel et sa présence ne nous a jamais quittés. - réalisé par : Stéphane Ronxin

 If something has changed you irrevocably in the past, its a kind of betrayal of yourself to not re-visit it and try to understand why. For this one I wanted to pull in one of the most sensitive and present people I know to help me out (Pat Sansone of Wilco & Autumn Defense) and he really rose to the test. I think we were able to bring Nick Drake's day to day world into focus with the excitement we felt over this new, unprecedented book in hand called 'Nick Drake : The Life' by Richard Morton Jack. This episode could function as a new kind of category I could roll out every once and awhile that's basically a full-on 'Existential History' deep-dive into someone who's true nature has been hiding in plain sight while they've been somewhat misunderstood. I feel strongly that musicians themselves should be the ones exploring the emotional terrain of the great fallen musicians because we're part of a kind of family who's given everything to be sacrificed on this altar... a beautiful but heavy gamble for sure. Maybe its a bit of the overall mission statement of this podcast to try and re-define how we see the actual humanity that lies behind art instead of just kicking back and being entertained by it. And this kind of study can also function as an expose of what it is to be a human in general. Hustling, sweating, dreaming, failing miserably and worrying endlessly... We can see ourselves in Nick Drake in many ways.. for better or worse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://www.instagram.com/olliebyrd_owlpagoda/https://www.youtube.com/@olliebyrdBioOllie Byrd finally dated the girl he had dreamed of since he was 14. They were together for several years before parting ways. A year after the breakup, Ollie wrote a song about the experience—a quintessential emo narrative. Decades later, he revisited the track, producing it in low-fi with subtle rock guitar elements, and released it as “The Sun Will Bring the Day Again.”The title, which does not appear in the lyrics, reflects a sentiment of optimism, as Ollie explains, “I couldn't bring myself to make it that sad… I thought it would be nice to have at least the title be optimistic.” The song, a reflection on the loss of his first true love, captures a raw, universal theme.“The Sun Will Bring the Day Again” is, in Ollie's words, “about acceptance.” He elaborates, “I had a crush on her since I was 14. She was literally the girl of my dreams. We had four or five years together, but I took it for granted, and of course, there's the level of testosterone motivating a young man to do silly, extremely stupid behaviors.”Having started recording at home in 2004, Ollie has long embraced the low-fi sound. He often draws comparisons to Alex G, a popular artist known for recording at home, with Ollie noting, “Every kid records at home now. Every kid in America has an album.” Ollie plays all the instruments himself and serves as his own producer.Ollie's 2006 album Barrel O' Fun received positive reception, and he toured with a band for several years. However, he realized that the music business, while rewarding, couldn't sustain him long-term. After a period off the radar, Ollie released music in 2012 before taking it down for rework.In 2018, his song “Couple Skate” from Barrel O' Fun went viral on Instagram, prompting him to return to his music career. Although Ollie still enjoys hard rock and over-driven guitars, he has since embraced a more mellow style, drawing inspiration from acoustic artists like Nick Drake and Jeremy Enigk.Reflecting on his growth as a musician, Ollie notes that when he originally wrote “The Sun Will Bring the Day Again,” he had limited compositional skills. However, when recording it years later, he applied the techniques he had honed over the years. He incorporated elements of over-driven guitar inspired by Brian Eno's work on Here Come the Warm Jets to add complexity and texture to the original, simple concept.“The Sun Will Bring the Day Again” remains a deeply personal track for Ollie, infused with raw emotion. It is a testament to both his growth as an artist and the heartache that inspired it. With new music on the horizon, listeners can connect with Ollie Byrd across all platforms for fresh songs, videos, and updates.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/creator-to-creators-with-meosha-bean--4460322/support.

