Sandy Denny - Water Mother (1977)

Alexandra Elene MacLean (Sandy) Denny was born on 6 January 1947 (just two days before David Bowie), and studied classical piano as a child. At an early age she showed an interest in singing, although her strict parents were reluctant to believe there was a living to be made from it, so after leaving school she started training as a nurse at the Royal Brompton Hospital. This turned out to be short-lived, as she was accepted on a foundation course at Kingston College of Art, becoming involved with the folk club on campus. She started working the folk club circuit in the evenings with an American-influenced repertoire, including songs by Tom Paxton, and her earliest professional recordings were made a few months later in mid-1967 for the Saga label, featuring traditional songs and covers of folk contemporaries, including her boyfriend Jackson C. Frank, and they were released on the albums 'Alex Campbell And His Friends' and 'Sandy And Johnny' with Johnny Silvo. While she was performing at The Troubadour folk club, a member of the Strawbs heard her, and in 1967 she was invited to join the band. She recorded one album with them in Denmark, which was released belatedly in 1973 as 'All Our Own Work' under the name of Sandy Denny And The Strawbs, and it includes an early solo version of her best-known composition 'Who Knows Where The Time Goes?'. After making the Saga albums with Alex Campbell and Johnny Silvo, Denny looked for a band that would allow her to stretch herself as a vocalist and to display her songwriting talents, and so when Fairport Convention conducted auditions in May 1968 for a replacement singer following the departure of Judy Dyble, Denny became the obvious choice. Beginning with 'What We Did On Our Holidays, she is credited with encouraging Fairport Convention to explore the traditional British folk repertoire, and is thus regarded as a key figure in the development of British folk rock. Denny left Fairport Convention in December 1969 to develop her own songwriting more fully, and to this end she formed her own band, Fotheringay, which included her future husband, Trevor Lucas. After one eponymous record, the band started to record a second album in late 1970, but it remained unfinished after Denny announced that she was leaving the group, although it was belatedly released in 2008. 

Her next project was to record her first solo album 'The North Star Grassman And The Ravens', which was released in 1971, and it was distinguished by its elusive lyrics and unconventional harmonies. 'Sandy' followed in 1972 and was the first of her albums to be produced by Trevor Lucas, and was almost completely self-composed, with only one traditional song 'The Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood'. In 1971, Denny duetted with Robert Plant on 'The Battle of Evermore' from Led Zeppelin's 1971 album 'Led Zeppelin IV', and she was the only guest vocalist ever to appear on a Led Zeppelin album. In 1973, after marrying long-term boyfriend Trevor Lucas, she recorded her third solo album 'Like An Old Fashioned Waltz', which continued to detail many of her personal preoccupations, such as loss, loneliness, fear of the dark, the passing of time and the changing seasons. In 1974 she and Lucas returned to Fairport Convention for a world tour, and the studio album 'Rising For The Moon' the following year, and although her development as a songwriter had taken her further away from the folk roots that the band had pursued since 'Liege & Lief', she had a hand in writing seven of the eleven tracks on the album. Denny and Lucas left Fairport Convention at the end of 1975 and embarked on what was to become her final album 'Rendezvous', which was released in 1977, but the album sold poorly and Denny was subsequently dropped by Island Records. From 1976 onwards Denny demonstrated increasing levels of both manic and depressive behaviour, abusing drugs and alcohol, and often purposely throwing herself off bar stools and down flights of stairs in order to get a reaction. Her increasing level of alcohol abuse in the last years of her life led to a rise in the number of falls (both accidental and on purpose), which in turn resulted in a growing number of injuries. 

In late March 1978, while on holiday with her parents and baby Georgia in Cornwall, Denny was injured when she fell down a staircase and hit her head on concrete. Following the incident, she suffered from intense headaches, for which her doctor prescribed the painkiller dextropropoxyphene, a drug known to have fatal side effects when mixed with alcohol. At some point during the first half of April 1978, Denny suffered yet another major fall at her home, and concerned about his wife's erratic behaviour and fearing for his daughter's safety, Lucas left the UK and returned to his native Australia with their child, leaving Denny without telling her, and selling their car in order to raise funds for the journey. On discovering Lucas' departure, Denny went to stay at the home of her friend Miranda Ward, but on 17 April, Denny fell into a coma, and on 19 April she was transferred to Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon. After receiving news that Denny was in a coma, Lucas returned from Australia, but on his arrival at the hospital, doctors informed him that Denny was effectively brain-dead and her condition would not improve. He granted their recommendation to turn off life-support machines, and Sandy Denny died on 21 April 1978. It was a sad and tragic end to the life of one of the most talented singer/songwriters of the 60's and 70's, and I wouldn't normally go into this much depth about her death, but I always thought she died as a result of that first fall, and so as others might think the same it's worth detailing the actual events. In the years since her death, her reputation has grown, with numerous anthologies and box-sets being released, many of which included previously unreleased tracks, early demos, and alternate takes, and so I've compiled a representative collection of these songs which span her whole career. This includes an early 1967 recording with Johnny Silvo, one from her album with the Strawbs, some songs used for a 1971 Danish film, a foreign language single, a rare b-side, some demos, and some out-takes from her last recording sessions in 1977. Sandy Denny was a unique talent, so enjoy this album, and if you like it then do check out her other work, on her solo albums, with her various bands, and on the many anthologies out there.

Track listing

01 Been On The Road So Long (Sandy and Johnny Silvo 1967)
02 Sail Away To The Sea (Sandy and The Strawbs 1968)
03 Water Mother (from the film 'Swedish Fly Girls' 1971) 
04 What Will I Do Tomorrow (from the film 'Swedish Fly Girls' 1971) 
05 Are The Judges Sane (from the film 'Swedish Fly Girls' 1971) 
06 Late November ('El Pea' sampler version 1971)
07 Losing Game (previously unreleased 1971)
08 Ecoute, Ecoute (French version of 'Listen' 1972)
09 Here Is Silence (single from the short film 'Pass Of Arms' 1972)
10 Man Of Iron (single from the short film 'Pass Of Arms' 1972)
11 Full Moon (previously unreleased) 

12 Still Waters Run Deep (b-side of 'Candle In The Wind' 1977) 
13 Sandy's Song (Take Away The Load) (demo 1976)
14 Easy To Slip (Little Feat cover out-take 1977)
15 Moments (out-take 1977)