(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Strawbs emerged within the English folk revival of the 1960s, but soon distanced themselves from that movement to propose a much more original form of folk-rock. Dave Cousins had in fact begun with bluegrass, one of the first in England to tackle the genre of the American purists. Having abandoned the banjo for the acoustic guitar, and having met singer Sandy Denny (who had debuted with a self-titled album the previous year), Cousins converted to British folk while nevertheless retaining the influence of American music.
Preserved Uncanned (Dirty Linen, 1992) presents recordings from 1968, when the Strawbs were still known as the Strawberry Hill Boys.
The original Strawbs lineup, with Dave Cousins on vocals and guitar, Sandy Denny on vocals, and Tony Hooper on guitar, recorded All Our Own Work (Hannibal, 1968), which contains the first version of Denny's Who Knows Where The Time Goes.
Denny moved on to Fairport Convention and the others recorded Strawbs (A&M, 1969), which contains Man Who Calls Himself Jesus and The Battle, and then Dragonfly (A&M, 1970), which contains Josephine For Better Or Worse.
Rick Wakeman, the enfant prodige of keyboards, joined the Strawbs for the live album Just A Collection Of Antiques and Curios (A&M, 1970). His acrobatic keyboards leave an indelible mark on From The Witchwood (A&M, 1971). His furious arpeggios transform the songs into baroque fugues (The Hangman And The Papist).
Replacing Wakeman (who had joined Yes) with the more humble Blue Weaver, Dave Cousins reached artistic maturity in 1972 with the solo album Two Weeks Last Summer (A&M, 1972), featuring the three-movement suite Blue Angel, and above all with the Strawbs' Grave New World (A&M, 1972).
The latter, although inspired by ancient music and particularly by sacred liturgy (a not-too-distant relative of Mass by Electric Prunes), belongs more to psychedelia and progressive rock than to folk. It is a work of contemplative mysticism only slightly touched by a vein of aestheticism, where superb melodies proclaim faith in the absolute values of nature (the Franciscan hymn Benedictus), magic (the raga Queen Of The Dreams), palingenesis (the apocalyptic and cosmic ode of New World), and transcendence (the mantra Is It Today Lord) with the dramatic fervor of a preacher. The arrangements fused acoustic balladry, church organ, electronics, raga, psychedelia and liturgical choirs.
Yet it was also the beginning of decline. Hooper left the group and Bursting At The Seams (1973) shifted toward a more exuberant and almost hard-rock sound, which nevertheless brought Lay Down and Part Of The Union into the charts. Down By The Sea and Tears And Pavan were the last compositions in the style of Grave New World. Mellotron and synthesizers built majestic atmospheres and the guitar pierced them with epic fury, but little remained of the Strawbs' magical mysticism.
This very composition pointed toward the group's new direction: melodic fantasy in a tragic key, arranged with baroque instruments and touches of medieval dance. On the subsequent Hero And Heroine (1974), it would be the kaleidoscopic Autumn, suspended between delicate rhapsodies and fiery phrasing, with a somewhat more passionate melodicism, that would set the tone of the album, on which also stand out another festive overture, Hero And Heroine, and another radiant anthem, Shine On Silver Sun. The spirit of this eclectic and intensely religious music, however, was betrayed by the following records, lost in the spiral of a rhythm and blues increasingly distant from those origins. Daylight.
Bassist Richard Hudson and drummer John Ford left the Strawbs and began a chart-oriented career as Hudson-Ford with the albums Nickelodeon (1973), Free Spirit (1974), Worlds Collide (1975), and Daylight (1977).
Cousins continued the Strawbs saga with:
Ghosts (1975),
Nomadness (1975),
Deep Cuts (1976),
Burning For You (1977),
Deadlines (Arista, 1978).
Gli Strawbs si sciolsero nel 1978.
The double album Best (A&M, 1978) is an anthology of 1970-75.
Dave Cousins and Brian Willoughby released Old School Songs (1979)
and The Bridge (1994).
The Strawbs reformed and released
Don't Say Goodbye (1987),
Preserves Uncanned (1990),
Heartbreak Hill (1995),
Baroque & Roll (2001), credited to Acoustic Strawbs.
Blue Angel (2003),
Deja Fou (2004).
Rick Wakeman and Dave Cousins released
Hummingbird (2002).
After a collaboration with
Conny Conrad titled High Seas (2005),
Cousins released the solo albums
The Boy in the Sailor Suit (2007) and Secret Paths (2008).
Tony Hooper died in 2020.