Esta semana, en Islas de Robinson, despedimos al fin el plomizo mes de enero. Lo hacemos con enormes clásicos, entre 1969 y 1974. Suenan: RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON - "CALVARY CROSS" ("I WANT TO SEE THE BRIGHT LIGHTS TONIGHT", 1974) / NICK DRAKE - "THINGS BEHIND THE SUN" ("PINK MOON", 1972) / JOHN MARTYN - "SOLID AIR" ("SOLID AIR", 1973) / VAN MORRISON - "TWILIGHT ZONE (ALTERNATIVE TAKE)" (1974) / JONI MITCHELL - "COURT AND SPARK" ("COURT AND SPARK", 1974) / GRATEFUL DEAD - "CHINA DOLL" ("FROM MARS HOTEL", 1974) / TIM BUCKLEY - "CHASE THE BLUES AWAY" ("BLUE AFTERNOON", 1969) / PETER HAMMILL - "DROPPING THE TORCH" ("CHAMELEON IN THE SHADOW OF THE NIGHT", 1973) / ROY HARPER - "HORS D'OEUVRES" ("STORMCOCK", 1971) / DAVID ACKLES - "LOVE'S ENOUGH" ("AMERICAN GOTHIC", 1972) / TOWNES VAN ZANDT - "HIGH, LOW AND IN BETWEEN" ("HIGH, LOW AND IN BETWEEN", 1972) /Escuchar audio

For those who haven't heard the announcement I posted, songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the third part of a multi-episode look at the song “Never Learn Not to Love” by the Beach Boys, and the links between Charles Manson and the LA music scene, as well as the life of Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-eight-minute bonus episode available, on “Fruit Tree” by Nick Drake. I’ve also started up an email newsletter at https://it-was-ninety-years-ago-today.ghost.io/ Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ (more…)

Kristoffer Birkedal is a musician and songwriter whose life revolves around his love for music. Songwriting is his passion and purpose—a craft he pursues with unwavering dedication because it brings him true happiness. Drawing inspiration from genres with depth and substance, Kristoffer's influences span folk, jazz, reggae, classical, and beyond. His own sound is deeply rooted in the 60s folk revival, shaped by artists like Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, and Bert Jansch. Kristoffer's journey has been anything but conventional. From hitchhiking across Europe and playing gigs in small venues, to working on farms and performing on the streets, he has channeled his experiences into his art. His debut album, A Tapestry, set for release in 2025, captures years of personal growth and change. Now based in Oslo, Kristoffer is finishing the album while co-hosting Folk & Røvere Festivalen, a folk music and poetry festival he organizes each summer with his girlfriend. The festival celebrates creativity, community, and the spirit of folk music. Follow his journey as he brings his heartfelt stories to life through music.

This  afternoon's program was pre-recorded before the severity of the LA wildfires was known.My thoughts and prayers go out to  all that have suffered and continue to through this difficult week. My heartfelt thanks and gratitude to all the brave first responders and personnel assisting the citizens of Los Angeles."It was raining hard in 'FriscoI needed one more fare to make my nightA lady up ahead waved to flag me downShe got in at the light"Today's program features tuneage from Nick Drake, Bob Seger, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, Humble Pie, The Police, Doobie Brothers, Doors, Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Toto, Poco, Van Morrison, Dobie Gray, Neil Young, Dave Mason, Dire Straits, Tom Petty, Wings, Nilsson, Lou Reed, Joni Mitchell and Harry Chapin.

Í yfirgefnu bílaverkstæði við Skeljanes í Reykjavík hefur hópur sviðslistafólks komið sér fyrir með starfsemi undir yfirskriftinni Tóma rýmið. Þar hafa þau æfingaaðstöðu og rými til þess að prófa áfram og sýna verk á mismunandi stigum í undirbúningsferlinu. Hluti af starfsemi Tóma rýmisins felst í mánaðarlegum tilraunakvöldum, þar sem meðlimir hópsins bera á borð verk í vinnslu eða gera tilraunir í samtali við áhorfendur. Tilraunakvöld janúarmánaðar fer fram í Tóma rýminu í kvöld. Þar verður áhorfendum meðal annars boðið upp á brot úr leikverkinu Skeljar, eftir Magnús Thorlacius, og lifandi tónlistarmyndband úr smiðju systkinana Snæfríðar Sólar og Kormáks Jarls, en gestum býðst líka að skella sér í sánu við sjóinn eftir viðburðinn. Við hittum þau Snæfríði og Magnús og heyrum nánar af starfsemi Tóma rýmisins. Við ætlum líka að kynna okkur tónlistarkonuna Molly Drake sem var algjörlega óþekkt sem listakona á meðan hún lifði. Molly var bresk millistéttarhúsmóðir í litlu sveitaþorpi nálægt Birmingham þegar hún samdi nær alla sína tónlist. Hún skrifaði ljóð og lagatexta og samdi melódíur á heimilispíanóið, fyrst og fremst fyrir sjálfa sig. Molly datt aldrei í hug að gefa tónlistina sína út en þökk sé eiginmanni hennar eru til upptökur sem hann tók upp á heimili þeirra. Þessar upptökur voru gefnar út löngu eftir dauða Mollyar, þegar sonur hennar, Nick Drake, var orðinn heimsfrægur tónlistarmaður. Gauti Kristmannsson verður líka með okkur í dag og fjallar að þessu sinni um Vesturlönd í gíslingu - eða harmleik um Mið-Evrópu, tvær ritgerðir tékkneska rithöfundarins Milan Kundera, í þýðingu Friðriks Rafnssonar. Umsjón: Halla Harðardóttir og Melkorka Ólafsdóttir

