Martin Carthy's music is like a time machine. If you listen to his songs, I mean really listen...his voice and guitar will transport you back in time to Tudor Stuart England to experience all the joy and tragedy visited upon that most stoic of people.. the English.
Wonderful! I had the privilege of picking him up from the station to take him to a local house concert a few years ago, he was the politest, humblest person you could ever hope to meet, especially as he is regarded as the grand old granddaddy of English folk music. And yup, bearing in mind he has played on the biggest folk stages, he had the courtesy to turn up for a small house concert. I hold him in the highest respect.
Yes, a real talent and top guy. I did a supporting Dj set for him earlier this year, he was right interested in my record collection- and how he can play the guitar! ❤
Perhaps the most fabulous traditional song, played and sung by the most fabulous traditional folk-singer in the history of English folk music... and he's not a bad guitarist either! Martin Carthy RULES! :D
My mother did me deadly spite For she sent thieves in the dark of night Put my servants all to flight They robbed my bower they slew my knight They couldn′t do to me no harm So they slew my baby in my arm Left me naught to wrap him in But the bloody sheet that he lay in They left me naught to dig his grave But the bloody sword that slew my babe All alone the grave I made And all alone the tears I shed And all alone the bell I rang And all alone the psalm I sang I leaned my head all against a block And there I cut my lovely locks I cut my locks and I changed my name From Fair Eleanor to Sweet William Went to court to serve my king As the famous flower of serving men So well I served my lord, the king That he made me his chamberlain He loved me as his son The famous flower of serving men Oh oft time he'd look at me and smile So swift his heart I did beguile And he blessed the day that I became The famous flower of serving men But all alone in my bed at e′en Oh there I dreamed a dreadful dream I saw my bed swim with blood And I saw the thieves all around my head Our king has to the hunting gone He's ta'en no lords nor gentlemen He′s left me there to guard his home The famous flower of serving men Our king he rode the wood all around He stayed all day but nothing found And as he rode himself alone It′s there he saw the milk white hind Oh the hind she broke, the hind she flew The hind she trampled the brambles through First she'd mount, then she′d sound Sometimes before, sometimes behind Oh what is this, how can it be? Such a hind as this I ne'er did see Such a hind as this was never born I fear she′ll do me deadly harm And long, long did the great horse turn For to save his lord from branch and thorn And but long e'er the day was o′er It tangled all in his yellow hair All in the glade the hind drew nigh And the sun grew bright all in their eye And he sprang down, sword drew She vanished there all from his view And all around the grass was green And all around where a grave was seen And he sat himself all on the stone Great weariness it seized him on Great silence hung from tree to sky The woods grew still, the sun on fire As through the woods the dove he came As through the wood he made his moan Oh, the dove, he sat down on a stone So sweet he looked, so soft he sang "Alas the day my love became The famous flower of serving men" The bloody tears they fell as rain As still he sat and still he sang "Alas the day my love became The famous flower of serving men" Our king cried out, and he wept full sore So loud unto the dove he did call "Oh pretty bird, come sing it plain" "Oh it was her mother's deadly spite For she sent thieves in the dark of the night They come to rob, they come to slay They made their sport, they went their way "And don't you think that her heart was sore As she laid the mould on his yellow hair And don′t you think her heart was woe As she turned her back away to go "And how she wept as she changed her name From Fair Eleanor to Sweet William Went to court to serve her king As the famous flower of serving men" Oh the bloody tears they lay all around He′s mounted up and away he's gone And one thought come to his mind The thought of her that was a man And as he rode himself alone A dreadful oath he there has sworn And that he would hunt her mother down As he would hunt the wildwood swine For there′s four and twenty ladies all And they're all playing at the ball But fairer than all of them Is the famous flower of serving men Oh he′s rode him into his hall And he's rode in among them all He′s lifted her to his saddle brim And there he's kissed her cheek and chin His nobles stood and they stretched their eyes The ladies took to their fans and smiled For such a strange homecoming No gentleman had ever seen And he has sent his nobles all Unto her mother they have gone They've ta′en her that′s did such wrong They've laid her down in prison strong And he′s brought men up from the corn And he's sent men down to the thorn All for to build the bonfire high All for to set her mother by All bonny sang the morning thrush All where he sat in yonder bush But louder did her mother cry In the bonfire where she burned close by For there she stood all among the thorn And there she sang her deadly song "Alas the day that she became The famous flower of serving men" For the fire took first all on her cheek And then it took all on her chin It spat and rang in her yellow hair And soon there was no life left in
If I had to choose a single Martin Carthy song as a favorite, it would be a hard choice between so many fabulous songs, but in the final analysis, this song would probably be it... I think! :/
"Oh pretty bird, come sing it plain"...this wonderful song has beguiled me for 45+ years: Martin's narrative delves deeply into the distant past, but the narrative is so searing..."for they sent thieves in the deep of the night"...Martin cuts to the tragic chase immediately, and the tale's resolution is thus so warm and gorgeously, forgivingly romantic. One of the greatest folk music recordings from the 20th Century. Thank you, Martin!
