portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Sound of the Day - TAM LIN - FAIRPORT CONVENTION (for forthcoming Halloween)

 More blasts from the past . . . . Fairport at their very best . . . . . . with the mercurial Sandy Denny

in advance of Halloween . . . . . . . . . . . 

Oh, tell to me, Tam Lin, she said, why came you here to dwell?
The Queen of Fairies 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 . . . . . . . 
Then up spoke the Faerie Queen, an angry queen was she
"Woe betide her ill-fought face, an ill death may she die"
Oh, had I known, Tam Lin," she said, "what this night I did see
I'd have looked him in the eyes and turned him to a tree"
The Faery ballad dates to at least as early as 1549

reminded by Tribal Gathering

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