Song five for day five is Earl Richard, which Jon picked up from Maddy Prior & Tim Hart, although as he says, “It’s only half the story – check out Young Hunting for the exciting conclusion.” A version of this appeared on the first Spiers & Boden CD Through & Through, but I’m afraid I can’t comment on that further as the CD is currently unavailable. So if you have a copy I’d like to know more. You’ll find it’s referenced in this Mudcat thread as well, where the lyrics have a decidedly Scottish flavor that seems to fit the songs history as it was collected there. The thread also hints at different interpretations – always good for a spiky debate!!
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So many different versions and always good to hear them
Bit of a stunner, that one! Touch of the Matty Groves about it in a different way. You’ve got me interested now in the exciting conclusion!
[...] Earl Richard « A Folk Song A Day [...]
What a fabulous concept, congratulations. I look forward to listening in on a daily basis.
Love this one. Find a good explanation of the various versions here:
http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/tony.rose/songs/younghunting.html
Not sure why you say Through and Through is not available, though. It’s easily available through iTunes or Amazon, got mine just a few weeks ago.
The notes on this song on ‘Through and Through’ say: “A version of Young Hunting from a Miss Stephenson of Glasgow in 1825. Talking birds are not uncommon in traditional ballads but this one is unusually moral and immune to bribery, a stark contrast to the behaviour of the human characters.” ‘Young Hunting’ can be found sung by Brian Peters on Fellside’s ‘Ballads’ compilation, or an American version sung by Sara Grey on her new CD ‘Sandy Boys’. I think the best ever was by Tony Rose on his 1970 LP of that name.
Fay (Hield) does a great version of Young Hunting that she learnt from the brilliant but elusive Arthur Knevitt. James Fagan and Nancy Kerr also do a lovely version, I forget which album though. Basically the end of the story is the talking bird tips off some divers that there’s a body in the well / river, they find the corpse and the murderous girlfriend gets burnt to death at the stake. Cheery.
You may well find Through & Through available through various outlets, although a quick flick to Amazon reveals a German import and a used collectable as the only copies on sale, although it is freely available to download. As I work at the distribution business end, I can confirm that it’s current official status is ‘deleted.’ No more are being manufactured by Fellside and we have none in our warehouse. There will be residual stock and some second hand copies, but as I say the download is the other option. I’ll let you know if that changes.
A little Mudcat bird has now told me the exciting conclusion to this story in one version of Young Hunting! All the versions seem to have the talking bird of guilty conscience or disturbed mind, like the raven in Crazy Man Michael.
Like many hard to find albums you can listen to ‘Through and Through’ legally on the remarkable ‘Spotify’. The good news is that they have recently opened up their free ‘Open’ subscriptions service again (probably temporarily).
And well done, Jon – my i-thing is looking forward to receiving the podcasts.
Through and Through is available as MP3s at a site called 7digital. Since it’s a site that charges for MP3 purchases, I sincerely HOPE it’s legit…
Anyhow, I’d picked up Earl Richard alone as a sample to decide whether to try out Spiers and Boden, since they seemed different enough from Songs from the Floodplain, and I quite liked it…
Spotify has the Nancy Kerr and James Fagan album ‘Starry Gazy Pie’ (1995) on it; this is the album that Jon was alluding to, and has a spirited version of Young Hunting on it. These folk-songs-a-day are an absolute education, as well as being enjoyable! Keep up the good work Jon
I have to say the Spiers and Boden version of Earl Richard was always my favorite song of theirs, and they brought it back into their set a couple of years ago when I repeatedly pestered John to do so (could have just been coincidence of course heheh). The harmonies are sublime.
This ballad has a wonderful story-tell quality about it and is full to the brim with intrigue which in itself is remarkable given its possible age.
Through and through still to buy on amazon and amazon downloads
you have to listen to Tim Hart and Maddy Prior singing this one….. both versions are first class. Hope there’s more to come.
Music Mike
