As I said before, the world of music lost Lata Mangeshkar very recently but a week earlier, it also lost the great English folk singer Norma Waterson. Some might say that she was the queen of English folk music. She was 82 when she died.
Norma was born in Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorkshire in 1939. The Watersons were a musical family and became a big presence on this country's folk circuit. In 1972, Norma married the legendary Martin Carthy who influenced both Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. It is often claimed that the modern version of "Scarborough Fair" was down to Martin Carthy and not Paul Simon. Arguably, Carthy never got the credit he deserved.
Norma and Martin were both steeped in traditional folk music and very knowledgeable about it too. They had one child - Eliza Carthy who still follows in her parents' musical footsteps.
Remember how, a few weeks ago, I was exploring The Black Death in this corner of the blogosphere? Well it seems that the following song may have had its roots in those far distant days. Here's Norma, accompanied by her husband Martin, explaining and then singing "Death and the Lady" quite perfectly:-
Interesting guitar tuning.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they'll carve that on Norma's gravestone.
DeleteI've wandered off on youtube and discovered some stuff from their early years that I am listening to right this moment. It was interesting the Watersons were orphans, and that Norma was considered to the the mother figure to the group. So many stories in the world, aren't there? You've introduced me to another.
ReplyDeleteThanks Debby. Now you probably know more about The Watersons than I do. And yes - so many stories. We cannot possibly follow them all.
DeleteJust beautiful. I knew of this lady years ago but had forgotten her in the meantime. What absolutely beautiful and expressive hands she had! To me, the song starts as a death ballad but the lilting and lifting of voice at the end of a lot of stanzas relieves the durge of some of its power. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was singing I wanted new and different ballads that people had never heard in the coffee houses that I frequented. Having no television or record player or records, for that matter, I got several books from the library where I worked regarding poems and ballads from Ireland and Wales. A few I liked and since there was no music in these books (I couldn't read music anyway!), I made up my own music as I felt. Never knew, at that time, that I was most likely breaking all kinds of copyright laws!
I wish everybody would take measure of their lives from time to time and put into action changes that would make them more kind and more responsive and caring and just a better person.
I am very pleased that this particular post ignited several thoughts in your head Donna. I would have loved to hear you sing but here we are in 2022 and that was all so long ago.
DeleteSo Norma Waterson has gone to the Vale of Avalon?
ReplyDeleteShe's no awa' tae bide awa' she'll aye come back and see us.
With Julie Felix, Pete Seeger, John Martyn, Bert Jansch, Ewan MacColl & many others, Norma will be performing in Folk City Cafe in the sky.
Woody Guthrie always sings in Folk City Cafe.
The great black Blues' artists, like Elizabeth Cotten and Blind Lemon Jefferson, top the bill.
I must go down to The Old Scotia Bar, and remember Norma over a pint of Guinness.
Thanks for the video, Big Man.
Shirley Collins & Anne Briggs are still with us, glad to say.
Dae ye mean the Scotia on Stockwell Street? Have yin fer me professor. Tae Norma Waterson! Cheers!
DeleteYes. Ould Scotia, on Stockwell Street.
DeleteAcross from The Clutha Vaults, another Guinness pint-stop.
I mind seeing Billy Connolly in The Scotia, when he was with the Humblebums.
1969.
I met Sir Billy, for about 15 minutes, over a pint in The Horseshoe Bar.
1973-74.
Before lockdown I spotted Billy in the basement cafe of Waterstones in Sauchiehall Street.
Jim Kelman, our Booker Prize Winner, was sitting a few tables away.
They do not know each other, it seems.
2019
Did you give The Big Yin reading and YouIube homework - as with me and Young Tasker?
DeleteThank you for sharing the talented Norma Waterson with us. May she rest in peace. They say deaths come in threes, so I'm wondering who you will tell us about next!
ReplyDeleteHopefully, not you Kelly!
DeleteHer voice is very nice, but I don't like the song.
ReplyDeleteI think the song jars deliberately because of its subject matter.
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