...and her autobiographical masterpiece "Solo."
I've posted this video before, but it never fails to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Seriously -- nobody has ever been able to transition from the heartbreakingly vulnerable to the regal to the nail-you-to-the-wall in the same song (hell, sometimes in the same line) like the late Ms. Denny.
I should add that the clip derives from a tour with a particularly nice iteration of Fairport Convention; I saw them at another club, from pretty much the same audience perspective, around the same time and it remains one of the most indelible experiences of live music I ever had.
[h/t Gummo, although this probably isn't what he had in mind when he characterized Denny in the terms in today's title the other week]
8 comments:
Thank you for defending the Divine Ms Denny. She has to be the least "screechy" singer I can think of. 'Like an Old Fashioned Waltz' the album 'Solo' is on, is gorgeous from beginning to 'No End', which always brings a tear to my eye. (And 'Solo' is nowhere near my favourite track)
There are songs that Linda Ronstadt probably should not have tried to sing, since she doesn't have soul, but I never would have used the word "screechy" to describe her.
However, she sure is shit is trying to out-sing Bonnie Raitt on this one ---
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfETVe9lqeU
Ya want over the top screechy? I got your over the top and screech right here;>
http://youtu.be/vc_f3htOfak
That video is awful, the hiss is obnoxious but, man, that voice . . .
Also:
Dave Mattacks on drums. Those fills are astounding.
Luv Sandy Denny but Ronstadt can out sing them all. Would listen to Linda over Bonnie Raitt anyday. Think you folks are tone deaf.
Last month, (St./Sir) Richard Thompson played The Kate (Katherine Hepburn Theater) in Old Saybrook CT. It's a small place that holds @ 250 (used to be a playhouse, then the Town Hall, now restored).
I'm 54 and was astonished at the number of folks much older than me filling most of the seats. Where were they in the late 70's when I had to listen to Zep (no disrespect) for the millionth time?
Anyhow... Thompson's burning, then laying back, telling jokes.
Then he says, "I'd like to play something from this folk band I used to be in... The singer was one of the greatest ever, though nobody remembers... You caught on to Nick Drake, though, after a couple of Volkswagen commercials. This is for Sandy Denny..." (I paraphrase...)
He starts "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?" A 65 year old stands up and yells, "We never forgot!"
Richard stops. Looks. Waits. "Well, good for you. You didn't."
I squirmed.
Fotheringay songs by Denny that are hair raising include Late November,Banks of the Nile (Trad.), Two Weeks Last Summer (Cousins) and the haunting, prescient The Sea.
So she could write as well as sing. I recommend both of the Fotheringay albums for Denny fans.
The second Fotheringay album was resurrected some 40 years on from it being shelved. Makes Smile look like quick work...
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