The late 1960s and early 1970s were a golden age for the revival of folk music in the British Isles. That period of time in music history had a major impact on how British folk music meshed with the openness to experimentation that existed in all facets of music. Next to pure acoustic folk music you can find the genre combined with rock, pop, psychedelia, progressive rock, avant-garde, jazz and everything in between. As we move deeper into the 1970s the spirit of ‘everything goes’ started waning, but in 1970 there are plenty of musical gems to be found with heavy folk influences. Part 1 of this mini-series focuses on two bands that combined folk with rock, acoustic with electric.
We start the review with a band that over the years embodied the true spirit of progressive folk music in Britain. In 1970 Strawbs released two albums, marking new level of maturity in the band’s music. Their self-titled debut, a fantastic album in its own right, was mostly a collection of short baroque-pop songs with some psychedelia thrown in. Their second album Dragonfly, released in February 1970, showed the way forward for the band, starting a streak of some of the best progressive folk albums of the early 1970s. Tony Visconti, who arranged the wonderful orchestral accompaniments on the first album, took the producer seat on Dragonfly. He also plays recorder on a couple of songs, including the title track. Another significant contribution on the album is made by cellist Clare Deniz. Band leader Dave Cousins felt that an extra melodic instrument was needed, and on a recommendation from producer Joe Boyd, who knew Deniz from Nick Drake’s debut album, recruited the gifted cellist.
Like the Strawbs’ debut album, Dragonfly was recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is full of wonderful acoustic sounds, played masterfully by all members of the band, including Cousins, Deniz as well as Tony Hooper on guitar and Ron Chesterman on double bass. Additional instruments were added, including a nail. A nail? Tony Visconti explains: “We wanted a triangle effect on ‘The Weary Song’ and it’s not easy to find a triangle in Copenhagen in the middle of the night. The nail had a lovely tintinnabulation, so we suspended it from a shoelace and hit it with another nail. We got a lot of mileage out of it, because you can also hear it backwards on Dragonfly (that sort of snip, snip sound) and finally, when Dave put down his plectrum and used the nail to get that bouncy effect on the dulcimer. I wish I’d saved that nail, it was one of the most beautiful nails I’ve ever heard in my life.”
One piece of music on Dragonfly points very clearly to the direction the band will take shortly after, going into more progressive territories in the next few albums. ‘The Vision Of The Lady Of The Lake’ is a 28-verse epic, written by Cousins about the struggle between good and evil. It was inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a recommended reading by Tony Visconti. That book was also the inspiration for John Lennon to write Tomorrow Never Knows. All in all a mini masterpiece that took over a year to write. Cousins recalled: “We were driving up to Scotland one morning very early, and we passed a lake still covered in mist, and for some reason we started discussing the King Arthur legends; then sometime later I read one of the Books of the Dead and somehow the beliefs got mixed in with King Arthur and suddenly I had the story of ‘The Vision Of The Lady Of The Lake’.”
A guest keyboard player on this track is a young Rick Wakeman. The story of his first recording with the Strawbs on this epic is told by Mark Powell in the liner notes to the re-release of Dragonfly: “He was to experience difficulties on his first session with the Strawbs due to the fact that the piano at Trident studios was out of tune with the tracks previously recorded in Denmark. As the tape machines in the studio had no varispeed facility (whereby the tape could be slowed down or sped up to meet the pitch of the piano in the studio), Tony Visconti suggested the piano could be played through a rotating Leslie Speaker, commonly used to give Hammond organs their distinctive sounds. The resulting effect gave the track a psychedelic edge. The finished track was perhaps the most rock influenced Strawbs recording to date.” The track, telling the tale of a nightmarish battle between a boatman and various creatures, is enhanced by eerie noises from guest guitarist Paul Brett and Rick Wakeman.
Dave Cousins – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Tony Hooper – vocals, acoustic & electric guitar
Clare Deniz – cello
Ron Chesterman – double bass
With Bjarne Rostvold – drums, Rick Wakeman – piano and Paul Brett – electric guitar
In February of 1970 Sandy Denny, former member of Strawbs and by then lead singer with Fotheringay, participated in a blindfold test for Melody Maker magazine. One of the tracks played for her was ‘Josephine for Better or For Worse’ from Dragonfly. She immediately recognized the band and the track, and then she said: “I wish them all the best of luck as they never seem to have much luck. It’s a great record which I’m sure will give a lot of people a lot of enjoyment. Dave Cousins sings very well on this track.”
