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"...Some Pleasures To See..."
Good gawd man - was it
really 50 years ago! In truth it's been nearly four and half decades since I
last heard these two Transatlantic Records albums from 1968 and 1969 (picked up
on them in the early Seventies) and I'd honestly forgotten how good they are –
especially the huge leap forward on their second and last studio platter.
Typically too - England’s Beat Goes On has once again delivered a stunning
Remaster of both in 2017 - making these Irish Folk artefacts all spangly new
again and very much ripe for roots rediscovery. But a little history first
because these influential Irish and English boys are absolutely steeped in
it...
A forerunner of Planxty,
Horslips, The Bothy Band and even Moving Hearts - SWEENEY'S MEN initially
consisted of three seriously talented individuals deeply enamoured with Irish,
Scottish and English Traditional Folk, Americana tales of woe and murder and
the occasional European waxy dargle dalliance - Johnny Moynihan, Andy Irvine and
Terry Woods. Each multi-instrumentalist also had distinctive voices and tones
that made for sweet three-part harmonies when they merged (check out
"Dicey Riley").
Musically you’re dealing
with two radically different recorded beasts here – the first album is pure
Trad Folk – while album No. 2 has its Traditional moments too (instrumentals
and covers) – it also has a more Incredible String Band Acid-Folk vibe and
reflects the emergence of American and British singer-songwriters like Bob
Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake. In fact I’ve always thought the duo should
have changed the band name for LP No. 2 such is the difference in sound. With
original songs from Terry Wood and some very melodic co-writes with Henry
McCullough changing everything – LP 2 feels like a huge leap forward and in
2018 – a bit of an undiscovered masterpiece to my ears.
After the band imploded –
they had a huge history especially in the emerging Folk-Rock genre of the
Sixties and Seventies. Dubliner Moynihan later joined the ranks of Dr.
Strangely Strange for their second album “Heavy Petting” on Vertigo in 1970
(Irvine played on it too as did Skid Row’s Gary Moore), joined Planxty and De
Danaan in the early to mid Seventies and The Fleadh Cowboys in the Eighties.
Englishman (born of Irish parents) Andy Irvine made a famous self-titled duet
album with Paul Brady in 1976 on Mulligan Records (much beloved in the fair
city and beyond), joined Planxty too, played with Dick Gaughan, Christy Moore,
Patrick Street, Barry Moore (later Luka Bloom), Jimmy Faulkner and just about
everybody else on the Irish Folk scene. Terry Woods would split off from
Sweeney's Men to form the revered and hugely collectable The Woods Band and
thereafter pump out four Folk-Rock albums with his wife as Gay and Terry Woods
(she would also later form Auto Da Fe in the Eighties). Woods left after the
first Sweeney’s Men album and was replaced by another sessioning English axeman
- ex Eire Apparent and future Wings guitarist Henry McCullough who contributed
two songwriting co-credits on the second SM album. The original three
(Moynihan, Irvine and Woods) are all but Folk and Folk-Rock superstars now in
Ireland and beyond. And on it goes.
So let us now appreciate
that innocent beginning and get all Pretty Polly on this release (some
pleasures to see)...
UK and USA released
September 2017 - "Sweeney's Men/The Tracks Of Sweeney + Bonus Tracks"
by SWEENEY'S MEN on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1298 (Barcode 5017261212986) offers 2LPs
from 1968 and 1969 Remastered onto 2CDs with Four Bonus Tracks (the
A&B-sides of two non-album 7" singles from 1967 and 1968) and plays
out as follows:
Disc 1 (40:51 minutes):
1. Rattlin' Roarin' Willy
[Side 1]
2. Sullivan's John
3. Sally Brown
4. My Dearest Dear
5. The Exile's Jig
6. The Handsome Cabin Boy
7. Dicey Riley [Side 2]
8. Tom Dooley
9. Willy O' Winsbury
10. Dance To Your Daddy
11. The House Carpenter
12. Johnston
13. Reynard The Fox
Tracks 1 to 13 are their
debut album "Sweeney's Men" - released 1968 in the UK on Transatlantic
Records TRA 170 (produced by BILL LEADER)
Disc 2 (45:21 minutes):
1. Dreams For Me [Side 1]
2. The Pipe On The Hob
3. Brain Jam
4. Pretty Polly
5. Standing On The Shore
6. A Mistake No Doubt [Side
2]
7. Go By Brooks
8. When you Don't Care For Me
9. Afterthoughts
10. Hiram Hubbard
11. Hall Of Mirrors
Tracks 1 to 11 are their
second and last studio album "The Tracks Of Sweeney" - released 1969
in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 200 (produced by BILL LEADER).
BONUS TRACKS:
12. Old Maid In A Garret
13. The Derby Ram
Tracks 12 and 13 are the
non-album A&B-sides of a UK 7" single on Pye Records 7N 17312 released
24 April 1967
14. Waxies Dargle
15. Old Woman In Cotton
Tracks 14 and 15 are the
non-album A&B-sides of a UK 7" single on Pye Records 7N 17459 released
30 January 1968
The card slipcase and
24-page booklet add this Beat Goes On 2CD Reissue (BGO) a feeling of class.
