Great recordings are dying due to the lack of a video

[UnseenParticipant]

Case in point: Tam Lin by Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention

This is a song sung with inimitable flourish by the legendary Sandy Denny. It’s based on a Celtic folk tale about the romance between a fair maiden named Janet and a handsome but cursed elfin prince named Tam Lin. I’ve begged the major song reactors to do a reaction to this song with no results, I believe, because there’s no video to go with it beyond this one which just shows the cover of the album the song is from. Give it a listen, paying special attention to the lyrics, and i think you’ll be as enchanted as i was the first time I heard it. Understand, I’m a rocker and have little use for most folk rock, which alone should tell you how special this song is. It’ll be a shame if this song gets forgotten for the lack of a video. One hopes, someone puts something together for it, perhaps an animation of the story to go along with the lyrics, which follow the video below.

Sandy Denny delivers a nuanced and delivery of the lyrics, and while other groups have also performed the song, the only group to come close to matching was a reconstituted version of Fairport Convention using a singer who gives a creditable performance, but still can’t match Ms. Denny’s delivery.

“I forbid you maidens all that wear gold in your hair
To travel to Carterhaugh for young Tam Lin is there
None that go by Carterhaugh but they leave him a pledge
Either their mantles of green or else their maidenhead”
Janet tied her kirtle green a bit above her knee
And she’s gone to Carterhaugh as fast as go can she
She’d not pulled a double rose, a rose but only two
When up there came young Tam Lin says “Lady, pull no more”
“And why come you to Carterhaugh without command from me?”
“I’ll come and go”, young Janet said, “and ask no leave of thee”
Janet tied her kirtle green a bit above her knee
And she’s gone to her father as fast as go can she
Well, up then spoke her father dear and he spoke meek and mild
“Oh, and alas, Janet, ” he said, “I think you go with child”
“Well, if that be so, ” Janet said, “myself shall bear the blame
There’s not a knight in all your hall shall get the baby’s name
For if my love were an earthly knight as he is an elfin grey
I’d not change my own true love for any knight you have”
Janet tied her kirtle green a bit above her knee
And she’s gone to Carterhaugh as fast as go can she
“Oh, tell to me, Tam Lin, ” she said, “why came you here to dwell?”
“The Queen of Faeries caught me when from my horse I fell
And at the end of seven years she pays a tithe to hell
I so fair and full of flesh and feared it be myself
But tonight is Hallowe’en and the faerie folk ride
Those that would their true love win at Miles Cross they must buy
So first let past the horses black and then let past the brown
Quickly run to the white steed and pull the rider down
For I’ll ride on the white steed, the nearest to the town
For I was an earthly knight, they give me that renown
Oh, they will turn me in your arms to a newt or a snake
But hold me tight and fear not, I am your baby’s father
And they will turn me in your arms into a lion bold
But hold me tight and fear not and you will love your child
And they will turn me in your arms into a naked knight
But cloak me in your mantle and keep me out of sight”
In the middle of the night she heard the bridle ring
She heeded what he did say and young Tam Lin did win
Then up spoke the Faerie Queen, an angry queen was she
Woe betide her ill-farred face, an ill death may she die
“Oh, had I known, Tam Lin, ” she said, “what this knight I did see
I have looked him in the eyes and turned him to a tree”

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Yes, but it’s still on the internet, therefore it’s not lost.  If something is not on the internet then it’s really lost, until it is posted.

I like collecting DJ sets from European DJs, and they go offline within a little while, but there are some gems on there.  So I keep them and take the best bits and make mixtapes out of them which say what I want to say, and post them online.

[UnseenParticipant]

@ Simon

By “dying,” I mean not getting the attention they deserve, not passing totally out of existence.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Digital files are as fragile as the physical medium they’re on.  I’ve lost loads of stuff over the years from hard drives going down.  Vinyl lasts forever if it’s well looked after.

[Author]

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