Seen him quite a few times - everywhere from a small pub in Lark Lane Liverpool where I sat about 3 feet away to top billing at the Broadstairs Folk Festival Never disappoints
Adapted from the ballad originally written by Laurence Price, one of the seventeenth centuries most prolific and commercially successful ballad writers, first published 1656 ...
My favorite version of the song/poem forgoes the extended torture scene, leaving the mother in prison and cutting back to the king: "And to put an end to further strife, He's taken Sweet William for a wife. And so, for the first time ever seen, A serving man became a queen."
I love my folk music. I've seen & heard so many wonderful performers over the last 50 years. But I always come back to this. Absolutely wonderful. Just played it through, now I'm gonna do it again,,,,,, do it again? I like the Beach Boys too!
This is the first time that I’ve heard this studio version- I have only heard the live version from a small pub performance (the one in which he asks for a pineapple juice before beginning). I love how he tells the background story of the song as he tunes his guitar before starting to play, and seeing the look on his face when he sings, not to mention watching his fingers make magic happen on the strings. What an unforgettable experience it is, and while I ultimately prefer the live version, this one will definitely have a permanent place in the soundtrack of my life. Thanks so much for posting this for us all to enjoy.
Try listening to Willie's Lady, which is a Breton dance tune with this gorgeous mystical ballad put to it as only Martin Carthy can do. Also Ray Fisher sings it with Martin Carthy providing the guitar part. Luckily for us Martin is still performing with his daughter, Eliza and a whole slew of Watersons. They are so amazing! Martin is probably one of the best guitarists on the planet.
Wonderful beyond words. I feel so privileged to have seen Carthy play a number of times, including once or twice in very intimate settings of the back rooms of pubs. He is the very embodiment of folk music.
The intensity & power does it for sure. I wonder if it might also be that major-pentatonic "aura" with those meditative drones that get you (as art-fart as that sounds) ...I've known this song for decades and it still gets me...
I first heard this song at age 5 and I was hooked forever. These ballads come down to us from hundreds of years ago passed from parent to child. They tell scary stories and gentle love stories. They pass on history which it might do us well to learn from. Martin Carthy is one of the very best balladeers and plays guitar like nobody else. These ballads require a lot from an audience. It is like Shakespeare and takes so much attention to figure out what's going on in the ballad. The language is gorgeous.
I always liked this resurrected older English music. When people like Davy Graham in the early 1960s, and later, Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick, Maddy Prior, etc, started turning these songs up again (on paper, lost in libraries, even, I think) it all seemed to fit comfortably (for me) into a world of rock. The 'edginess' of these open guitar-tunings, and a sort of simmering aggressiveness in the music work well 200 years later. It's always fresh and interesting to my ears. Some weird time signatures, and also, interesting turns of phrase, if you're amused by older ways of speaking English.
