Crapping hell, Blogger has gone back to this appalling layout thing. Well, from this point on all of my posts will look like shite again. Oh well, if that's what they want.
So we start our Fairport odyssey with the debut self-titled album (1968), which is something of an anomoly in their back catalogue. Instead of the groundbreaking fusion of traditional English folk and modern rock, it is instead a fairly straightforward bit of California rock-worshipping and although Judy Dyble's vocals have a light folkish tone, it really does sound like an album made in Los Angeles by way of Cricklewood. Some of the original songs are pretty good, but there's very little sign of Richard Thompson's acute, miserabilist songwriting and the whole thing has the feel of a Byrds by way of Loggins & Messina rip-off project. The real giveaway is the rockish reading of Joni Mitchell's 'Chelsea Morning'. When the album works it's good fun ('I Don't Know Where I Stand' and 'Time Will Show the Wiser' are great album openers) but it's got some awful stuff too (instrumental 'The Lobster' is a dreadful waste of time). The reissue I've got has some interesting out-takes including revealing covers of songs by Tim Buckley and Leonard Cohen.
Completely inexplicably I haven't got the all-important second album on which both Sandy Denny and the folk-rock for which the band are so acclaimed make their first appearances, so we move straight on to third album Unhalfbricking (1969). One of the cornerstones of the folk-rock movement, Unhalfbricking is a fantastic demonstration of what you can do with time-worn material, superb daring and bold imagination. Dave Swarbrick's fiddle work comes fully to the fore on the album and his interplay with Thompson's endlessly inventive electric guitar work is always thrilling. The sense of Denny's control of the material and the band's approach is clear throughout (as the band have said when she came to audition, she ended up auditioning the band not the other way around), and her introduction of traditional folk material was completely game-changing. Although the US influence is still painfully evident (in the silly Dylan covers 'Si Tu Dois Partir' and 'Million Dollar Bash'), the strength of the adaptations of the traditional material ('A Sailor's Life' is one of the crowning glories of both the band's career and of the entire folk-rock genre, showcasing the Swarb/Thompson partnership at its most vital and blisteringly competitive) and the original material (Sandy's 'Who Knows Where the Time Goes' is one of the greatest songs ever written and the Unhalfbricking version is the ultimate one) easily eclipses any shortcomings that the album may have.
Next is the ultimate statement by Fairport and one of the most remarkable albums of the 1960's, 1969's third and final Fairport release, Liege and Lief. It's true that the world wasn't really paying all that much attention at the time, but the influence of Liege and Lief and its reputation as one of the most innovative British rock records ever made grow larger and larger with each passing year. After the release of Unhalfbricking the band went on a fateful tour, during which their van was in a collision with a lorry, killing drummer Martin Lamble and Thompson's then girlfriend. After much deliberation the band decided to continue but without any expectations of the outcome of their work. They decamped to the country and set out briskly recording Liege and Lief, little thinking that they were redefining two genres of popular music in the process. Liege and Lief takes Sandy's beloved traditional folk and transplants it wholesale and untampered with into a framework of straight ahead rock music, and what could and should have been absurd instead reveals itself to be truly inspired. As a fusion of the past and the (then) present musically and, specifically, British, it is a celebration of both in the clearest and most innovatively joyful way. The rock-outs that end 'Matty Groves' and the notorious folk standard 'Tam Lin' are fantastic showcases for Swarb and Thompson, while the painfully delicate 'Farewell, Farewell' and 'Reynardine' are two of the greatest outings for Denny's untouchably perfect voice. It's a miracle of intent, style and of execution and one of the greatest records to come out of pain ever made.
After the abandoned nature of experimentation that was so successful on Liege and Lief some of the band went through some soul-searching, and Sandy left in search of a solo career and an escape from 'Matty Groves' and Ashley Hutchings' delayed reaction to the coach crash meant he quit too. As a result it was down to Thompson and Swarb to properly take the reins and it's at this point that things start to go a little awry. The determination to give the folk and the rock equal status meant a balance too delicate to maintain and 1970's Full House shows the first clear signs that Swarb particuarly was giving the folk side the lion's share of the attention. Full House is still a great album with some fantastic interplay between the two lead musicians, but the big problem is that nobody left in the band had Hutchings and Denny's authoritative knowledge and genuine inquisitiveness about the more esoteric side of traditional folk and as a result Swarb happily alighted on more obvious, and frankly, much cornier, standards to bring the rock reading too, and Full House shows the beginnings of serious flaws in the approach (the mandolin and drums combo 'Flatback Caper' is particularly cringeworthy). There are some superb performances and a couple of good readings of solid old tunes ('Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman' works brilliantly well) and there's a career highlight in the brooding 10 minute Thompson showcase 'Sloth', so as an album it just about hangs on to the credibitility built up by the preceding three albums.
That credibility pretty much vanished after Full House with the departure of Thompson from the band leaving only Simon Nicol from the original line-up to carry the torch. As demonstrated by the 1972 career overview, The History of Fairport Convention, the flame had pretty much gone out with the releases of Angel Delight and Babbacombe Lee. The History has some wonderful choices from the first five albums (second single 'Meet On the Ledge' remains one of Thompson's finest songs), but by the fourth side the extraordinary innovation and daring is pretty much reduced to playing some rather naff old folk tunes in a pretty naff way on some rock instruments, or in the case of the songs from Babbacombe Lee, playing some original songs that are specifically designed to sound like rather naff old folk tunes in a pretty naff way on some rock instruments.
Finally for today's Fairport trip it's the 1974 Live Convention album. Inexplicably Sandy Denny rejoined the band in late 1973 and embarked on a world tour with them. By this point she was despairing of achieving any popular success as a solo artist and pinned her last desperate hopes on Fairport upping their profile. Her voice was going and listening to Live Convention is as tragic as it is thrilling. To hear Swarb in such fiery form is really great but Sandy's wandering and disinterested vocals are a great disappointment and it's sad to think that she must have known that this wasn't the answer to her hopes. Live Convention is a strange thing then, in that when the band are in full flight it's great, even when they're playing fairly naff old tunes, but when they slow things down it all falls apart.
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