A bard on the wire, a voice in the wilderness, a home page for exiles trying to get home. Everybody is an exile. Maybe artists just realise it. "Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried, in my way, to be free."
In AD 60, at the time of Boudicca's revolt, the Romans slaughtered the druids, unique to Britain, on their holy island of Mon (modern Anglesey). Mon (Roman Mona) was the druids' stronghold and the druids gave the British Celts their only shared sense of 'Britishness' . They were otherwise a collection of warring tribes, easy to divide and rule, initially as client kingdoms. Destroying the druids and their unifying spirit - which Boudicca mobilised into an actual British army of united Eastern British tribes - was key to Roman Imperial annexation of Britain. The legend of King Arthur is an enduring and ever-developing expression of that Celtic Britishness through many centuries, two different faiths, two different genres (mythology and romance) several invasions, different ethnicities and languages not to mention transmutations through Brittany and Normandy into the whole of Northern Europe and back to Britain form Europe after 1066 and from Tudor Wales after 1485. It has a reality beyond reason and historical intellectualising. In a way it is a phantom but as CS Lewis said no less real for that. Besides, legends have to start somewhere. Real people got killed. As with the druids, behind the mists of history, there was blood on the corn.
Part 1 The recorded version omits verse 3.Lord Arthur is gone, I laud my Beloved:Cross on invincible shield, blood-red,Dragon on young-summer green, red,The terrible clatter of returning hooves.I never quite believed. Always feared himDead. But he always came.Arthur is gone, I laud my Beloved:Swift white charger swooping like a spearOn the bonfire builders, the wolvers of women,Scourging the rat run inroads of Europe,Animal tracks of attacking Saxon,His spur-tensed Britons beat back the Beast.(Gone my Beloved, my Beloved I mourn:Then Llugh fought battles within himself,Cei fought his own rule, Bedwyr fought Llugh,And some sought long for the holy caldron,Sought it like a spoil of war,And, gentle as light, my Beloved loved me.)And Medraut gnawed through the golden yearsMyrddin called a threshold to the dark,And its beacon. Medraut, eyes on meLike a dog’s on the moon, snapping his moment.To Camlann the coastland, carried me off.Gone my Beloved, my Beloved I mourn.Part 2And little the faith I had yet in Arthur,The Angel campaigner, strong as light,His sun-bright stars above the wicked forestSeeming to fade. Rusty the scabbard,Still magic the sword. And, once more, he came.I’ve believed too little. I make my Confession.At last I understood. The flincher from spears,Medraut, was part of Arthur, his shadow,Chancel and gargoyle had to be cancelledWhere all deeds are drowned, all swords returned:Avalon. And I’ll run no more.I’ve believed too little. I make my Confession.Night and this nunnery will fall. RavensWill flock on the gore. Let others keepA glimmer, a glorious page, of Logres alightUntil the dawn. My confession’s done.Still my heart waits for hoofbeats.(Still, my heart waits for hoofbeats…)creditsMaz: lead vocal, acoustic guitarGaz: bass, bodhran, howls, cymbal, support vocals in Part 2
The closing aria of "King Arthur and Me- the Opera" (releases May 1st). The lyric, first published in 'Coming Home"(King of Hearts Publishing) in 1991, is based in form and spirit on the elegies, eulogies and 'death bed confessionals' of ancient Welsh poetry. From memory, while Celtic poetry shares the unrhymed alliterative qualities of Anglo-Saxon poetry, the line is unbroken and more lyrical, the rhythms and cadences more lilting and the assonance more marked. In other words, I tried to make the English sound as Welsh as possible.
Maz wrote the minor key tune and sings it beautifully here. Gwenhwyfar ( "white phantom") is very much the dark age Celtic wife of her beloved chieftain Arthur here, not the Norman courtly lover she later became in French romance tradition. ("Guinevere", track -.) Over these earlier versions, the atmosphere of Celtic mythology in which Arthur (Artos) is a god and Gwenhwyfar the land itself, still hangs like a mist, just as Robin Hood was the eternal spirit of the greenwood as well as an outlaw in a specific period of Norman-Saxon England.
