Davy Graham – He Moved Through The
Fair:
The Complete 1960s Recordings
(Cherry Tree
CRTREE8BX28)
CD review by Stuart Penney
Even if Davy Graham had only ever written
and recorded one piece of music, his immortality would be assured, thanks to
“Angi.” This timeless guitar
instrumental is as ubiquitous in folk music as “Smoke on the Water” and
“Stairway to Heaven” are in the world of rock: endlessly copied, but rarely
equalled. I was almost tempted to say
“This simple guitar instrumental” but that would be unfair. Even though every budding folk guitarist must
learn to play at least a basic version of “Angi” almost as a rite of passage, to
perform it with the flair and dexterity Davy brought to the piece is another
matter entirely.
There are at least three different
spellings of the title. Bert Jansch recorded
it as “Angie” on his 1965 self-titled debut LP and his version is arguably even
more well-known and influential than Davy’s original. Bert cleverly added a verse of Nat Adderley’s
“Work Song” to his arrangement, a tune Davy had been performing onstage since his
earliest days. A previously unreleased
1961 live version of “Work Song” from Edinburgh can be found here on Disc One
(see also Disc Eight).
Following the year he spent kicking around the London folk clubs, Paul Simon cemented the tune’s
immortality worldwide when he recorded it as “Anji” on the 1966 Simon &
Garfunkel album Sounds of Silence. Back home, Stan Webb’s blues boomers Chicken Shack also
called it “Anji” for their perfunctory electric version on the 1969 LP 100
Ton Chicken.
Starting life on the 1963 Topic EP ¾
AD shared with Alexis Korner, “Angi” fittingly, leads off this magnificent and lovingly compiled box set. Containing eight CDs, it claims
to feature Davy’s complete 60s recordings.
That adds up to an impressive 162 tracks in all, a healthy number of
which are rare and / or previously unreleased.
Another shared EP From A
London Hootenanny gave us “She Moved Through The Fair” and “Mustapha.” Recorded live in 1963, these eastern
flavoured pieces introduced Davy’s famous DADGAD guitar tuning to the folk world
and are just as important as “Angi” in the Graham repertoire. It wasn’t too long before the rock guys began to take notice. Jimmy Page took “She Moved Through
The Fair,” retitled it “White Summer” and made it his solo showcase, first with
the Yardbirds and later with Led Zeppelin where it became part of a live DADGAD
medley with Bert Jansch’s “Blackwaterside” (retitled “Black Mountain Side.”) Naturally, neither Davy nor Bert received
credit for Page’s appropriation (these were arrangements of traditional pieces after all) but
those who knew the truth have been shouting it from the rooftops ever since.
Following five obscure demo tracks funded by comedian Bob Monkhouse (yes, really), Disc One continues with Davy’s first full album, The Guitar Player. Released in 1963 on Pye records’ budget imprint Golden Guinea, this instrumental collection features a sometimes-uneasy mix of folk, blues, jazz and easy listening pop. The Latin-tinged “Don’t Stop the Carnival” originated on the 1962 Sonny Rollins LP What’s New (four years before Alan Price made the song a pop hit) while classics “Take Five,” “Cry Me A River” and “Yellow Bird” are also treated to Graham’s fretboard wizardry.
But it’s on tracks such as
“How Long, How Long Blues,” “The Ruby and The Pearl,” “Buffalo” and “Blues For
Betty” where things start to get really interesting. Here we find Davy virtually inventing a style of acoustic guitar which, two or three years hence, would become the gold
standard among British folk blues luminaries such as John Renbourn, Wizz Jones,
Bert Jansch and others.
Disc Two contains Davy’s debut Decca solo album and his most acclaimed work Folk, Blues & Beyond. Released in January 1965, it established
him as a major force in the folk blues guitar world. While the playing here is truly groundbreaking,
Davy’s vocals, average at best, are an acquired taste. This was a common theme throughout his career
and probably prevented him becoming a bigger star outside the folk circuit.
Nevertheless, the guitar work is astonishing, especially for 1965.
