"The Purple Dancer"
 

Since Jeremy Spencer is lurking again, I thought I would ask about a song that's not easy to locate. The version found on "Madison Blues", and "Perfect Days", is an outtake and not the original. Would some kind soul make the single version available if they have it? I've read that it's much better than the widely available CD version.


As for the song's background (Jeremy?) it sounds to me like a joint collaboration between Spencer and Kirwan. In fact I'd say it was Jeremy's most contemporary song that he ever wrote with the Mac (if he did help to write it). Am I close to the truth? Is this the last song Jeremy Spencer recorded with Fleetwood Mac, or was "Dragonfly" the last, or did you even contribute on "Dragonfly"?


Thanks in advance. :D If this has been discussed before, I apologize.

Update:

I found it here:

http://fleetwoodmacmusic.blogspot.co...1_archive.html

Thank you keeper of the Fleetwood Mac blog! Nice slide work Jeremy, you left musically on a high note.

Purple Dancer & Dragonfly are certainly two of the better songs to come out of this period (and there were plenty). I don't understand why they aren't more readily available.

The fantastic discography on here (fleetwoodmac.net) says that Jeremy provides guitar and vocals to Dragonfly. Certainly Purple Dancer is more of a duet between Danny and Jeremy, each taking alternate verses.

If the discography is correct, then Dragonfly was written by Danny with W.H. Davies (wasn't it a poem by W.H. Davies?), and Purple Dancer was written by Danny, Mick and John.

http://discog.fleetwoodmac.net/songs...59&perfid=4025

http://discog.fleetwoodmac.net/songs...77&perfid=5200

To answer my own question, the 1927 original W.H. Davies Poem of Dragonfly was...

The Dragonfly

Now, when my roses are half buds, half flowers,
And loveliest, the king of flies has come-
It was a fleeting visit, all too brief;
In three short minutes he has seen them all,
And rested, too, upon an apple tree.

There, his round shoulders humped with emeralds,
A gorgeous opal crown set on his head,
And all those shining honours to his breast-
‘My garden is a lovely place’ though I,
‘But is it worthy of such a guest?’

He rested there, upon the apple leaf-
‘See, see,’ I cried amazed, ‘his opal crown,
And all those emeralds clustered around his head!’
‘His breast, my dear, how lovely was his breast-’
The voice of my Beloved quickly said.

‘See, see his gorgeous crown, that shines
With all those jewels bulging round its rim-’
I cried aloud at night, in broken rest.
Back came the answer quickly, in my dream-
‘His breast, my dear, how lovely was his breast!’


The Danny lyrics are:

And when the roses are half-bud soft flowers
And lovely as the king of flies has come
It was a fleeting visit, all too brief
In three short minutes, he had been and gone

He rested there upon an apple leaf
A gorgeous opal crown sat on his head
Although the garden is a lovely place
Was it worthy of so fine a guest

Oh...
Oh...
Oh...
Oh...

Dragonfly, dragonfly ...


I apologise for going slightly off on a tangent from the original Purple Dancer thread... :(

Lurking?
 

Hmmm. I hope I'm doing more than that!:)
Yes, I was present on some of the brainstorming of ideas for Purple Dancer, but the lyrics were from Jenny Boyd, Mick's wife at the time.
As a whole, we were hard pressed for lyrics with much of a meaning but 'la-la-la'. A major frustration for me. I had so much to say, but didn't know how to say it, and ... well, history.
I had nothing to do with 'Dragonfly', performance or lyrically. Words by W. H. Auden, I believe? Maybe not. Some British poet, anyway.
Just FYI!
Oops, someone beat me to the punch! W. H. Davies. That's it!

Thanks Jeremy, yes, I had only put you as appearing on Dragonfly by default since you were in the band at the time (since many records unfortunately don't specifially state who does what on each track) so we're left to do a lot of assuming and "defaults". Anyways, it's good to know now I can remove you from the performance notes for that then.

Please do point out any other inaccuracies you see there so we can fix those as well, we strive to be as accurate and thorough as we can!

Through research I had done when working on the Dragonfly song page I came up with W(illiam) H(enry) Davies as the poet (full name listed) in case that helps to clarify who it was.

