WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 I want you to picture something. You're standing 00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:05.500 on a wooden platform. It's cold. Maybe it's that 00:00:05.500 --> 00:00:08.080 damp English mist. You've got a rope around your 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:10.759 neck. A hood over your head. You can hear the 00:00:10.759 --> 00:00:13.339 crowd. The priest is muttering a final prayer. 00:00:13.699 --> 00:00:16.859 You brace yourself. The executioner pulls the 00:00:16.859 --> 00:00:20.519 lever. And absolutely nothing. The trapdoor just 00:00:20.519 --> 00:00:22.780 stays shut. You're still standing there. So they 00:00:22.780 --> 00:00:25.440 think, okay, a faulty mechanism. They move you 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:28.280 off. They test it. And it works perfectly. Clunk. 00:00:28.379 --> 00:00:32.240 So they put you back on. Hood on. Rope tight. 00:00:32.619 --> 00:00:35.579 Pull the lever again. And... Again, nothing. 00:00:35.700 --> 00:00:38.320 The Earth just refuses to swallow you. And just 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:40.140 to make sure the universe is really, you know, 00:00:40.140 --> 00:00:42.079 making a point, they try it a third time. And 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:44.280 for a third time, the machine fails. It sounds 00:00:44.280 --> 00:00:46.119 like a ghost story, doesn't it? But this is a 00:00:46.119 --> 00:00:48.479 real historical event. This is the story of John 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:51.280 Babacomlee. The man they couldn't hang. Exactly. 00:00:51.420 --> 00:00:54.039 It's one of the most bizarre true crime stories 00:00:54.039 --> 00:00:56.740 from the Victorian era. But our way into this 00:00:56.740 --> 00:00:59.329 story today is a little different. Very different. 00:00:59.409 --> 00:01:01.990 We're not looking at court transcripts. We are 00:01:01.990 --> 00:01:06.129 exploring the story through a 1971 album by the 00:01:06.129 --> 00:01:08.810 British folk rock legends Fairport Convention. 00:01:09.150 --> 00:01:11.930 The album is called Babacomlee. And this isn't 00:01:11.930 --> 00:01:14.469 just, you know, a song about a guy. This is a 00:01:14.469 --> 00:01:17.049 massive conceptual piece of work. We're talking 00:01:17.049 --> 00:01:20.030 about a band known for jigs and reels. Traditional 00:01:20.030 --> 00:01:22.650 stuff. Suddenly pivoting to make what is, well, 00:01:22.769 --> 00:01:26.310 arguably the first. folk rock opera. It was a 00:01:26.310 --> 00:01:28.890 huge risk. I mean, a truly massive commercial 00:01:28.890 --> 00:01:32.030 gamble. It went from having chart success to 00:01:32.030 --> 00:01:34.409 releasing this continuous grim narrative about 00:01:34.409 --> 00:01:37.170 a murder and a botched hanging. Which is a fascinating 00:01:37.170 --> 00:01:40.290 mix, isn't it? History, music, and maybe a complete 00:01:40.290 --> 00:01:42.549 lack of business sense. The best combination. 00:01:42.870 --> 00:01:45.349 I love it. So let's get into the why. Why this 00:01:45.349 --> 00:01:47.930 story? Did they just find it in a library? You'd 00:01:47.930 --> 00:01:50.590 think so, given how detailed it is. But the origin 00:01:50.590 --> 00:01:52.870 of this whole project is almost as strange as 00:01:52.870 --> 00:01:55.909 the story of John Lee itself. It all starts with 00:01:55.909 --> 00:01:58.069 Dave Swarbrick. The fiddle player. Right. The 00:01:58.069 --> 00:02:00.189 fiddle player and vocalist. Swarbrick was a bit 00:02:00.189 --> 00:02:01.989 of a collector. You know, he loved old things. 00:02:02.109 --> 00:02:04.370 One day he's digging through a dusty old junk 00:02:04.370 --> 00:02:09.210 shop. As one does. And he spots this file. Just 00:02:09.210 --> 00:02:11.250 a bundle of old papers, newspaper clippings. 