So here, partly in the tradition of a warrior's praise of a fallen lord, we have Gwenhwyfar elegising and eulogising Arthur as a god-like Dark Age Celtic warlord resisting Saxons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain and Gwenhwfar as both his lady and the Britain he was protecting.
On our forthcoming Arthur album "King Arthur and Me- The Opera" , this is a song with tune written and sung by Maz in the role of Gwenhwyfar. Here it is as spoken word in the style of the old Welsh elegies/ eulogies on the death of a beloved lord.
We know nothing about the woman pictured (and in the first frame of the film) except that she was Maz's great grandmother and that she was in service. But it's a very eloquent picture. All the other pictures of people in service - England's largest occupation even at the height of the industrial revolution (higher even than the vast numbers employed in agriculture) - are from the website www.thisvictorianlife.com. The sailor is from bbprivateer.ca . The boy and the girl are childhood pictures of Peacock's Tale the duo you hear playing and singing.
Like many folksongs, this one sounds like multiple stories being told at once, not all of which add up. Such is folk music, the collective tale of ordinary folk. It's even possible to hear a happy ending and no doubt there were some for people like the women pictured but many of course ended like the last word of the song in 'misery'. It doesn't have a miserable feeling though, because it's such a lovely tune. And perhaps because of "I wish that short night had had been seven long years". The song has also had an after-life in folk clubs and bars as a bawdy singalong - there was always that "Maggie Mae" innuendo element to Beatles songs like "A Hard Day's Night" and "I'll Get You (In The End)". But that would sacrifice the human comedy and tragedy. The strongest strain in this folk tale is surely the human sympathy, the social comment and the yearning for a better life.
A most enjoyable collaboration with Bhas Allan who created the visuals for our atmospheric ballad. Lancelot and th Grail Maiden is about how the desperately grail-seeking but never quite finding Lancelot was seduced by the Grail Maiden (aided by the magic of Morgan le Fay who made her look like Guinevere) and thereby bore his son Galahad, who would replace his father as Arthur's Best Knight, find the Grail and thereby fructify the Wasteland. And that, Ron, is the paradox of our entire post-lapsarian exisence.
‘Come hither, Captain,’ the Grail Maiden sighs, ‘Thither away with me To the rich wooded valley and holy well My Waste Land dies to be.
‘Look! into the burning wilderness sun Above the shadeless tree, The high hawk of summer, hovering still, The shadow of what will be:
‘The Shadowless One who waits above To be born to you and me, A Knight of Truth out of traitor arms And infidelity.
‘Galahad the Pure, God-armed and winged To bless our impurity Unbearably born to steal your quest And all of your shining glory.
‘Come hither, Captain,’ the Grail Maiden sighs, And turns him a face so free: His forbidden love, the queen of his dreams, The end of all Chivalry.’
A faithless false knight in a failing light Fallen under a spell to see/ be A Knight of Truth out of traitor arms And infidelity.
Says he, ‘My heart is set on the grail And wholly raised above!’ Says she, ‘It’s broken, and half is set On your true adulterous love.’
‘I am her champion, she is my king’s, I am their faithful knight!’ ‘The Grail can’t be had for half a heart, You can have that queen tonight.
‘Whisper my name, any name you like, Any lover you want me to be, A night of Truth in my traitor arms And in fidelity.’
‘Come hither, Captain,’ the Grail Maiden sighs, ‘Thither away with me To the rich wooded valley and holy well My Waste Land dies to be.