I have known this song for over 40 years, and love it. I especially love the way the rhythms are sung at certain moments: "the hind she trampled the brambles through" (seeing the hind picking up her knees as she tramples); "long, long did the great horse turn" (seeing the horse rearing and plunging); and that brief but significant guitar pause as he sings "great silence hung from tree to sky". Masterly.
Saw him play this at Wick Folk Club in the mid 1970's. What an experience and since I was doing the review for the local paper I got to interview Martin afterwards. Those were the days.
I've listened to this so many times over the years but it never gets stale. A magical performance. Undoubtedly Martin Carthy's finest hour (or 9:22 anyway).
For me it was 32/33 years ago at Aberystwyth (Uni) Folk Club in Wales. The pleasure too of a chat with Martin at the bar during the interlude just before he broke into this song. You cut the air with a knife each and every time he sang this - one of life's great experiences!
He played this at our folk club The GiffordArms in Wolverhampton in the seventies i still have the recording i made on tape...now saved on the computer..wonderful.
The origins of this lie in a ballad from the Borders. I first heard it over half a lifetime ago, and I still love it for it's purity and connection to our folk past.
First heard this in1971 On the album. It is pure story which I can listen to time and time again. I remember holding my own baby in my arm in 1973 and listening to this through headphones. I am one with Beggar Wall.
Wonderful bits of Older English. "tained her". How beautiful when compared with arrested! A lovely song which I first heard many years ago but this is the best rendition.
Not as elaborate as "''tained her" it's 'ta'en', as in 'taken', a common contraction in folk song. When I was about 16 I had to ask Martin what the "All alone in my bed a teen' line meant...he was patient and suggested I look to my Shakespeare, and that it was :"at e'en"...ie. at evening..
@@andywhysall6744 Same miss use as in Hallows eve. We have a beautiful language with some very old words in it. My grandfather spoke of effits and emmets. Years later I found that it was saxon for newts and ants!
@Daniel W. Bridge The feast of All Hallows (All Saints) is still celebrated in some countries in memory of dead family members. Halloween was the Scottish version. But has been "bent" , probably for commercial reasons.
This has stayed with me ever since I first heard it on a compilation sent by a knowledgable friend. Utterly mesmerising and perfect. The story is stunning, the vocals powerful and pitch perfect, but what I've always loved the most is the guitar playing. Incredible. So good to be able to share this with everyone, great work on the upload.
I had the pleasure of seeing Martin when he was with Steeleye Span. Oxford, UK, summer of '77. Martin played a Strat or Tele, if memory serves. This performance is just off the charts brilliant. Totally mesmerizing.
I saw him live in about 2000. I requested this song, and he put down his Martin, picked up the Fylde, and played the song. And, there's a video on YT of him doing it with the Fylde that you can watch.
The original recording was definitely with his Martin 00018. The LP Shearwater (on which it's featured) is from 1972, and the Fylde Guitars company was only founded in 1973.
Where i come from people would turn and walk away if this was played live.Even if it was performed this good they would just say it was weird. I kinda hate where i live.
Danny Dine People (generalisation) prefer artists who use auto-tune, unfortunately. I think people take for granted the skill and finesse that goes into playing tunes such as this.
Tony Oliver Yes i agree.They tend to change there minds if they ever take guitar lessons.Its takes a hell of a lot of skill and finesse to play something like this.This is out there.His voice is really cool to.
It's not just that boys. He's singing of our past, our heritage, these were spoken by our forbearers and he brings their spirit back to life when channeling his energy into these songs. This will be forgotten and destroyed like our current cultural heritage. The existence of our people is not negotiable.
Martin, in 'A Guitar In Folk Music' notes it in 9/8, but I think of it in more of a mixture of 4/4 and 5/4. It doesn't really matter; just put the bass notes (drone) where you feel that they fit. Martin says that English folk music is basically in 1/4!
