Come All Ye
Sorting Through The Attic
Sandy Denny
Meet On The Ledge
Meet on the Ledge - The Classic Years (1967-1975)
Ashley Hutchings
Dave Mattacks
Fairport Friends and Relations
Cropredy
Fairport In These Days
Fairport un-Convention-al
Poor Will and The Jolly Hangman
Now Be Thankful
Fairport Convention
What We Did On Our Holidays
UNHALFBRICKING
Liege and Lief
Full House
Angel Delight
Babbacombe Lee
Rosie
The Wood and The Wire
XXXV
Over The Next Hill
The Transports
Breweries
Fairport Family Photo Album
Some Cropredy Posters
unConventional Links

The Masterpiece

The Liege and Lief lineup

After the crash, Fairport got together for a meeting and decided they would carry on. It was, at this point that Dave Swarbrick joined as a full member of the band, on fiddle and they also auditioned for a new drummer, this turned out to be Dave Mattacks, who also, as it turned out, played piano as well. Fairport had, in Ashley Hutchings' words, "opened a whole new can of worms with A Sailor's Life and we decided there and then to go wholeheartedly in that folk rock direction. So that was quite an auspicious meeting". Fairport moved down into an old Queen Anne house in a viilage named  Farley Chamberlayne, near Winchester and began work on Liege and Lief

Sandy Denny, vocals
 
Dave Mattacks, drums
 
Ashley Hutchings, bass guitar
 
 Simon Nicol, guitars
 
 Dave Swarbrick, violin and viola
 
Richard Thompson, guitars.

Recorded at Sound Techniques Studio,
October 16 - November 2, 1969
Engineer: John Wood,
Sound Techniques Ltd.
Producer: Joe Boyd,
Witchseason Productions Ltd.
with special thanks to the
English Folk Dance & Song Society at
Cecil Sharp House

Cecil Sharp
Cecil Sharp

 Crazy Man Michael
(Thompson/Swarbrick)
 

Within the fire and out upon the sea,
Crazy Man Michael was walking.
He met with a raven with eyes black as coals,
And shortly they were a-talking

“Your future, your future, I would tell to you.
Your future, you often have asked me.
Your true love will die by your own right hand.
And Crazy Man Michael will cursed be.”

Michael he ranted and Michael he raved,
And beat at the four winds with his fists-o.
He laughed and he cried, he shouted and he swore,
For his mad mind had trapped him with a kiss-o.

“You speak with an evil, you speak with a hate,
You speak for the devil that haunts me
For is she not the fairest in all the broad land,
Your sorcerer's words are to taunt me.”

He took out his dagger of fire and of steel,
And struck down the raven through the heart-o.
The bird fluttered long and the sky it did spin,
And the cold earth did wonder and start-o.

“Oh, where is the raven that I struck down dead,
That here did lie on the ground-o?
I see but my true love with a wound so red,
Where her lover's heart it did pound-o.”

Crazy Man Michael, he wanders and walks,
And talks to the night and the day-o.
But his eyes they are sane and his speech it is clear
And he longs to be far away-o.

Michael he whistles the simplest of tunes,
And asks of the wild wolves their pardon.
For his true love is flown into every flower grown,
And he must be keeper of the garden.

Liege and Lief 1969
Island ILPS 9115 (LP, UK, December 1969)

Side One:
 
Come All Ye 4:55
 
Reynardine 4:33
 
 Matty Groves 8:08
 
Farewell, Farewell 2:38.

Side Two:
 
The Deserter 4:10
 
Medley:
 *The Lark in the Morning;
*Rakish Paddy;
*Fox-Hunter's Jig;
*Toss the Feathers 4:00
 
Tam Lin 7:20
 
Crazy Man Michael 4:35.

All tracks Trad. arr. Fairport Convention
except Track 1 Sandy Denny / Ashley Hutchings
Track 4 Richard Thompson
Track 8 Richard Thompson /
Dave Swarbrick

Liege and Lief back

to whom this website
offers up massive thanks
for the picture of the
Liege and Lief lineup
and the quote from Ashley Hutchings

A website devoted to the
song and associated legends

Liege and Lief inside

Fairport Un-convention-al (now be thankful)
is ©2002/2003/2004/2005/2006
all rights reserved