Jon again gives credit to Daniel at the FSC saying, “I Learnt from Daniel Jacks on FSC. He didn’t sing the last verse (Tis a sigh that is murmered, etc) and I’ve never warmed to it.” My instant reaction was that this sounded American and to confirm that here’s a Wiki page that tells you just about all you’ll need to know about it. It looks like there have been some intriguing versions of this down the years, but I must say I rather like this, last verse and all.
As if offering proof of Jon’s intentions with this site, he says of this “I’ve learnt from Paul Davenport and Jess Arrowsmith who both sing it at the Kelham Island Tavern in Sheffield at the monthly unaccompanied singing session – well worth getting to.” So if you’re in the area that sounds like an invitation worth following through. I will confess the drawing a blank with this, however, so if anyone can shed some light on the origins of the song it will be gratefully appreciated.
This is actually called Do You Love An Apple? on the Bothy Band’s 1975 debut, and Jon says, “From the brilliant Bothy Band. I was more of a Planxty fan but I did play The Best of the Bothy Band to death for a year or so.” Planxty were first and had the bigger names in Christy Moore and Paul Brady, but the Bothy band were arguably their equal and this is well sung by Triona Ni Dhomhnaill on that debut and does indeed appear again on the Greatest Hits collection. It’s also known as Do I Still Love Him? You can Mudcat more here. There’s a certain insouciant charm that butts against the weariness of the repeat victim scenario. I guess the course of love rarely runs smoothly, which might make me an incurable romantic or hopelessly none PC.
Another from Jon’s Oxford days and he recalls it being “Sung by Joe Ryan, legendary landlord of the Half Moon (and many other Oxford pubs) and a wonderful singer in his own right.” This is one of those songs with more to it than meets the eye. This Wiki link gives two possible authors for this and this Mudcat thread builds on the possibility of the second via Vin Garbutt’s sleeve notes for his recorded version. Following one of the links at the bottom of the Wiki page gives you this, which seems sure of itself, if a little too melodramatic to be entirely plausible. You might have expected a little more of the detail to make the song were this chain of events true, or am I getting a bit cynical in my research.
A song with a story line that is undoubtedly ancient and much used, which Jon here and Bellowhead before (for Matachin) picked up from Maddy Prior & Tim Hart from their Folk Songs Of Old(e) England. Jon says, “I love the sense of antiquity in this song and think there’s a version of the story in Boccacio. I also love the lack of sentimentality and the rawness of the depicted emotions.” Boccacio includes the story as part of his Decameron (Wiki here), where it is known as Isabella And Lorenzo. Keats also reused the story and followed Boccacio, having the poor maiden cut off her dead lovers head and store it in a pot of basil. Hans Sachs, who put it into verse before Keats omits the basil pot/head details and it’s therefore his version that is closest to this song, albeit originally in German. The various titles variants for the song including Bramble Briar, The Jealous Brothers, The Murdered Servantman, The Merchant’s Daughter to name but four, point to this also having a long and varied life in that form. Mainly Norfolk has a very good page on this and you can Wiki further on the song itself here. The town of Bruton in Somerset, which claims this as its own seems steeped in history and is located between Glastonbury and the alleged site of Camelot. Given the wider European echoes of the story, however, any historical connection with an event in the town would seem a little unlikely. Maybe it’s been retro-fitted to suit a local legend.