He was quoted as saying it was DGCGCD. But if you listen to the recodings he seems to have tuned his guitar to the B on the 2nd string. So it seems to be a half tone lower viz.: C# F# B F# B C#. Maybe some one who has tried to play it can comment on my analysis. This song totally knocked me out when I first heard it. It is his finest performance. His ability to sing perfectly and distinctly over complicated guitar voicings is almost unique. (Almost: There is probably someone as good but I can't think who it is. :))
DGCGCD is an interesting tuning. The available drones allow you to play in a kind of 'frailed' banjo-style if you feel that way out, and there's room for experimentation around Martin's style for this tune. Have to say these days I play it, to interesting effect, on a primitive tuning c/o Dick Gaughan, I think I from Coppers and Brass days, EAAEAE. Have to say, I would have loved to hear Richard Thompson do something with Famous Flower sometime between 1978 and 1982. After that, no.
And the white hart, a white deer, and the dove, are magical creatures. The dove represents the spirit of the murdered husband, and in folk tales white harts always point to some deeper truth when seen in the hunt. In the story the white hart leads the hunting king to the spot in the forest where the murder took place, and the the dove comes and sings about the murder. The song is based in a ballad from the area between England and Scotland - 'the borders' - where there was much violence and murder and cattle raiding through the centuries.
Martin Carthy's music is like a time machine. If you listen to his songs, I mean really listen...his voice and guitar will transport you back in time to Tudor Stuart England to experience all the joy and tragedy visited upon that most stoic of people.. the English.
Wonderful! I had the privilege of picking him up from the station to take him to a local house concert a few years ago, he was the politest, humblest person you could ever hope to meet, especially as he is regarded as the grand old granddaddy of English folk music. And yup, bearing in mind he has played on the biggest folk stages, he had the courtesy to turn up for a small house concert. I hold him in the highest respect.
Yes, a real talent and top guy. I did a supporting Dj set for him earlier this year, he was right interested in my record collection- and how he can play the guitar! ❤
Martin Carthy, in full flow, magical guitar and voice.
Hello
👋
How are you doing today and it’s nice meeting you if you don’t mind
Will you mind for a private chat 💬
Perhaps the most fabulous traditional song, played and sung by the most fabulous traditional folk-singer in the history of English folk music... and he's not a bad guitarist either! Martin Carthy RULES! :D
"the bedmaking" has to be another classic, i could listen to these two tracks and nothing else. (maybe).
i love the bass line in this. it would make a great movie.
My mother did me deadly spite
For she sent thieves in the dark of night
Put my servants all to flight
They robbed my bower they slew my knight
They couldn′t do to me no harm
So they slew my baby in my arm
Left me naught to wrap him in
But the bloody sheet that he lay in
They left me naught to dig his grave
But the bloody sword that slew my babe
All alone the grave I made
And all alone the tears I shed
And all alone the bell I rang
And all alone the psalm I sang
I leaned my head all against a block
And there I cut my lovely locks
I cut my locks and I changed my name
From Fair Eleanor to Sweet William
Went to court to serve my king
As the famous flower of serving men
So well I served my lord, the king
That he made me his chamberlain
He loved me as his son
The famous flower of serving men
Oh oft time he'd look at me and smile
So swift his heart I did beguile
And he blessed the day that I became
The famous flower of serving men
But all alone in my bed at e′en
Oh there I dreamed a dreadful dream
I saw my bed swim with blood
And I saw the thieves all around my head
Our king has to the hunting gone
He's ta'en no lords nor gentlemen
He′s left me there to guard his home
The famous flower of serving men
Our king he rode the wood all around
He stayed all day but nothing found
And as he rode himself alone
It′s there he saw the milk white hind
Oh the hind she broke, the hind she flew
The hind she trampled the brambles through
First she'd mount, then she′d sound
Sometimes before, sometimes behind
Oh what is this, how can it be?
