There are two further tracks on the LP, being respectively the fourth and fifth tracks on Side 2.
Track 4 is a 5.00 minutes long joint effort on the vocals between Trevor Lucas and Dave Swarbrick, called “Pleasure and Pain”. It is in 3/4 waltz time, and features the phrase “don’t go mixing the reds with the blues”. This caused a little bit of controversy at the time, as it was assumed to refer to illegal drugs, but this was not in fact the case. Another phrase is “it’s not easy to see a sheep underneath all that fleece”, a memorable line in its own right, to be sure, but one which has some significance when it comes to a live recording of the piece. In any event, this is yet another great song.
Track 5 is a reference to Dylan’s “Positively Fourth Street” called “Possibly Parsons Green”. This fact is poignant, as it does link this album to the very first Fairport Convention LP on Polydor, the only one to feature Judy Dyble. On that first record is a song called “It’s Alright Ma, It’s Only Witchcraft”, which is of course a take on Dylan’s “It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding”. Anyway, this last song on “nine” is a very competent, cool, laid back but up tempo classic sung by Trevor Lucas; a fine cadence to a fantastic record.
Comments