Shirley and Dolly Collins
“The Power of the True Love Knot”
Originally Released 1967 (Polydor)
CD reissue, Wing and a Prayer / Fledg’ling Records 2000 (FLED3028)
Also reissued on vinyl in the 1980s by Hannibal / Rykodisk
1 Bonnie Boy 3:45
2 Richie Story 4:18
3 Lovely Joan 2:30
4 Just as the Tide Was A’Flowing 1:39
5 The Unquiet Grave 3:26
6 Black-Eyed Susan 3:36
7 Seven Yellow Gipsies 1:48
8 Over the Hills and Far Away 2:28
9 Greenwood Laddie 1:45
10 Lady Margaret and Sweet William 5:10
11 The Maydens Came 1:59
12 Polly Vaughan 2:49
13 The Barley Straw 3:51
14 Barbara Allen 3:26
Shirley Collins’ music is best heard in the small hours of the day, late evening or early morning, when most of the world is sleeping and your own thoughts aren’t quite as loud. Equal parts austerity and warmth, her voice wraps around you like a old quilt on a cold day. And her music is the quilt-work of the British Isles, spun by the hands of laborers destined to anonymity as the “small” people of history but whose melodies and words have outlived most music bound to commercialism. Collins has passed that quilt on to successive generations of folk music lovers with her own indelible stitches. She may not have been the first person to commit these songs to tape but her records are held in high esteem as a reference point by both music nuts and music scholars. The further back you go with music that has fallen into the ‘public domain’, the more variations on the songs you have, and with Shirley’s repertoire we are talking very old indeed. So old that those variations are often subjects of debate, and Shirley wrote some of her own melodies using anonymous pieces of song poetry.]
I won’t hold up pretenses – I came to Shirley Collins music by way of tracing the influences of my influences when I was thinking of myself as a songwriter. It’s a practice I’ve kept up even though I’m no longer actively writing / composing — I believe it’s called “research” by those music conservatory types of people. For me it meant listening to certain records very deeply and often, paying close attention to writing credits and liner notes. THIS was my (informal) music education, and I would trace genealogies of musicians and writers to arrive at mutual fonts of inspiration. This was in the days before music blogs and the instant-gratification of internet sharing communities (before long after listening to music on wax cylinders, lest any readers think that I am absolutely ancient). The days when you had to literally hunt down music by haunting used record and CD shops, making real-life-flesh-and-blood friends with similar interests, or even visiting a public library or two. For music from my own home continent, North America, that’s meant going back to some of the earliest material available thanks to dedicated and largely independent labels interested in divulging it. For English music, my interests started with Fairport Convention and sprouted like a weed to Pentangle, Steeleye Span, Davy Graham, and eventually landing at the foot of the Great Mother of them all, Shirley Collins. And there it more or less stops. I could dig deeper some day, I suppose. (Incidentally I discovered the records of Nick Drake and The Incredible String Band along the course of this musical sojourn, rather than the river flowing in the other direction — I just had to put that in there to show “I was there before it was HIP!” thanks to the neo-freak-folk phonies or whatever they are calling themselves, if they still exist at all).
Although she has recorded with permutations of a number of people involved in the aforementioned ensembles (particularly her famous “Folk Roots, New Routes” with Graham), my favorite records of Shirley are those she made with her sister Dolly Collins accompanying her, and this is one of them, in spite of her being left off co-billing credit on the front album cover as she did on several others. While Dolly was the family pianist of the household, here she plays the spell-weaving miniature pipe-organ, a variation on a hand-pumped instrument whose timbre falls somewhere between a flute and a harmonium. Alongside Shirley`s multinstrumental prowess on dulcimer, guitar, and banjo, the organ brings the music a reedy, ancient quality encapsulated in that cliché standby of music-writing words, “timeless.”
