Sandy Denny
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| Sandy Denny | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny |
| Born | 6 January 1947 Wimbledon, London, England |
| Died | 21 April 1978 (aged 31) |
| Genre(s) | Folk, Electric folk |
| Instrument(s) | keyboards, guitar |
| Years active | 1967–1978 |
| Label(s) | Island Records |
| Associated acts | Fairport Convention, Strawbs, Fotheringay |
| Website | sandydenny.co.uk |
Sandy Denny (6 January 1947 – 21 April 1978), was an English singer and songwriter and is regarded as the pre-eminent British folk rock singer.[1] She emerged in the mid 1960s while still a teenager, performing on the folk revival scene where she displayed her mastery of traditional singing and interpretation. Her song, "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?", written during these early years, has been covered by numerous artists and is regarded as a classic of its type.
Over a ten-year career Sandy Denny left an extensive legacy and remains influential. She is remembered for her pivotal involvement with the British folk rock movement, where as a member of Fairport Convention, she moved the band away from west coast American cover versions and into performing traditional material and original compositions. She is also noted for her duet with Robert Plant on Led Zeppelin's fourth album in 1971 - the song "The Battle of Evermore" and to date Sandy Denny remains the only guest vocalist on a Led Zeppelin album.
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[edit] Childhood
Alexandra Elene Maclean Denny, known as Sandy, was born at Nelson Hospital, Kingston Road, Merton Park, and studied classical piano as a child.[2] Her Scottish grandmother was a singer of traditional songs. At an early age Denny showed an interest in singing, despite the disapproval of her strict parents. After leaving school, she started training as a nurse at the Royal Brompton Hospital[3].
[edit] Early career
In 1965, she enrolled at the Kingston College of Art in London, where she became involved in the folk club on campus. Contemporaries included John Renbourn, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton[3]. After her first public appearance at the Barge in Kingston-Upon-Thames Sandy started working the folk club circuit in the evenings with an American-influenced repertoire, including songs by Tom Paxton, together with folk songs[3]. She travelled in to Earls Court to play at the Troubadour club, where a member of Strawbs heard her. In 1967, she was invited to join the band, and recorded one album with them in Denmark. The album includes an early version of her best-known (and widely covered) song, Who Knows Where the Time Goes[3]. Judy Collins recorded the song, helping to bring Sandy Denny attention.
Denny's earliest professional recordings were made in mid-1967 for the Saga Records label,[4] featuring traditional songs and covers of folk contemporaries including a boyfriend of this period, Jackson C. Frank. They were released on the albums Alex Campbell and his Friends and Sandy and Johnny.[5] These recordings were collected on the 1970 album It's Sandy Denny.[5]
[edit] Professional career
In 1968, Denny became the lead vocalist for Fairport Convention (replacing Judy Dyble), recording three albums with them. Denny is credited with encouraging Fairport Convention to explore the traditional British folk repertoire, and is thus a key figure in the development of British folk rock.[6]
Denny left Fairport Convention in 1969, after recording and, very briefly, touring their release Liege & Lief. The other members of Fairport were interested in exploring the folk rock path that they had embarked upon, but Denny wanted to develop her own song writing[3]. She formed her own band, Fotheringay, including her boyfriend, Australian born Trevor Lucas. She dissolved the group after one album to record solo albums, with several members of Fairport Convention as guests.[7] The North Star Grassman and the Ravens and Sandy remain her most popular solo albums and Melody Maker twice voted her the "Best Female Singer" award in 1971 and 1972. In 1973, she married Lucas, and returned to Fairport Convention for a world tour and another album, Rising for the Moon, featuring several of her own compositions. [8]
During her solo period, Denny appeared in a brief cameo on Lou Reizner's version of The Who's rock opera, Tommy, and duetted memorably with Robert Plant on "The Battle of Evermore" from Led Zeppelin's 1971 album (Led Zeppelin IV). Together with contemporaries including Richard Thompson and Ashley Hutchings, she participated in a one-off project called The Bunch, recording a collection of rock standards.
She gained a devoted cult following, but remained deprecating of her talent and unsure of her true direction. Some of her best-loved recordings are interpretations of British traditional song. Denny herself was unsure as to whether she wanted to continue in that vein (in the manner of Steeleye Span and Maddy Prior) or that of a singer-songwriter like Joni Mitchell. She yearned for success in the mass market, but her shy, unpredictable nature and insecurity about her appearance were an impediment. Her solo albums feature efforts in all three directions, gaining her a reputation for charming eclecticism rather than the stardom she and Lucas craved.
Her charisma and extraordinary alto voice were never in doubt. The stress of the Fairport Convention world tour in 1974 made it apparent that Denny's heavy drinking and smoking were damaging her voice, inclining her to put elaborate string arrangements on her last two solo albums (Like an Old Fashioned Waltz and Rendezvous). These heavily produced albums were not as well received by the critics. Denny began to question her career goals, and turned her attention to raising a family. Her substance abuse became critical and her behavior began to alienate most of her fellow musicians, including Trevor Lucas and her other colleagues in Fairport Convention.
