Fairport Convention: Crazy Man Michael

This is a song written by Richard Thompson and Dave Swarbrick and sung by Sandy Denny. It appeared on Fairport Convention's 1969 album Liege and Lief.

Thompson had first set his words to a traditional folk tune, but Dave Swarbrick wasn't convinced:

"I thought that the words were great but that the tune weakened it ... He said that if I felt like that, why didn’t I write a tune for it? So I did."

It's usual to read Crazy Man Michael as an expression of grief and guilt at the death of Thompson's girlfriend Jeannie Franklyn when Fairport Convention's van overturned on the motorway coming back from a gig.

Richard Thompson himself is more measured:

"It is a very emotional song. In fact, it’s a song I only really started singing myself [in about 2004]. Firstly because it’s a difficult song melodically to sing, and I wanted to find a way to modify the melody slightly. 

"Plus it’s about Fairport’s car crash in ’69; there’s nothing in it directly about what happened. You could look at it circumspectly and say, ‘This is about losing my girlfriend,’ but at the time I was in hospital and I just began by writing a story, just enjoying the process of putting down a story. It emerged that it was about stuff close to home. 

"It is nice, given all that, to be able to get close to the traditional model."

Anyway, it's a magical song and a reminder of Fairport Convention in the days when they had two geniuses in the shape of Thompson and Sandy Denny.