Tipplers Tales
Tipplers Tales is a 1978 album by Fairport Convention, the band's thirteenth studio album since their debut in 1968. Recorded in only ten days, it was the last album the band recorded for Vertigo. Simon Nicol later wrote
Dave Pegg later said
Following the release of Tipplers Tales, Fairport Convention did not record for the following seven years until the Gladys' Leap album in 1985.
Several of the traditional folk songs had previously been recorded by A. L. Lloyd accompanied by Dave Swarbrick. The version of "John Barleycorn" here is close to the version recorded by Traffic, as Steve Winwood had been taught the song by the Watersons. The tune is based on "Wir Pflügen" by Johann Schultz, better known as "We Plough the Fields and Scatter", an old English harvest festival hymn.
Reception
The Manchester Evening News deemed the album "traditional songs and ballads with an uncompromising rock backing," and praised the "undimmed vigour".Tipplers Tales was described by AllMusic as "not a concept album, even though alcohol is a recurrent motif in many of the traditional numbers", but nonetheless "doing what the band members do best – taking some fine old traditional English jigs, reels, and traditional narratives and putting their own distinctive folk-rock stamp on them".
Track listing
All tracks credited as "Traditional" unless otherwise stated;Side one
- "Ye Mariners All" – 4:29
- "Three Drunken Maidens" – 2:46
- "Jack O'Rion" – 11:04
- "Reynard the Fox" – 3:02
- "Lady of Pleasure" – 2:34
- "Bankruptured" – 1:55
- "The Widow of Westmorland" – 3:23
- "The Hair of the Dogma" – 1:48
- "As Bitme" – 1:40
- "John Barleycorn" – 4:39
Personnel
;Fairport Convention- Dave Swarbrick – fiddle, mandolin, mandocello, vocals
- Simon Nicol – electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, dulcimer, piano
- Dave Pegg – bass guitar, guitar, mandolin, vocals
- Bruce Rowland – drums, percussion, electric piano
- Barry Hammond – engineer