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Sandy Denny

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Sandy Denny

Sandy Denny (6 January 1947 – 21 April 1978), born Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny, was an English singer and songwriter. She is best known for her involvement with the British folk rock movement, including two spells as a member of Fairport Convention, as well as her duet with Robert Plant on Led Zeppelin's 4th album in 1971 - the song "The Battle of Evermore".

Childhood

Denny, born at Nelson Hospital, Kingston Road, Merton Park, studied classical piano as a child. Her Scottish grandmother was a singer of traditional songs and at an early age, Denny showed an interest in singing, despite the disapproval of her extremely strict parents. After leaving school, she started training as a nurse at the Royal Brompton Hospital.

Adolescence

In 1965, she enrolled at the Kingston College of Art in London, where she became involved in the folk club on campus. It was there that she met fellow students John Renbourn and Eric Clapton. She travelled in to Earls Court to play at the Troubadour club, where a member of Strawbs heard her. In 1967, she was invited to join the band, and recorded one album with them in Denmark; the album includes an early version of her best-known (and widely covered) song, "Who Knows Where the Time Goes." Judy Collins recorded the song, helping to bring Sandy Denny to attention. Denny also recorded her first solo album in this period, featuring traditional songs and covers of folk contemporaries including a boyfriend of this period, Jackson C. Frank.

Professional career

In 1968, Denny became the lead vocalist for Fairport Convention (replacing Judy Dyble), recording three albums with them. Denny is credited with encouraging Fairport Convention to explore the traditional British folk repertoire, and is thus a key figure in the development of British folk rock.

Denny left Fairport Convention in 1969, after recording and, very briefly, touring their release Liege & Lief . She went onto form her own band, Fotheringay, including her boyfriend, Australian born Trevor Lucas. She dissolved the group after one album to record solo albums, with several members of Fairport Convention as guests. The North Star Grassman and the Ravens and Sandy remain her most popular solo albums. In 1973, she married Lucas, and returned to Fairport Convention for a world tour and another album, Rising for the Moon, featuring several of her own compositions.

During her solo period, Denny appeared in a brief cameo on Lou Reizner's version of The Who's rock opera, Tommy, and duetted memorably with Robert Plant on "The Battle of Evermore" from Led Zeppelin's 1971 album Led Zepplin IV (Led Zeppelin IV). She was voted "Female singer of the year" by Melody Maker in 1970 and 1971. Together with contemporaries including Richard Thompson and Ashley Hutchings, she participated in a one-off project called The Bunch, recording a collection of rock standards.

She gained a devoted cult following, but remained deprecating of her talent and unsure of her true direction. Some of her best-loved recordings are interpretations of British traditional song. Denny herself was unsure as to whether she wanted to continue in that vein (in the manner of Steeleye Span and Maddy Prior) or that of a singer-songwriter like Joni Mitchell. She also had yearnings for success in the mass market, for which her shy, unpredictable nature and insecurity about her looks were ill-suited. Her solo albums feature efforts in all three directions, gaining her a reputation for charming eclecticism rather than the star power she and Lucas craved.

Her charisma and extraordinary alto voice were never in doubt. Unfortunately, the stress of the Fairport Convention world tour in 1973 helped to make it apparent that Denny's heavy drinking and smoking were damaging her voice, inclining her to put elaborate string arrangements on her last two solo albums (Like an Old-Fashioned Waltz and Rendezvous). These heavily produced albums were not as well received by the critics. Denny began to question her career goals in earnest and decided to turn her attention to raising a family. At the same time, her substance abuse became critical and her behavior, always erratic, became sufficiently trying to alienate most of her fellow musicians, including Trevor Lucas and her other colleagues in Fairport Convention.

It is noteworthy (and possibly unique) that every member of Sandy Denny's Fotheringay group would later join her earlier band, Fairport Convention.

Death

Sandy Denny died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 21 April 1978 at the Atkinson Morley Hospital, after falling down a flight of stairs. The exact circumstances of her death are somewhat murky. Most likely, she fell at her parents' home and the fatal haemorrhage occurred several weeks later. The confusion occurred due to friends' efforts to protect the privacy of Denny's family regarding the messy details of her life, specifically Denny's long-term abuse of alcohol and her marital troubles (she was living apart from Lucas and their daughter at the time of her death). Denny was only 31.

