| Tipplers Tales | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | May 1978 | |||
| Recorded | February 1978 | |||
| Studio | Chipping Norton Recording Studios, Oxfordshire. | |||
| Genre | British folk rock | |||
| Length | 36:26 | |||
| Label | Vertigo | |||
| Producer | Fairport Convention | |||
| Fairport Convention chronology | ||||
| ||||
Tipplers Tales is a 1978 album byFairport Convention, the band's thirteenth studio album since their debut in 1968. Recorded in only ten days,[1] it was the last album the band recorded forVertigo.Simon Nicol later wrote
"We secured a deal with Vertigo, the one that ended up with them paying us not to make records. It seemed a novelty, like thatMarx Brothers line: "How much for you NOT to rehearse?" "Oh, you can't afford it." We did Bonny Bunch and Tipplers Tales then didn't make the other four contracted albums"[2]
Dave Pegg later said
"It wasn't a great deal of money. It was about £30,000. It was the first time we had ever made money out of music. We got like £7,000 each. It was more money than we'd ever had in our lives. This was back in '78 and it enabled us to split up."[1]
Following the release ofTipplers Tales, Fairport Convention did not record for the following seven years until theGladys' Leap album in 1985.[3][4]
Several of thetraditional folk songs had previously been recorded byA. L. Lloyd accompanied byDave Swarbrick. The version of "John Barleycorn" here is close to the version recorded byTraffic, asSteve Winwood had been taught the song bythe Watersons.[5] The tune is based on "Wir Pflügen" byJohann Schultz, better known as "We Plough the Fields and Scatter", an old Englishharvest festival hymn.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [6] |
| MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide | [7] |
TheManchester Evening News deemed the album "traditional songs and ballads with an uncompromising rock backing," and praised the "undimmed vigour".[8]
Tipplers Tales was described byAllMusic as "not a concept album, even though alcohol is a recurrent motif in many of the traditional numbers",[3] but nonetheless "doing what the band members do best – taking some fine old traditional English jigs, reels, and traditional narratives and putting their own distinctive folk-rock stamp on them".[3]
All tracks credited as"Traditional" unless otherwise stated