We had an amazing chat with Casey Neill about his latest release "Time Zero Land," sequencing the album, and something music fans should never do! Portland, Oregon-based songwriter Casey Neill talks about time zero land  (released July 26th on Fluff & Gravy Records). This album follows last fall's Casey Neill & the Norway Rats' Sending Up Flares, and includes two outtakes from those band sessions. Neill engineered the rest at his home studio and plays the lion's share of the instruments. It's a dreamy affair with sonic homages to Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, Sade, the acoustic side of Rust Never Sleeps, and the Brit-folk pioneered by Bert Jansch, Richard Thompson, and June Tabor. One of the things people often say about the Norway Rats is how their music defies easy genre categorization and while Sending Up Flares leans into the fruits of that collaboration, time zero land embraces the influences and craft songwriting that has been at the core of Neill's work.  A prolific songwriter and road warrior since the late 1990s, Americana and Scots/Irish-folk influences have often underscored his songwriting. Sending Up Flares hints at a European influence too, with songs that channel everything from the cinematic sweep of golden-era U2 to the dark, complex alt-rock of PJ Harvey. If time zero land is intimate and largely acoustic, then Sending Up Flares is broad, eclectic, and every bit as explosive as its title. A four-piece string section (Bizarre Star, arranged by Kyleen King) adds a symphonic punch to “How Beautiful Am I?,” the album's tribute to Marianne Faithfull. Synths, stacked vocal harmonies, and burbling electronics run throughout “Fall Into Forever,” bringing to life the song's bizarre storyline involving a Tokyo typhoon, Dante's Paradiso, and pop star Britney Spears. Together, these 11 songs shine new light on a band who, after more than a dozen years together, have arrived somewhere singular and startlingly unique.  Check him out here:  Website: caseyneill.com IG: casey_neill FB: Casey Neill

Joe Boyd's revered productions of artists ranging from Pink Floyd, The Incredible String Band and Nick Drake had been widely-circulated and universally-acclaimed. He had worked with Stanley Kubrick at Warner Bros to assemble the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange. He founded the UFO Club which featured avant-garde artists like Soft Machine — which became his house band — and Yoko Ono. Productions of R.E.M., Billy Bragg, 10,000 Maniacs, Fairport Convention and Richard and Linda Thompson followed. He directed Jimi Hendrix, the eponymous documentary. But if you were paying attention, you would have made note of the through-line running through Joe's prolific output — World Music. His productions of artists such as Dagmar Krause, Nazakat & Salamat Ali, the Trio Bulgarka, ¡Cubanismo!, Virginia Rodrigues, Damir Imamović and several others demonstrated his versatility to trancend not only genre, but also language and culture. Joe's vibrant musical output eclipsed what we thought was possible in the art and science of music. His latest book, And the Roots of Rhythm Remain, examines the origins, impact and cultural undertones which define world music through his lens. In our conversation, we discussed the roots of his latest masterpiece; political-songwriting through shifting of culture; categorization as a benefit toward creativity; and musical and storytelling experiences with Brian Eno, David Bryne, Bob Dylan, Mike Heron and others.Opening Credits: 1st Contact - Just Quickly I CC BY-SA; Ahmadreza Safarian - Forgotten Corpses I CC BY-NC-SA. Closing Credits: Till Paradiso - Here the Stars for You (TP 063) - CC BY-NC-SA.

