I was going to just post one of the many great versions of this song, but we were hanging out the other night and got time to record this pretty sweet cover of it. Despite professing a strong hatred of Scottish folk, this is one of my favourite songs in the world right now - even though it was written in Scotland in the 1600's. I love it, and am really proud of our specific interpretation of it. It doesn't go down the lyrical, nostalgic road, and so loses a lot of the stoic poignancy; but I think it gains a lot in the emphasis on the dichotomy between boundless joy and small, ugly pain, that characterises the larger emotions of humanity when they get in relationships. Here it is:
I originally came to it through Benjamin Britten's arrangement, which creates a sense of complex emotional significance with the smallest of means. It's the first track on a CD of his that I got a couple of months ago, and I used to obstinately skip it in the belief it was just some standard Amish nonsense. Check out him and his bf bringing it to life back in the day:
And that's pop music, right there (Britten's far superior version, that is, not ours). You struggle for so long to write something interesting and beautiful, and then one day you pull the most infectious and incredible music out the end of your arse. Perhaps the most difficult things to write are tunes like this: songs that manage to be painfully affecting with an effortless smallness.
Anyway, hope you enjoy our version! Thanks for checking it out.
Rock and roll indeed.
Al.
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