Fairport Convention: The Album by Album Thread.

Fairport Convention: Album by Album Thread. Starting with the eponymous debut please rank the Fairport albums and the line ups.

 

Favorites in order:
Rising for the Moon
XXXV
Liege and Lief
The Five Seasons
Jewel in the Crown
What We Did on Our Holidays
Unhalfbricking
Rosie
Red and Gold
The Wood and the Wire

 

Nice to see The Five Seasons getting some love. Much better than its reputation!

I shall give this some thought and post again tomorrow. As far as the debut is concerned, it's a good album but low-level for Fairport. Shows how good they became!

The Nicol-Pegg-Swarbrick-Rowland line-up is my favourite. Bonny Bunch Of Roses and Tippler's Tales are glorious albums.

 

Full House
Liege and Lief
Unhalfbricking

I don't listen to the others.

 

We did this a few years back. it kind of petered-out after the 60s-70s albums.
Fairport Convention album by album thread

 

Oops! I got excited by the new Thompson 13 Rivers album and forgot! But perhaps it's time a for a reboot!

 

Happens. Please!

Here is a great celebration for their great LP.

Clinton Heylin talks Fairport Convention-"What We Did On ur Holidays"
50 years celebration:

 

There is a book coming out this month on this very matter

 

Clinton Heylin's Fairport and family book, What We Did Instead Of Holidays, is an interesting read. There's plenty to argue about in there, and he certainly has his prejudices. He doesn't seem to have much time for Dave Swarbrick, for example, and it stops before the 1985 revival of the band, but it's still probably the best Fairport book I've read

 

Looks interesting.

Couldn't find much about the author other than he works for the Irish Daily Mirror. Given he's not, as far as I'm aware, one of the usual Fairport suspects, it'll be good to have a fresh take on the music.

 

There is a whole series of these books by differing authors. Some get good reviews, some less so.

I buy any book on Fairport and am looking forward to reading about the later albums much more than those from the first 10 years.

 

Right on. I could describe the whole Liege and Leif era in my sleep.

 

I thought this thread was a bust as a similar one was already posted. So, FC's first album. A nice starting point with Dyble and Matthews. What's your take?

 

Likewise.

I really enjoy the post '85 line-ups although they don't get too much praise from a lot of fans.

 

Agreed. I would love a post '85 box set collecting any rare tracks to present day (That was one of the great aspects of the Free Reeds Fairport Unconventional box set was the recordings included from this era plus info)......or a Woodworm Records box set, collecting material from all sessions including the fabulous Beryl Marriott sessions and the various solo Fairport outings (love Simon's two albums)

 

I like it! A bit incoherent but who cares. Some nice jazzy touches
and probably their most "pop" LP, but it's a keeper. Obviously
someone got their hands on Dylan's "Basement Tapes" songs.

 

It's an interesting hodge-podge of ideas and a remarkable achievement given the age of the band but it's not one I revisit too often in its original format. My go to edition is the 2003 re-issue which adds Suzanne, Ribbon Bow, Reno Nevada and Morning Glory.

 

Really love their first with Dyble and Matthews...have you all been following my Iain Matthews thread?
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/iain-matthews-appreciation-thread-solo-album-by-album.684924/

Glad I found this one...and that I posted that bit with Clinton Heylin...it seemed to revive the thread. Although I will not deign to take credit for the revival, so glad it has been discovered by one and all!

I am guessing you will get a lot of followers here now, Chemically Altered!

 

It's a really good debut, considering their age and inexperience. Some listeners who know them through Liege and Lief might be surprised by some of the stuff on here! The bonus tracks are essential. Richard Thompson is already showing himself to be a distinctive guitarist.

 

The box set has several alternate takes etc. from the first LP...a must have box.

These:
1-1 –Fairport Convention Time Will Show The Wiser 3:04
1-2 –Fairport Convention Decameron 3:42
1-3 –Fairport Convention Jack O' Diamonds 3:29
1-4 –Fairport Convention One Sure Thing 2:54
1-5 –Fairport Convention I Don't Know Where I Stand 3:38
1-6 –Fairport Convention You Never Wanted me 3:17

 

For the uninitiated (if any exist!) the personal on the groups' s/t debut were:

Richard Thomson-guitar, vocals
Iain Matthews-vocals
Judy Dyble-vocals, autoharp
Ashley Hutchings-bass
Simon Nicol-guitar
Martin Lamble-drums

 

I was lucky enough to win this box set in a Classic Rock Magazine competition. As I never win anything I hope you don't mind me taking the opportunity to crow about it here!

 

It's not a common opinion, but I think Fairport's first LP remains their best. Liege And Lief has been far more influential, but Fairport Convention has a freshness and sense of derring-do that they never recaptured. Judy Dyble, whilst a much quieter and less flamboyant personality than Sandy Denny, had a much weirder musical sensibility, and the touches she adds really make the album: the impossibly prim vocal on "Chelsea Morning", the trippy recorder solo on "Jack O' Diamonds" and the weird aut0harp strumming on "The Lobster", which suggests they could have become a doomy progressive rock band in the manner of King Crimson had the cards fallen slightly differently.

 

Why would you not listen to What We Did On Our Holidays if you like those three?

 

One of my favourites too. I play it a lot more often than Liege and Lief. I'm not going to say it's better though. They're such different albums. Only two years apart and they sound almost like two totally different bands.