Box set review:
Sandy Denny box
“Sandy Denny box”, by Sandy Denny - Sandy Denny barely had a recording history of nine years when she died on April 21st 1978, and this box collects the 316 songs that she committed to posterity in those years (although this figure drops to only 160 unique songs – 154 songs are repeats, from once to up to six times: “Who Knows Where The Time Goes?” appears seven times on this set, “I’m A Dreamer” appears six times, and “No More Sad Refrains” also appears six times). The set contains songs that she sung on 19 releases with the likes of Alex Campbell, Johnny Silvo, Fotheringay, Strawbs, Fairport Convention and solo, whether live or studio releases. These official releases are gathered on 11 box set CDs, while there are eight “bonus” CDs that contain demos from most of the main studio releases, for a total of 19 CDs in the box set itself. There are two songs that have never been released before: “Lord Bateman” and “Twelfth of Never.” The only song that I can tell is missing is “The Battle of Nevermore,” from Led Zeppelin IV. Sandy is, of course, the only guest vocalist to have ever appeard on a Led Zeppelin release, and the only woman to have duetted with Robert Plant until his 2007 co-release with Alison Krauss.
The box has a great, jugendstil cover, and also contains a monstrous 72 page 11″ square hardback book containing over 100 rare and mostly unseen photographs, Sandy’s handwritten lyrics (many of which are unrecorded songs) productions of an original Island press pack, a rare A3 promo colour poster for Sandy’s solo release “Northstar Grassman And The Ravens”, a set of postcards, the receipt for the purchase of her first piano and one of Sandy’s handwritten notebooks. Wow! Unfortunately, although the box set was only released on November 22nd 2010, by early January it was already sold out (either demand was overwhelming, or they just didn’t print enough). Pity.
By the way, here is a picture of Sandy with one of her bands. These guys went under the name “Led Zeppelin.” Â Have you ever heard of them?
John, Robert, Sandy and Jimmy
Most of the songs are written by Sandy, and many are written by or co-written with band collaborators. There are also plenty of covers, mainly Bob Dylan (13) and Buddy Holly (four), but also one each from Alex Campbell, Chris Kenner, Chuck Berry, Elton John (“Candle in the Wind”) and the Everly Brothers. Many are also marked as “traditional,” but this concept is fluid – some versions are traditional, others are highly stylised (i.e. rocked-up).
The songs are largely folk, folk-rock, traditional and singer-songwriter, but also there’s a bit of jazz and mid-seventies rock. Sadly, her last album is also her weakest, as it goes for a weak soft rock sound, and it features a voice dimmed by touring and heavy smoking and drinking, but nearly all of the songs are stunning.