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Sandy Denny: When You Get Older…

You'd Rather Live in Your Own House

(Dutch magazine article from around 1975. Sandy's words could not be literally reproduced, as they have been translated into Dutch and back again. The author is Jan Libbenga.)

Sandy Denny seems to remain England's most popular folk singer for ever. Many women immediately disappear from the public eye when they haven't been heard from for some time; others are rapidly descending the music magazine polls when they have made a less favourable album. Sandy Denny's popularity has remained. She has been top ranking in the polls for years now, and especially the English press describes her with superlatives only. Her reputation is not based upon hits or hype; a constant, high quality with everything she did formed and still forms the basis of her popularity. Craftmenship is mastership. We approached her about the matters that touch her.

- I know very little about your period before Fairport Convention. Do you come from a musical family?

Sandy: “Not really. My father played the piano and he still loves music. I probably inherited my interest in classical music from him. My brothers are big jazz lovers. But do I come from a musical family? No, not really.”

- When did you start singing or playing?

“I started playing the piano when I was nine years old. I only started playing the guitar when I was seventeen. Nobody ever tought me how to play the guitar. But I learned by listening to others and by taking their advice.”

- Did you play folk music right from the start?

“Yes, there were no other possibilities. I've always considered myself a better pianist than a guitar player. But because there were never any good pianos in folk clubs, I had to use the guitar. I've always enjoyed visiting folk clubs very much. I did it for years, until I finally got the courage to get up on the stage myself.”

- Who were you listening to at that time; did you have any favourites?

“Oh yes, I admired Bob Dylan and everything related. I also loved traditional English singers such as Martin Carthy, Dave Swarbrick, even Ewan MacColl, although he really disapproves of the music that we're making, but he's done so much for the British folk scene. He influenced lots of artistes. I also loved the American bands that came to England, such as the New Lost City Ramblers, people like Tom Paley and Mike Seeger. Together they formed one big musical family. I've always liked them very much.”

- One of the first things you did was composing for a film, was it not?

“Oh did I ?”

- Don't you remember anymore?

“Ehm… oh yes… I once did something for a minor movie… ehm…”

- “The Subject Was Roses”.

“God yes, oh, that was with Who Knows Where The Time Goes. It was sung by Judy Collins. That was years ago. Such a long time ago. But before that, I made an album with The Strawbs. You'll probably know them.”

- Yes I know them. I also know the album that you've made together.

“Yes, we recorded it in a horrible studio in Kopenhagen. It was really quite interesting.”

- They later released that album.

“Yes, and at first I wasn't happy with it at all. I thought ‘it's all so aged now’, but it wasn't so bad after all. If you like it. I haven't played with the Strawbs very long. A year or so. Because they wanted a deal with a record company with which I absolutely didn't want a contract. So I decided to leave and I joined Fairport not long after.”

Fairport

- Who asked you to join the Convention? Was it Simon Nicol?

“No, it was Ashley Hutchings. He was really the key figure behind the band. He was, if you wish to use that word, the leader. He had a rather strong will, you know. He saw me singing in folk clubs and one time he asked me ‘would you like to drop by to listen’. At first Fairport's music was a little bit of everything. Their style was very American, like the Byrds and Dylan. We even did a few old Joni Mitchell numbers. When I joined, we started doing English folk numbers as well. I thought that when you are only playing American music, you are really renouncing your own heritage. After all, none of us were from America.”

- You all lived together in one house.

“Yes, somewhere in Winchester. The house in which we lived was called ‘Folly House’, that was during Liege & Lief, that album we did then. But with Fotheringay we also lived in a magnificent house, ‘Chiffinches Farm’, which was really an old, ramshackle farmhouse. Back then we though it was a good idea to live together like a sort of community. But when you get older, you'd rather live in your own house. Always being together is really not working out very well.”

- Why did you leave Fairport the first time?