Joni Mitchell called it “stoking the star-maker machinery behind the popular song”. Every record sent out for review used to come with a press release knocked together by an over-excited PR before terms like “psychedelia” or “prog” had been invented. They were scanned once for the odd fact or quote and usually chucked in the bin. Richard Morton Jack has tracked down scores of these handouts from 1962-1972, and the news stories they sparked, and published them in the sumptuous ‘Pressing News', a fascinating window into how acts were sold in the days when pop stars liked rump steak, sports cars and “sincere people” but disliked “bad music, traffic wardens and people who say I look like a girl”. We leaf through his book here and talk about …. ... the ingenuity of '60s PRs and why Marc Bolan was a turning point.… Robert Plant and David Bowie's genius for self-promotion.… the pop hopeful whose favourite tipple was tooth-rotting, crystal-based ‘Creamola Foam'.   … how PRs sold rebels and outsiders.   … a £900 Olivia Newton-John press release. … Beta Male pin-ups Nick Drake and Scott Walker. … confected outrage over the Small Faces' Lord's Prayer. … Joe Cocker, eternally a gas-fitter from Sheffield with “a face like the back of a Sheffield Corporation bus”. … mysterious pop acts that never made it like the Virgin Sleep, the Accent, Bread Love & Dreams, Fresh Maggots and the Tickle whose songs were supposedly chosen by computer.  .. the Kinks – “four art students who dress like characters from Dickens”.  … the promotion of pre-psychedelia Pink Floyd – “a lyrical atmosphere whose words express a feeling rather than tell a story.” … “the Zombies have 50 GCSE passes between them!” and other press release fiction trotted out in the papers. … the mass 1966 adoption of the kaftan and Charlie Chan moustache. Order copies of Pressing News here:https://lansdownebooks.com/products/pressing-newsFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joni Mitchell called it “stoking the star-maker machinery behind the popular song”. Every record sent out for review used to come with a press release knocked together by an over-excited PR before terms like “psychedelia” or “prog” had been invented. They were scanned once for the odd fact or quote and usually chucked in the bin. Richard Morton Jack has tracked down scores of these handouts from 1962-1972, and the news stories they sparked, and published them in the sumptuous ‘Pressing News', a fascinating window into how acts were sold in the days when pop stars liked rump steak, sports cars and “sincere people” but disliked “bad music, traffic wardens and people who say I look like a girl”. We leaf through his book here and talk about …. ... the ingenuity of '60s PRs and why Marc Bolan was a turning point.… Robert Plant and David Bowie's genius for self-promotion.… the pop hopeful whose favourite tipple was tooth-rotting, crystal-based ‘Creamola Foam'.   … how PRs sold rebels and outsiders.   … a £900 Olivia Newton-John press release. … Beta Male pin-ups Nick Drake and Scott Walker. … confected outrage over the Small Faces' Lord's Prayer. … Joe Cocker, eternally a gas-fitter from Sheffield with “a face like the back of a Sheffield Corporation bus”. … mysterious pop acts that never made it like the Virgin Sleep, the Accent, Bread Love & Dreams, Fresh Maggots and the Tickle whose songs were supposedly chosen by computer.  .. the Kinks – “four art students who dress like characters from Dickens”.  … the promotion of pre-psychedelia Pink Floyd – “a lyrical atmosphere whose words express a feeling rather than tell a story.” … “the Zombies have 50 GCSE passes between them!” and other press release fiction trotted out in the papers. … the mass 1966 adoption of the kaftan and Charlie Chan moustache. Order copies of Pressing News here:https://lansdownebooks.com/products/pressing-newsFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the 25th anniversary of American Football (Self-Titled), we take a detailed look at how it was made. The origins of American Football began with Mike Kinsella's band Cap'n Jazz, who were hugely influential in the punk scene in the Chicago suburbs. Steve Holmes went to high school with Kinsella and was inspired to learn guitar after watching Cap'n Jazz perform. Kinsella and Holmes became close friends and ended up going to college together and were roommates at the University of Illinois in Champaign. During college, Kinsella briefly joined a band with Steve Lamos called The One Up Downstairs. When that band broke up, Holmes and Lamos began jamming together and when Kinsella heard their practice tapes, he asked if he could join. The three of them ended up forming American Football in 1997. Their friends, Matt Lunsford and Darcie Knight were just getting their label Polyvinyl going in nearby Danville and they offered to release a three song EP in 1998. By the time they were graduating, they had enough songs for a full-length album, but the band was breaking up as Holmes and Kinsella were moving back to Chicago. Polyvinyl offered to release an album anyway so they booked time at Private Studios with local engineer, Brendan Gamble. The American Football (Self-Titled) album was eventually released in 1999. In this episode, Steve Holmes describes the guitar style he developed with Kinsella that was based on alternate tunings and shifting time signatures, inspired by music they were listening to at the time like Steve Reich, Nick Drake, The Sea and Cake and Red House Painters. Mike Kinsella talks about switching from drums to guitar and writing lyrics inspired by the few romantic relationships he had up to that point. His lyrics came from a diary and were heavily influenced by the melodramatic lyricism of bands like The Cure, Depeche Mode and The Sundays. Steve Lamos discusses his musical upbringing and deep love of jazz, which found its way into the American Football sound with his trumpet playing and compositional approach to the drums. The three of them describe the unique sound they found together and the unlikely story about how even though the band broke up early on, the album still managed to reach people years after it was a released. From recording the week after graduation to constantly having to borrow guitars, amps and tuners to embracing repetitive patterns and avoiding traditional verse chorus structures to singing through paper towel rolls during recording to lyrics about relationships ending and the transition into adulthood to the album cover of the now iconic American Football house, we'll hear the stories around how the record came together.