00:02:11.310 --> 00:02:13.509 Which for a folk musician is basically treasure 00:02:13.509 --> 00:02:16.530 anyway. Oh, exactly. But he opens it up and realizes 00:02:16.530 --> 00:02:19.159 this isn't random. These clippings are all about 00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:21.900 the John Lee case. The murder, the trial, the 00:02:21.900 --> 00:02:24.860 failed hanging. But here's the kicker. Okay. 00:02:25.020 --> 00:02:27.360 This is where it gets spooky. The file wasn't 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:30.199 put together by some journalist or a history 00:02:30.199 --> 00:02:33.319 buff. Who was it? It was compiled by John Babacom 00:02:33.319 --> 00:02:36.259 Lee himself. Wait, what? Swarbrick just walks 00:02:36.259 --> 00:02:38.719 into a random junk shop and finds the personal 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:41.560 scrapbook of the man the story's about? Signed 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:45.979 and dated by him. 30 January 1908. John Lee had 00:02:45.979 --> 00:02:47.580 cut out these articles, bound them together, 00:02:47.719 --> 00:02:50.340 and kept them. Swarbrick was literally holding 00:02:50.340 --> 00:02:53.719 the primary source material. That is wildly improbable. 00:02:53.759 --> 00:02:55.319 It's almost like the story wanted to be found. 00:02:55.439 --> 00:02:57.199 It really feels that way. And that discovery 00:02:57.199 --> 00:02:59.300 completely changed the project. You know, in 00:02:59.300 --> 00:03:01.199 folk music, we talk about the oral tradition. 00:03:01.500 --> 00:03:03.639 Right. Songs passed down, changing over time. 00:03:03.919 --> 00:03:05.620 It's like a game of telephone over centuries. 00:03:06.060 --> 00:03:09.580 The truth gets fuzzy. But here, Fairport wasn't 00:03:09.580 --> 00:03:11.860 working from a fuzzy legend. They were working 00:03:11.860 --> 00:03:14.930 from the man's own archive. So they weren't just 00:03:14.930 --> 00:03:18.430 singers anymore. They were historians, in a way. 00:03:18.530 --> 00:03:20.789 They were adapting his scrapbook into a musical 00:03:20.789 --> 00:03:23.930 script, documenting a life. So let's look at 00:03:23.930 --> 00:03:26.469 that life. The album is structured like a play, 00:03:26.629 --> 00:03:29.650 isn't it? It follows a clear timeline. Strictly 00:03:29.650 --> 00:03:32.530 chronological. And to really get the music, you 00:03:32.530 --> 00:03:36.270 have to understand the arc of Lee's life as the 00:03:36.270 --> 00:03:39.060 band lays it out. So act one, where do we start? 00:03:39.159 --> 00:03:41.740 He wasn't always this apparent criminal, as the 00:03:41.740 --> 00:03:44.039 press called him. No, not at all. The first part 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:46.840 of the album deals with his innocence. It touches 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:49.719 on his boyhood poverty, sure, but it really highlights 00:03:49.719 --> 00:03:51.900 his time in the Royal Navy. I remember reading 00:03:51.900 --> 00:03:53.659 that the tracks described this as the happiest 00:03:53.659 --> 00:03:55.740 period in his life. And you can hear it in the 00:03:55.740 --> 00:03:57.800 music. It's got this energy, this sense of purpose. 00:03:57.900 --> 00:04:00.259 He's escaped poverty. He has a uniform, a role. 00:04:00.539 --> 00:04:03.400 But then... Circumstance hits. He gets sick. 00:04:03.659 --> 00:04:05.620 He's invalided out of the Navy. That's such a 00:04:05.620 --> 00:04:07.560 brutal turn. You finally get out and then your 00:04:07.560 --> 00:04:09.939 own body lets you down. And that's the setup 00:04:09.939 --> 00:04:12.659 for the fall. He goes from the structure of the 00:04:12.659 --> 00:04:16.139 Navy to just drifting through menial jobs. He's 00:04:16.139 --> 00:04:18.879 desperate. And that desperation is what leads 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:21.399 him to the Glanus. Which sounds like the title 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:23.800 of a horror movie. It might as well be. It's 00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:26.399 the home of Miss Keys. Lee enters her service. 00:04:26.660 --> 00:04:30.069 And that brings us to act two, the crime. Miss 00:04:30.069 --> 00:04:33.790 Keys is murdered. Brutally. And the whole mood 00:04:33.790 --> 00:04:35.829 of the album shifts here. It stops being about 00:04:35.829 --> 00:04:38.410 Lee's inner world and starts reflecting this 00:04:38.410 --> 00:04:41.810 external hysteria. The Victorian press went absolutely 00:04:41.810 --> 00:04:45.439 wild. I can imagine. Kind old mistress slain 00:04:45.439 --> 00:04:48.620 by the villainous servant. It was the 1885 equivalent 00:04:48.620 --> 00:04:51.019 of a viral Netflix true crime series. Everybody 00:04:51.019 --> 00:04:53.399 had a take. And the music reflects that chaos. 