1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 161. Fairport Convention – Unhalfbricking (1969)

 

Sandy Denny and Co. bring us some definitive British folk-rock, and I have to admit I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. Fairport Convention bestride the British folk scene like a colossus, surviving multiple changes in personnel and creating the Cropredy Festival, one of the biggest folk gatherings in the UK.

I was surprised to learn how short a time Sandy Denny was (a) with the group and (b) alive. Her voice is like an English Joan Baez, very distinctive and gloriously clear. Here the Convention are also joined by fiddler Dave Swarbrick, making it a top line up of folk talent (all that’s needed is a Carthy).

In this, their third album, FC are turning more to their roots from having started with covers of American folk. There are some Dylan covers, notably from the (at the time) unpublished Basement Tapes, including Million Dollar Bash and the lengthy ballad of criminal injustice that is Percy’s Song. Si Tu Dois Partir is a French language version of Dylan’s If You Go Away (because, why not?) that sounds like an impromptu session using whatever is handy as percussion (see also Simon and Garfunkel’s Cecelia and The Beach Boys’ Barbara-Ann).

Sandy Denny’s own compositions include the plaintive Who Knows Where The Time Goes, which is only a bit folky. For me, the standout is their version of the traditional song A Sailor’s Life, a classic warning to young girls not to fall in love with a sailor because they tend not to come back. Rather than very English folk, though, it is more like an Indian raga, with Swarbrick’s violin and Richard Thompson’s guitar weaving in and out and over each other, mirroring motifs, harmonising, and otherwise just sounding glorious.