The Unquiet Grave - Kate Rusby cover

The_Unquiet_Grave_-_Kate_Rusby_coverThis is a cover of a traditional folk song as the great british folk artist Kate Rusby plays it.

Rating:    User: ChamberMonk   2008-03-25T11:42:33.627Z

Tags: Kate | Rusby | Unquiet | Grave | Folk | British | Piano | Love |

The Unquiet Grave (Child 78) - (Traditional English)

The_Unquiet_Grave_(Child_78)_-_(Traditional_English)An English ballad about a young man who mourns his dead love too hard and prevents her from obtaining peace. It probably dates from 1400 and was collected by Child in 1868. The ballad deals with two commonly held superstitions - that mourning for longer than a year disturbs the dead, and that kissing a corpse is fatal. There are several tunes traditionally used for this song, but the one I am most familiar with is "Gilderoy", perhaps best known as "Star of the County Down." It is also often used for "Dives and Lazarus" (Child 56). So it is the third time I have sung a song to this tune on YouTube. I first heard the song performed by Joan Baez, though I already knew it as a poem from my school days. It has also been recorded by Frankie Armstrong, Ian Campbell, Kate Rusby, Nancy Kerr and The Dubliners. Despite the morbid subject matter, the song actually has a happy ending, as the young man chooses life rather than joining his love in the grave.

Rating:    User: raymondcrooke   2008-02-24T14:46:41.29Z

Tags: folk | song | ballad | love | death | supernatural | baez | dubliners | gilderoy | lazarus | star | county | down |

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