00:04:53.699 --> 00:04:55.620 Completely. You've got Dave Swarbrick's fiddle 00:04:55.620 --> 00:04:57.639 and instrument, usually associate with, you know, 00:04:57.639 --> 00:04:59.720 a happy dance tune. And suddenly it's making 00:04:59.720 --> 00:05:01.980 this screeching, claustrophobic sound. It's not 00:05:01.980 --> 00:05:04.860 melody. It's pure tension. So that brings us 00:05:04.860 --> 00:05:07.459 to the trial. How does the album portray Lee 00:05:07.459 --> 00:05:10.500 in all this? Is he fighting for his life? That's 00:05:10.500 --> 00:05:13.180 the fascinating part. The sources describe him 00:05:13.180 --> 00:05:16.180 as a bewildered observer. The legal system is 00:05:16.180 --> 00:05:18.740 just this huge grinding machine, and he's just 00:05:18.740 --> 00:05:21.180 watching it happen to him. He's passive. Completely. 00:05:21.459 --> 00:05:25.079 The lyrics, the music, it all conveys this sense 00:05:25.079 --> 00:05:27.860 of helplessness. He's not a participant. He's 00:05:27.860 --> 00:05:30.079 a victim of the process. Which leads him to the 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:33.699 condemned cell and those three sad weeks waiting 00:05:33.699 --> 00:05:35.819 to die. And this is where the songwriting gets 00:05:35.819 --> 00:05:37.889 incredibly psychological. They're not just saying, 00:05:37.970 --> 00:05:41.310 oh, he was sad. They focus on his sleep or lack 00:05:41.310 --> 00:05:43.509 of it. And there's this specific moment called 00:05:43.509 --> 00:05:47.069 the dream song. Tell me about that. Well, you 00:05:47.069 --> 00:05:48.949 have to imagine the strain. You know the exact 00:05:48.949 --> 00:05:51.670 date you're going to die. But the album describes 00:05:51.670 --> 00:05:55.050 Lee having this strange prophetic dream. It's 00:05:55.050 --> 00:05:57.209 almost mystical. A defense mechanism, maybe? 00:05:57.449 --> 00:05:59.769 It seems like it. This dream helps him bear the 00:05:59.769 --> 00:06:02.699 strain. It's as if his own mind created something 00:06:02.699 --> 00:06:05.519 to get him through the horror of it all. It adds 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:07.439 this whole other layer to the story. And then 00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:10.240 comes the morning of the execution. The track 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:12.800 Wake Up John. Chilling title, isn't it? It is. 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:16.139 And this is the climax we talked about. The gallows. 00:06:16.220 --> 00:06:19.759 The three attempts. The failure. And finally, 00:06:19.819 --> 00:06:22.459 a reprieve. He's released because the machine 00:06:22.459 --> 00:06:24.839 just refused to work. Let's talk about the format 00:06:24.839 --> 00:06:28.139 of this album. Because in 1971, this was unusual. 00:06:28.500 --> 00:06:30.959 If I bought this record, I'd expect a list of 00:06:30.959 --> 00:06:33.180 tracks on the back. And you would be very confused. 00:06:33.379 --> 00:06:35.720 The original LP didn't list any separate tracks. 00:06:35.860 --> 00:06:37.879 It was just side one and side two. So you couldn't 00:06:37.879 --> 00:06:39.920 skip to your favorite song. No skipping. There 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:41.819 were no bands on the vinyl. Those little gaps 00:06:41.819 --> 00:06:44.199 between songs. It was one continuous piece of 00:06:44.199 --> 00:06:46.439 music. The band was forcing you to listen to 00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:49.220 the whole story. In order. That is a bold move. 00:06:49.319 --> 00:06:51.480 Basically saying, sit down and listen to our 00:06:51.480 --> 00:06:54.180 opera. It really is. In fact, the book The Electric 00:06:54.180 --> 00:06:57.300 Muse argues that this is the first folk rock 00:06:57.300 --> 00:07:00.019 opera. That's a huge claim. People always point 00:07:00.019 --> 00:07:02.019 to the Who's Tommy. Well, sure. Tommy is the 00:07:02.019 --> 00:07:04.699 famous rock opera. Yeah. But in the folk world, 00:07:04.839 --> 00:07:07.000 this was completely new. They took traditional 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:09.459 instruments and stretched them over a 40 -minute 00:07:09.459 --> 00:07:11.899 conceptual narrative. It wasn't a collection 00:07:11.899 --> 00:07:15.079 of songs. It was a single, cohesive piece of 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:17.519 musical theater. I have seen the CD version, 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:20.379 though, and that does have track titles. Oh yeah, 00:07:20.459 --> 00:07:23.540 later on they broke it down. For sanity's sake. 