Always dug his playing on those early Fairport Convention albums, and his solo stuff. RIP
https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...ort-convention
Always dug his playing on those early Fairport Convention albums, and his solo stuff. RIP
https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...ort-convention
RIP
Sad to see. He hasn't been well for some time, though.
I'm very sad to report that Fairport's master fiddler Dave Swarbrick has did at the age of 75 from emphysema. I had the pleasure of spending lots of time with Swarbs back in the 1980s. A great laugh, gentle humor, funny stories. A great guy & the best fiddler I've heard in my life. He will be missed.
Sleeping at home is killing the hotel business!
Oh what a shame, his playing on A Sailors Life is mind blowing, the duelling with Richard Thompson is tremendous!
What a shame. An exceptional instrumental voice for sure.
Sorry to hear that. I've been a fan for decades. Rest in peace.
We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
It won't be visible through the air
And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973
Sad news indeed. I love all of what he played. Thanks for letting us know wilcox660.Originally Posted by wilcox660
RIP
Swarb appears more than any other artist I think in my top 50 all time albums list in various incarnations - solo, with Fairport and with Whippersnapper. RIP
Swarb was a true fiddler. His style was easily identifiable with such a tough instrument to distinguish from others. Just listen to the coda of the Who's Baba O'Reilly and you know immediately that it's Dave Swarbrick.
RIP Dave.
To be or not to be? That is the point. - Harry Nilsson.
'cept it's not! (that's the guy from East Of Eden)
Loved his work and his writing abilities and arrangements, especially with Fairport Convention. His work is monumental, and he will remain an icon of British electric folk. I'm actually surprised he didn't go sooner, since he was a life long chain smoker. Now he can once again be with Sandy Denny, who he always spoke so highly of. RIP.
Day dawns dark...it now numbers infinity.
RIP.
It wasn't til he joined Fairport that I felt the band truly became Fairport. And wasn't he pretty much the first guy to slap a pickup on a fiddle and use it like that (other than perhaps Ric Grech?)
I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.
Dave Arbus? I'll be damned! The only other distinctive sounding fiddler player as good as Swarbrick!
To be or not to be? That is the point. - Harry Nilsson.
I knew he'd been quite ill for a number of years (you can clearly detect his deterioration on that documentary on Sandy D. made 7-8 years back), so this wasn't exactly unexpected. Yet it's sad as always. He was an *incredibly* talented and highly respected fiddler long before he made the (then) rather courageous (for a pure folkie who'd already appeared on some, what, 50-60 traditional folk music albums?) move to join a rock band - which eventually created a buzz and has been continuously referred to as the "paradigm shift" for the UK folk-rock movement as a whole.
As for the bloody emphysema, I remember reading somewhere about how the cover of his 1976 debut solo album came about; he was apparently almost ordered to appear for the photo shoot with a cig on his lip, as this was one of his trademarks - the virtuoso playoffs backed by the folkman's smoke and a mouthful of ale or cider to clean a sore throat.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
If I'm not mistaken, I believe that Swarbrick had a lung transplant back in the eighties. How did he get emphysema? Did he keep on smoking?
Edit: Wiki says he had a double lung transplant in 2004, so take it for what it's worth.
To be or not to be? That is the point. - Harry Nilsson.
That'd be Richard Greene of Seatrain (whose profoundly progressive January 1969 debut album features the very first appearance of electric fiddle in pop/rock) and Muleskinner. The sole Muleskinner record (with Clarence White, Peter Rowan, Dave Grisman et al.) showcases some of the most virtuosos performances I've ever heard by a US group with any connection to "rock".
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Great group! And Green, originally from California I believe, was great, but I think Arbus is the player on Baba O'Reilly.
To be or not to be? That is the point. - Harry Nilsson.
Well anyway, here he's at the multi-legendary Glastonbury Fayre in '71 playing some badass jiglike insanity with Peggy doing his thing. This interplay is actually quite ridiculous! To have 10,000 dead stoned freaks attempting to swing along must have been a blast...
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Just kidding, Scrotum. I agree that Greene was the equal of Dave Swarbrick!Well anyway, here he's at the multi-legendary Glastonbury Fayre in '71 playing some badass jiglike insanity with Peggy doing his thing. This interplay is actually quite ridiculous! To have 10,000 dead stoned freaks attempting to swing along must have been a blast...
To be or not to be? That is the point. - Harry Nilsson.
Two gods!
To be or not to be? That is the point. - Harry Nilsson.
RIP. Dang. I was just playing Full House earlier today and pondering his unique sound. Very electric and wild yet traditional too. No one else like him.
Gotta love Richard Thompson. "Dave and I used to be in a group together."
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