Such a hind as this I ne'er did see
Such a hind as this was never born
I fear she′ll do me deadly harm
And long, long did the great horse turn
For to save his lord from branch and thorn
And but long e'er the day was o′er
It tangled all in his yellow hair
All in the glade the hind drew nigh
And the sun grew bright all in their eye
And he sprang down, sword drew
She vanished there all from his view
And all around the grass was green
And all around where a grave was seen
And he sat himself all on the stone
Great weariness it seized him on
Great silence hung from tree to sky
The woods grew still, the sun on fire
As through the woods the dove he came
As through the wood he made his moan
Oh, the dove, he sat down on a stone
So sweet he looked, so soft he sang
"Alas the day my love became
The famous flower of serving men"
The bloody tears they fell as rain
As still he sat and still he sang
"Alas the day my love became
The famous flower of serving men"
Our king cried out, and he wept full sore
So loud unto the dove he did call
"Oh pretty bird, come sing it plain"
"Oh it was her mother's deadly spite
For she sent thieves in the dark of the night
They come to rob, they come to slay
They made their sport, they went their way
"And don't you think that her heart was sore
As she laid the mould on his yellow hair
And don′t you think her heart was woe
As she turned her back away to go
"And how she wept as she changed her name
From Fair Eleanor to Sweet William
Went to court to serve her king
As the famous flower of serving men"
Oh the bloody tears they lay all around
He′s mounted up and away he's gone
And one thought come to his mind
The thought of her that was a man
And as he rode himself alone
A dreadful oath he there has sworn
And that he would hunt her mother down
As he would hunt the wildwood swine
For there′s four and twenty ladies all
And they're all playing at the ball
But fairer than all of them
Is the famous flower of serving men
Oh he′s rode him into his hall
And he's rode in among them all
He′s lifted her to his saddle brim
And there he's kissed her cheek and chin
His nobles stood and they stretched their eyes
The ladies took to their fans and smiled
For such a strange homecoming
No gentleman had ever seen
And he has sent his nobles all
Unto her mother they have gone
They've ta′en her that′s did such wrong
They've laid her down in prison strong
And he′s brought men up from the corn
And he's sent men down to the thorn
All for to build the bonfire high
All for to set her mother by
All bonny sang the morning thrush
All where he sat in yonder bush
But louder did her mother cry
In the bonfire where she burned close by
For there she stood all among the thorn
And there she sang her deadly song
"Alas the day that she became
The famous flower of serving men"
For the fire took first all on her cheek
And then it took all on her chin
It spat and rang in her yellow hair
And soon there was no life left in
just in case someone couldn't hear it...
@@abilitiesrehab5071 In case someone wants to sing along. Don't be a bell-end.
If I had to choose a single Martin Carthy song as a favorite, it would be a hard choice between so many fabulous songs, but in the final analysis, this song would probably be it... I think! :/
"Oh pretty bird, come sing it plain"...this wonderful song has beguiled me for 45+ years: Martin's narrative delves deeply into the distant past, but the narrative is so searing..."for they sent thieves in the deep of the night"...Martin cuts to the tragic chase immediately, and the tale's resolution is thus so warm and gorgeously, forgivingly romantic. One of the greatest folk music recordings from the 20th Century. Thank you, Martin!
Just listened to this genius performance about 20 times in a row.
Sheer poetry.................Martin Carthy ,Dick Gaughan , Martin Simpson ,,,,,,,,,,,the real deal ..... Cheers DaveH
Nic Jones !!!
Haunting and melodramatic...the guitar accompaniment is peerless.
Saw Martin do this at the Manchester Sports Guild in the 70's - blew me away , what a genius interpreter , guitar and singer ! ✌️ ♥️ 🎶 ☮️ 🇬🇧
I've obsessed over this song for years. It never fails.
Likewise
7 years after your comment, I discoved it for the first time yesterday having been watching a Bert Jansch documentary.