She look'd so lovely, as she sway'd The rein with dainty finger-tips, A man had given all other bliss, And all his worldly worth for this, To waste his whole heart in one kiss Upon her perfect lips
One evening fair to take the air
Down by Blackwater side
It was gazing all, all around me
Towards the Irish lad I spied
All through the first part of that night
Well, we lie in sport and play
Then this young man, he arose and gathered his clothes
He said, "Fare thee well today"
Well, that's not the promise that you gave to me
When first you lay on my bed
You could make me believe with your lying tongue
That the sun rose in the west
Then go home, go home to your father's garden
You go home and weep your fill
And you think of your own misfortune
That you brought with your wanton will
For there's not a girl in this whole world wide
As easily led as me
Sure, it's fishes will fly and the seas run dry
Tis then I'll marry thee.
Trad/arr Peacock's Tale. The tune is Irish as is the young man. The images are of the River Blackwater in Essex, the probable scene of the story and the words are an old English folk lyric telling the same old folk tale of a young woman beguiled, though we adjust it slightly so that she sees through him before the end. We got it in one take and in one lump (apart from the brief hand drum on the instrumental) as I'm playing a foot drum with each foot under my bass while Maz is doing her usual multi task thing. Nice and simple.
The last song we did at Burns Night 2024. (That's our Chaucerian host John McRuddy in the picture). The song is often sung at the end of a gathering of friends and it is reportedly the most popular parting song sung in Scotland before Robert Burns wrote "Auld Lang Syne." Its popularity in Ireland has deeply influenced its sound and led to it being claimed as an Irish folk song. It was definitely not written by Joseph Haydn, as once claimed.
lyrics
Of all the money that e'er I had I have spent it in good company Oh and all the harm I've ever done Alas, it was to none but me And all I've done for want of wit To memory now I can't recall So fill to me the parting glass Good night and joy be to you all So fill to me the parting glass And drink a health whate'er befalls Then gently rise and softly call Good night and joy be to you all Of all the comrades that e'er I had They're sorry for my going away And all the sweethearts that e'er I had They would wish me one more day to stay But since it fell into my lot That I should rise and you should not I'll gently rise and softly call Good night and joy be to you all So fill to me the parting glass And drink a health whate'er befalls Then gently rise and softly call Good night and joy be to you all But since it fell into my lot That I should rise and you should not I'll gently rise and softly call Good night and joy be to you all So fill to me the parting glass And drink a health whate'er befalls Then gently rise and softly call Good night and joy be to you all Good night and joy be to you all
credits
released January 30, 2024 Songwriters: Trad / David Anthony Downes
Fatea Showcase Sessions Spring 2024:Skin Fatea is proud to announce the new Fatea Showcase Session Spring 2024:Skin is ready to download Once again we've looked at the fantastic releases that have come through the Fatea office and put together an eclectic mix of some of the best rising names across the acoustic spectrum for your enjoyment.
Featuring 16 incredible artist we think you'll be amazed and captivated by the strength of the songs that will be available for you to download on the Fatea Showcase Session Spring 2024:Skin compilation. www.fatea-showcase-sessions.co.uk
01. Filkin’s Drift - The Girl I Left Behind Me 02. Hevelwood - The Banks Of The Dee 03. Siobhan McCrudden - Iron Goddess 04. Harry Bird - Cerberus 05. Elena Duff - The Forest Song 06. Holly & The Reivers - The Three Danish Galleys 07. Piskey Led - Ashton Famine 08. Annown - Like The Roses 09. Lauren South - Tiny Boat 10. Wychbury - Geordie 11. Foxbridge - Sirens Used To Sing 12. Ellie Walker - My Heart Beats On 13. Luke Giles - Boating Up Sandy/Nancy Blevins 14. Veronica Drozdowski - Out 15. Peacock’s Tale - Lancelot And The Grail Maiden 16. Holly Carter - Stella
"Skin" is the 64th download in the Fatea Showcase Sessions series and will be available from February 1st until April 30th 2024. This is the 17th series of releases
The download comes to you at no charge. Support the artists involved by listening to the download and then more of their songs, buying their albums, going to their gigs, writing about them on Facebook, publicising them on Instagram etc.
