> Sandy Denny > Songs > Silver Threads and Golden Needles
> Trevor Lucas > Songs > Silver Threads and Golden Needles

Silver Threads and Golden Needles

[Dick Reynolds, Jack Rhodes]

Dick Reynolds and Jack Rhodes’s song Silver Threads and Golden Needles used to be the regular encore of Fotheringay, but their album recording (with Sandy Denny, vocals; Gerry Conway, drums; Jerry Donahue, lead guitar; Pat Donahue, bass guitar; Trevor Lucas, guitar; and probably Gerry Hogan, pedal steel guitar) was never released until in 2004 Fledg’ling included in on their 5 CD Sandy Denny anthology A Boxful of Treasures. Finally, in 2008 Fledg’ling published it on the Fotheringay 2 CD. A 2004 version was included in 2015 on Fotheringay’s Universal anthology Nothing More.

Sandy recorded Silver Threads and Golden Needles again in 1977 for her last solo album, Rendezvous, in an arrangement that seems to have been inspired by Richard Thompson: She sings against an all brass arrangement played by the Silver Band.

Lyrics

Sandy Denny sings Silver Threads and Golden Needles

(On the Fotheringay sessions out-take, Sandy sings verses 1-2-3-2-3-4, and on Rendezvous verses 1-2-3-4-3-4.)

I don’t want your lonely mansion, with a tear in every room.
All I want’s the love you promised beneath the haloed moon.

But you think I should be happy with your money and your name
And hide myself in sorrow while you play your cheating game.

Silver threads and golden needles cannot mend this heart of mine
And I dare not drown my sorrows in the warm glove of your wine.

You can’t buy my love with money for I never was that kind.
Silver threads and golden needles cannot mend this heart of mine.