This song is incredible 😁
@@jamesrobert4106 You're SO lucky! Do yourself a favor and check out Martin Carthy's album, "Shearwater"... Trust me, you'll LOVE it! :D
Martin Carthy belongs in the pantheon of progenitors of the british soul with Blake and Milton
Mesmerising. Utterly mesmerizing - and that's difficult to do with nine minutes to fill.
Hear hear!
national treasure!
“Martin Carthy is in the pantheon...”
There, I fixed it for you.
I’m completely with you!
Seen him quite a few times - everywhere from a small pub in Lark Lane Liverpool where I sat about 3 feet away to top billing at the Broadstairs Folk Festival Never disappoints
Adapted from the ballad originally written by Laurence Price, one of the seventeenth centuries most prolific and commercially successful ballad writers, first published 1656 ...
My favorite version of the song/poem forgoes the extended torture scene, leaving the mother in prison and cutting back to the king:
"And to put an end to further strife,
He's taken Sweet William for a wife.
And so, for the first time ever seen,
A serving man became a queen."
This song is mesmerizing ❤️🌿💥
breathtaking . absolutely Martins finest hour .
I love my folk music. I've seen & heard so many wonderful performers over the last 50 years. But I always come back to this. Absolutely wonderful. Just played it through, now I'm gonna do it again,,,,,, do it again? I like the Beach Boys too!
This is the first time that I’ve heard this studio version- I have only heard the live version from a small pub performance (the one in which he asks for a pineapple juice before beginning). I love how he tells the background story of the song as he tunes his guitar before starting to play, and seeing the look on his face when he sings, not to mention watching his fingers make magic happen on the strings. What an unforgettable experience it is, and while I ultimately prefer the live version, this one will definitely have a permanent place in the soundtrack of my life. Thanks so much for posting this for us all to enjoy.
Try listening to Willie's Lady, which is a Breton dance tune with this gorgeous mystical ballad put to it as only Martin Carthy can do. Also Ray Fisher sings it with Martin Carthy providing the guitar part. Luckily for us Martin is still performing with his daughter, Eliza and a whole slew of Watersons. They are so amazing! Martin is probably one of the best guitarists on the planet.
The shift from minor key to major key to minor key again is so intoxicating that I just want the song to go on forever.
To me he's the most important male folk singer in the business
Such intensity - and that's just in the first verse. Absolutely compelling.
I can definitely hear English folk music influence in traditional Appalachian Mountain music !
Wonderful beyond words. I feel so privileged to have seen Carthy play a number of times, including once or twice in very intimate settings of the back rooms of pubs.
He is the very embodiment of folk music.
I'm not even a big fan of folk music, but there's something extraordinary about this arrangement and performance.
I think its the sheer power and attack that is the key . he also manages to get the quieter parts in too , light and shade .
The intensity & power does it for sure. I wonder if it might also be that major-pentatonic "aura" with those meditative drones that get you (as art-fart as that sounds) ...I've known this song for decades and it still gets me...
I first heard this song at age 5 and I was hooked forever. These ballads come down to us from hundreds of years ago passed from parent to child. They tell scary stories and gentle love stories. They pass on history which it might do us well to learn from. Martin Carthy is one of the
very best balladeers and plays guitar like nobody else. These ballads require a lot from an audience. It is like Shakespeare and takes so much attention to figure out what's going on in the ballad. The language is gorgeous.
Dramatic and life-changing stuff for the listener. Was Martin's guitar ever more percussive than here?
I always liked this resurrected older English music. When people like Davy Graham in the early 1960s, and later, Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick, Maddy Prior, etc, started turning these songs up again (on paper, lost in libraries, even, I think) it all seemed to fit comfortably (for me) into a world of rock. The 'edginess' of these open guitar-tunings, and a sort of simmering aggressiveness in the music work well 200 years later. It's always fresh and interesting to my ears. Some weird time signatures, and also, interesting turns of phrase, if you're amused by older ways of speaking English.
