The Strawbs - 50th Anniversary

The Strawbs - 50th Anniversary

by Pete Clemons

Thinking back to the late 1960s when I was becoming a teenager, apart from the normal chart music, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Moody Blues and Beatles albums and such like, I distinctly remember being totally captivated by 3 LP records of less familiar bands. These were Music in a Dolls House by Family, It’s All About by Spooky Tooth and the first record release by The Strawbs. Although, as I was not aware of at that time, technically, it wasn’t the band’s first album release. That had been an album recorded with Sandy Denny which was abandoned to the vaults. It would, however, see light of day some years later.

Family and Spooky Tooth have both long since split although the charismatic lead vocalist of Family, Roger Chapman, still performs the occasional gig. As does ex Family drummer, Rob Townsend, who turns out for The Manfreds. Remarkably however, The Strawbs are still going strong, and still lead by the bands founder and primary song writer Dave Cousins who continues to produce wonderful music.

The other band members at the time of the first LP, guitarist and vocalist Tony Hooper and double bass player Ron Chesterman had both left the band by 1973. Having said that, Tony Hooper did return for a while from the late 80s through to the early 90s. Ron Chesterman sadly passed away during 2007.

April 2019 will see the band celebrate their 50th anniversary in the United States. But consistently year after year The Strawbs have gigged almost continuously throughout that time either with a full band or acoustically. And it is equally impressive that, for the last 45 years or so, Dave has had guitarist Dave Lambert at his side.

At this point I am not even going to attempt to give a potted history of The Strawbs. It is far too complicated a tale to tell and, besides, it is all out there on the internet to see. Some wonderful work has clearly been done cataloguing the bands history.

However, I would just like to acknowledge this fine debut record because, for me personally, it has been like a life-long friend and has never been far from the record player / CD player. Even today the songs within it have never dated and retained the beauty I first discovered soon after it was released during May/June 1969. On its release Melody Maker called it ‘thoughtful arrangements offset the songs, which are reminiscent of the Moody Blues style’.

The opening track, ‘The Man Who Called Himself Jesus’, even for someone like myself who has never really understood the notion of religion, is immediately compelled to listen. The lyric is so sympathetic to the situation in many ways.

‘That Which Once Was Mine’ – and it’s opening line of ‘If in some capricious moment’ – I wouldn’t have even known what the word capricious meant back then. ‘Pieces of 79 and 15’. Again, there is no way I would have known what that song was all about. Even today, I am still not totally sure. The closest I came to a greater understanding was when I came across an interview with Dave Cousins where he explained that ‘it centred around Tony Hooper’s bizarre experiences in his several, extremely seedy, London flats’. The mind can only wonder.

So, it clearly wasn’t the lyrics that drew me to this record. Maybe it was the music then. As with Nick Drake albums, this album had arrangements added to it, to greatly enhance the songs. Great credit therefore must go to producer Tony Visconti and Gus Dudgeon who recorded it.

‘Oh, how she changed’ / ‘Or am I dreaming’ / ‘Where am I’ / ‘Tell me what you see in me’ – are just totally intoxicating songs for someone of such a tender age. They were written with pure love, passion and whimsy. Or at least that’s how they come across to me at least. And, they capture perfectly, the vocal talents of both Dave Cousins and Tony Hooper. The Preserves Uncanned set, that featured many early recordings from the band known as the Strawberry Hill Boys, and who went on to become The Strawbs, also contained several stripped backed versions of songs that would crop up on The Strawbs debut record. The difference in them is stark and revealing.

As for The Strawbs developing into an electric band, which of course they did during the 1970s, Dave Cousins was clearly looking toward the future as early as January 1969 when, in an interview, he mentions this ambition for the band as well as introducing a drummer.

Do I have any criticisms of the record? No nothing major, only that, as good as the song is – and it really is, I always felt that ‘The Battle’ felt slightly out of context with the rest of the album. The song, as I understand, is about a game of chess. But maybe it was intended to be included as a way of adding some shade dark to all the light.


During their 50 years together, The Strawbs have produced many fine and varied albums. So powerful are some of the lyrics I have seen them reduce people to tears. But the stories and messages within that debut record certainly left a huge impression on me. Maybe it was a simple case that it happened to snare me at such a vulnerable and innocent time in my life, who knows. Whatever the reason though, I am just so thankful that it did happen. It remains today, when called upon, something that’s guaranteed to make me feel a whole lot better about things.