Rendezvous

About Rendezvous

Rendezvous is a 1977 album by English folk rock singer-songwriter Sandy Denny, and was her last release before her death. Sandy Denny and Trevor Lucas left Fairport Convention at the end of 1975 and Denny embarked on Rendezvous in the spring of 1976. Trevor Lucas produced the album with a contemporary rock sound designed to turn Denny into a mainstream act. The album is now generally thought to be overproduced with an excess of strings, backing vocals and instrumental overdubs. Despite this the album is felt to contain some of her finest compositions, and showed someone continuing to widen and deepen their songwriting craft, and who was responsive to new influences; Gold Dust with its Caribbean feel, the soulful torch songs Take Me Away and I'm A Dreamer and, most ambitious of all, a seven-minute orchestral tribute to the English pastoral symphony in the style of Vaughan Williams called All Our Days recorded live at CBS Studios. The punishing world tour with Fairport Convention throughout 1974 and 1975, coupled with Denny's heavy drinking and smoking, inevitably took a toll on her voice and by now much of its bell-like purity had gone, but the control and power were still there along with her subtle phrasing and characteristic grace notes. For the first time in years Denny recorded portions of the album live including an extraordinary session at Basing Street on 25 April, where Full Moon, No More Sad Refrains and I'm A Dreamer were cut live with the band and strings in a single day. A selection of cover versions were recorded for the album, notably I Wish I Was a Fool For You (For Shame of Doing Wrong) by Richard Thompson (The only post-Fairport recording she made of a song by her former bandmate), Silver Threads and Golden Needles (which had been attempted years earlier for the first Fotheringay album in 1970), Losing Game by The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Lowell George's Easy to Slip (the latter two being discarded from the final record). Several Denny originals were also recorded and not used, including Full Moon, By the Time It Gets Dark and Still Waters Run Deep. more »