JOHN O'REGAN does his usual first-rate job of disseminating the tangled history
of the band and especially the musical legacy of the core trio of players -
Moynihan, Irvine and Woods. You get repros of the original artwork and pages of
detailed history - very impressively done. But again the big news is new 2017
ANDREW THOMPSON Remasters that are wonderfully clear and warm - full of
acoustic instruments and Bill Leader's complimentary production. These really
are beautiful sounding discs...
Apparently recorded in one
booze-laden 36-hour session - the debut album "Sweeney's Men" (the
band's name is from a Flann O'Brien character in "At Swim-Two-Birds")
is traditional Irish and English Folk with an Americana murder ballads twist.
The three alternate solo vocals - so Moynihan leads off the first two songs
accompanied by his Bouzouki on "Rattlin' Roarin' Willy" - a slip reel
with words reputedly by Robbie Burns - while he reaches for the tin whistle on
"Sullivan's John" - a travelling tinker song bolstered up by lovely
Harmonica from Irvine. "Sally Brown" is the first with Irvine on Lead
Vocals - a wey-hey tarry-sailor song where he recalls a one-legged captain in
Virginia and a Liverpool liner where he met the lovely Sally (the concertina by
Woods gives the air a wonderful wistful feel - similar in fact to tracks on
Horslips' debut album "Happy To Meet, Sorry To Part" in 1973).
Terry Woods gets his turn
with "My Dearest Dear" - a tune he'd written to lyrics given him by
Peggy Seeger. "Dicey Riley" shows their combined talent - all three
going at it Acapella. Speaking of that format - Kate Bush fans will know she
did a truly gorgeous virtually voice-only version of "The Handsome Cabin
Boy" as one of the non-album B-sides to the 12" single for
"Hounds Of Love" in February 1986. Here Johnny Moynihan fills his
"Handsome Cabin Boy" with harmonica and you can't help thinking that
our Kate was listening to the Sweeney's Men as a child.
The second album is the real
jewel here for me. Terry Woods penned four originals for the album – the
gorgeous strummed Folk-Rock opener "Dreams For Me" as well as "Brain Jam", "When You Don't Care Me" and "Afterthoughts". He also co-penned "A Mistake No
Doubt" and "Hall Of Mirrors" with Henry McCullough and Johnny Moynihan and
arranged the Traditional Song covers "Pretty Polly", "Standing On The Shore" and "Hiram Hubbard" with Moynihan. The other Traditional on here is the
instrumental "The Pipe On The Hob" – the most straight up Folk song on the LP.
But the album's singer-songwriter heart truly lies with the acoustic-Dylan vibe
surrounding "Pretty Polly" – a pleasures you can see tale of American doomed
love – over the mountains and the valleys they did go until he slept on her
grave all night. In fact you can so hear where Natalie Merchant and Willie
Watson got that back-to-basics Americana sound – songs dripping with the ghosts
of the past.
Echoes of Nick Drake and his
acoustic lonesomeness appear in the lovely “Standing On The Shore” – a seaman
recounting faces from the past that are now gone (nothing standing clear). Tom
Rush circa "Circle Game" and Joni Mitchell circa "Song For A
Seagull" all collide in the gorgeous "A Mistake No Doubt" where
high-stringed guitars, strummed zitars and penny whistles all combine to give a
gorgeous Ronnie Lane and Slim Chance feel. Taking Leonard Cohen’s poem "Go
By Brooks" – Terry Woods give it some mumbler sorrow in a very quiet
Acoustic number – rivers and eels and my love walking there. Better is a double
of acoustic love songs - "When You Don't Care For Me" (so Nick Drake)
and "Afterthoughts" – lone gut-string notes and gently flicked finger-cymbals
giving it something of an Incredible String Band and Dr. Strangely Strange
feel. This great album ends of two more winners – the not guilty Traditional
"Hiram Hubbard" and the second of McCullough's impressive
contributions "Hall Of Mirrors" – echoed strums and a recorder once
again making your hear the influence of Robin Williamson and Mike Heron. The
four impossible-to-find single sides are pure diddly-idle Irish Folk with a
witty twist – a man wooing his lack of marriage prospects and so on.
Both original LPs are listed
at £90 in the Rare Record Price Guide of 2018 – but try actually finding
copies. They must have sold squat at the time because from experience I can
recall only seeing either sporadically across the decades that I ran the
Rarities Dept. in Reckless Records in London – a busy, busy store for stock.
Transatlantic began a reissue campaign in 1977 and put out “The Tracks Of...”
LP in different coloured artwork - but minus the “Afterthoughts” song on Side
2. Even that’s listed too as a rarity.
So – two hard-to-find but
worth it records (one being an undiscovered gem in my books) – and four
uber-rare single sides – and all of it in gorgeous audio and proper
presentation kudos – I'm giving it five stars. More importantly I'd urge you to
check these out and don't feel they’re just 'Folk' per say – that last studio
platter is so much more than that. At Swim Two CDs...
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