Joan Baez - The Greenwood Side [HD]

Joan Baez sings the traditional murder ballad 'The Greenwood Side' from her 1967 Vanguard album 'Joan'. This song is also known as 'The Cruel Mother' (Child #20) and has many variants from both Britain and North America. Versions were recorded by Peggy Seeger, Ian & Sylvia, Judy Collins, and others. This version moves slowly, but relentlessly, toward the song's horrific end - with the singing showing palpable sadness and unease above the ominous music. I think the "linsey" in the refrain of this Baez version "Oh, the rose and the linsey-o" may refer to the linen warp in coarse linen and wool cloth - perhaps a contrast to the beauty of the rose. Note also that this version details dramatically, as these old ballads did, with the fate of the mother. For people of this song's time, hell was very real and ever-present on the mind.

[bweaverla]

Absolutely gorgeous. Taking a hundreds-years-old song originating in England probably in the 1600's which traveled to the Appalachians where it was re-discovered. Originally, this was an unaccompanied ballad and sang by rote by someone singing on their porch in the Appalachians. It would have sounded odd and creaky, the notes not existing in our modern 7-note keys. But Joan has transformed it so we moderns can hear it and understand it. Then she made it beautiful, as she always does. These songs, the Child ballads, were the fore-runners of what came after, Bluegrass, folk and eventually rock and roll. This was the amazing gift we gave to the world. And it all started as creaky songs in the Appalachians, where so much of American culture began.