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Sandy Denny, Fairport Convention and other related folk-rock

danny la rouge said:
Sandy Denny. Next April will be the 30th anniversary of her death. It's unbelievable, really. She still sounds fresh, and bloody wonderful. A great voice, maybe the best English folk voice on record.

One of my favourite tracks is the demo of I'm A Dreamer. It's Sandy at the piano running through a demo version of one of her own compositions for Rendezvous (not her best album: her career was losing direction, her manager husband probably behind some inappropriate song choices with an eye on commerciality, as her alcohol abuse worsened), and though hesitant, it brings out the beauty of both the song and her voice. Amazing.

s-piano.jpg
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How many records did you buy?
 
editor said:
Blimey. If you though Sandy Denny's live was tragic enough, read up about her one-time boyfriend Jackson C Frank:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_C._Frank
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Right.

When he was 21, he was awarded an insurance cheque of $110,500 for his injuries,
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I would have settled for that 40 years ago. I'd still be living on the interest actually.

The whole scene at that time was middle class, heroin addicts. Can't say I have much sympathy for any of them. Nothing truly original. Didn't seem to appreciate the position they were in. Sandy Denny didn't do anything great.

FUCKING HIPPIES!
 
Stanley Edwards said:
Right.

I would have settled for that 40 years ago. I'd still be living on the interest actually.
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He was in a classroom where 15 of his classmates were killed by a fireball, and he suffered burns to half his body. And that happened when he was 11.

The trauma led to him suffering serious mental problems later in life. His mental problems got worse when his son died of cystic fibrosis, he ended up living on the street and lost an eye when a kid randomly shot him.

You'd "settle" for all that would you?
 
discokermit said:
she sang. you dick.
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Nothing memorable.

I look at that whole bunch, and think 'you fucking wasters'. They were given a huge chance and just fucked it on coke, booze and heroin. Fairport Convention were nothing special. They wouldn't have got the deals they got without connections. Really don't understand why Led Zeppelin let her in on their act - that was just an easy climb for better recognition. Despite having a great voice, she didn't really achieve much with it. She was just a middle/upper class hippie who took the ride and gave in to coke, booze and heroin.
 
editor said:
He was in a classroom where 15 of his classmates were killed by a fireball, and he suffered burns to half his body. And that happened when he was 11.

The trauma led to him suffering serious mental problems later in life. His mental problems got worse when his son died of cystic fibrosis, he ended up living on the street and lost an eye when a kid randomly shot him.

You'd "settle" for all that would you?
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There's a long story between your first and last line.
 
Belushi said:
I've just read the wikipedia entry and no amount of money would persuade me to lead that poor fellas life.
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I think he was probably forgotten by most. However, to get that sort of award at that age in that time is pretty big. What did he do with it all?

I just hate the history of this whole scene. Right through to the Rolling Stones. It stinks of abuse in upper class circles. Most came from very wealthy families who were enjoying the post war boom. I don't really see any of them as creatives who deserved much. Led Zeppelin and The Stones excluded, because they weren't really part of the hippie heroin, coke, drop out, upper class scene.

Sandy Denny didn't do much else than sing. Loads can do that. She wasted the opportunity many would beg for. By all accounts, she wasn't a particularly nice person. Cocaine and heroin addicts rarely are.
 
Stanley Edwards said:
I think he was probably forgotten by most. However, to get that sort of award at that age in that time is pretty big. What did he do with it all?
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Are you really so lacking in humanity and empathy that you REALLY can't figure out that a young child who narrowly escapes death while seeing 15 of his classmates being burned alive is likely to suffer serious mental problems later in life? The sort of problems that money can't cure.
 
Stanley Edwards said:
I think he was probably forgotten by most. However, to get that sort of award at that age in that time is pretty big. What did he do with it all?

I just hate the history of this whole scene. Right through to the Rolling Stones. It stinks of abuse in upper class circles. Most came from very wealthy families who were enjoying the post war boom. I don't really see any of them as creatives who deserved much. Led Zeppelin and The Stones excluded, because they weren't really part of the hippie heroin, coke, drop out, upper class scene.

Sandy Denny didn't do much else than sing. Loads can do that. She wasted the opportunity many would beg for. By all accounts, she wasn't a particularly nice person. Cocaine and heroin addicts rarely are.
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She wasn't from an upper class background, you clueless buffoon.

Oh, and she didn't just sing. She also wrote songs that have inspired artists like Cat Power, Judy Collins, Nina Simone and Kate Bush.
 
editor said:
Are you really so lacking in humanity and empathy that you REALLY can't figure out that a young child who narrowly escapes death while seeing 15 of his classmates being burned alive is likely to suffer serious mental problems later in life? The sort of problems that money can't cure.
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Of course I see that. Is there any financial compensation that would compensate?

