Fair Contestt, Step Right Up!
Here is the skinny on Scarborough Fair. Props to those who gave it some thought.
This is a very old folk song that began in villages 1600-ish when it was common for street singers – bards they were called, to spin tales. The lyrics with time and travel have been altered.
This version of the song is about a soldier dying on a distant battlefield. As he passes away, he is thinking about a lady he loved but was rejected by and disappeared with no warning. Scarborough Fair was not a fair in the sense we think of, it was a gathering for merchants to trade and make their annual monies with their wares. He falls in love with a lady but knows he can never have her, it was not acceptable in those days to go courting like that, so it was more of a love affair in his mind and from a distance. She does not respond to his remote attempts. This is a jilted man who by being rejected asks her for impossible things, a shirt with no seams, acre of land, etc. He asks these things of her to justify her refusal, which again – it would not have been proper in those days to persue.
In the changing of this version of the song, the words are pointed at anti-war movement, and was adapted during Vietnam. “To fight for a cause that was long ago forgotten”. Spot on Saffy!
For the herbs….. Parsley is associated with digestion help, it eases away the bitter. Sage is for strength, Rosemary for love, faithfulness and remembrance, and Thyme for courage.
If you want to remove the political and battle portions, watch the below video, it’s gorgeous and turns it into a simple sad romance story from the gender reversal point of view. Art is interpretation after all no? Well done to those who gave it a stab.
-DM
This is a very old folk song that began in villages 1600-ish when it was common for street singers – bards they were called, to spin tales. The lyrics with time and travel have been altered.
This version of the song is about a soldier dying on a distant battlefield. As he passes away, he is thinking about a lady he loved but was rejected by and disappeared with no warning. Scarborough Fair was not a fair in the sense we think of, it was a gathering for merchants to trade and make their annual monies with their wares. He falls in love with a lady but knows he can never have her, it was not acceptable in those days to go courting like that, so it was more of a love affair in his mind and from a distance. She does not respond to his remote attempts. This is a jilted man who by being rejected asks her for impossible things, a shirt with no seams, acre of land, etc. He asks these things of her to justify her refusal, which again – it would not have been proper in those days to persue.
In the changing of this version of the song, the words are pointed at anti-war movement, and was adapted during Vietnam. “To fight for a cause that was long ago forgotten”. Spot on Saffy!
For the herbs….. Parsley is associated with digestion help, it eases away the bitter. Sage is for strength, Rosemary for love, faithfulness and remembrance, and Thyme for courage.
If you want to remove the political and battle portions, watch the below video, it’s gorgeous and turns it into a simple sad romance story from the gender reversal point of view. Art is interpretation after all no? Well done to those who gave it a stab.
-DM
posted by DMorgan's Zoo at
9:41 AM
2 Comments:
Awesome. I'd forgotten too, about the impossible tasks. That was a thing that always intrigued me about the song. Makes perfect sense he'd rationalize her indifferance.
Most excellent post, Ms. M.
Oh, and it is a lovely version, but I like S&G's better because of the background lyrics.
I forget exactly but think it was some paper we had to write on in a poetry portion of school. The internet wasn't the route to an A back then, so had to think. I did not get an A. Something relatively close enough, probably lol because I rambled on so long it was a "fuck it, get this paper off my desk" grade.
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