> Sandy Denny > Songs > Marc Brierley: Arctic City

Arctic City

[Marc Brierley]

Marc Brierley met Sandy Denny when she was just starting out her musical life. Even that early he recorded his impressions of her in this song from his 1966 EP Marc Brierley. This song - and in fact his whole oeuvre - was included in 2005 on his 2 CD anthology Autograph of Time. Arctic City was also included in 2006 on the Castle Music anthology, Anthems in Eden. Marc Brierley commented in the latter anthology’s sleeve notes:

In the shadows of memory it is the winter of ’65. In light no more than a single candle to warm our hands and bake our brew, I see three faces. One of them is Sandy. Teenage, friendly, rounded features, illuminated further by the sharp inhalation and the brighter glow. She was a girl who left her home; she took her singing voice with her. I catch the spark and let it fly. Mixing fiction with fact, I see a story unfold which could be her, it could be you. Am I the only shadow left to tell the tale?

Lyrics

She was a girl who left her home
To find the good times of the city.
She took her singing voice with her
To break the mysteries of London’s night.
She took to her heart a thousand men
Who used her love and left her to the bright lights
And the arctic city’s savage loneliness.