Wow! Had no idea Jenny Boyd did the lyrics for PD, I guess I should add that in as well then! :)

John

I have a Purple Dancer "Kiln House session" version here that I'm listening to and it clocks in at 5:41. Would this be the same as the outtake version on Madison Blues? Regardless, I love the stuff from this era.

Edit: I also have a track (7:08) titled Station Man/Danny's Chant Demo. Is this featured on any compilations or box sets? I only have studio albums and Live in Chicago, and it's time for me to go to bed, so I can't do a Google search right now.

I always wondered if that was a Sitar or just slide on Dragonfly, it has a really deep vibration whatever it is. Dust on Bare Trees was another poem set to music, not sure that happened much outside of the folk-rock crowd. I kind of like the live Purple Dancers on the Madison set best myself, kind of a Dead/Airplane thing in there so that live seems the best way to go.

Or maybe that's a dobro...

Thanks for finding and posting the link to "The Purple Dancer" mp3 file, slipkid! I have the studio version on the German The Best of Fleetwood Mac LP but there are some annoying pops on the vinyl. The studio version has been my favorite - I prefer it to the Madison Blues versions - of course that may be at least partly due to the studio version being the only one I had for many years. But it's still among my favorite of the band's songs from the early '70s.

Great recollection on the writing of the song, Jeremy - thanks!

Did / does she get any royalties for this??????:shrug:

The outtake I have clocks in at 5:05. Of course I only have "Perfect Days". "Madison Blues" has two outtake versions of Purple Dancer. You must have the other one.

Thanks for your insight Jeremy. Since you responded, you are no longer "lurking". :)

I have three versions of Purple Dancer

Madison Blues Disc 1 - 5.04
Madison Blues Disc 2 - 7.36 (although really only 7.18 as the rest is the start of the next track)
Single version - 5.41

I doubt there'd be huge songwriting royalties for this tune seeing as it wasn't a hit nor was it on an album. Plus the publishing was split between several band members.

It wouldn't be the first time someone who's contributed hasn't received a credit. But i'm sure Mick would've given her something for her efforts.

just not in the financial sense :lol:

Is "The Purple Dancer" the only pre-Rumours track where two band members traded off singing lead vocals, as Danny and Jeremy did? Off hand, I can't think of another one.

I just reread the insert of Madison Blues and was amazed how much is mentioning the Rumours whatever it was/is to come. Not any info about Purple Dancer so much or if either of the live recordings might predate the studio one. The obsession some have with Rumours! Anyway, I think 'Jet' is pretty much reaching as to the three vocalists setting the stage for Rumours idea. Like some Beatles fans who claim no artists wrote or were allowed to write their own songs before them (Chuck Berry, Bo Diddly, and Fats Domino sure as @#%&! did), some Mac fans are clouded by Buckingham & Nicks' dramatic rise to the heights of mythic immortality. Kiln House and Station Man/Purple Dancer specifically as a warm-up to a full west-coast harmony-pop sound? Nuh-uh! Some of it does remind me of the folk-rock around in England then, in drawing on older musical themes ala Music From Big Pink/The Band a bit. Fairport did some really neat versions of earlier Everlys songs along with the stuff from old English ballads/poems. Like I wrote earlier I wish there had been more of the Jeremy-Danny-Christine line-up and the Madison Blues set is a major reason for changing my mind on that.

I think the liner notes are for those Mac fans that only know Nicks/Buckingham, and beyond. I agree the songs stand on their own, no need for the sales pitch.

You should read the liner notes for "Boston Blues". Here is the final paragraph:

"Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, of course soldiered on, hiring various American session muso's, eventually re-emerging as the most successful AOR band of the 70's and 80's. But despite their name on the door, they weren't a patch on the REAL Fleetwood Mac, never mind how many platinum records they were awarded!" :thumbsup: This CD is of course the 2/70 Boston shows.

After Jeremy left, the band was the interesting Green/Kirwan/C. McVie/J. McVie/Fleetwood (Nigel Watson: congas) line-up for about six weeks. Though I think Green's LONG concert jams drove the group away from him as much as he didn't want to be there at the same time. If all parties allowed it, that would've been the streamlined Fleetwood Mac that would've continued its success, instead of being lost for four years. Yet there's always that 3 ton elephant in the room named mental illness.