Dragonfly represents a wonderful juncture in the band’s career, rooted in the folk tradition yet looking forward to add contemporary sounds and intricate, complex arrangements to their music. A couple of tracks that were recorded for the album were released only later in the year as a single. One of them was Forever, featuring another great orchestral arrangement by Tony Visconti that was added later at Trident studios in London. Cousins talked about the track after the single release: “It started with some 12-string guitar chords that demanded a lyric. We laid down a backing track several months ago. Clare, the girl who used to play cello with us, is on it. Then Rick, who joined us on keyboards just about the time that Clare left put some organ on to it. A&M heard it and liked it so they added a few strings, a few French horns and the girls. It needed an orchestra to finish it. Then we did the vocals and it still didn’t sound big enough. So we went and sang it in the lavatory in Trident Studios to get the echo right, and emerged flushed with success. Joke.”
In 1970 Strawbs went through a number of lineup changes. By the time that Dragonfly was released, Clare Deniz, a classically trained musician with a dream of performing Bach and Elgar at concert halls, realized that as a non-smoking, non-drinking vegetarian, she should return to her original career plan instead of spending time at smoky rock venues. Bassist Ron Chesterman left as well and the core of Cousins and Hooper added three musicians that marked a transition to a more electric and progressive style. John Ford on bass and Richard Hudson on drums were recruited from the band Velvet Opera. In May 1970 Cousins told Beat Instrumental magazine how the makeup of the band changed the type of venues they play: “We’re not doing folk clubs now. We’re playing what I suppose you’d call the progressive pop clubs like Mothers. We’re the first acoustic group to have gone into a lot of these places I think.”
In July 1970 Strawbs were scheduled to headline a concert at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. The performance received rave reviews in music magazines, who singled out the mastery of keyboard by Rick Wakeman. Melody Maker wrote: “During the concert he flooded the hall with classical style organ, and played what has been described as the best harpsichord rock ever heard. He also took a solo on the piano which ranged from classical and jazz through to rock, and added a touch of humor by joining the movements with advert jingles and silent movie music.”
After spending his time mostly as a session musician, unknown to most but artists who sought his musicianship, Rick Wakeman became a star after this performance. Music magazines stood in line to interview him, and to one of them he explained the complexity of playing with Dave Cousins, who had a preference for non-standard tunings: “This is where perhaps a musical training doesn’t help. Dave finds a nice chord by tuning differently and pressing down a couple of rets. Then he plays it to Tony who says, ‘Yes, that sounds like this or that chord.’ But when I work them out on the keyboard nearly every note is covered. So I have to fit around that, which is why my playing sounds sort of classical.”
The performance at Queen Elizabeth Hall was taped and released on the album ‘Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios’. It was the first album the band released in the US and the first to chart in the UK. Cousins elaborated on the curious album cover: “The picture on the front of the sleeve is memorabilia from the whole band – Tony Hooper was madly into science fiction books, there’s the lead sheet of ‘Forever’, Hud’s tabla drum, Tony’s ‘bilge’ mug, his whisky bottle and his John Lennon glasses, Rick Wakeman’s clarinet, there’s that thing of mine that turned out to be a herb dryer, John Ford’s model car, plus the little Chinese toy piano that I used on Dragonfly.”
One of the centerpieces of the album is the track ‘Where is This Dream of Your Youth?’, which first appeared on the band debut album and was expanded here from three to nine minutes. Dave Cousins said of this song: “It was written for a folk group called The Young Tradition. We were great fans of theirs and loved their harmonies. I wrote the song as a single for them, but they didn’t want to do a rock song, so we did it ourselves.”
Dave Cousins – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, dulcimer
Tony Hooper – vocals, acoustic guitar, tambourine
Rick Wakeman – piano, organ, harpsichord, celeste
John Ford – vocals, bass guitar
Richard Hudson – vocals, drums, congas, percussion, sitar
We move to the second group in this review. Early in 1970, after the super group Blind Faith crashed and burned, Steve Winwood was in the studio working on a solo album. The plan was for Winwood to play all the instruments using tape overdubbing techniques in the studio. Winwood is a fine instrumentalist, capable of playing multiple instruments. He could certainly perform such a feat, but he found the process difficult: “I began trying to make music all on my own with tape machines and overdubbing and stuff. It was a very good way of writing, but it was a weird way of making music. The whole thing that makes music special is people. I was getting to the point that I needed the input of other people. It seemed inhuman to make records just by overdubbing.”
