Saturday, April 4, 2009

Historical curiosities

I find it hard to comprehend why, with this song coming out at the same time as the first Beatles album, it was the Beatles people went wild about. Can anyone explain?

2 comments:

Maclin said...

Well, your question is pretty easily answered by looking at the contemporary scene: why do Britney Spears' un-concerts sell out at who knows how much per ticket, while few people have even heard of, say, Joanna Newsom?

A more pressing question to me is how it came to pass that I had never heard of this wonderful singer. I just looked her up on the All Music Guide and find that she was a compatriot of all sorts of people whose were known to me in the '60s--Ewan MacColl, Bert Jansch. I was a bit of a folkie as a teenager, but I don't remember ever hearing Anne Briggs' name. Thank you for the discovery. I think I'll be getting this in the near future:

http://www.emusic.com/album/Anne-Briggs-A-Collection-MP3-Download/10997258.html

By the way, are you familiar with Fairport Convention's version of this song? The vocal is very much like this. AMG says Sandy Denny was very influenced by AB.

Paul said...

Yes, I suppose you're right (about Miss Spears etc.) I have to admit myself to never having heard of Joanna Newsom (well - perhaps I have; the name is vaguely familiar but I can't attach any sounds to it).

I inherited an interest in 60s folk from my father (and pretty much played all his records to destruction when a teenager myself), but I don't think I've heard FC's version of this.

What does AMG stand for?