“Leavin’ Blues,” “Rock Me Baby” and “Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do,” while
rooted in the pentatonic scale, veer off into dazzling jazz improvisation using complex augmented, diminished, 9th, 11th and 13th chords and God knows what else.
Nobody in the folk world was playing with such confidence and outrageous technique at
the time.
Recorded in 1964 with Shirley Collins, Folk Roots, New Routes forms Disc Three. Clean living Shirley admits to being somewhat intimidated by Davy, who would disappear at regular intervals during recording only to reappear reinvigorated and with a spring in his step. Before long Davy would deliberately choose to become a junkie, just as his jazz heroes had done before him.
The drug scene really wasn’t Shirley's world, yet
the unlikely collaboration was a triumph: her pure traditional folk voice
meshing perfectly with Davy’s virtuosic folk blues guitar, the like of which
had never been heard before. In fact, it
was the first time many of these traditional English folk songs had been
recorded with a guitar backing. It’s all
tremendous stuff, but “Nottamum Town,” “Hares on the Mountain” and “Love Is
Pleasing” are the stand outs, along with two dazzling solo instrumentals from
Davy, “Rif Mountain” and “Blue Monk.”
Disc Four sees Davy drawing
material from many styles for Midnight Man, his 1966 fourth
LP. Here we find songs by the Beatles
(“I’m Looking Thru You”), Herbie Hancock (“Watermelon Man”), Elvis (“Money
Honey”) and Rufus Thomas (“Walkin’ The Dog”) along with the usual helping of
blues standards (“Stormy Monday,” “Fire In My Soul” etc). Only the aforementioned underwhelming vocals prevented
this from being a major work at the time, but as always Davy’s guitar
playing saved the day.
Disc Four ends with 10 tracks from
the CD Live at St. Andrews Folk Club, 8th May 1966. This set remained unreleased until 2007 and
unlike some other live material which has been unearthed in recent years, it’s top-quality
stuff. Both the audio quality and Davy’s
performances are excellent. The remaining
10 tracks from the St. Andrews CD are spread over Discs Six and Seven.
On Disc Five we find After
Hours At Hull University 4th February 1967 a 14-track
collection, recorded on a Philips domestic tape recorder by Davy’s lifelong
friend John Pilgrim in his quarters at Hull University. Pilgrim (1933-2020), achieved fame, if not
fortune, as the washboard player with 50s skiffle band The Vipers, before
becoming a journalist, bookseller, jazz and blues expert and many other things
besides.
Given the circumstances the audio quality is pretty good, and this recording finds Davy at his most relaxed, chatting between songs and
delivering material such as “She Moved Through The Fair” (here titled “She
Moved Through The Bizarre,”) “Cocaine,” “Jubilation” and “How Long Blues.” His playing is superb throughout and the
party atmosphere only adds to the enjoyment.
It sounds like only a handful of people were present, so this is what it
must have sounded like having Davy play in your front room.
These recordings remained unreleased
until 1997 when they appeared on Rollercoaster Records. I initially thought we’d gained a bonus track
here, until I noticed the original 1997 Rollercoaster CD has a typo on the
sleeve, listing track 13 twice.
1968’s Large As Life And
Twice As Natural arrives on Disc Six. Featuring the stellar line-up of Danny
Thompson (upright bass), John Hiseman (drums), Dick Heckstall-Smith (sax) and
Harold McNair (flute) this was the first (and probably only) one of Davy’s major
LPs to be released on both sides of the Atlantic, hinting that some kind of US commercial
success might be in the wind. It was not
to be, however, although a raga-jazz interpretation of Joni Mitchell’s
then-current “Both Sides Now” (released as a single in October 1968) was a bold attempt.
Elsewhere it was business as usual
with material by Lead Belly (“Good Morning Blues,”) Fred McDowell (“Freight
Train Blues”) and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (“Beautiful City”) sitting comfortably
alongside traditional songs “Bruton Town” and “Babe, It Ain’t No Lie.” Davy also contributed some of his finest
original material to date including the instrumentals “Blue Raga” and
“Tristano” (this was also released as the B-side of the "Both Sides Now" single). Overall, this was regarded as
his best album since Folk Blues & Beyond.