Neil Storey worked in the Island press office in the ‘70s and ‘80s and has set out on mammoth undertaking, to compile a series of gorgeous, album-sleeve-sized books telling the story of virtually every record the label released in its pioneering history and talking to all involved - musicians, producers, designers, photographers, label staff – and collecting old music press ads and ephemera from the time. This latest edition, ‘the Island Book Of Records 1969-1970', has transported us back to our teenage selves when albums by Fairport, Nick Drake, Jethro Tull, Free, King Crimson etc were unmissable. We talked to Neil at his home in France which happily involved …   … the extraordinary story of the Unhalfbricking album shoot.   … when album sleeves were assembled by hand. … how Island pioneered the ‘underground' aesthetic and the cheap sampler album. … the mystery of Ian Anderson's 11 fingers. … the “worst sleeve” in the label's history (which involved a trip to the butchers). .. the day the Island roster met in Hyde Park at six in the morning. ... the curious marketing of Nick Drake – “who doesn't have a telephone and will disappear for four days at a time”. … and Roxy Music, Sparks, Head Hands & Feet and what else to expect in Volume 3. Order the Island Book Of Records Volume 2 here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Island-Book-Records-II-1969-70/dp/1526182246Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Neil Storey worked in the Island press office in the ‘70s and ‘80s and has set out on mammoth undertaking, to compile a series of gorgeous, album-sleeve-sized books telling the story of virtually every record the label released in its pioneering history and talking to all involved - musicians, producers, designers, photographers, label staff – and collecting old music press ads and ephemera from the time. This latest edition, ‘the Island Book Of Records 1969-1970', has transported us back to our teenage selves when albums by Fairport, Nick Drake, Jethro Tull, Free, King Crimson etc were unmissable. We talked to Neil at his home in France which happily involved …   … the extraordinary story of the Unhalfbricking album shoot.   … when album sleeves were assembled by hand. … how Island pioneered the ‘underground' aesthetic and the cheap sampler album. … the mystery of Ian Anderson's 11 fingers. … the “worst sleeve” in the label's history (which involved a trip to the butchers). .. the day the Island roster met in Hyde Park at six in the morning. ... the curious marketing of Nick Drake – “who doesn't have a telephone and will disappear for four days at a time”. … and Roxy Music, Sparks, Head Hands & Feet and what else to expect in Volume 3. Order the Island Book Of Records Volume 2 here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Island-Book-Records-II-1969-70/dp/1526182246Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Film Reviews - If Nick Drake Came to my House - The Walk from the Garden

Episode 302: Joe Boyd is one of the most accomplished and eclectic record producers in the story of popular music. As an American living in London, he helped break psychedelic folk rock pioneers The Incredible String Band and worked with Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, and Fairport Convention. He founded Hannibal Records, giving a home to the solo career of Richard Thompson. He's also worked with Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Toumani Diabate, Geoff and Maria Muldauer, and many more. He was also part of the small cadre of music marketers and labels that created the market category of World Music in the 1980s. Here, Boyd talks about his journey and his epic new book And The Roots of Rhythm Remain. 