The title track from our forthcoming Arthur project "Wake King Arthur" and one that contrives to wake him up from his long sleep and come and save us from the appalling mess we are in at the moment. When a British government proudly adopts a motto like "Stop The Boats" as its shining motto and ideal you know we have fallen a long way from the Lost Land of chivalry and mercy, of might defending justice, which thrilled and inspired me as a boy.
Wake me, wake me
He come out on top, he beat
Hordes of heathen, he pluck
Swords of lightning from the
BC AD 6 and 6/9teenth Century
Justice might and mercy king of all chivalry.
Wake me, wake me
He Arth and Ursus, he yoke
Rome and Logres, he ride
Wings and horses, he steal
Grails from Annwn as a
Norman knight a bird of prey an earthed angel tree,
Celtic god a Dark Age white horse galloping free.
Woke King Arthur
In the 20th
Century.
Wake me, wake me
He ever present, he a
Church-hilled dragon, he the
King of Europe, never
Heard of England, he a
Druid henge a hollow hill a forest a sea
British May King ever changing eternity.
Woke King Arthur
In the 20th
Century.
(spoken) You who think you defend
This lost land of Logres
From drowning migrants
For your offshore profits
You're not Arthur's Britons
Follow your money
GO!
He fights invaders who claim
Lost Land acres from the
Drowning migrants, for their
Offshore profits, he’s the
Lose yourself to save yourself they don’t want to see
Release the Pax Britannia brand of Arthur-ity.
Woke King Arthur
In the Twenty first
Century.
Six old friends/ 3 old married couples/ in kilts and tartan celebrate friendship and the immortal memory of Robbie Burns with banter, banquet, bonhomie, a fist-load of poems and songs in a warm and winter-banishing Norfolk interior. The poems - and what poems they are, brimming over like a good ale and whisky with life, love, joy, sorrow, music and laughter- include Address to the Haggis, The Selkirk Grace, To A Mouse, Ae Fond Kiss, A Man's a Man For A' That, My Soldier Laddie, The Henpecked Housewife, The Wife's Lament, "recently discovered" 'Burns' first drafts (satires on Burns targets in our own day including an Elegy for The Year 2023 based on his Elegy For The Year before the French Revolution, 1788) and the songs - ostensibly led by Peacock's Tale folk indie duo!- include Auld Lang Syne (which Burns wrote) The Parting Glass and Will Ye Go Lassie Go which he probably sang. Robbie, you have given us many a glorious evening - none more so than this one - God bless you for it and (as you may have noticed we say in the film a bit) lang may yer lum reek!
Robert Walpole (1676-1745) the Whig MP for Castle Rising (1701-02) and King's Lynn (1702-12 and 1713-42) was the first and still longest serving Prime Minister of Great Britain: 21 continuous years, 1721-1742. He also built and stocked with treasures one of the most palatial houses in England, that architectural wonder amid the fields and lanes of West Norfolk: Houghton Hall.
With his Norfolk neighbour brother in law, the Lord Lieutenant of the county Viscount 'Turnip' Townshend until 1730, and thereafter alone, he ran the growing colonial and trading powerhouse of Whig England as it began to dominate the globe. Like Townshend he refused to moderate his strong Norfolk accent. Unlike Townshend, he was an eloquent and charismatic speaker. And unlike most PMs he presided over a growing economy and a 20 year peace. He developed the 'cabinet' system of government, used his study at Houghton as his office and (it is said) always opened his letters from his estate gamekeeper before those pertaining to the affairs of the nation.
Doomed to permanent Opposition, the Tory wits - Fielding, Swift, Johnson, Pope to name but four of the most fearsome satirists to ever sharpen a pen - hated and despised him. You can find belittling and demonised versions of him in Lilliput and at least one of the other lands Gulliver travels and biting laughter at his expense in the satires and commentaries of all four geniuses. But, warts and all, he was an epic man in every way: magnitude and length of office, ambition, personality, grandeur (Houghton Hall is his fitting monument) corruption, power politics, man/ King management, the dramatic sustained rise, the sudden fall ( "Who Killed Cock Robin?" became a popular song at the time) and - increasing as the years went by - his own physique. He was so enormous in physical size by his death that they were unable to force his three hundredweight bulk into the stone coffin in his family tomb at Houghton and he reportedly burst before they finally managed to do so.