Winwood started calling on his friends from Traffic to help him in the studio. First to join was Jim Capaldi. Winwood remembers: “Jim Capaldi had just returned from the States and was just hanging around not doing anything so I asked him to come and play in the studio. There was immediately a nice feeling about the music. Jim is really into writing words and he helped me to finish off the material I’d began on my own.”
The first song recorded for the album was Stranger to Himself, intended for the solo album. Winwood wrote the music and the lyrics and plays all instruments, including piano, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums and percussion. Something in the opening riff and the arrangement of the song reminds me of Midnight Rider by The Allman Brothers Band from their album Idlewild South, released the same year.
Things started to pick up when reed man Chris Wood joined the recording sessions. Well versed in multiple musical styles, Wood introduced the band to new music. Winwood recalls: “Chris Wood was very instrumental, because he would bring us music to listen to that we’d never heard before. He used to play us Japanese classical music and incredible jazz stuff.“ But it is was a traditional folk tune that made all the difference and became the song that defined the album to come.
Chris Wood was influenced by the folk revival that swept the British Isles in the late 60s. One song he suggested to the group was John Barleycorn, which he heard on the 1965 Watersons record Frost and Fire. The Watersons’ version, like most of their material from that period, was an unaccompanied vocal group performance.
Winwood applied himself to the song and played a wonderful guitar part on it. Capaldi added tasteful and sparse percussion parts and more importantly a brilliant vocal harmony starting on the fifth verse. Wood’s flute accompaniment is the icing on the cake on this great take on the song, which has been performed by many British folk artists over the years including Martin Carthy and John Renbourn. The Mainly Norfolk site has a good page chronicling many of the song’s covers. It is interesting that amidst the great activity that took place at the time in the British folk rock scene by bands like Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, Fotheringay and many others, one of the most memorable songs remains this performance of John Barleycorn by Traffic, not usually considered a folk rock band.
When you first listen to the song you may think that you landed in the midst of a Middle Ages inquisition session. The lyrics describe all kinds of brutal methods inflicted by three men upon a poor fellow named John Barleycorn. However a closer look reveals that the distressing lyrics are actually a metaphor to the process applied to barley in order to produce beer and whiskey. While it has its roots in old folklore tales about the Corn God and religious symbolism, it is really a satire on legally prohibiting the production of alcoholic beverages while still needing the drink to get on with everyday life, as revealed in the last verse:
The huntsman, he can’t hunt the fox,
Nor so loudly to blow his horn,
And the tinker he can’t mend kettle nor pot,
Without a little Barleycorn
In short, John Barleycorn is a drinking song. Maybe the best there ever was.
Steve Winwood was involved in the writing of all the album’s songs spare the traditional title track. He plays multiple instruments including organ, piano, acoustic and electric guitars and bass. And of course that wonderful voice. Sound engineer Andy Johns had a deep respect for Steve Winwood. In an interview he mentioned an experience he had when working on the Blind Faith album: “I came back from a lunch break one day and the soundproof door was cracked a little bit, and I could hear him playing the Hammond. He’s playing both manuals and the bass pedals and he’s singing. I look at him and he’s looking at the ceiling. Not only is he playing the top manual, the lower manual, the bass pedals, and singing, but he’s also thinking about what his old lady’s going to make him for dinner. So he’s doing four or five things at once and the music was just stunning. I hate to use the word genius, because it’s bandied about so much, but that guy, in the end of his little finger, has more than a whole tribe of musicality— he really does. It’s just unfair.”
John Barleycorn Must Die was released on the Island Records label in July 1970. It entered the UK charts a month later, reaching no. 11. In the US it did even better, and was the band’s first Gold album, peaking at no. 5 on the Billboard charts.
The album received positive reviews in the trade magazines, including one by Melody Maker: “As a whole it’s almost impossible to fault an album which is so full of that overlooked word, love. Traffic are back and this time they don’t look like blowing it. No matter how long they last this time, they’ve produced one very solid achievement.” Indeed, this is one of the best albums of its time. No better man is qualified to summarize it than Steve Winwood, who was asked which is his favorite Traffic album: “Most of the Traffic stuff stands the test of time pretty well. All of those albums are like my children, so I really can’t pick a favorite, but in many ways, John Barleycorn is the core of what Traffic is, and it could be the most definitive album we did.”
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