Nick Drake went largely unnoticed as an artist when he was alive due to underwhelming sales and promotion of his art. However, various documentaries and the posthumous release of the album Fruit Tree years after his death led to Drake becoming a revered folk artist, as generations continued to re-discover his body of work.Listen to the accompanying playlist for this episode on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ZvpbEHf0mDLxdwZMFkPCz?si=L9X9GOQbSNO8RgoNKpchDg .Support the show

Joe Boyd has had many job descriptions over the course of his nearly sixty-year career in music, and there was simply no way to cover everything in this conversation. That said, Paul and Joe focus on Boyd's important new book, And The Roots of Rhythm Remain: A Journey Through Global Music, and themes of cultural cross-pollination in music, the birth of hip hop and ska, the reason Hitler spared the life of virtuoso Roma guitarist Django Reinhardt, what happened with Nick Drake, and Boyd's phenomenal earlier book, the memoir, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s.  As a music producer, Boyd has delivered records by Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, R.E.M., Taj Mahal, Fairport Convention, Richard and Linda Thompson, Sandy Denny. He tour-managed European dates for Muddy Waters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and was a production manager at the 1965 Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals, before flying off to open Elektra Records' UK office in London where he and John Hopkins opened the UFO club, giving a psychedelic home to Pink Floyd and others.  In 1971 he moved to Los Angeles to work for Warner Brothers Films (Deliverance, A Clockwork Orange, and the documentary Jimi Hendrix). In 1979, he worked for Lorne Michaels' film company, Broadway Pictures, and the following year, launched his own label, Hannibal Records, releasing works by John Cale, Richard Thompson and more, while bringing global artists such as ¡Cubanismo!, Toumani Diabaté, Ali Farka Touré, Trio Bulgarka, and Songhai, to western audiences. The Record Store Day Podcast is a weekly music chat show written, produced, engineered and hosted by Paul Myers, who also composed the theme music and selected interstitial music.  Executive Producers (for Record Store Day) Michael Kurtz and Carrie Colliton. For the most up-to-date news about all things RSD, visit RecordStoreDay.com)   Sponsored by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (dogfish.com), Tito's Handmade Vodka (titosvodka.com), RSDMRKT.com, and Furnace Record Pressing, the official vinyl pressing plant of Record Store Day.   Please consider subscribing to our podcast wherever you get podcasts, and tell your friends, we're here every week and we love making new friends.   Rest in Peace, Phil Lesh: "A box of rain will ease the pain / And love will see you through" 

Storytelling folk troubadour and songwriter's songwriter David Wilcox dives deep on his creative process.PART ONE:Paul and Scott pay tribute to the late Kris Kristofferson and Hugh Prestwood before diving in to a cringey lyrical trend that they're happy to see fade into history. PART TWO:Our in-depth conversation with David WilcoxABOUT DAVID WILCOX:Emerging from the Asheville, North Carolina progressive folk scene in the late 1980s, David Wilcox signed with A&M Records and carved out a reputation as an insightful, sensitive, and often funny singer-songwriter and storyteller. His first album for the label, How Did You Find Me Here, sold over 100,000 copies on word of mouth alone. Often compared to James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake, Wilcox went on to build a dedicated following and establish himself as a songwriter's songwriter. In 2008 he was honored, alongside Bob Dylan, with Acoustic Guitar magazine's silver award in the singer-songwriter category. The San Francisco Chronicle called him the “darling of contemporary singer-songwriter folk” while Rolling Stone wrote that he “uses extended metaphors and beautifully detailed imagery in lyrics that are far more compassionate and philosophic than self-absorbed.” David has now released more than 20 albums. His most recent is My Good Friends, an acoustic collection that he describes as a fan-requested respite while he works on a new full band album.

