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Editorial Reviews

In its previous edition (first released in 1987), Heyday was an important document of Fairport Convention's early days, its dozen tracks including numerous songs (mostly folk-rock covers) that they didn't put on their late-'60s albums. The 2002 edition adds to its value considerably by adding eight more tracks, all of them also taken from 1968-1969 BBC recordings, with all 20 of the songs featuring the lineups (with varying personnel) in which Sandy Denny was included. The 12 songs that were also on the original release, though, remain the most interesting due to the absence of studio counterparts, but also due to their exceptional quality. The version of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne," with Ian Matthews and Sandy Denny alternating lead vocals, is perhaps the best cover of that standard. There are also fine interpretations of songs, sometimes quite obscure, by Gene Clark, Eric Andersen, Joni Mitchell, Richard Fariña, the Everly Brothers, and Bob Dylan, as well as the quite good Simon Nicol original "Shattering Live Experience." The newly added eight songs, by contrast, are mostly versions of tunes that also showed up on their official late-'60s albums, though Jackson C. Frank's "You Never Wanted Me" (which did previously appear on the Sandy Denny Who Knows Where the Time Goes box set) is an exception. Still, it's good to hear different versions of standouts like "Fotheringay," "Si Tu Dois Partir," "Autopsy," and "Tam Lin," though the arrangements aren't significantly different from the familiar studio ones. A new sleeve note by Ashley Hutchings is another good reason to pick this up. Incidentally, some other Fairport BBC cuts from the time have been bootlegged but eluded inclusion on this disc, though perhaps subpar fidelity had something to do with those decisions. Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

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