Scarborough Fair is a traditional English ballad, Scarborough being a town on the Yorkshire coast. It is about a young young man who instructs the listener to tell his former love to perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back, with the woman then giving her lover a series of equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his seamless shirt once he has finished. The song is similar to a Scottish ballad, The Elfin Knight, which dates as far back as 1670. It would have been modified and rewritten many times over the centuries, and the reference to Scarborough Fair and parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme date it to 19th century versions. Simon and Garfunkel made a big hit of the song in the 1960s but one of the most beautiful recordings of Scarborough Fair is that by Siobhan Owen and is the second track on her Storybook Journey album...
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 08:00:01 +0000
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