This week on Alt.Latino, Anamaria Sayre and Felix Contreras talk about an exciting new album from Manu Chao on the way — his first in 17 years — and their favorite recent songs from artists like the Dominican indie rock band Solo Fernández, ethereal pop from Tiny Desk Contest Winner Linda Diaz and more.Songs featured in this episode:•Janiero feat. André Viamonte, "LEGO"•Manu Chao, "São Paulo Motoboy"•Solo Fernández, "TELESCOPIO"•Solo Fernández, "BROOKLYN"•Solo Fernández, "TÚ NUNCA DEJARÁS DE SER POESÍA"•Linda Diaz feat. Solomon Fox, "Watching Ourselves Die"•Julieta Rada, "Baile del Candombe"•Amaia Miranda, "Mientras vivas brilla"•Nick Drake, "Pink Moon"Audio for this episode of Alt.Latino was edited and mixed by Suraya Mohamed. Our project manager is Grace Chung. NPR Music's executive producer is Suraya Mohamed. Our VP of Music and Visuals is Keith Jenkins.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This week on Alt.Latino, Anamaria Sayre and Felix Contreras talk about an exciting new album from Manu Chao on the way — his first in 17 years — and their favorite recent songs from artists like the Dominican indie rock band Solo Fernández, ethereal pop from Tiny Desk Contest Winner Linda Diaz and more.Ana and Felix are starting something new this week. Felix always says it, but it's not a Mexican party until someone cries. So every episode starting today, they'll talk to a listener about a song that moves them to tears.And they want to know, what song moves you to tears? Email alt.latino@npr.org for a chance to be featured on the show. Songs featured in this episode:•Janiero feat. André Viamonte, "LEGO"•Manu Chao, "São Paulo Motoboy"•Solo Fernández, "TELESCOPIO"•Solo Fernández, "BROOKLYN"•Solo Fernández, "TÚ NUNCA DEJARÁS DE SER POESÍA"•Linda Diaz feat. Solomon Fox, "Watching Ourselves Die"•Julieta Rada, "Baile del Candombe"•Amaia Miranda, "Mientras vivas brilla"•Nick Drake, "Pink Moon"•Audio for this episode of Alt.Latino was edited and mixed by Suraya Mohamed. Our project manager is Grace Chung. NPR Music's executive producer is Suraya Mohamed. Our VP of Music and Visuals is Keith Jenkins.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This week on Transmissions, we're sitting down with a genuine legend: Joe Boyd, author of And The Roots of Rhythm Remain: A Journey Through Global Music, out September 24 from ZE Books. On the front cover of the book Brian Eno—a venerated saint in the Aquarium Drunkard canon—declares: “I doubt I'll ever read a better account of the history and sociology of popular music than this one.”  Joe Boyd's career is the stuff of myth. As a producer, he's worked with a murder's row of collaborators, including Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, R.E.M., Richard and Linda Thompson, Incredible String Band, Vashti Bunyan, 10,00 Maniacs, and many more. In 2006, Boyd released a memoir, White Bicycles – Making Music in the 1960s, which documented his time in the studio during that decade, but And the Roots of Rhythm Remain casts an even wider net, exploring the overlap of musical cultures and the complicated, human negotiations that undergird creative synthesis.  As you'll hear in the early part of our talk, Joe played a pivotal role Transmissions host Jason P. Woodbury's music writing journey. In 2008, Woodbury reviewed a Nick Drake box set for the sorely missed Tiny Mix Tapes. The piece also included an email interview with Boyd, whose responses were insightful and in-depth—an experience that inspired Woodbury to chase after interviews. So this conversation picks up the thread some decade and a half later, detailing not only Boyd's new book, but also his experiences with Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Vashti Bunyan, and many more adventures. Aquarium Drunkard is supported by our subscribers. Head over and peruse our site, where you'll find nearly 20 years worth of playlists, recommendations, reviews, interviews, podcasts, essays, and more. Subscribe at Aquarium Drunkard.  Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Visit the Talkhouse for more interviews, fascinating reads, and podcasts. This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/aquariumdrunkard

We dive into the atmospheric worlds of ambient, krautrock, and folk music released in 1972, including the introspective sounds of Nick Drake, the experimental sonic landscapes of Tangerine Dream and Neu!, along with what might be the first ever folk concept album? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices