Week...
...of remembering Sandy Denny. After a life of artistic achievement and excess, she collapsed at a friend's home in London and died of a brain haemorrhage in Atkinson Morley's Hospital on 21 April 1978. She was 31 years old. The Quiet Joys of Brotherhood is from the 1972 album Sandy.
Arranged by Sandy Denny and Dave Swarbrick, with words by Richard Fariña, The Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood uses the melody of My Lagan Love, an Irish folk song attributed to Seosamh MacCathmhaoil. Denny was at her best with Fairport Convention and their classic Liege & Lief album (1969) featured outstanding singing. The conviction in that 22-year-old voice is mesmeric on a song which tells of Reynardine, a werewolf who seduces young women: "Come all you pretty fair maids, a warning take by me / Be sure you quit night walking, and shun bad company / For if you don't you are sure to rue until the day you die / Beware of meeting Reynardine all on the mountains high." Listen now to Sandy Denny's sublime version of Reynardine.