He obviously had very good lawyers though. It was a lot of money for a young person to handle. Especially a young person with depression issues. Again, like Sandy Denny, he wasn't known to be the most compassionate person himself.

My objection is with the entire scene at that time. People were being used and abused under a badge of new found liberalism. I suspect Sandy Denny was left to her own demise simply because no-one wanted to take on the responsibilty she couldn't take on herself. Same with Jackson. He had issues the business couldn't cope with.

I'm not really criticising the songs and the talent. I am criticising the business and people who post threads in memorium who probably didn't buy a single record.

We can all clap and hoorah. Costs fuck all.
 
editor said:
She wasn't from an upper class background, you clueless buffoon.

Oh, and she didn't just sing. She also wrote songs that have inspired artists like Cat Power, Judy Collins, Nina Simone and Kate Bush.
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She wrote. She sang. She came from a middle/upper class background.

She wasted her life on cocaine and heroin whilst giving not a shit about her own child.
 
editor said:
Why do you keep saying upper class? Is it just to remind everyone that you really have no fucking clue what you're talking about?
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Because, no-one here would be remembering her right now if she was just another girl from the estates. She had no exceptional talent. If it wasn't for connections none of us would care.

Sandy Denny (6 January 1947 – 21 April 1978), born Alexandra Elene Maclean Denny,
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Four fucking names. Posh as.

Whilst she may have had a nice voice and wrote some nice tunes, it wasn't really memorable. Family money bought her fame whilst she cocained, boozed, and heroined her way out of life. Her partner pretty much rescued the life of her daughter. She isn't someone we should idolise IMO.
 
editor said:
And why do you think that might be? Go on. Have a guess. Try and think outside your own little contented bubble for once.
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My own little contented bubble isn't that content. When I realise my own problems are affecting others I address them.

As someone who has seen death far too many times (sometimes in horrific ways) I can still say life is what you make it. Research his life and then come back and make a sound argument.

He was a fucking cocaine addled hippie who blew a fortune and fucked off many people.
 
Frankly, I hate this shit. People from very priviledged backgrounds seem to be idolised and adorned with glam when really we should be looking at the reality of shit drugs, and abuse by money making cunts.

It's only Rock'n'Roll!
 
Stanley Edwards said:
Why?

Led Zeppelin and The Stones did some brilliant stuff without getting to involved in cocaine and heroin.
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Once again ... ...Idiot.
Go to bed and read a book about popular musical groups in the 70's.
What the fuck has this got to do with Sandy Denny?
Her upper middle class upbringing got her started as training to be a nurse. eh?
 
spliff said:
Once again ... ...Idiot.
Go to bed and read a book about popular musical groups in the 70's.
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Right :rolleyes:

Sandy Denny wasn't a coke, heroin addled fuck who couldn't even look after her own daughter?

Led Zeppelin and the Stones are pretty much still going. They're old and one of them died from booze apparently, but I don't here many bad stories about them.

They should back down for the kids mind.
 
Well actually Stanley you always bring to my mind that great Mose Allison song "I'm just another middle class white boy tryin' to have some fun"
Except quite often you don't seem to be getting it and it turns you sour.
 
I don't think there is any evidence that she was anything other than working class. She had several firstnames but was not double-barrelled. She went to a very ordinary girls Secondary school - not even a comprehensive so is unlikely to have taken any O levels - only grammar schools did those. She started to work as a nurse and then transferred to Art college at age 17 but lost interest and got involved in the music scene. This was the folk music scene, not especially glamorous in the way regular pop music had been, the two genres were only just beginning to overlap with the rise of protest songs. She was more in the traditional

Her voice was outstanding and her most famous song - "Who knows where the time goes" is very memorable indeed. She made contacts by virtue of living near enough to London to play at the Troubadour where she could rub shoulders with a lot of people in the music industry and also David Bailey who photographed her. To judge from her photographs she was rather an unhappy person. She is only smiling on about four of those on Google images. She was 'abusing substances' according to my mate Wikipedia at the time of the birth of her baby, cocaine and alcohol so no different from the Rolling Stones who were famously arrested and handcuffed for possession of cannabis - don't tell me that is all they took. The newspaper photograph of the handcuffed stars became the basis for an artwork by the pop-artist Richard Hamilton.
 
Stanley is talking out of his arse here - I'm not sure what her social class has to do with anything? Fwiw the cover of "Unhalfbricking" shows that her parents had a pretty big garden. Looks like leafy middle England to me - unless we're going to have a bun-fight over social class and garden size ;). Listened to this yesterday after seeing the documentary the other night - lovely voice but even better is Richard Thompson's playing :

unhalfbricking.jpeg
 
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