It is noteworthy that every member of Sandy Denny's Fotheringay group, except for Pat Donaldson, would later join her earlier band, Fairport Convention.
[edit] Death
Sandy Denny died of a traumatic mid-brain hemorrhage [9] on 21 April 1978, aged 31, due to complications arising from a fall down stairs, during a holiday with her parents in a Cornish cottage. A month after the fall she collapsed at a friend's home and 4 days later died in Atkinson Morley Hospital[10]. It has been suggested that Sandy Denny's problems arose from substance abuse and uncertainty about her career path but Jill Broun, a close friend, attributes the haemorrhage to a brain tumour. This would also explain the headaches and collapses which she suffered for some time prior to her death, the fall down stairs at her parents' home (which precipitated Trevor Lucas taking Georgia to his parents in Australia)and her final fatal collapse.[11]
At the time of her death she was living apart from Trevor Lucas and her daughter Georgia, who had travelled to Lucas' native Australia. Lucas died in 1989 of heart failure.
Denny's renown grew after her death, and her songs have been covered by many other artists. She is considered a founder of the British folk rock movement and perhaps its most important female singer and personality. It has been suggested that her effortless and smooth vocal delivery still sets the standard for many of today's female folk-based singers.[12] [13]
[edit] Tributes, references
Dave Pegg of Fairport Convention recorded the tribute "Song for Sandy" on his 1983 solo album The Cocktail Cowboy Goes It Alone.
Dave Cousins of Strawbs wrote "Ringing Down the Years" in memory of Sandy Denny as early as 1978-1979, and the song was first published as a single in 1979. The song is the title track on the Strawbs album Ringing Down the Years from 1991, and is also found on the CD Georgia On Our Mind, published to the benefit of Sandy Denny's daughter.
Mark Olson's (founding member of the Jayhawks) 2007 album The Salvation Blues has a song entitled "Sandy Denny."
The Ocean Colour Scene's song "She's Been Writing" (from the North Atlantic Drift album) is about Sandy Denny.
Kate Bush's song, "Blow Away (For Bill)" on her album Never for Ever, mentions Sandy Denny. In this song Kate Bush ponders the existence of an afterlife and recalls departed friends and musicians, Buddy Holly and Marc Bolan are among the others mentioned.
The song "Remember", on the Groove Armada album Lovebox (2003), is composed of Denny's vocals, sampled from her song "Autopsy" (from Fairport Convention's Unhalfbricking album), backed by The London Community Gospel Choir.
Philip Lynott of Thin Lizzy recorded a tribute for Sandy titled "A Tribute to Sandy Denny". The instrumental version was played at his funeral in 1986.
Tim Rogers mentions Sandy Denny in a song about turning twenty-eight on his 1999 album What Rhymes with Cars and Girls. The lyric is "you dreamt she sang like Sandy Denny and smoked like a malle tree."
In the 2007 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" was voted "Favourite Folk Track of All Time" by the audience.[14]
Her Song "Solo" was covered by Ex Marillion frontman "Fish" on his album Songs from the Mirror.
Paul Westerberg included the first few lines of "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" at the end of the song "Folk Star" on his 2004 album Folker.
Linde Nijland recorded the album of cover versions, Linde Nijland sings Sandy Denny, in 2003.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
| Year | Title | Context | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Alex Campbell and his Friends | Alex Campbell[15] | Studio |
| 1967 | Sandy and Johnny | Sandy and Johnny[16] | Studio |
| 1968 | All Our Own Work | Sandy Denny and the Strawbs[17] | Studio |
| 1968 - 69 | Heyday | Fairport Convention | Studio |
| 1969 (January) | What We Did on Our Holidays | Fairport Convention | Studio |
| 1969 (June) | Unhalfbricking | Fairport Convention | Studio |
| 1969 (December) | Liege & Lief | Fairport Convention | Studio |
| 1970 (June) | Fotheringay | Fotheringay | Studio |
| 1970 | It's Sandy Denny | [18] | Compilation |
| 1971 (September) | The North Star Grassman and the Ravens | Solo | Studio |
| 1972 | Rock On | The Bunch | Studio |
| 1972 (September) | Sandy | Solo | Studio |
| 1973 (June) | Like an Old Fashioned Waltz | Solo | Studio |
| 1974 | Fairport Live Convention | Fairport Convention | Live |
| 1975 | Rising for the Moon | Fairport Convention | Studio |
| 1977 | Rendezvous | Solo | Studio |
| 1985 | Who Knows Where the Time Goes? (boxed set) | Mixed | Compilation |
