Today is Sandy Denny’s birthday: gone but not forgotten. She left us way to early, but she also left behind many beautiful Bob Dylan covers. Sandy was nominated at the Melody Maker awards in 1970 where she was voted Best female singer. Alexandra Elene MacLean “Sandy” Denny (6 January 1947 – 21 April 1978) was an English singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as the lead singer for the folk rock band Fairport Convention. She has been described as “the pre-eminent British folk rock singer“.
Had she not sadly passed away at the age of 31, today would have been the British singer’s 68th birthday. Yet for all the continued chatter about her contemporary, the late Nick Drake, Sandy’s name gets lost in the mix. We forget that Denny invented the female folk rock blueprint, weaving together the purity of revivalist vocalists Anne Briggs and Shirley Collins with the passion of Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick.
Echoes of her unique sound can be heard in 21st century music from Florence Welch’s majestic mysticism to Laura Marling’s no-bullshit balladry. “Aesthetically, her songs are really inspiring to me – they’re really bold strokes that feel sort of theatrical and they’re interested in story,” said Newsom in 2012, one of many artists who’ve name-checked her significance on their work. Ineffably modern, Denny’s style was gutsier than her contemporaries. While Joni Mitchell was whispering into the wind in Laurel Canyon and Vashti Bunyan painting daisies onto her gypsy caravan, Sandy was sat in a South London pub, hollering out traditional folk songs over a brimming tankard of ale.
Hard-drinking and hard-living, Sandy’s belter of a voice was rooted in beer and bolshiness, but could be tender as well as tough. First Aid Kit and Cat Power – who covered Sandy’s most well known song, the melancholy ‘Who Knows Where The Time Goes’ have also taken up the baton when it comes to mixing that powerful strength with fragility.
The Fat Angel Sings 