the fan website at https://www.strawbsweb.co.uk/hist/hist2.asp with its nicely done 9-part history of the band, with Part 2 about Rick?
https://www.strawbsweb.co.uk/hist/hist2.asp
That mentions how Tony Visconti had basically kept Rick going financially during that time with lots of session work (including with the Strawbs at first), which had even interfered a bit with the recording of From The Witchwood.
I posted an OP back in 2022 about one weird side project Rick had worked on then.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/103485626
That post links to video with Rick's fond memories of that project, adding to what Tony wrote about it in his bio.
Tony was very fond of Rick, though there wasn't a lot about him in his bio, which is (understandably) mostly about Bowie and Bolan, with Tony having worked with so many other famous musicians the book would have been hundreds of pages longer if he'd given them the attention they deserve. He'd first worked with Rick on a session when he was recording Tucker Zimmerman - see this thread and reply 2 there, with Tony's first mention of Rick in his bio:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1034134188
There'd been a bit more about Rick in that paragraph:
I think this might have been the very first session I used Rick Wakeman on - possibly his first recording session ever. I'd met Rick on the premises of Essex Music; he was writing for John Fenton at the time. I always liked Rick, he had a refreshing 'just-one-of-the-lads' personality and could drink most of us under the table at the pub.
Tony's next mention of Rick is in paragraphs about the recording of Bowie's Space Oddity, which Tony flatly refused to produce for his friend, because he felt the song was "a cheap shot to capitalize on the first moon landing." He did recommend Rick for keyboards on that song: "Rick had to play a Mellotron, which he'd never seen before that day."
There are a couple of pages on the Strawbs later in the book. Tony remembers the recording of Dragonfly in Copenhagen, in a studio adjacent to a cinema whose noise got through the studio wall enough that they couldn't record in the evenings.
This gentle album was fueled by Carlsberg Elephant beer (it's about the same strength as wine) and pornographic magazines obtained from vending machines on the street, to dispel loneliness. You'd never believe that when you hear the gossamer beauty of this album and the spiritual songs that dwell within.
Considering these were young musicians living in the UK, which had very strict anti-porn laws then, I'm not at all surprised they'd be curious about those Danish magazines.
Tony's book has about a page and a half on the recording of their live album Just A Collection Of Antiques And Curios. But nothing at all, sadly, about From The Witchwood. He does mention the Strawbs again later i the book because when he was asked to produce Mary Hopkin's second album, and met her to discuss that on May 4, 1971, the day after her 21st birthday, she immediately made it clear she didn't want to be a pop star. She told Tony (who quickly fell in love with her) that she had always considered herself a folk singer, and she wanted to do an acoustic folk album. Tony suggested she work with Dave Cousins of the Strawbs, and with Ralph McTell and Danny Thompson. She loved the idea - had loved Dragonfly. And when Tony called those three musicians later, they loved the idea of doing a folk album with Mary, too. That became Earth Song/Ocean Song.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Song/Ocean_Song
Tony's done so many interviews, and there might be one out there specifically on From The Witchwood and even specifically on The Papist And The Hangman, but I haven't found it yet.
I did find an interesting detail on how and when this song was written, in a 2012 interview with Dave Cousins:
https://dcrocklive.blogspot.com/2012/08/interview-with-dave-cousins-of-strawbs.html
DH - I was reading that in the early days of touring in England, you did a tour with Roy Harper. Did you get along well with him?
DC - Ummm, on that early tour, no (laughter). We have become great friends since. In fact we were traveling in the same truck together and the same day I finished my song, "The Hangman and the Papist", Roy finished his song, "Me and my Woman". So he looked at the lyrics and said no, I don't like that. But he didn't really like our music at that time. Later on when we toured Scandanavia together with him and we became a rock band, he said this is bloody wonderful and we became the best of friends.
Tony also knew Roy Harper and helped him a bit with one of his albums.
That entire music scene was fascinating. I was thinking when I posted a short film the other day about Jimmy Buffett and his writer friends in Key West in the 1970s -
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1034143588 - that I wish there were similar films about the British music scene circa 1970, as much on the friendships as records and performances.
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