A sad but inescapable fact of life is that as we grow older so do those whose music we have loved for many years. It feels as though I’m doing these tribute posts a little more frequently these days, and definitely more often than I’d like! Today I’m paying my respects to a guy who was very much a part of my formative later teen years, and who I’m sure will evoke the question “Who?” for most of you. But I hope to show you why I will miss him by playing a few of the songs he wrote and performed.

My subject is Dave Cousins, who died on Sunday at the age of 85. Dave was the founder member of The Strawbs, who actually began life around 1964 as The Strawberry Hill Boys, named after the part of London which housed St Mary’s, the teacher training college at which they met. They shortened their name in 1967, when they wanted to display a banner behind them with their name on, while they were playing a gig, and the stage wasn’t big enough to manage the whole thing. I think that, on reflection, that was a wise move! They began by playing variants of folk and bluegrass – perhaps an unusual mix for South London back then, and probably still. Dave was very much the mainstay of the band, writing many of their songs and shaping their musical direction, which took them from their early folky days into a more prog rock style. They were contemporaries of the likes of The Moody Blues and Yes, so you can probably see why I liked them then, and still do. Early members included Rick Wakeman, who left to join Yes, and they had the likes of Led Zep’s John Paul Jones playing on their early albums. And they also enjoyed a short time with Sandy Denny before she joined Fairport Convention – more of that in a moment.

Let’s get on to some music. Their third studio album, From The Witchwood,  released in July 1971, was the last with Rick Wakeman, and is a piece of classic English folk rock with prog rock leanings. This is the title track, written by Dave and with him on lead vocals:

The band had made the UK Albums chart the previous year with a live album, Just A Collection Of Antiques And Curios, which got to #27 here, but From The Witchwood was their first studio album to make the charts, peaking at #39. There are some lovely songs on it, of which this is one. I do have to confess to buying this one slightly late, as the first of theirs I had was their next one and this one was on catch up!

That next album was Grave New World, which was released in February 1972 and got to #11 in the UK. I bought it on the strength of hearing a couple of the tracks on late night radio – always a potential risk, but not in this case. The opening track on the album was released late in 1971 as a single, but didn’t trouble the guys who keep the charts. I loved it then and still do:

Benedictus was written by Dave, who consulted the I Ching as to what to do next with the band after Rick Wakeman’s departure. The answer from the coins, “Humble must he constant be, where the paths of wisdom lead, distant is the shadow of the setting sun,” forms part of the first two lines of the song’s lyrics – pretty unique as a starting point, I think. The song’s other claim to being a little bit different from the norm is that the instrumental break is performed using a dulcimer played through a fuzz box – not something you hear every day!

By this album The Strawbs were moving more into prog rock territory, and the title track is a good example of that:

New World still sounds powerful to me, 53 years after I first heard it. In fact, the whole album feels like a mini-masterpiece. The original vinyl album – the one I bought –  had lavish artwork and included a pamphlet showing the lyrics of each track together with details of instrumentation. The front cover is a reproduction of William Blake’s Glad Day, in case you were wondering. This was their real chart breakthrough: Grave New World made #11 in the UK Albums chart. It also gave them their first US chart placing, at #191.

Their next album, Bursting At The Seams, was released in February 1973 and fared even better, reaching #2 in the UK and #121 in the US. It gave them their first UK hit single, though technically that release was in October 1972 initially as a standalone single, but who’s counting? This was it, a bit more pop rock than either folk or prog:

Lay Down reached #12 in the UK, but wasn’t a hit anywhere else. I always liked it, and it was great to see them on Top Of The Pops! The clip I used wasn’t from that, but the only one I could find of their TOTP appearance was introduced by one of the paedophile DJs of the time and I refuse to have him anywhere near my site!

The album’s chart success was, I think, largely driven by the other hit single taken from it, Part Of The Union, which reached #2 in the UK. Luckily for me, as I hated it then and still do, it was written by two other band members, Richard Hudson and John Ford, so I can justify not playing it today. A truly awful song, though, but people seemed to like it!

Instead of that, I’m playing another of Dave’s songs from that album:

Stormy Down is much more to my taste, and much closer to the band’s folk rock ethos.

I mentioned earlier that an early Strawbs incarnation included the fabulous Sandy Denny. They toured Europe with her in 1967 and actually recorded an album in a cinema in Copenhagen (!), but couldn’t get a record deal. The album eventually surfaced on a budget label in 1973, as a clear attempt by the record company to cash in on their success. It was entitled All Our Own Work, and Dave wrote most of its songs. I’m playing you one of these, though he didn’t take lead vocal on it – guess who:

I’m only giving you the briefest of glimpses of what Dave Cousins has recorded down the years, as there is far too much to cover in any comprehensive way: 38 albums with The Strawbs, not counting compilations, and a further 10 solo offerings. And as well as his musical career Dave also ran his own record company and had a career in radio, acting as a producer, programme controller and managing director across a range of radio stations in the UK and Denmark.  But he always had music in his heart, and I thought I’d close today with the title track of the final album The Strawbs recorded. This is The Magic Of It All, which was released in July 2023, shortly before they played their final gig at Fairport Convention’s annual Cropredy Festival. It is a lovely piece of retrospection, as befits a long and varied career:

A suitable note on which to leave, I think. I hope I’ve shown you why the music of Dave Cousins has been with me for so many years, and why I’ll miss him.

R.I.P. Dave 😢