The remainder of Disc Six comprises
eight more tracks from Live at St. Andrews Folk Club, continued
from Disc Four.
The ever-reliable Danny Thompson
turns up again on Disc Seven for the 1969 LP Hat. This features a strange mix of contemporary
pop material. After a somewhat odd
interpretation of the Sgt Pepper track “Getting Better,” we get a
brace of Paul Simon songs “Homeward Bound” and “I Am A Rock” plus Dylan’s “Down
Along The Cove.” All are enjoyable
enough, but once again, Davy’s vocals are found wanting.
Much better is the blues material,
especially a pair of Willie Dixon numbers made famous by Muddy Waters: "Hoochie Coochie Man” and “I’m Ready.”
The final two tracks from Live at St. Andrews Folk Club are tacked on at the end of this disc.
And so to Disc Eight and
Davy’s final major label albums The Holly Kaleidoscope and Godington
Boundary, both from 1970.
Recorded with Holly Gwynne (his wife at the time) on vocals, The
Holly Kaleidoscope was his sixth and last album for Decca. It has the usual high points - “Blues At
Gino’s,” “Sonnymoon For Two,” “Fingerbuster,” “Ramblin’ Sailor” and “Charlie”
are all excellent - but two covers each by Paul Simon (“Bridge Over Troubled
Water” and “Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall”) and Paul McCartney
(“Blackbird” and “Here, There & Everywhere”) are less successful. Holly appears on just a few tracks, but her
crystalline vocals (sounding not unlike Joan Baez) make all the
difference.
Godington Boundary originally
appeared on the President label, a London-based independent
notable for hits by the Equals and Eddy Grant.
This is not one of Davy’s best albums but, as always, the playing
is worth the price of admission alone. He even used an electric guitar on parts of this record. Holly provides vocals on five tracks, including a decent cover of the
Incredible String Band’s “Everything’s Fine Right Now.”
Yet again the stand-out tracks are the instrumentals, especially “Forty Ton Parachute,” “Round Midnight” and “Work Song.” This last was written by Nat Adderley but the sleeve notes mistakenly credit it to his older brother Cannonball Adderley. These were the last records Davy would make before a growing dependency on heroin curtailed his career for a number of years. When, finally, he did return to low key recording and performing six years later he had changed his name to Davey Graham and the glory years were well and truly over.
Original vinyl copies of Davy's 60s albums now change hands for huge money and although all have previously been available
on CD, most are now out of print (and not all of them are on Spotify), so it’s good to see them all together in one
place at last and with a handful of unreleased bonus tracks too. Cherry Red have done their usual excellent packaging and design job with a 28-page booklet and attractive card sleeves in a chunky CD-sized
box. The in-depth and informative sleeve notes are by David Suff.
Track Listing
DISC ONE
The First Recordings and The GUITAR PLAYER
1. Angi
2. Davy’s Train Blues
3.
3 ¾ AD
4.
Worksong +*
5.
Saturday Night Shuffle +*
6.
Angi +*
7.
God Loves His Children, Brother +*
8.
Hey Bud Blues +*
9.
She Moved Through The Fair
10.
Mustapha
11.
Careless Love
12.
Hallelujah, I Love Her So
13.
Sunset Eyes
14.
Southbound Train
15.
Take Five
16.
Don’t Stop The Carnival
17.
Sermonette
18.
Take Five
19.
How Long, How Long Blues
20.
Sunset Eyes
21.
Cry Me A River
22.
The Ruby & The Pearl
23.
Buffalo
24.
Exodus
25.
Yellow Bird
26.
Blues For Betty
27.
