| Liege & Lief | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | December 1969[1] | |||
| Recorded | 16, 19, 22, 29 October and 1 November 1969 | |||
| Studio | Sound Techniques, London | |||
| Genre | British folk rock[2][3] | |||
| Length | 40:33 | |||
| Label | Island (UK);A&M (US) | |||
| Producer | Joe Boyd | |||
| Fairport Convention chronology | ||||
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| Sandy Denny chronology | ||||
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Liege & Lief is the fourth album by theBritish folk rock bandFairport Convention. It is the third album the group released in the UK during 1969, all of which prominently featureSandy Denny as lead female vocalist (Denny did not appear on the group's 1968debut album), as well as the first to feature future long-serving personnelDave Swarbrick andDave Mattacks on violin/mandolin and drums, respectively, as full band members (Swarbrick had previously guested onUnhalfbricking). It is also the first Fairport album on which all songs are either adapted (freely) from traditional British andCeltic folk material (for example "Matty Groves", "Tam Lin"), or else are original compositions (such as "Come All Ye", "Crazy Man Michael") written and performed in a similar style. Although Denny and founding bass playerAshley Hutchings quit the band before the album's release, Fairport Convention has continued to the present day to make music strongly based within the British folk rock idiom, and are still the band most prominently associated with it.
The album was moderately successful, peaking at number 17 on theUK Albums Chart during a 15-week run.[4] It is often credited, though the claim is sometimes disputed, as the first major "British folk rock" album (this term is not to be confused with American-stylefolk rock, which had first achieved mainstream popularity on both sides of the Atlantic withthe Byrds' early work several years prior). The popularity ofLiege & Lief did a great deal to establish the new style commercially and artistically as a distinct genre. In an audience vote at theBBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2006, the album was voted "Most Influential Folk Album of All Time".[5][6] It was voted number 254 in the third edition ofColin Larkin'sAll Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).[7]
Following the motorway accident that had killedMartin Lamble, the band were left without a drummer. After the release ofUnhalfbricking,Dave Mattacks took over the role. Having previously been a drummer atMecca Ballrooms, he had to "learn a whole new style of drumming."[8] The virtuoso fiddle and mandolin playerDave Swarbrick, a little older than the rest of the band, had already been in a successful duo with guitaristMartin Carthy. After his appearance onUnhalfbricking, he too joined Fairport full-time.
This incarnation of the band, comprising lead vocalist Denny and newcomers Swarbrick and Mattacks, together with founder membersRichard Thompson on lead guitar and some vocals,Simon Nicol on rhythm guitar andAshley Hutchings on electric bass, rehearsed and put togetherLiege & Lief over the summer of 1969 at a house inFarley Chamberlayne, nearBraishfield,Winchester,[9] launching its material with a sold-out concert in London'sRoyal Festival Hall on 24 September that year. A bootleg/audience recording of that show exists, but in very poor quality.[10][deprecated source]
Gone were the covers of songs byBob Dylan and others, replaced by electrified versions of traditional British folksongs ("Reynardine", "Matty Groves", "The Deserter", "Tam Lin"), new compositions by band members but with a "traditional" feel ("Come All Ye", "Farewell, Farewell", "Crazy Man Michael"),[a] and the first of a long line of instrumental medleys of folk dance tunes driven by Dave Swarbrick's violin playing. Much of the traditional material had been found by Hutchings inCecil Sharp's collection, maintained by theEnglish Folk Dance and Song Society, although Swarbrick has elsewhere claimed credit as the source of the traditional material used.[12] Also rehearsed and/or recorded, but omitted from the final album, were versions ofThe Byrds' "Ballad of Easy Rider", the traditional ballad "Sir Patrick Spens" with Denny on lead vocals, and "The Quiet Joys of Brotherhood", aRichard Fariña lyric he had set to a traditional Irish melody, the last two of which were to appear in different arrangements on later albums by Fairport Convention and Sandy Denny, respectively.
Of the rehearsal sessions at Farley Chamberlayne that led to the album, Hutchings later said: "It was a magical time ... and there’s a lot of magic on that album. There was a special feeling in the house, in the room, and also a lot of hidden magic and weirdness on that album. The past is weird, you know, our ancestors did a lot of weird things"; while Thompson said: "Nothing resonates like an old song... To sing something beautifully written, and then refined over hundreds of years, that still has meaning and urgency, that still creates vivid pictures in the mind, is a deeply rewarding thing. I think we hoped the band would achieve some mainstream popularity, so that we could bring the tradition a little closer to people's lives."[13]
The album title is composed of twoMiddle English words:liege meaning loyal[14] andlief meaning ready.[5][15] The cover, a gatefold in grey and purple, featured cameo images of the band along with track listing and credits. On the inside of the original gatefold cover, a set of illustrated vignettes told the story of ten different aspects of English traditional music and folklore, including notes on customs such aspace-eggers and thePadstow hobby-horse, as well as collectors such asFrancis James Child (of "Child Ballads" fame) andCecil Sharp.
The band toured the UK for several months, also visiting Denmark, performing theLiege & Lief material before recording it in the studio (also including a performance recorded for BBC radio'sTop Gear). However, in November 1969, even before the album was released on 2 December, both Hutchings and Denny quit the band: Hutchings to further pursue traditional music in a new bandSteeleye Span, and Denny to form her new ventureFotheringay, with more emphasis on her own original compositions.[16][b] Subsequent to these departures, only Hutchings was replaced (by newcomerDave Pegg) and thus it was a reduced, 5-man version of the band that went on to record their follow-up album,Full House, the next year.