I have known this song for over 40 years, and love it. I especially love the way the rhythms are sung at certain moments: "the hind she trampled the brambles through" (seeing the hind picking up her knees as she tramples); "long, long did the great horse turn" (seeing the horse rearing and plunging); and that brief but significant guitar pause as he sings "great silence hung from tree to sky". Masterly.
Saw him play this at Wick Folk Club in the mid 1970's. What an experience and since I was doing the review for the local paper I got to interview Martin afterwards. Those were the days.
I've listened to this so many times over the years but it never gets stale. A magical performance. Undoubtedly Martin Carthy's finest hour (or 9:22 anyway).
The most powerful folk guitar tune ever, and the one that I've been trying for 40+ years to learn correctly.
Mesmerising. I first heard this thirty years ago and it still haunts me.
Such a simple arrangement - but utterly hypnotic. A bravura performance.
Fantastic song and performance.
Holy smokes!!😮
For me it was 32/33 years ago at Aberystwyth (Uni) Folk Club in Wales. The pleasure too of a chat with Martin at the bar during the interlude just before he broke into this song. You cut the air with a knife each and every time he sang this - one of life's great experiences!
you lucky ducky , great story , missed it !!!
He played this at our folk club The GiffordArms in Wolverhampton in the seventies i still have the recording i made on tape...now saved on the computer..wonderful.
you are very luck to have seen and heard Martin live, one day i also wish to see him in the flesh.
The origins of this lie in a ballad from the Borders. I first heard it over half a lifetime ago, and I still love it for it's purity and
connection to our folk past.
Great recording. This song goes back to the 1650s, doesn't it?
First heard this in1971 On the album. It is pure story which I can listen to time and time again. I remember holding my own baby in my arm in 1973 and listening to this through headphones.
I am one with Beggar Wall.
is that an album?
Big thumbs up. Followed Martin for a long long time
The most powerful English folk singer in modern times.
"They left me nought to dig his grave but the bloody sword that slew my babe"
a singular gem.
Wonderful - one of Martin's very best
Wonderful bits of Older English. "tained her". How beautiful when compared with arrested! A lovely song which I first heard many years ago but this is the best rendition.
indeed, wonderful Old English.
Not as elaborate as "''tained her" it's 'ta'en', as in 'taken', a common contraction in folk song. When I was about 16 I had to ask Martin what the "All alone in my bed a teen' line meant...he was patient and suggested I look to my Shakespeare, and that it was :"at e'en"...ie. at evening..
@@andywhysall6744 Similar to gloaming , as in roaming in the --.It was years before I learnt it was Scots for twilight or dusk.
@@andywhysall6744 Same miss use as in Hallows eve. We have a beautiful language with some very old words in it. My grandfather spoke of effits and emmets.
Years later I found that it was saxon for newts and ants!
@Daniel W. Bridge The feast of All Hallows (All Saints) is still celebrated in some countries in memory of dead family members. Halloween was the Scottish version. But has been "bent" , probably for commercial reasons.
Fantastic, love this song and this version.... namaste to all :D
This is freakin beautiful
This has stayed with me ever since I first heard it on a compilation sent by a knowledgable friend. Utterly mesmerising and perfect. The story is stunning, the vocals powerful and pitch perfect, but what I've always loved the most is the guitar playing. Incredible. So good to be able to share this with everyone, great work on the upload.
I had the pleasure of seeing Martin when he was with Steeleye Span. Oxford, UK, summer of '77. Martin played a Strat or Tele, if memory serves. This performance is just off the charts brilliant. Totally mesmerizing.
just utterlly stunning
A Story To End All Stories:
this tune haunts me
Yes Please!!
That guitar playing is as powerful as any blues or rock offering. Fylde Falstaff tuned to CGCGCD. I could live a 1,000 years and not forget it.
I think this is from before the Fylde days....not that it matters too much.
This was recorded with his ancient, even then, Martin 00018. Falstaff was yet to come.
I saw him live in about 2000. I requested this song, and he put down his Martin, picked up the Fylde, and played the song. And, there's a video on YT of him doing it with the Fylde that you can watch.
