WITCHWOOD
A&M, 1971
Planned release date: 2 Apr 1971 (UK).
UK vinyl
Asia Pacific vinyl
One of the rarest elements of any Strawbs collection.
Initially Strawbs' management announced that "I'll Carry On Beside You" would be the A-side of the group's next single, a EP with non-album track "Let's Keep The Devil Outside" written by John Ford and a live cut from the QEH concert "We'll Meet Again Sometime". The scheduled release date was 26 Mar 1971 (though the test pressing had a handwritten release date of 2 Apr 1971). However, in Record Mirror in April 1971, Hud explained that the initial choice by the record company for the single was "I'll Carry On Beside You" (perhaps a more obvious choice). They:
"wanted a single out before the album, and so they were going to pull off a fairly commercial track from the album, but we weren't too happy about that. Suddenly, "Witchwood" came up and we all agreed to issue it."
However, even that fell through. A few weeks later, manager Mike Dolan had to explain to the press that the Witchwood single had been withdrawn after sending out review copies as it had been found to be faulty. Dolan:
"When we received copies of the single from the factory we found that they had been cut at half volume and sounded dreadful. We have now decided to withdraw the single completely as it would have clashed with the release of their album in May."
With hindsight, there were different explanations: Wakeman, in interview with Mark Plummer of Melody Maker, asserted that:
"the trouble over ironing out material led to the band paying out a fortune recording three times as much material as needed for "Witchwood" and the last minute withdrawal of the single. Simply no-one in the band could agree over what should be released as a single."
Not certain that there was "three times as much" - other than "Keep The Devil Outside" the only thing that might have been from that period is a band recording of "We'll Meet Again Sometime", which surfaced by mistake on the UK Halcyon Days but which, according to the Universal CD release of Dragonfly was recorded in June 1969. (Another very similar Top Gear session version from September 1969 was also on that reissue.) So any "hidden gems" from those sessions have stayed very successfully hidden!
Whilst various comments suggest that only yellow label promo copies were ever pressed, there do seem to have been a few normal copies which were finished and which escaped destruction - one of those items where the full release copy is even rarer than the promo.
The copy of the promo copy I have was from Brian Cairney's collection, with a note from Dave on the card sleeve. I have also now acquired a handwritten white label test pressing.
"Keep The Devil Outside" is correctly credited to John Ford here - when rescued for the b-side of "Benedictus", and for Japanese release as a 45 in its own right, it was incorrectly credited to Ford and Hudson.
"We'll Meet Again Sometime" is a live outtake from the QEH concert on 11 July 1970, possibly the opening number. It was supposed to be included on the UK Halcyon Days CD, but what in fact appeared was a hitherto unreleased studio version, which, according to the Universal CD release of Dragonfly was recorded in June 1969.
Back to main 1968 to mid-1972 singles page
UK VINYL
UK promo
"Witchwood" (Cousins)//
"Keep The Devil Outside" (Ford)/ "We'll Meet Again Sometime" (Cousins)
(AMS 837, A&M, 1971)
Spotted online - a copy with a date stamp - not clear whether this was stamped by the sender or the recipient.
UK full release
"Witchwood" (Cousins)//
"Keep The Devil Outside" (Ford)/ "We'll Meet Again Sometime" (Cousins)
(AMS 837, A&M, 1971)
UK test pressing
A white label test pressing with handwritten labels. Dated 2 Apr 1971.
ASIA PACIFIC VINYL
Australian release ??
Possible there may have been an Australian release?
New Zealand release
"Witchwood" (Cousins)
/
"A Glimpse Of Heaven" (Cousins)
(AMKZ 4710, A&M/Festival, New Zealand, 1972)
"Witchwood" was released in New Zealand a year later with a different b-side "A Glimpse Of Heaven".