“I just wanted to do other things.Besides that, there was no room for a pianist in the band. I wanted to continue my piano lessons. During that time I also started to combine singing and piano playing. Something which I hadn't done before. At first it's really very difficult to do those two things together. You get confused easily. It's easier, I think, to play the guitar and sing with it. After a while it became much easier and now it's something completely natural.”

- Do you still see ex-Fairport members?

“Oh yes, we've been to see Richard Thompson a few weeks ago. He was playing in Oxford. Very good. Dave Mattacks was playing drums. I haven't seen Tyger Hutchings for quite a while but I've seen Simon. A few weeks ago. But they're all doing very well, still, it never changes. We still like each other, fortunately. We don't have an argument or something.”

When I ask her to name her favourite Fairport album, she - much to my amazement - answers Full House, on which she doesn't play herself. She refuses to say anything more about it.

Fotheringay

After she left Fairport, Sandy formed the band Fotheringay, which made a brilliant album but which unfortunately didn't exist very long.

“My record company didn't want me to start my own band, after leaving Fairport”, she explains. “They wanted me to continue as a solo artiste. So they tried to sabotage[*] us. They simply made it impossible for us to exist as a band. After a year we broke up because we couldn't cope with the tension anymore. It was highly remarkable that we still made such a good album. We hadn't done a single gig before we started recording. We hardly even knew each other. You can imagine that we were much better after a year. Fotheringay was a good band, I was very satisfied with it.”

[* Note from the translator: the word “sabotage” does not literally appear in the original interview. The Dutch expression “een spaak in het wiel steken” was used, which, in this context, seems to translate best to ‘sabotage’. The actual meaning of this expression is ‘preventing progress’ or ‘preventing success’ in the most negative sense.]

- Tell me something about that strange band The Buch which you once recorded an album with.

“That was a piece of fun. We did it for fun, really. And also to try out a studio. It had just been opened, the Manor House was that, in Oxford. We did a few rock & roll numbers. Some have accused us of an unspirited performance. I think they were wrong. It was Trevor's (Lucas) idea, he produced it.”

- To stay with the obscurities, you once made a record on a strange label, ‘Saga-Eros’. What was that?

“That was for money, hahahaha. I needed the money, so I did it.”

- When was that?

“Oh eh… that was even before the Strawbs, years ago. I consider it unofficial.”

- It is not official?

“Not in my book, it isn't. I didn't even receive any royalties for it. Only £100. I think. There were some of my own songs on it and a few folk things. I haven't played it for ages.”

- You also sang on Led Zeppelin's fourth album.

“They just asked me.”

- Who?

“Oh, I don't know. It was either Jimmy Page or Robert Plant, one of both. I think it's a fantastic band, I love them. I also enjoyed doing it. We did the vocals live in the studio, which worked out very well.”

- Something entirely different. Glyn Johns, the producer of Rising for the Moon, Fairport's latest album, has changed your sound a lot.

“He's got a different approach, yes. He's very interesting to work with. Will we work with him in the future? I don't know. Maybe. I don't want him for my own album. We'll record that when we're back in London. I'll leave that to Trevor, as usual, because he understands a lot about my music. I have considered someone else but I've dropped the idea. I rather stick to the person I know that well. But we might use him again for Fairport. We're going to record a new album in March. We haven't asked Glyn yet. It depends on whether he's available. He's very busy. How he works? Very strict. But that's alright. There's got to be someone who can combine six different opinions into one. I've had a few arguments with him, because I often want to have my way, you know. I'm rather spirited. But he's very good to work with. Very sincere, and he doesn't just rummage about. We used to aimlessly hang about in the studio and wondering what we should be doing next. Glyn is someone who at such moments says (claps her hands) ‘Okay, that's it. Everybody out.’ and we were going again. We needed discipline.”

- That's something you've never had?

“We were always arguing. One person wanted this, the other wanted that. We were wasting half our time with arguing. But that's what musicians are, very spirited.”