MAGNA CARTA
When All Is Said And Done REPERTOIRE
Box set spanning over 50 years of recordings by the UK folk rock group.
The earliest music on When All Is Said And Done is a 1965 demo by Magna Carta’s mainstay, vocalist-guitarist and songwriter Chris Simpson. It forms part of a two-CD best-of and also included are a CD of the group’s most recent album, 2015’s The Fields Of Eden and a DVD of their final UK concert recorded in January 2020 at Ripley Town Hall in Simpson’s home county of Yorkshire.
Magna Carta began in the late 60s as an acoustic trio, with fluid playing around strong songs. Although not as lauded now as some of their peers, back in their early 70s heyday they played at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Guitarist Davey Johnstone was briefly a member and from the outset they drew upon top session players including Gerry Conway, Rick Wakeman and Danny Thompson to embellish their music.
This career-spanning collection could do with more detailed credits and although it includes “alternative versions” it’s not clear which these are. The tracklisting jumps around with, for example, a live track from 2000 sandwiched between two 70s cuts, but as well as jumbling up the experience a bit, it underlines the remarkably consistent quality of Simpson’s writing. And as well as folk, Magna Carta have mixed in blues, jazz and classical elements with a hint of Americana, particularly West Coast harmonies.
It might seem an odd choice for this retrospective to include the group’s most recent album The Fields Of Eden, but it measures up with Simpson’s best work. It has an elegiac feel, with metaphysical musings on time passing, and poetry that evokes the history and landscape of Simpson’s beloved Yorkshire Dales. The instrumentation includes sax, banjo and keyboards, with strings giving a chamber ensemble feel to some sections. It finishes on a wry note with an extra track, a live version of There’s Life In The Old Dog Yet, and the DVD demonstrates that if Simpson, who is now 80, really has retired from live performance he did so at the top.