I’ve written several times before about various songs on The Imagined Village CD; one I’ve been listening to recently, in an attempt to get refuge from the Infernal Loop of Festive Favourites, is "John Barleycorn".
It’s a centuries old English folksong featuring the character of John Barleycorn, who is actually the personification of the cereal crop, barley and of the booze made from it, especially beer and whisky. Poor old John gets a rare old hard time being attacked and killed (several times) at the various stages of barley cultivation, such as reaping and malting. He does, however, exact a terrible revenge eventually on his tormenters, a revenge you'll probably know better as "Ye Olde Ragin' Hangover".
On the CD version, Paul Weller, together with one of the original 60s folkies, Martin Carthy and his daughter Eliza perform a very accomplished semi-accoustic version; when playing live Billy Bragg takes over from Weller and unfortunately, with his distinctive croak, just can’t quite reach the same high standards. In this version from alst summer, he also tries to tie in a love of marmite with his national identity- I’ll leave it up to Bill give you an explanation on that one.
But, not to worry, when I was mucking about on You Tube trying to find something a little bit more polished, I came across this version by Traffic. Try and not be distracted by the hair-styles and the bell-bottoms, this is one truly haunting melody...
Makes a nice change from Slade, doesn't it?
2 comments:
Wonderful. A slower tempo to the Fairport Convention version that I am more familar with.
You should also try listening to Pentangle, which is wonderful Jazz-Folk. I was privileged enough to see them on their re-union tour last year.
Finally tracked down the Fairport version, nice, but I prefer Traffic's!
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