Sandy Denny

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Sandy Denny (1974)

Sandy Denny , actually Alexandra Elene Maclean Denny (* 6. January 1947 in Wimbledon , London , United Kingdom ; † 21st April 1978 ibid ) was a British singer and songwriter . She was a member of the Fairport Convention several times , founding member of the group Fotheringay and sang with the Strawbs and on the fourth album of Led Zeppelin .

Life

Sandy Denny's grave in Putney Vale Cemetery

Sandy Denny grew up in Wimbledon, London. While training to be a nurse, she performed in clubs. Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell were among her role models at the time . In 1967 she recorded an album with the British rock band The Strawbs. In 1968 she was accepted as a trial singer in the folk rock band Fairport Convention. She soon took over the artistic leadership. This was mainly reflected in the merging of old and modern music. In 1969, Sandy Denny's self-written folk ballad Who Knows Where the Time Goes appeared - her best-known song, which, however, only became a hit a few years later in the version by Judy Collins .

In late 1969, Sandy Denny left Fairport Convention to develop further. Together with other musicians, she founded the short-lived band Fotheringay, named after a Denny own composition that first appeared on the Fairport Convention album What We Did On Our Holidays . Fotheringhay Castle was the castle where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned for the last months of her life and was eventually executed. With Fotheringay, the singer recorded just one album before embarking on a solo career in 1971 that yielded four albums over the next six years. Also in 1971 Sandy Denny played the vocal part of the rock ballad The Battle of Evermore on the album Led Zeppelin IV together with Robert Plant . In 1973 Denny married the former guitarist of the band Fotheringay, her boyfriend Trevor Lucas . Her last album Rendezvous was released in 1977. In July of the same year she gave birth to their daughter Georgia. In March 1978, she fell off a staircase. A cerebral hemorrhage resulting from the accident then led to Sandy Denny's death a month later. She was buried in Putney Vale Cemetery , London.

Music genre

Sandy Denny's music ranges from British- Celtic folk music to British folk rock of the 1960s and 1970s, which she had a decisive influence on, to her own compositions with a classical or jazzy influence. She accompanied herself on the piano or the guitar. Most of her pieces are held in a melancholy-ballad-like mood, but can also be happy and song-like - especially during her time with the Strawbs. Like most singer / songwriters of the time, Sandy Denny was influenced by the American folk and peace movement . Her roots lie in the melodies and lyrics of British folk music, which she has already accompanied in childhood and which she interpreted in an incomparable way and brought into a contemporary form together with her bands.

reception

Although she never achieved outstanding international fame - most likely through her involvement in The Battle of Evermore on the fourth Led Zeppelin album and as lead singer at Fairport Convention and Fotheringay - the clarity of her voice and her moving interpretations are evident throughout British pop and folk music unmatched to this day (quote: "Her high, ethereal vocals were the most distinctive in all of British folk rock." For example, German: "Your high, ethereal voice was the most outstanding of British folk rock."). Her fellow musicians and friends and acquaintances at the time describe her as an “indomitable authority in the field of music” and as a helpful and cheerful person, albeit insecure despite her talent.

After Sandy Denny's death

After her death, Trevor Lucas returned to his native Australia with their daughter Georgia, where he remarried. He died of a heart attack in February 1989. Georgia Lucas now lives in Australia and is reluctant to make any statements about her mother. She made a rare public appearance at the presentation of the 7th BBC Folk Awards in 2007, where she received the award for the Fairport Convention album Liege & Lief as the most influential folk album of all time on behalf of her mother and together with Richard Thompson . In 2010 Universal / Island Records released a 3000-piece limited 19-CD box Sandy Denny with most of her recordings as a soloist and band member, including live and demo versions.

Dedications

Dave Cousins dedicated the song Ringing Down The Years to Sandy Denny . By Phil Lynott and Clann Eadair ( Thin Lizzy ) the song was A Tribute To Sandy (Denny) . In the song Blow Away by Kate Bush , Sandy Denny is mentioned.

Discography

  • 1967 Alex Campbell with: Sandy Denny, Johnny Silvo and the Johnny Silvo Folk Group (Roger Evans, Dave Moses), Paul McNeill and Cliff Aungier: Alex Campbell and His Friends
  • 1967 Sandy Denny and Johnny Silvo: Sandy and Johnny
  • 1967 Sandy Denny and the Strawbs: All Our Own Work
  • 1969 Fairport Convention: What We Did on Our Holidays
  • 1969 Fairport Convention: Unhalfbricking
  • 1969 Fairport Convention: Liege and Lief
  • 1970 Fotheringay: Fotheringay
  • 1970 It's Sandy Denny (compilation of the Sandy Denny recordings by Alex Campbell and his Friends and Sandy and Johnny . Released in 2005 as Where the Time Goes and The Original Sandy Denny ).
  • 1971 The North Star Grassman and the Ravens
  • 1972 The Bunch: Rock On
  • 1972 Sandy
  • 1974 Like an Old Fashioned Waltz
  • 1975 Fairport Convention: Rising for the Moon
  • 1977 rendezvous
posthumously
  • 1986 Who Knows Where the Time Goes? (4 LPs or 3 CDs)
  • 1995 Best of Sandy Denny
  • 1998 Gold Dust (live)
  • 2000 No More Sad Refrains - The Anthology
  • 2005 A Boxful of Treasures (5 CDs)
  • 2006 Under Review (DVD)
  • 2007 Live at the BBC (3 audio CDs, one DVD)
  • 2007 Listen, Listen [Original Recording Remastered]
  • 2008 The Music Weaver Sandy Denny Remembered
  • 2008 The Collection
  • 2010 Sandy Denny (19 CDs)
  • 2012 The Notes and the Words - A Collection of Demos and Rarities (4 CDs)
  • 2016 I've Always Kept A Unicorn: The Acoustic Sandy Denny (2 CDs)

There are also numerous unpublished sound recordings with Sandy Denny.

literature

  • Clinton Heylin: No More Sad Refrains. The Life and Times of Sandy Denny. ISBN 1-900924-35-8 .
  • Mick Houghton: I've Always Kept a Unicorn - The Biography of Sandy Denny. With a foreword by Richard Thompson. Faber & Faber 2015, ISBN 978-0571278909 .
  • Pamela Murray Winters: No Thought of Leaving - The Life of Sandy Denny (unpublished).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.richieunterberger.com/ulrtoc.html
  2. ^ The Independent: Sandy Denny: Fair play to her , November 8, 2009, last reviewed: November 9, 2010
  3. ↑ GLITTERING PRIZES The seventh BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Last checked on November 9, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Denny, Sandy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Denny, Alexandra Elene MacLean (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British singer and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Wimbledon , London, UK
DATE OF DEATH April 21, 1978
Place of death Wimbledon , London, UK