| 1991 | Sandy Denny and the Strawbs | Sandy Denny and the Strawbs | Reissue |
| 1997 | The BBC Sessions 1971-1973 | Solo | Studio |
| 1998 | Gold Dust | Solo | Live[19] |
| 2004 | A Box of Treasures (5 CD set) | Mixed | Compilation |
| 2007 | Live at the BBC (boxed set) | Solo | Studio |
[edit] Singles
| Year | Title | Context | Catalogue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | "Meet On The Ledge"/"Throwaway Street Puzzle" | Fairport Convention | Island Records WIP 6047 |
| 1969 | "Si Tu Dois Partir"/"Genesis Hall" | Fairport Convention | Island Records WIP 6064 |
| 1970 | "Peace In The End"/"Winter Winds" | Fotheringay | Island Records WIP 6085 |
| 1972 | "When Will I Be Loved?"/"Willie & the Hand Jive" | The Bunch | Island Records WIP 6130 |
| 1972 | "Listen, Listen"/"Tomorrow Is a Long Time" | Solo | Island Records WIP 6142 |
| 1974 | "Whispering Grass"/"Until the Real Thing Comes Along" | Solo | Island Records WIP 6176 |
| 1974 | "Like an Old Fashioned Waltz"/unknown | Solo | Island Records WIP 6195[20] |
| 1975 | "You Never Know"/unknown | Charlie Drake, guest appearance | Charisma Records CB270[21] |
| 1977 | "Candle in the Wind"/"Still Waters Run Deep" | Solo | Island Records WIP 6391 |
[edit] Guest appearances
- The Young Tradition's album Galleries (Transatlantic TRA 172, 1969)
- Stefan Grossman's album The Ragtime Cowboy Jew (Transatlantic, 1970) backing vocals in the chorus of "A Pretty Little Tune"
- "The Battle of Evermore" on Led Zeppelin's fourth album (Led Zeppelin IV), where she sings a duet with Robert Plant; in the footnotes of that album's sleeve notes, she is credited and has her own rune symbol of three triangles much like the symbols chosen by the other members of Led Zeppelin.
- The 1972 stage version of the Who's Tommy performed with the London Symphony Orchestra; Sandy plays the nurse and sings "It's a Boy"
[edit] References and notes
- ^ Billboard.com - Biography - Sandy Denny
- ^ Sandy Denny Biography
- ^ a b c d e Patrick Humphries (1982) Meet on the Ledge: A History of Fairport Convention, London: Eel Pie Publishing Ltd., ISBN 0-906008-46-8
- ^ Folk Music - Newsletter 144 - Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick -> Various Artists
- ^ a b Sandy Denny: The Original Sandy Denny
- ^ 'You had to hold on to the furniture when Sandy sang' | | guardian.co.uk Arts
- ^ www.sandydenny.co.uk
- ^ Sandy Denny: A Short Biography
- ^ 'You had to hold on to the furniture when Sandy sang' | | guardian.co.uk Arts
- ^ Sandy Denny Biography : OLDIES.com
- ^ www.sandydenny.co.uk
- ^ Colin Larkin (1997) The Virgin Encyclopedia of Seventies Music, London: Virgin Books, p.124.
- ^ Sandy Denny: Biography : Rolling Stone
- ^ You must specify title = and url = when using {{cite web}}.. Retrieved on 2008-06-09.
- ^ Saga EROS8021; with Sandy Denny, Johnny Silvo and the Johnny Silvo Folk Group (Roger Evans and Dave Moses), Paul McNeill and Cliff Aungier. Recorded on 22 March 1967 by Marcel Rodd Alex Campbell and his FriendsAlex Campbell and his Friends
- ^ Saga EROS8041; Sandy and Johnny album, separate tracks from Sandy, and Johnny Silvo, recorded on 26 April 1967 by Marcel Rodd
- ^ initially issued in Denmark only
- ^ Saga EROS8153; compilation of tracks from Alex Campbell and his Friends and Sandy and Johnny
- ^ Recorded at the Royalty Theatre, London
- ^ catalogue number allocated but release cancelled
- ^ produced by Peter Gabriel - [1]
[edit] Sources
- (2005) Colin Harper, Trevor Hodgett, Irish Folk, Trad & Blues: A Secret History. Cherry Red. ISBN 1-901447-40-5.
- (2002) Clinton Heylin, No More Sad Refrains : The Life and Times of Sandy Denny. Helter Skelter Publishing. ISBN 1-900924-35-8.
[edit] External links
- Sandy Denny memorial page www.sandydenny.co.uk
- thebeesknees.com Sandy Denny reissues, bio and extensive discography
- Sandy Denny MySpace page including rare video clips
- No More Sad Refrains: A Sandy Denny Miscellany. including a three song BBC video
- Sandy Denny en castellano (Spanish)
- Audio feature on NPR's Fresh Air by Ed Ward, November 14, 2005 (requires audio player)
- 'You had to hold on to the furniture when Sandy sang' (Guardian Unlimited, Arts Friday Review, 6 May 2005)
- "'The lady she had a silver tongue': Sandy Denny as singer-songwriter" by Philip M Ward (online article, 2005)
- "In a Lonely Moment" By Clive James (Let It Rock Magazine, UK, March 1974; Reprinted in Fiddlestix, Issue 38, Spring 1995)
- Sandy Denny's Gravesite
- Sandy Denny List
- Sandy Denny List Frequently Asked Questions
- Fairport Conventon website
- The Independent, 21 April 2008, The ballad of Sandy Denny: Return of the folk queen
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