Henry the Human Fly | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | April 1972 | |||
Recorded | February 1972 | |||
Studio | Sound Techniques, London | |||
Genre | Folk rock | |||
Length | 37:01 | |||
Label | Island Reprise Hannibal Fledg'ling | |||
Producer | Richard Thompson, John Wood | |||
Richard Thompson chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Christgau's Record Guide | A− [2] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [3] |
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide | [4] |
Rolling Stone | [5] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [6] |
Spin Alternative Record Guide | 9/10 [7] |
Henry the Human Fly is the debut solo album by Richard Thompson, his first release following his leaving former group Fairport Convention. [8] [9] It was released on the Island label in the U.K. and the Reprise label in the U.S.A. in April 1972. The album was reissued by Rykodisc in 1991. [6]
Thompson has stated that at one point this was the worst-selling album in the Warner Bros. catalog. [10] [8]
Although Thompson's first solo album, two other ex-Fairport Convention members (Sandy Denny and Ashley Hutchings) make appearances. [6] Linda Peters, who married Thompson shortly after the album was released, sings backup on Henry the Human Fly. [5] [11]
The Spin Alternative Record Guide called the songs "tinged with perversity and populated by oddballs," writing that it "reveals Thompson as the one Fairporter most fiercely determined to redefine folk rock at every turn." [7]
Mojo counted Henry the Human Fly as one of the hundred greatest guitar albums ever produced. [12]
All songs written by Richard Thompson.
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater. They started out influenced by American folk rock, with a set list dominated by Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell songs and a sound that earned them the nickname "the British Jefferson Airplane". Vocalists Judy Dyble and Iain Matthews joined them before the recording of their self-titled debut in 1968; afterwards, Dyble was replaced by Sandy Denny, with Matthews later leaving during the recording of their third album.
Richard Thompson is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist.
What We Did on Our Holidays is the second studio album by the English folk rock band Fairport Convention, released in 1969. It was their first album to feature singer-songwriter Sandy Denny. The album also showed a move towards the folk rock for which the band became noted, including tracks later to become perennial favourites such as "Fotheringay" and the song traditionally used to close live concerts, "Meet on the Ledge".
Linda Thompson is an English singer-songwriter.
The Albion Band, also known as The Albion Country Band, The Albion Dance Band, and The Albion Christmas Band, is a British folk rock band, originally brought together and led by musician Ashley Hutchings. An important grouping in the genre, it has contained or been associated with a large proportion of major English folk performers in its long and fluid history.
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight is the second album released by Richard Thompson, and his first to include his then wife, Linda Thompson, the pair being credited as Richard and Linda Thompson. It was issued by Island Records in the UK in 1974. Although the album did not sell and was critically ignored, it has been descried as "a timeless masterpiece" and considered one of the finest releases by the two singers, whether working singly or together.
Hokey Pokey is the second album by the British duo of singer Linda Thompson and singer/songwriter/guitarist Richard Thompson. It was recorded in the autumn of 1974 and released in the year 1975.
Pour Down Like Silver is the third album by the British duo of singer-songwriter and guitarist Richard and vocalist Linda Thompson. It was recorded in the summer of 1975 and released in November 1975 on the Island Records label.
(guitar, vocal) is a 1976 album by Richard Thompson. It was released by Island Records as a career retrospective after he and his wife Linda had gone into semi-retirement from the business of making and performing music following the release of Pour Down Like Silver (1975).
Unhalfbricking is the third studio album by the English folk rock band Fairport Convention and their second album released in 1969. It is seen as a transitional album in their history and marked a further musical move away from American influences towards more traditional English folk songs that had begun on their previous album, What We Did on Our Holidays and reached its peak on the follow-up, Liege & Lief, released later the same year.
No Roses is an album by Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band. It was recorded at Sound Techniques, and Air Studios in London, in the summer of 1971. It was produced by Sandy Roberton and Ashley Hutchings. It was released in October 1971 on the Pegasus label.
Liege & Lief is the fourth album by the British folk rock band Fairport Convention. It is the third album the group released in the UK during 1969, all of which prominently feature Sandy Denny as lead female vocalist, as well as the first to feature future long-serving personnel Dave Swarbrick and Dave Mattacks on violin/mandolin and drums, respectively, as full band members. It is also the first Fairport album on which all songs are either adapted (freely) from traditional British and Celtic folk material, or else are original compositions written and performed in a similar style. Although Denny and founding bass player Ashley Hutchings quit the band before the album's release, Fairport Convention has continued to the present day to make music strongly based within the British folk rock idiom, and are still the band most prominently associated with it.
Simon John Breckenridge Nicol is an English guitarist, singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He was a founding member of British folk rock group Fairport Convention and is the only founding member still in the band. He has also been involved with the Albion Band and a wide range of musical projects, both as a collaborator, producer and as a solo artist. He has received several awards for his work and career.
Fairport Convention is the debut studio album by the English folk rock band Fairport Convention. The band formed in 1967, with the original line-up consisting of Richard Thompson (guitar); Simon Nicol (guitar); Ashley “Tyger” Hutchings (bass); and Shaun Frater (drums), who was replaced after their first gig by Martin Lamble. They were joined by Judy Dyble (vocals), and Ian MacDonald after they made their major London stage debut in one of Brian Epstein’s Sunday concerts at the Saville Theatre.
Rock On is a 1972 one-off album of oldies covers by The Bunch, a group of English folk rock singers and musicians. The Bunch was put together by Trevor Lucas in late 1971 to record this sole album. This album consisted of covers of the band’s favourite songs by Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and The Everly Brothers, amongst others.
The Bunch were a British folk rock band, which came together in 1971 to record their one off album, Rock On.
Matthews' Southern Comfort is the debut solo album by country rock/folk rock musician Ian Matthews, and was his first album after leaving Fairport Convention in 1969. The musicians who played on it with Matthews were luminaries of the British folk rock scene and included ex-Fairport colleagues Ashley Hutchings, Simon Nicol and Richard Thompson, plus Gerry Conway, the drummer from Eclection and Fotheringay. The touring and recording band Matthews Southern Comfort who went on to release two more albums, Second Spring and Later That Same Year, would not be formed till later, with only pedal steel player Gordon Huntley and Matthews appearing on all three albums. The album was released on the Uni label in January 1970 simultaneously with a first single "Colorado Springs Eternal", and took its name from a song, "Southern Comfort", written by Sylvia Fricker from the Canadian folk duo Ian & Sylvia, which eventually appeared as the final track on Second Spring.
Rosie is a 1973 album by British folk rock band Fairport Convention, their eighth album since their debut in 1968.
Fairport Chronicles is a 1976 compilation album of the British folk-rock band Fairport Convention, including songs from 1968 to the departure of the last original member in 1972. The double album is unique in that it was only released in the USA, features original material and American covers over the traditional material usually associated with Fairport, and includes songs from side projects. All of the material was originally issued in the USA on A&M Records, which explains the exclusion of songs taken from their first, pre-Sandy Denny album, which was only later released in the United States.
Live at the BBC is a 2007 compilation album by British folk rock band Fairport Convention. It consists of tracks recorded for the BBC for various radio programmes between 1968 and 1974 and comprises four CDs in a fold-out package with a fifty-page booklet including song lyrics and numerous contemporary photographs.