I have a love/hate relationship with folk music. On one level, it conjures up Orwell's 'vegetarians with wispy beards' in cableknit sweaters slurping on pints of real ale as some muppet on stage cups his ear with this right hand (why do they do that?) but some folk music can touch the soul.
The first offering is Fairport Convention's rendition of traditional English ballad Matty Groves. Fairport Convention effectively invented folk rock and their Leige and Leif regularly features in lists of most influential albums of all times. Enjoy Sandy Denny's amazing voice. The moral of the song is 'don't mess with Lord Donald'. Consequences follow...
The second is Steeleye Span's version of traditional North East folk song Blackleg Miner. Very political stuff - I promised myself to keep politics and law to a minimum when I started this blog but the former seems to be creeping in rather a lot. Nice dancing gorillas on video clip too. The song ends...
So join the union while you may,
Don't wait 'til your dying day
For that may not be far away,
You dirty blackleg miner.
Quite so.
2 comments:
My Dad was a big Steeleye Span fan.
Without the chimps, of course.
Sandy Denny at her very best singing Matty Groves. I was only playing Liege and Lief last night. Brilliant.
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