Sorry for dredging up an old thread - just found it :D

Wasn't the song credited to Spencer / Kirwan / Fleetwood? If so, that's where she got the credit, via Mick - that's my guess.

No, it was credited to 'M.J.K. Fleetwood, J.G. McVie & D.D. Kirwan'.

'The purple dancer' has been my favourite (official) FM song since the early eighties. I'm still hoping for a cd release...
To my knowledge, 3 versions are available: the two on the "Madison Blues" CD and the 'official' version, released as the B-side of 'Dragonfly' and on a German (?) lp: "The Best of Fleetwood Mac".
I have the single and 4 or 5 copies of the album.

GJK

(Going to see Peter Green on Saturday October 31st!)

Veel plezier!!

So I was close! It still might explain how Jenny Boyd could have received a credit for it.

Those are the three versions that I know of, and I guess they stopped playing it live when (or before) Jeremy left. The 'best of' LP is German for sure. Was it never released on CD?

The Dragonfly / Purple Dancer single came out in the UK with no picture sleeve, and in Germany and Holland with a couple of cool sleeves. Does anyone know if it was released anywhere else?

Enjoy the gig :)

I believe it was, but was taken out of print in fairly short order. I have the LP and have been looking for a CD copy for a number of years.

Another "rarity" on that LP is the original 45 mix of "World In Harmony". I don't think that has seen the light of day on CD (those Vaudeville Years and ShowBiz Blues set versions are outtakes or alternate mixes)

So basically, that CD, however rare it is, is the only CD with those two tracks in their original forms. Definitely one to keep an eye out for. If anybody ever finds it, it may well be reasonably priced because most sellers would not necessarily know about its unique properties :)

While we're on the subject: there are 11 tracks from the pre B/N period that are not (easily) avilable on CD.

From the 'Jeremy Spencer' album:

Linda
Mean blues
Here comes Charlie (with his dancing shoes on)
Teenage love affair
Jenny Lee
Take a look around Mrs. Brown
Surfin' girl
If I could swim the mountain
Teenage darling # (B-side form the 'Linda' single)

Fleetwood Mac:

World in harmony
The purple dancer

Also, 6 tracks from the B/N period (all B-sides).

GJK

That first Jeremy Spencer solo album is really a great album, perhaps showcasing Jeremy's amazing talent for mimicry more than any other album. I'm still very pleased that I managed to obtain a CD copy of it. Nothing better than listening to "Take A Look Around Mrs Brown". :lol:

I saw them perform Purple Dancer on a BBC prog broadcast on New years Eve 1970(?) The prog may have been a Top of the Pops special There were many singers and groups I don'trecal FM doing any other numbers , but I do remember ,when the end titles rolled ,they were standing with the studio audience , who were dancing to whoever was performing ,and Jeremy was bopping away too ,whilst the others stood still.

Well, since we're digging up old threads, might as well add some more, too.

"Purple Dancer", yeah, probably, but they kept "Dragonfly" in the set well after Bob Welch joined. There's a video clip (BBC? Top Of The Pops?) of the Future Games/Bare Trees lineup playing "Dragonfly".

That's the awesome Beat Club programme from Germany. Bit like the British TOTP but probably better, plus they didn't wipe all their tapes during the 1980s :rolleyes: There's footage of "Lay It All Down" from the same show.

There is the live recording of "The Purple Dancer" from shortly after Jeremy left the band, from San Bernardino in February 1971. Peter Green on rhythm guitar on this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etBRc_RUZx4

Wow, everything is on YouTube these days.

Back to "The Purple Dancer"...

Found this on YouTube awhile ago - it's labeled there as "purple dancer acetate":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CLyqWweTKc

Not the best sound quality - to be expected if this is really from an acetate. For the most part, this sounds to me pretty much identical to the Madison Blues studio version of the song with a few exceptions. There is a short guitar intro which is not present on the Madison Blues version (maybe just edited out of that version), while the ending is different and sounds cut off on the "acetate" version.

Here's the Madison Blues version for comparison:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRDRR00REOk

And FWIW, here's the single version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuRyVom9ftI

Any thoughts on the "acetate" version vs. the Madison Blues version?