Customer Reviews

Time Has Come

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Briggs is a revelation....I'd heard her brilliant song The Time Has Come covered by the Pentangle in 1968, and loved it--Brigg's simpler version is equally wonderful in a very different way. While not all her originals are that good, the "feel" she brings to everything she sings is a marvel. Forget about sandy denny, maddy prior, et al...briggs is the real star of 60's/70's Brit-folk, and still has no peer for emotional power and honesty.

oh anne briigs..she should be famous..the queen of british folk..a hero, or heroine to sandy denny,bert jansch,jimmy page who got backwater slide from her and you can hear where he got led zepplins more folkie edge from plus richard and linda thompson and martin mccarthy and davey graham and shirley collins.all of those have spoken about her huge influence on the sixties british folk scene..richard thompson even wrote the beautiful BEESWING for her i beleive ( though i maybe wrong).that was enough for me to rush out and buy this greatest of great "lost" masterpeices....quite seriously up there with joni and juddee sill and karen dalton as one of the all time great albums...beautiful looks are matched by rough organic salt of the earth singing and strumming and brilliant haunting songs..most written by her....i massively recommend this genius record..its why we bother to keep searching for great music..buy it yes please do.

I found this in an alternative record store and, after hearing it, couldn't believe it wasn't as widely available as Anne's other records. I love Celtic folk music and this is one of my favorite albums of that entire genre. Anne's voice has never been better than it is here and her free spirit comes through on every track. As Richard Thompson sings, "She was a rare thing, as fine as a bee's wing".

I got the 2007 Water edition (also says 2007 Runt LLC/1971 Sony BMG below that). And no, I haven't regretted my decision at all. I don't know, a Japanese version would undoubtedly be great as well, as most Japanese pressings are excellent for their sound quality, but in terms of sound quality, this plays as good or better than anything else on my speakers. It sounds fine. Now whether you enjoy Anne Briggs style is another thing. For me, this album just gets better the more you listen to it and come back to it again later. It's a beautiful album. Her voice is kind of naive and haunting, occasionally off-key and all the lovelier for it. I just realized today she sounds a little like a female version of Bert Jansch. She's just lovely and this album is one of the gems in my folk collection. What an honor to hear this woman play and how good it is this album has been resurrected.

Fine fine sparrow and a fine horseman

Your dreams among my dreams
Our blues seas among sunbeams
Shades of yellow, shades of green
These are your dreams among my dreams

So I just received my copy and it is definitely NOT a "Japanese repressing in cardboard mini-LP sleeve" or whatever appears in the item description. In fact it's a reissue on San Fran's Water Records...a cool label, but one whose remastering tends to leave a lot to be desired. Eric Gale's 'Ghetto Music' album is what I have in mind -- its mastered to be unbelievably harsh on your ears, not just another victim of the 'loudness wars' although it is that as well, but EQ'd really badly. Sounds awful. Franco Battiato 's "Fetus" fared slightly better, but not by much.

I haven't even taken this out of the shrink wrap yet because I want to find reviews of this particular pressing.. I'll probably end up opening it but I am a bit peeved that Amazon seems to have this blurb from a Japanese pressing on EVERY pressing of this album. I suppose it's might fault for not noticing the Water Records issue (which I happen to know is stateside, but there are plenty of other people who don't know that!), but still....

Oh, and to the reviewer who thinks all British folk revival stuff is garbage except for Anne Briggs -- you are obviously an idiot and not even worth responding to!

listened to the Collection recently...a lot of Anne`s early stuff. Black Water Side, She Moves through the Fair and Willie O`Winsbury superb. What a talent. She remains a cult figure, inspiring Led Zeppelin, Bert Jansch, Altan, Johnny Moynihan, Andy Irvine and so many others. Richard Thompson accurately describes her in Beeswing. In this age of greed, property developers, monetary gain etc., people like Anne shone like a beacon. Wonderful that she is still remembered.

I don't give a damn about the British folk revival, generally avoid any music, new or old, that is associated with it - I'm that tired of hearing and reading about it. But Anne Briggs is a different story. She is a punk rock girl in spirit, who has a passion for ancient folk ballads. She is a field hippy with an edge. She is an enigma with a voice that stops you and makes you listen. While she apparently preferred to sing without musical accompaniment (the compilation, A Collection, contains many of her best a cappella recordings) this 1971 masterpiece, on which she sings over light guitar playing, is her finest work. This is like the acoustic songs on Led Zeppelin III with a folky PJ Harvey singing, Donovan without the dippiness. The songs are majestic, they are breathtaking, they leave you unable to move. The lyrics and melodies are as old as time itself, yet they belong to no particular era. Lump this album and its maker in with the rest of the British Folk scene if you want, but Anne Briggs makes most of the rest of those artists look like fools.