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:26.399 The later CDs have titles like The Verdict or 00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:29.120 Cell Song, but that was a retroactive change. 00:07:29.399 --> 00:07:32.139 The original artistic intent was total immersion. 00:07:32.459 --> 00:07:34.439 You're trapped in the story. Just like Lee was 00:07:34.439 --> 00:07:36.600 trapped in the cell. So who was in the band at 00:07:36.600 --> 00:07:38.740 this point? To pull off something this tight, 00:07:38.899 --> 00:07:41.579 you need a really solid lineup. This was the 00:07:41.579 --> 00:07:44.339 four Daves plus Simon era, basically. Sounds 00:07:44.339 --> 00:07:46.980 like a pub quiz team. It really does. You had 00:07:46.980 --> 00:07:49.939 Dave Swarbrick on fiddle and vocals, Dave Pegg 00:07:49.939 --> 00:07:52.939 on bass, Dave Metax on drums, and Simon Nicole 00:07:52.939 --> 00:07:56.100 on guitar and vocals. A really stripped back 00:07:56.100 --> 00:07:58.920 unit. And focused, I imagine. Incredibly focused. 00:07:59.139 --> 00:08:00.759 They'd been through a lot of lineup changes, 00:08:00.939 --> 00:08:04.040 so this quartet had this almost telepathic connection. 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:06.899 They had to. The music on this album shifts constantly 00:08:06.899 --> 00:08:09.060 to follow the story. If they weren't locked in, 00:08:09.139 --> 00:08:10.699 the whole thing would just fall apart. So you've 00:08:10.699 --> 00:08:13.480 got a tight band, a killer story, a groundbreaking 00:08:13.480 --> 00:08:16.420 format. This thing must have been a massive hit. 00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:18.819 You would think so. I mean, their previous album, 00:08:18.920 --> 00:08:21.220 Angel Delight, was a church success. They had 00:08:21.220 --> 00:08:23.759 all this momentum. And then they drop a concept 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:26.180 album about a Victorian hanging. And the market 00:08:26.180 --> 00:08:28.720 just went, nope. How bad was it? Pretty bad. 00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:32.100 In the U .S., Babacoon Lee peaked at number 195 00:08:32.100 --> 00:08:35.830 on the Billboard chart. 195. That's barely even 00:08:35.830 --> 00:08:37.830 on the chart. It was a commercial disappointment, 00:08:38.029 --> 00:08:40.370 to put it mildly. And you have to remember the 00:08:40.370 --> 00:08:43.529 context. The average listener wanted another 00:08:43.529 --> 00:08:46.669 angel delight. They wanted catchy folk rock. 00:08:47.250 --> 00:08:51.070 Instead, they got this grim, complex, demanding 00:08:51.070 --> 00:08:53.710 historical drama. It's that classic tension, 00:08:53.889 --> 00:08:56.470 isn't it? Art versus commerce. The critics got 00:08:56.470 --> 00:08:59.470 the ambition, but the record -buying public just 00:08:59.470 --> 00:09:01.470 wanted something to tap their feet to. Exactly. 00:09:01.549 --> 00:09:03.730 But the story of the album didn't end there. 00:09:03.850 --> 00:09:05.769 There's this interesting little postscript. The 00:09:05.769 --> 00:09:08.710 Lost Tracks? Right. So a few years later, in 00:09:08.710 --> 00:09:11.549 1974, the BBC decides to make a documentary about 00:09:11.549 --> 00:09:14.450 John Lee. A proper one. Yeah, narrated by Melvin 00:09:14.450 --> 00:09:16.669 Bragg. And they asked the band to provide some 00:09:16.669 --> 00:09:19.610 music. But by then, the lineup had changed again. 00:09:19.750 --> 00:09:22.309 Simon Nicole had actually left. But he came back 00:09:22.309 --> 00:09:25.789 just for this project. And... And this is the 00:09:25.789 --> 00:09:28.990 holy grail for folk fans. Sandy Denny was involved. 