Historians have made quite a bit of noise (noisy in so much as anyone reads history at all) about the relatively recent provenance of our modern notions of romantic love. Shirley knows the intricacies of those arguments without having to have go the circuitous route of a PhD – by meticulously close attention to the truly “popular culture” of her own people. The selections of this record are all love songs, many of them so robust with stark tragedy as to make most radio-friendly `sad` love songs (even those ones you like) sound positively silly. Shirley provides paragraphs on each song on the record in the notes; there is nothing capricious here, everything was chosen with deliberation. I was about to write more of my own reflections on the tracks here when I looked again at the album and read again the liner notes written by Shirley herself for the original back cover of the LP, thankfully reproduced fully by reissue label Fledg’ling Records. Rather than give my own hackneyed plagiarism, I figured it would better serve Shirley’s honor by reproducing her own words below. It is obvious that on top of her stunning musicianship she also possesses a penetrating mind and ability to contextualize her work in a very sophisticated way. So, I will leave the rest to her, other than pointing out that a few of my absolute favorites on this particular album are “The Unquiet Grave,” “Lady Margaret and Sweet William” from where she took the album’s title” and the incomparable “Polly Vaughn.” The album also features Robin Williamson from the ISB on one tune, incidentally.
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thanks!
Dude, this stuff is downright intoxicating. That first song alone takes me someplace I haven't been. You can easily hear where "The Battle of Evermore" and any number of other Jimmy Page creations (even to some extent the opening of "Stairway") sprang from.
Love it, love it!! THX a lot! Your Blog kicks Ass Man! Added you to my Blogroll
I N L O V E W I T H A B E A T
http://inlovewithabeat.blogspot.comu
It's been over a year since you did this post, but it changed my listening and continues to influence me. It opened up that whole world, the English folk revival scene of the 60s and early 70s, whose luminaries–Collins, Graham, Jansch–made some of finest, purest, and most mysterious music on my iPod. Hell, I bought a guitar last spring, and to this day I spend half my practice time in DADGAD trying to sound like Graham and Jansch. (I spend the other half in standard trying to sound like Joao.)
I assume you know Jansch's 1971 record 'Rosemary Lane'? I've been soaking it in lately, and the second half is especially gorgeous–very stripped-down and heavily rooted in English folk (with a perfect version of 'Reynardine'). Would love to see you feature it (or any other Jansch) on here sometime. Can't believe he's dead. Actually, I might do something of his on my own blog, which desperately needs updating.
Anyway, all best from up north. Keep up the great posts.
Hey Andrew, Jansch was actually my first post ever over at my completely-neglected `folk` blog. http://flabbergasted-folk.blogspot.com/2008/11/bert-jansch-jack-orion-1966.html
And I ought to say that Rosemary Lane was the first album I heard by him and it was love at first listen. I had wanted to do a feature when he passed on but just didn't have the time to do it right. 'Rosemary Lane' would be the iconic choice, to me, but any of his early albums would do (except maybe Nicolai). I've been thinking about posting "Avocet" lately – an overlooked masterpiece, really.
I really appreciate the commentary, and knowing that this post made such an impact. I've been listening to the records Tim Hart and Maddy Prior made apart from Steeleye Span – I'd almost forgotten I had them. It goes without saying that I love `the Span` but those three albums as a duoare pretty special.
Really glad to hear about your guitar adventures. I should sell you my old instruments and recording gear since I haven't touched them in years. A twelve-string Gibson, a mandolin from the 50s (also Gibson), a couple electrics and a lapsteel (sold the pedal-steel, impossible to play those things), and a bunch of expensive German microphones! Make me an offer 😉 I just won't part with my Taylor acoustic. In the event I start playing or writing again, it's really all anyone needs.
A person could make a compilation album of just versions of 'Reynardine', and I'd listen to it every day.
Thanks for the kind offer to sell the instruments/equipment! That 50s Gibson mandolin sounds amazing. I might take a rain check until the near future–you know, that mythic time when I cease being a grad student and acquire an actual income. Maybe you'll still have them by then and won't have changed your mind!
I'm going to check out the folk blog now. Sounds promising. Hadn't heard of Avocet…
Link inválido
Please a new link in mp3 @320 kbps!
Thank you 🙂
sorted
Thank you Dr. Vibes but the link for mp3 e the same for flac…
ah thanks for catching that, it was a cut and paste mistake, easily fixed
Thank you Dr. Vibes !
This is great Thank You can you add the correct link for the FLAC file as it leads to the mp3 file on the page
Keep up the great posts
Cheers
Ray
Sure thing. Might take me a few days to get to it
Yes I also look forward to the FLAC file for this LP.. thanks
Good news for those who want a FLAC file for this post I just found a working one on Dr, Vibes’ old Folk blog.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/koc1j7crkyx53uh/lycvwstw+mtrn.rar
password vibes
thanks Dr. Vibes
I didn’t know Mediafire was even still around! Thanks 😀
Interesting album. Thank you Dr. Vibes.