An (extra large) folk ballad is a perfect fit for such a mortal. If some of his faults are unattractive, many of them are entertaining - a 'dodgy' Norfolk builder brilliantly running an Empire. He has flawed greatness and grandeur but it is comic rather than tragic. He is more Adam than Satan. And, like all hopeful mortals, in the end he comes a cropper. We love the Egyptian* figures Warwick brings to our "Pharaoh of the Flaw" and the Flanders and Swann* which move this folk ballad away from the understated and dignified sinking of a Sir Patrick Spens towards the comic trapdoor exit of a Falstaff. We hope you enjoy him as much as we do.
Maz singing the chorus in a field near Houghton Hall.
Knight of the slightly drooping Garter, King of Bankrupt Hall, Lord of the Backstairs Tower Tryst, Stout Adam of the Fall.
Richeldis, Julian, Sawtrey, Nelson, Boleyn and Boudicca tall, Margery, Fanny, Turnip, Kett, Old Tom Paine and all-
Norfolk and good our heroes stand With something pure about ’em But none more Norfolk nor more good Than Dodgy Bob of Houghton.
Sir Robert Walpole, King of Sink, The Pharaoh of the Flaw, The not so bumpkin Norfolk dumplin’ Loophole in the Law.
The first Prime Minister and still Unequalled in that office; The backwoods front-man, laughing loud, The Prince of Peace – and Profits.
The Age he named is hero-free, No children need to know. They keep it off the syllabus, No killers boldly go.
No Bonnie Charlie anthems, saints, No bagpipe calls to arms; Just German Georges 1 and 2, Enlightenment and farms.
The beau, the rake, the dandy, fop, The mistress-paying knights, The hypocrite with itchy palm: ‘All thesemen have their price.’
Sir Robert Walpole, Count of Cash, The Pharaoh of the Flaw, The not so bumpkin country speakin’ Loophole in the Law.
His Babel built ‘too far from London’ [12] Under a Norfolk bushel The Neptune and Britannia Rampant Counting House as Castle.
His bust and Caesar hairdo placed A British cut above The classic Mantle he assumed Of Wisdom, Justice, Love.
Removed the timber duty while He ordered his supplies, Avoided Finished Buildings tax With one unfinished frieze.
Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Ease, The Pharaoh of the Flaw, The ruddy cunnin’ Norfolk rulin’ Loophole in the Law.
Our burly boisterous backhand Bob Was bawdy in his cups Had heart-to-hearts with kings and queens Yet kept the common touch.
And when the South Sea Bubble burst And drowned both Whig and Tory, He saved the country with a speech And rode the tide to glory
Avoided War for eighteen years Of Profit weighed with cost, ‘They ring the bells, they’ll wring their hands,’ He said when Peace was lost.
Sir Robert Loophole, Laughin’ Bob, The Prophet of the Flaw, Three hundredweight of Killed Cock Robin Loophole in the Law.
credits
released January 18, 2024 Warwick Jones composed the tune and plays it.
Gaz sings lead vocal, pitches in on the final chorus, plucks a minimalist bass line, hits a snare and bashes a hi hat.
Maz sings harmony vocal.
Warwick Jones writes:
"This, like most of the tunes that I composed for the “Doin different” ballads, had the guitar tuned to DADGAD as opposed to the conventional EADGBE. Bob Walpole was originally done without the capo and started in a sort of D minor key for the intro which then changes into a D major key for the verse. Using the capo on the second fret for the version on the video, this equates to E minor turning into E major (Cole Porter eat your heart out….). The “E minor” is not a conventional western scale but is more of an oriental version. A classically trained musician would probably be able to tell me exactly what I was doing, but I just played what felt good. The two different “modes” for verse and chorus just seemed to naturally fit the narrative."
