# 32 Loreena McKennitt: The Bonny Swans

(Halloween playlist, #6)

Album: The Mask and Mirror (1994)

Lyrics excerpt:

And there does sit my father the King 
(with a hey ho and a bonny o) 
And yonder sits my mother the Queen 
(the swans swim so bonny o)
And there does sit my brother Hugh 
And by him William, sweet and true 
And there does sit my false sister, Anne 
Who drowned me for the sake of a man 

Reasons to love this song:
I fell in love with this song at first listen just because of the tune, which is very pretty and not at all dark. Then I listened to the lyrics more carefully and thought I had heard something about making a harp out of human bones...
The Bonny Swans is a version of a ballad known at least since the seventeenth century, in many forms and under many different names (The Twa Sisters, The Cruel Sister, The Wind And Rain...). All these songs tell the story of a woman drowned by her sister because of jealousy; in the supernatural versions, such as this one, the bones of the murdered sister are made into a harp or a fiddle which, when played, accuses the murderer.
Loreena McKennitt adapted the lyrics and composed the music for this version. Although there is definitely humour in her version of the song (surely she had noticed that the heroine's father is a farmer in the first verse, but a King at the end?) the final two lines -- And there does sit my false sister, Anne who drowned me for the sake of a man -- never fail to make me shudder.

Youtube link:

The official video


And, for comparison, one of the non-supernatural versions of the same tale: Two Sisters by Clannad

#31 Joni Mitchell - Urge For Going

Album: Hits (1996); B-side to the You Turn Me on I'm a Radio single (1972).

Lyrics excerpt: 
I had me a man in summertime
He had summer-colored skin
And not another girl in town
My darling's heart could win
But when the leaves fell on the ground
Bully winds came around
Pushed them face down in the snow
He got the urge for going
And I had to let him go


Reasons to love this song:
Autumnal weather came rather suddenly where I live this year, making me want to listen to autumnal songs -- and Urge For Going is probably my favourite one -- even though I think of autumn as a colourful and pleasant season, and in this song the warm seasons are synonymous with life and love, and the cold seasons equal death and loneliness. (It's more complex than that, of course -- in this song's universe it is possible to escape from death and loneliness if you have "the wings to fly".) The music is melancholy, but I also hear it as incredibly warm, in contrast with the coldness described in the lyrics.

Youtube links:
Joni Mitchell performing the song on television in 1966. I love how the musicians around her all seem awestruck by her performance.


Tom Rush's version of the song (from his 1968 album The Circle Game, which also included two other Joni Mitchell covers):


My favourite cover of this song, by Charlotte Martin (from Reproductions, 2007):

#30 Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood - Summer Wine

Album: Nancy & Lee (1968)

Lyrics excerpt:
Strawberries, cherries and an angel's kiss in spring 
My summer wine is really made from all these things 
Take off your silver spurs and help me pass the time
 And I will give to you summer wine

Reasons to love this song:
The songs I have written in this blog are mostly performed (and written by) solo female musicians, but I will make an exception now and then -- starting with this song, one of my favourite summer songs. It tells the story of a man who is seduced and robbed by a femme fatale, but Nancy Sinatra sings her part in a sweet and dreamy voice, not even trying to sound "evil".
The lyrics to this song have made a friend of mine, who is very literal-minded, angry. "No, your summer wine is bloody well not really made of all these things, because you can't make wine out of strawberries, cherries and bloody angel's kisses!" When I told her the wine in the song isn't necessarily real wine at all, but a metaphor for the female character's love, she grumbled: "Even worse."

YouTube link:
I love Nancy's little laugh at about 2:10. Bizarrely, in the beginning of the video her head looks as if it were screwed on backwards.

#29 Emmy The Great - Exit Night/Juliet's Theme

Album: Virtue (2011)

Lyrics excerpt:
But when the sun is getting lower then the highway marks the graves
And the taillights they circle like the roses of an infinite bouquet
And everybody leaves
Taillights for the grey ghosts of railways and candle holders

Reasons to love this song:
Emmy The Great is a new discovery for me. From her album Virtue, Paper Forest (In The Afterglow Of Rapture) was probably my favourite on first listen, but after several listens and paying more attention to the lyrics (which reminded me a little of Leonard Cohen), Exit Night eventually emerged as my favourite. Although the music is rather upbeat, it manages to convey the ghostly atmosphere of the lyrics, especially in the moments the backing vocals sound like gusts of wind.

YouTube link:

Emmy The Great performing the song in Queen Elisabeth Hall, London, in 2011.

#28 Nina Simone - Sinnerman

Album: Pastel Blues (1965)

Lyrics excerpt:
So I run to the Lord,
Please hide me Lord,
Don't you see me prayin'?
Don't you see me down here prayin'?
But the Lord said: go to the devil
The Lord said: go to the devil
All on that day.

Reasons to love this song:
I must admit, I was only a very casual fan of Nina Simone until I heard this song in the second season final of the BBC series Sherlock. I fell in love with the song instantly, and thought at first the singer was male until I found it was Nina Simone. I listened to all the versions of this (traditional) song I could find, including Les Baxter (1956) and Peter Tosh (1966) ; one of my favourites was 16 Horsepower (2002). But for me no other version can compare to Nina Simone's; her voice is, like Johnny Cash's, so perfectly suited for singing about the Apocalypse.

Youtube link:
The album version

#27 Kate Bush - Sunset

(summer playlist, #4)

Album: Aerial (2005)

Lyrics excerpt:
Who knows who wrote that song of Summer

That blackbirds sing at dusk?
This is a song of colour
Where sands sing in crimson, red and rust
Then climb into bed and turn to dust

Reasons to love this song:
Birdsong -- and the passage of one day -- are the subject of the second part of Bush's 2005 album Aerial, A Sky Of Honey. I chose to describe Sunset as a "summer song", but all the songs on A Sky Of Honey are actually summer songs, a celebration of life on a warm summer's day full of birdsong. If I say this album makes one happy to be alive it will sound horribly clichéd, but -- I'm sorry! -- it really does.

Link to Amazon preview:
An Endless Sky Of Honey
(The whole Sky Honey as one song)

YouTube link:
This video shows the album cover, which looks like a photo of islands in the sea, but is actually a waveform of a blackbird song.

#26 Cesária Évora - Sodade

(summer playlist, #3)

Album: Miss Perfumado (1992)

Lyrics excerpt:
Quem mostra' bo ess caminho longe?
Quem mostra' bo ess caminho longe?
Ess caminho pa São Tomé.
(Who showed you this long journey?
Who showed you this long journey?
The journey to São Tomé.)

Reasons to love this song:
"Sodade" in Cape Verdean Creole or "Saudade" in Portuguese is not a concept that can be translated in one word; I'm not a speaker of either, but I take it from good authority that "nostalgia" would be the closest one.
The song was written by Armando Zeferino Soares (also attributed to Amândio Cabral and Luís Morais), and describes the longing of Cape Verdean emigrants to São Tomé e Príncipe for their homeland.
For many listeners throughout the world, myself included, this song is tied to Cesária Évora, the singer who made the whole genre of morna internationally famous.

YouTube links:

A live performance by Cesária Évora in Paris in 2004:


Cesária Évora performing the song as a duet with Greek singer Eleftheria Arvanitaki -- I love how these two completely different voices sound together: