Saturday, May 3, 2008

"She Moved Through the Fair"

"Last night she came to me... my dead love came in" - Another song performed by, but not written by, Richard Thompson, this classic Irish folk song plays almost like a Neil Gaiman horror story.... although obviously it's more like the other way around, Gaiman being inspired by the folk tradition and all. This was one of the old folk songs that Thompsons legendary sixties band Fairport Convention helped revive.

The Original 1960s version by Fairport Convention, sung by the great Sandy Denny, and with a young Thompson on guitar, can be found here (embedded youtube play not allowed, so you'll have to click on the link), but the Thompson version below is also quite brilliant and creepy.

At the beginning of this clip you'll see some typical funny between song banter from Thompson. He probably does his funny skits so that all the dark songs he's singing doesn't make it all into a celebration of depression or something.






SHE MOVED THROUGH THE FAIR

My young love said to me, My parents won't mind
And my father won't slight you, For your lack of kind
And she laid her hand on me me , And this she did say,
"It will not be long love , Till our wedding day"

And She stepp'd away from me and she moved through the fair,
And fondly I watched her go here and go there,
Then she went her way homeward with one star awake,
Like the swan in the evening moves over the lake.

Last night she came to me, my dead love came in
So softly she came, that her feet made no din,
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say,
"It will not be long, love, till our wedding day."

It's sometimes sung with an extra verse between the second and third verse, but that verse left out of Fairports version, and from Thompsons solo version. It can be heard in this version by a nice-looking and sinister-sounding young lady on Youtube:



The people were saying no two were e'er wed,
But one has a sorrow that never was said,
And I smiled as she passed with her goods and her gear,
And that was the last that I saw of my dear.

No comments: