Listen, listen

I have been working, in my mind, on a theory for some time that Listen, Listen by the late great Sandy Denny was a response to the Light Up the Fire album. The truth is even stranger.

The song is about a messianic individual, a mediaeval traveller of some kind, a Pied Piper or a recruiter for the Crusades.

Its chorus goes: "Listen, listen to him do,
He is the one who is for you.
Listen, they say,
He'll come and take us all away."

One verse states: "I am a traveller by trade,
I only have what I have made.
A fortune teller too they say,
And I can take you all away."

It was released as a single in September 1972 as the lead single from her solo album Sandy.

Significantly its musical accompaniment is heavy with mandolin, just like Light Up the Fire. Indeed it's the closest comparison I have ever found to tracks like When the Morning Comes and Roundabout. (Click on header for more....)