00:09:29.210 --> 00:09:32.610 No way. Sandy Denny is folk royalty. She is the 00:09:32.610 --> 00:09:36.049 voice of British folk rock. She sang on a track 00:09:36.049 --> 00:09:39.110 called Breakfast in Mayfair just for this documentary. 00:09:39.110 --> 00:09:41.429 So those tracks ended up on later reissues of 00:09:41.429 --> 00:09:43.409 the album. It's a lovely little coda. And the 00:09:43.409 --> 00:09:46.350 album itself, it seems like it got a second life. 00:09:46.409 --> 00:09:48.789 It didn't just disappear. No, it became a cult 00:09:48.789 --> 00:09:51.830 classic. The real vindication came in 2011. for 00:09:51.830 --> 00:09:54.549 the 40th anniversary. Fairport decided to perform 00:09:54.549 --> 00:09:57.389 the entire album, start to finish, live. That's 00:09:57.389 --> 00:09:59.970 a huge undertaking. They did it on tour and at 00:09:59.970 --> 00:10:02.950 their big annual festival, Cropperty. And the 00:10:02.950 --> 00:10:05.070 crowd absolutely loved it. It kind of proved 00:10:05.070 --> 00:10:06.909 the album wasn't a failure. It was just... Ahead 00:10:06.909 --> 00:10:08.970 of its time. Or maybe it just needed an audience 00:10:08.970 --> 00:10:10.649 that was finally ready to sit down and really 00:10:10.649 --> 00:10:13.070 listen. It's amazing how time changes our idea 00:10:13.070 --> 00:10:16.990 of success. A flop in 1971. A masterpiece today. 00:10:17.399 --> 00:10:19.559 And it just highlights what made that band so 00:10:19.559 --> 00:10:21.159 special. They could have played it safe, made 00:10:21.159 --> 00:10:24.059 Angel to Light part two, but they followed the 00:10:24.059 --> 00:10:26.600 story. They honored that dusty file from the 00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:28.659 junk shop. They put the history ahead of the 00:10:28.659 --> 00:10:30.659 hit single. I keep coming back to that central 00:10:30.659 --> 00:10:33.559 moment, the machine failing. It's the pivot point 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:35.740 of his entire life. We live in a world where 00:10:35.740 --> 00:10:38.480 we just expect things to work. You know, you 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:41.120 flip a switch, the light comes on. We trust mechanics. 00:10:41.419 --> 00:10:44.000 Rely on them completely. But in this story, the 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:47.870 mechanics failed. three times and in the narrative 00:10:47.870 --> 00:10:50.889 that failure isn't seen as a glitch it seemed 00:10:50.889 --> 00:10:54.490 as a miracle divine intervention fate stepping 00:10:54.490 --> 00:10:57.269 in it raises this strange provocative question 00:10:57.269 --> 00:11:01.429 for me in john lee's story a rusty bolt or a 00:11:01.429 --> 00:11:04.269 swollen piece of wood a simple mechanical error 00:11:04.269 --> 00:11:08.090 becomes the hand of god it saves a life it certainly 00:11:08.090 --> 00:11:10.269 changed the course of his history So how much 00:11:10.269 --> 00:11:12.649 of our history is just that? How many huge events, 00:11:12.750 --> 00:11:15.350 how many lives saved or lost just come down to 00:11:15.350 --> 00:11:17.769 a small physical thing not working the way it 00:11:17.769 --> 00:11:20.529 was designed to? That's a big thought. We like 00:11:20.529 --> 00:11:22.830 to think history is about grand decisions and 00:11:22.830 --> 00:11:26.070 powerful people. But maybe sometimes it really 00:11:26.070 --> 00:11:29.070 is just a lever that gets stuck. Was it a miracle 00:11:29.070 --> 00:11:32.559 or was it just bad maintenance? And if the result 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:34.539 is that you get to live. Does the difference 00:11:34.539 --> 00:11:36.779 even matter? I guess for John Lee and for us 00:11:36.779 --> 00:11:39.220 listening to his story, the result is the only 00:11:39.220 --> 00:11:41.679 thing that does. Something to think about. Thanks 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:44.679 for exploring the strange, dusty, and ultimately 00:11:44.679 --> 00:11:47.220 resilient world of Babacombe Lee with us. It 00:11:47.220 --> 00:11:49.340 was a pleasure. We'll catch you on the next deep 00:11:49.340 --> 00:11:49.620 dive.