In 2007 a double album "Liege and Lief Deluxe Edition" was released; the second CD consisted mainly of BBC radio live performances and two stylistically uncharacteristic outtakes, the standards "The Lady Is a Tramp" and "Fly Me to the Moon".[19]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [20] |
| The Village Voice | B−[21] |
Liege & Lief was promoted byJohn Peel on hisTop Gear radio programme[22] and the album spent fifteen weeks in the UK album chart, reaching number 17.[23] In a contemporary review,John Mendelsohn ofRolling Stone recommended the album only to devotees of "quietly arty traditional folk" and felt that "Deserter" is the only "arresting" song, as "not even the originals match up to the group-composed material on previous albums."[24]Robert Christgau ofThe Village Voice was less enthusiastic, writing that because of his "anti-folk" tastes, he was disappointed with the album's more traditional material afterUnhalfbricking.[21]
Nevertheless, the album has come to be regarded as a major influence in the development of Britishfolk rock. It was voted the 'most important folk album of all time' byBBC Radio 2 listeners in 2002, and at the 2006BBC Radio 2 Folk AwardsLiege and Lief won the award forMost influential Folk Album of all time. At the event, the original line-up ofSimon Nicol,Richard Thompson,Ashley Hutchings,Dave Swarbrick,Dave Mattacks, withChris While replacingSandy Denny, performedMatty Groves. Georgia Lucas, the daughter of Sandy Denny andTrevor Lucas, accepted the award on behalf of her late mother. This commemoration was repeated on 10 August 2007 atCropredy, when the complete album was performed (see "External links"). Prior to that occasion, effective reunions of theLiege and Lief lineup had performed at previous Cropredy festivals, for example withVikki Clayton standing in for Denny to perform "The Deserter", "Tam Lin" and "Crazy Man Michael" at the 25th anniversary concert in 1992, and the same line-up performing "Come All Ye", "Reynardine" and "Matty Groves" at the 1997 30th anniversary concert.[25][26]
In a retrospective review,AllMusic's Mark Deming said of the album that "while [it] was the most purely folk-oriented Fairport Convention album to date, it also rocked hard in a thoroughly original and uncompromising way".[27] In June 2007,Mojo magazine listedLiege & Lief at number 58 in its list of "100 Records that changed the world".[28] In his 2010 book on the UK folk-rock music sceneElectric Eden, author Rob Young devoted 13 pages to theLiege and Lief period and its resulting album, stating that the album "retains a coherence and integrity shared by very few British folk-rock records" and that in its music, "... Fate is exacted; English balladry displays its full menace and mystery; and there's a tentative reflection upon pain and loss, tainted by hard experience".[29] For Patrick Humphries, on the other hand, writing in 1996, the album is less than 100% successful: "Come all Ye" sounds "rather forced", the band's reading of "The Deserter" is described as "pedestrian", and "Tam Lin" is described as "leaden" and the soloing on it as "timid"; he does, however, praise "Matty Groves" as "relish[ing] the interplay between Swarbrick and Thompson", "Reynardine" for the quality of Denny's singing, the instrumental medley as giving Swarbrick's fiddle a chance to shine (along with Thompson's and Hutchings' guitar and bass contributions), "Crazy Man Michael" as "a substantial conclusion to the album", and "Farewell, Farewell" as "a flawless example of what Fairport were capable of at their peak."[30]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Come All Ye" | Sandy Denny,Ashley Hutchings | 4:55 |
| 2. | "Reynardine" | Traditional;arranged by Fairport Convention | 4:33 |
| 3. | "Matty Groves" | Traditional; arranged by Fairport Convention[31][32] | 8:08 |
| 4. | "Farewell, Farewell" | words:Richard Thompson; tune: Traditional[33] | 2:38 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5. | "The Deserter" | Traditional; arranged by Fairport Convention | 4:10 |
| 6. | "Medley"
| Traditional; arranged byDave Swarbrick | 4:00 |
| 7. | "Tam Lin" | Traditional; arranged by Dave Swarbrick | 7:20 |
| 8. | "Crazy Man Michael" | words: Richard Thompson; tune: Dave Swarbrick | 4:35 |
| Total length: | 40:33 | ||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9. | "Sir Patrick Spens" (Sandy Denny vocal version) | Traditional; arranged by Fairport Convention | |
| 10. | "Quiet Joys of Brotherhood" (take 1) | Traditional; arranged by Denny, Thompson, Swarbrick andDave Mattacks; words byRichard Fariña |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Sir Patrick Spens" (Sandy Denny vocal version) | 3:59 |
| 2. | "The Quiet Joys of Brotherhood" (take 4) | 5:59 |
| 3. | "The Ballad of Easy Rider" | 4:53 |
| 4. | "Tam Lin" (BBC version) | 7:46 |
| 5. | "Medley
| 4:13 |
| 6. | "Sir Patrick Spens" (BBC version) | 3:44 |
| 7. | "Reynardine" (BBC version) | 4:19 |
| 8. | "The Quiet Joys of Brotherhood" (take 1) | 7:50 |
| 9. | "The Lady Is a Tramp" (BBC version) | 2:11 |
| 10. | "Medley" | 2:21 |
Tracks 4, 5, 6, and 7 on disc two were recorded live forJohn Peel's BBCTop Gear show. They first aired on 27 September 1969. Track 10 is previously unissued.
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[34] | Gold | 100,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