The original recording was definitely with his Martin 00018. The LP Shearwater (on which it's featured) is from 1972, and the Fylde Guitars company was only founded in 1973.
Where i come from people would turn and walk away if this was played live.Even if it was performed this good they would just say it was weird. I kinda hate where i live.
Danny Dine People (generalisation) prefer artists who use auto-tune, unfortunately. I think people take for granted the skill and finesse that goes into playing tunes such as this.
Tony Oliver Yes i agree.They tend to change there minds if they ever take guitar lessons.Its takes a hell of a lot of skill and finesse to play something like this.This is out there.His voice is really cool to.
It's not just that boys. He's singing of our past, our heritage, these were spoken by our forbearers and he brings their spirit back to life when channeling his energy into these songs. This will be forgotten and destroyed like our current cultural heritage. The existence of our people is not negotiable.
EXTRAORDINARY
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@@KathrynRosa hello you too
@@KathrynRosa i'm good, Friday is always good, yourself?
Quite and cool
@@KathrynRosa my name is Steve
Indivualy and collectively was the original comment to cryptic steeleye span may help
I'd give my left stone to hear PJ Harvey do this.
SF Lyons I'd give your right one never to have to listen to the whining bitch at all
Oooh, I love a good riddle. Give me a minute........ No it's no good, I can't solve it. Tell me, does Mr Lyons now have zero, or two stones?
Apparently they're talking to Saoirse Ronan, Meryl Streep and Denzel for the movie .....
A Michael McKean recommendation..
LOVE OF VIRTUE WILL ALWATS WITNESS
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How are you doing today and it’s nice meeting you if you don’t mind
Will you mind for a private chat 💬
@@KathrynRosa Hi Kathy - I live in Manchester !
Really beautiful music, with meaninful content, no sign of mass culture...
what a gruesome song
What the hell is the time signature on this?
Martin, in 'A Guitar In Folk Music' notes it in 9/8, but I think of it in more of a mixture of 4/4 and 5/4. It doesn't really matter; just put the bass notes (drone) where you feel that they fit. Martin says that English folk music is basically in 1/4!
@@nigelbowley7027 Even if you tap on the 'ones' I'm sure there is a half beat every so often
Is this song in a mode?
Yes, Mixolydian.
Also the tonic chord and most of the melody omits the third which is quite characteristic.
does anybody know the tuning?
He was quoted as saying it was DGCGCD. But if you listen to the recodings he seems to have tuned his guitar to the B on the 2nd string. So it seems to be a half tone lower viz.: C# F# B F# B C#.
Maybe some one who has tried to play it can comment on my analysis. This song totally knocked me out when I first heard it. It is his finest performance. His ability to sing perfectly and distinctly over complicated guitar voicings is almost unique. (Almost: There is probably someone as good but I can't think who it is. :))
Nic Jones. The tuning is basically correct.
DGCGCD is an interesting tuning. The available drones allow you to play in a kind of 'frailed' banjo-style if you feel that way out, and there's room for experimentation around Martin's style for this tune. Have to say these days I play it, to interesting effect, on a primitive tuning c/o Dick Gaughan, I think I from Coppers and Brass days, EAAEAE. Have to say, I would have loved to hear Richard Thompson do something with Famous Flower sometime between 1978 and 1982. After that, no.
Thompson's not that big on tunings,at least,for public consumption.Fair enough.
Sweet Jeebus.......goes on a bit
Punk missed a trick here !
Sounds like it's a four a cross dresser.
I don't get the lyrics. Can someone explain?
And the white hart, a white deer, and the dove, are magical creatures. The dove represents the spirit of the murdered husband, and in folk tales white harts always point to some deeper truth when seen in the hunt.
In the story the white hart leads the hunting king to the spot in the forest where the murder took place, and the the dove comes and sings about the murder. The song is based in a ballad from the area between England and Scotland - 'the borders' - where there was much violence and murder and cattle raiding through
the centuries.