Someone turned up on the Sandy Denny mailing list a few days ago with a pointer to "rare L&L outtakes", such as this one ("Crazy Man Michael").
As I wrote there,
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Once I heard CMM, then I knew what I was listening to. These 'outtakes' were passed around several years ago, but as far as my ears can tell, they're not really outtakes, but rather early mixes of the final versions. For example, CMM is missing Richard's Leslie'd guitar but otherwise is the released version. I'm not too sure about "Farewell, farewell"; it sounds like a slightly different mix, but it does contain all the component parts of the version we know.
One interesting thing: the disc which I have runs a bit faster and Sandy's voice is a bit higher than the versions recently posted. Whilst this can be done digitally, I sorely doubt that anyone would actually do so. I think that someone had a reel-to-reel which was running a bit fast, and that this was the source of the disc which I have, whereas the versions which have just turned up came from someone with a reel-to-reel running at the correct speed.
I don't think that anyone is trying to impress us with long lost alternate takes; neither do I think that someone has created these with studio trickery. It's similar to many of the Beatles' bootlegs with alternate versions: they're simply the final versions missing one or more instruments which were overdubbed at the end.
It actually says a lot about Joe Boyd's production techniques: it sounds like he would record the whole band at once - including vocals - and then add on whatever instruments needed to be added, normally Richard. The 'genuine alternative' takes of 'Quiet Joys of Brotherhood' on the remastered L&L show that Sandy would be recorded along with everyone else. Check out Richard's playing on 'Million Dollar Bash': he contributes wonderful runs when everybody else is singing, but when it's his verse, he only plays a simple rhythm part.
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How I enjoy playing the part of the musical detective! I bought Joe Boyd's autobiography, "White Bicycles" some months ago, but refrained from commenting about it. I was quite disappointed by the book, as I expected to read more about Boyd's studio technique and what is was like working with Fairport/Sandy/Nick Drake. Instead I got to read more that I will ever want to read about the Incredible String Band. The early part (Boyd in America) was interesting, both in the information itself and its novelty to me, whereas the second half (Boyd in Britain) could have been better. I imagine that a fair number of people who bought the book were also looking for more information on the young Richard Thompson or Nick Drake than they actually received.
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