The full story was finally told in Clinton Heylin's biography, No More Sad Refrains. After her death, Trevor Lucas returned to Australia with their daughter, Georgia. He died in 1989 of heart failure.

Sandy Denny's renown grew after her death and her songs have been covered by many other artists. She is considered a founder of the British folk rock movement and perhaps its most important female singer and personality. It has been suggested that her effortless and smooth vocal delivery still sets the standard for many of today's female folk-based singers.[1]

Tributes, references

Mark Olson's (founding member of the Jayhawks (band)) 2007 album The Salvation Blues has a song entitled "Sandy Denny."

Denny was namechecked in the printed lyric of the Spice Girls song "The Lady is a Vamp" by accident. When the CD booklet was printed, a line referring to Sandy and Danny (characters from the film Grease) was misprinted as "Sandy Denny, summer love".

The Ocean Colour Scene's song "She's Been Writing" (from the North Atlantic Drift album) is about Sandy Denny.

Kate Bush's song, "Blow Away (For Bill)" on her album Never for Ever, mentions Sandy Denny. In this song Kate Bush ponders the existence of an afterlife and recalls departed friends and musicians, Buddy Holly and Marc Bolan are among the others mentioned.

Denny is mentioned in a sketch in the Smith & Jones show "One Night Stand" (released on VHS by Talkback Productions Ltd., 1994).

Philip Lynott of Thin Lizzy recorded a tribute for Sandy titled "A Tribute to Sandy Denny". The instrumental version was played at his funeral in 1986.

A cover of "Who Knows Where the Time Goes", sung by Nina Simone, is used in the film The Dancer Upstairs and a Judy Collins version of this song can be heard in the film A Walk on the Moon.

Tim Rogers mentions Sandy Denny in a song about turning twenty-eight on his 1999 album "What Rhymes with Cars and Girls." The lyric is "you dreamt she sang like Sandy Denny and smoked like a malle tree."

The song "Did She Jump or Was She Pushed" from Richard and Linda Thompson's album "Shoot Out the Lights" has been associated with Sandy Denny's death, although Thompson has denied any such connection.

In the 2007 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, her song "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" was voted Favourite Folk Track of All Time.

Her Song "Solo" was covered by Ex Marillion frontman "Fish" on his album "Songs from the Mirror"

Discography

  • The Original Sandy Denny (1967)
  • Sandy Denny and Strawbs: All Our Own Work (1968) (initially issued in Denmark only)
  • Fairport Convention: Heyday (1968-1969)
  • Fairport Convention: What We Did on Our Holidays (January 1969)
  • Fairport Convention: Unhalfbricking (July 1969)
  • Fairport Convention: Liege & Lief (December 1969)
  • Fotheringay: Fotheringay (June 1970)
  • Sandy Denny (1970)
  • The North Star Grassman and The Ravens (September 1971)
  • The Bunch: Rock On (1972)
  • Sandy (September 1972)
  • Like an Old Fashioned Waltz (June 1974)
  • Fairport Live Convention (1974)
  • Fairport Convention: Rising for the Moon (1975)
  • Rendezvous (May 1977)
  • The BBC Sessions 1971-1973 (1997)
  • Gold Dust--Live at the Royalty (May 1998)
  • A Boxful of Treasures, a boxed set of rare recordings released in 2004

She also appears on:

  • "The Battle of Evermore" on Led Zeppelin's Led Zepplin IV (Led Zeppelin IV), where she sings a duet with Robert Plant;
  • The stage version of the Who's Tommy performed with the London Symphony Orchestra; Sandy plays the nurse and sings "It's A Boy"
  • several live Fairport Convention albums;
  • several Fairport Convention compilations (notably, The History of Fairport Convention contains several recordings which were released as solo works or with bands other than Fairport Convention);
  • several compilations and re-releases of her original albums.

References

  1. ^ Colin Larkin (1997) The Virgin Encyclopedia of Seventies Music, London: Virgin Books, p.124.

Sources

  • (2005) Colin Harper, Trevor Hodgett, Irish Folk, Trad & Blues: A Secret History. Cherry Red. ISBN 1-901447-40-5.
  • (2002) Clinton Heylin, No More Sad Refrains : The Life and Times of Sandy Denny. Helter Skelter Publishing. ISBN 1-900924-35-8.
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