Hallelujah, I Love Her So
DISC TWO
FOLK, BLUES & BEYOND
1. Leavin’ Blues
2. Cocaine
3. Sally Free And Easy
4. Black Is The Colour Of My True
Love’s Hair
5. Rock Me Baby
6. Seven Gypsies
7. Ballad Of The Sad Young Men
8. Moanin’
9. Skillet
10. Ain’t Nobody’s Business What I
Do
11. Maajun (A Taste of Tangier)
12. I Can’t Keep From Cryin’
Sometimes
13. Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright
14. My Babe
15. Goin’ Down Slow
16. Better Git It In Your Soul
DISC THREE
FOLK ROOTS, NEW ROUTES
1. Nottamun Town
2. Proud Maisrie
3. The Cherry Tree Carol
4. Blue Monk
5. Hares On The Mountain
6. Reynardine
7. Pretty Saro
8. Rif Mountain
9. Jane, Jane
10. Love Is Pleasin’
11. Boll Weevil, Holler
12. Hori Horo
13. Bad Girl
14. Lord Gregory
15. Grooveyard
16. Dearest Dear
DISC FOUR
MIDNIGHT MAN plus
1. No Preacher Blues
2. The Fakir
3. I’m Looking
Thru’ You
4. Hummingbird
5. Watermelon Man
6. Stormy Monday
7. Money Honey
8. Walkin’ The
Dog
9. Fire In My
Soul
10. Lost Lover
Blues
11. Neighbour,
Neighbour
12. Jubilation
13. Rags And Old
Iron
14. Jelly Roll
Baker
15. Jubilation *
16. Travelling
Man *
17. Sally Free
& Easy *
18. I’m Ready *
19. Work Song *
20. Rock Me *
21. No Preacher
Blues *
22. The Preacher
*
23. Sweet Home
Chicago *
24. The Cat Came
Back *
DISC FIVE
AFTER HOURS, Live at Hull University, 4th February 1967
1. Work Song*
2. Cocaine*
3. Buhaina Chant*
4. Grooveyard*
5. Bourée In E Minor*
6. Gavotte or Bourée from the D
Minor Suite*
7. How Long Blues*
8. She Moved Thru’ The Bizarre /
Blue Raga*
9. Miserlou*
10. Hey Bud Blues*
11. Buffalo*
12. Jubilation*
13. Louisiana Blues
14. Afro-Blue
DISC SIX
LARGE AS LIFE & TWICE AS
NATURAL plus
1. Both Sides Now
2. Bad Boy Blues
3. Tristano
4. Babe, It Ain’t No Lie
5. Bruton Town
6. Sunshine Raga
7. Freight Train Blues
8. Jenra
9. Electric Chair
10. Good Morning Blues
11. Beautiful City
12. Blue Raga
13. Better Git It In Your Soul*
14. Neighbour, Neighbour*
15. Panic Room Blues*
16. Skillet Good & Greasy*
17. Buhaina Chant*
18. Money, Honey*
19. Maajun*
20. Miserlou*
DISC SEVEN
HAT plus
1. Getting Better
2. Lotus Blossom
3. I’m Ready
4. Buhaina Chant
5. Homeward Bound
6. Love Is Pleasing
7. Hornpipe for Harpsichord Played
Upon Guitar
8. Down Along The Cove
9. Hoochie Coochie Man
10. Stan’s Guitar
11. Pretty Polly
12. Bulgarian Dance
13. I Am A Rock
14. Oliver
15. She Moved Through The Fair*
16. Bulgarian Dance*
DISC EIGHT
THE HOLLY KALEIDOSCOPE and GODINGTON BOUNDARY
1. Flowers Never Bend With The Rainfall
2. Wilt Thou Unkind
3. Blackbird
4. Blues At Gino’s
5. Since I Fell For You
6. Sunny Moon For Two
7. Fingerbuster
8. Here, There And Everywhere
9. Ramblin’ Sailor
10. Mary, Open The Door
11. I Know My Love
12. Charlie
13. Bridge Over Troubled Water
14. Little Man You’ve Had A Busy Day
15. I’m A Freeborn Man (Of The
Travelling People)
16. The Preacher
17. All Of Me
18. Afta
19. On Green Dolphin Street
20. Dallas Rag
21. ‘Round Midnight
22. Work Song
23. Joe Joe, The Cannibal Kid
24. Everything’s Fine Right Now
25. A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
26. Mother Nature’s Son
27. Grooveyard
28. Forty Ton Parachute
29. Nadu Silma
* live recording
+* previously unreleased recording
