Light Flight

Album: Basket of Light (1969)
Charted: 43
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Songfacts®:

  • Pentangle is a British folk-rock group formed in London in 1967. "Light Flight," with lyrics that evoke a sense of longing and escape, is the opening track from their third album, Basket of Light.
  • "Light Flight" is not a straightforward tune - its time signature varies between 5/8, 7/8 and 6/4 in the middle.
  • The song became popular when it was used as theme music for a television series called Take Three Girls, the BBC's first drama series broadcast in color. Take Three Girls was launched with great fanfare as a modern drama. It focused on three women sharing a flat in Swinging London. With a boost from the show, "Light Flight" took Pentangle into the UK chart, peaking at #43.
  • Pentangle wrote two versions of this song: the TV version and another with different lyrics for the Basket of Light album. "We had a melody but it wasn't finished," vocalist Jacqui McShee told Uncut magazine. "Somebody heard it and wanted it for this TV show, which was quite racy for the time. They also used snippets of our music throughout the program."
  • The song's success propelled Basket of Light into the Top 5 of the UK Album chart, cementing its place as Pentangle's most commercially successful (and critically acclaimed) album.
  • The album was lavishly packaged with a gatefold sleeve showing Pentangle playing a concert at London's Royal Albert Hall.

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