Tipplers Tales


Tipplers Tales is the thirteenth studio album by Fairport Convention, released in 1978; recorded in only ten days, it was the last album the band recorded for Vertigo. Simon Nicol later wrote
Dave Pegg later said
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". Following the release of Tippler's 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.

Track listing

All tracks credited as "Traditional" unless otherwise stated

Side one

  1. "Ye Mariners All" – 4:29
  2. "Three Drunken Maidens" – 2:46
  3. "Jack O'Rion" – 11:04

    Side two

  4. "Reynard the Fox" – 3:02
  5. "Lady of Pleasure" – 2:34
  6. "Bankruptured" – 1:55
  7. "The Widow of Westmorland" – 3:23
  8. "The Hair of the Dogma" – 1:48
  9. "As Bitme" – 1:40
  10. "John Barleycorn" – 4:39

    Personnel

Fairport Convention