From: MHB@MITVMA.BITNET (Michael H. Bloom)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Subject: Re: Potted Strawbs
Date: 7 Oct 92 16:34:23 GMT
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU

On Wed, 7 Oct 1992 16:09:23 MEZ Paul Hosken said:
>Reading the recent mail concerning the Strawbs I get the impression
>that not much is known about them. Well, here's a very brief summary:
>
>- The original Strawbs were a folk band and included Sandy Denny.
>  One album of early material has been released, but isn't too hot.

Dave Cousins, singer/songwriter and the main dude, assembled a bluegrassy
band called the Strawberry Hill Boys. They never recorded, and eventually
their personnel whittled down to a trio (Cousins, Tony Hooper, and a bass
player) and their name whittled down to "Strawbs." Denny did a tour and an
album with them, the album lately having been re-released on Hannibal/Ryko,
and yeah, it's weak, but it does have a nice early "Who Knows Where the Time
Goes."

On the favorite-vocalist thread, I was thinking about how many votes Peter
Gabriel had received, and thinking that Gabriel is simply the best known of
a whole genre of rather gnarly-voiced English singer/songwriters. Cousins is
another good one, and there's also the more extreme Roger Chapman. I think
the blood of Arthur Brown flows in all their veins.

>- The Sandy left to help form Fairport. The rest of the band continued
>  in the folky vain and release two notable albums: 'Dragonfly' and
>  'Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios'. The later being part live.

Fairport was already a going concern when Sandy joined, replacing Judy Dyble.
_Antiques and Curios_ was (I thought) entirely live, and was not intended to
be folky: Wakeman was already in the band with his multiple keyboards, as well
as a drummer (either Hudson or Ford, I can no longer remember) who'd just had
to pawn his kit to pay the rent so played that tour with just hand drums!

The guys in Steeleye Span said that Cousins always had the intention to be a
rock'n'roller, that he was never really a folkie. It occurs to me now to think
that they may have had rather rigid standards for folkies.

>- It was at this time that Rick Wakeman joined them and the excellent
>  'From the Witchwood' was released.
>- Wakeman then left to join Yes and was replaced by Blue Weaver. The
>  group released 'Grave New World', which many consider to be their
>  best album. By now the Strawbs are a fully fledged rock band and
>  consisted of: Dave Cousins, Tony Hooper, John Ford, Richard Hudson
>  and Blue Weaver.
>- They then had a Top Ten (in UK) single with 'Part of the Union'.

"Part of the Union" was written by someone other than Cousins, I think Ford,
and Cousins repudiated it, refused to have it appear on the eventual greatest
hits type record, which was entitled _Strawbs By Choice_. The group started to
fragment: Hooper left, replaced by a loud lead guitarist named Dave Lambert;
Then Hudson and Ford left to work as a studio-enhanced duo a la Steely Dan,
Blue Weaver split to join Mott the Hoople (for one tour) and some other group,
and the Strawbs became Cousins and a bunch of non-entities. (Bassist Chas Cronk
was pretty good, actually, and later played in Steve Hackett's band.)

>- Now the group had reached their peak and started to go down hill.
>  'Hero and Heroine' was released, and was carried by their recent
>  chart success.
>
>From here onwards I'm not sure what happened to the band and what albums
>they released because they seemed to just dwindle away into obscurity,
>and what I did get to hear was no longer my cup-of-tea.
>So, that's about all I can add of the top of my head.

Yeah, the late albums definitely lost it. I remember _Bursting at the Seams_,
which I think came out before _Hero and Heroine_; then a title something like
_Burning for You_; and a Dave Cousins solo acoustic album (which may have had
some additional guitar by Lambert)-- all pretty poor.
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