Be an Honest Puck

I like folk music. It's simplicity, it's story telling properties, it's importance within the oral tradition are all appealing. This post is about another traditional folk song.

Fairies are a big deal in the traditions of Britain, Scotland, and Ireland. Shakespeare, Drayton, Alexander Pope, and Sir Walter Scott all wrote about them. There are countless myths and stories concerning fairies that have been passed down through folk traditions for centuries.

The Ballad of Tam Lin is one of these traditional tales.

Stephanie Law's Tam Lin

The tale is of a character named Tam Lin, who is able to either steal from, or impregnate any maid who comes across his path in the forest of Carterhaugh (somewhere in the Cheviot Hills along the Scottish/English border). When a girl named Janet (or Margaret) returns to the forest to find an herb to end her pregnancy, Tam Lin reappears to her and tells her his story of being held in bondage by the Fairy Queen. He tells her how she can set him free.

There have been many versions of the story written lyrically and set to music. Most well known are the versions by Frankie Armstrong, Cast Iron Filter, Fairport Convention, and Anne Briggs.

Below are the lyrics used by Fairport Convention, which is the first version of the song I heard as a kid.

I forbid you maidens all that wear gold in your hair 
To travel to Carterhaugh for young Tam Lin is there 
None that go by Carterhaugh but they leave him a pledge
Either their mantles of green or else their maidenhead 
Janet tied her kirtle green a bit above her knee 
And she's gone to Carterhaugh as fast as go can she 
She'd not pulled a double rose, a rose but only two 
When up there came young Tam Lin, says "Lady, pull no more" 
"And why come you to Carterhaugh without command from me?" 
"I'll come and go", young Janet said, "and ask no leave of thee" 

Janet tied her kirtle green a bit above her knee 
And she's gone to her father as fast as go can she 
Well, up then spoke her father dear and he spoke meek and mild 
"Oh, and alas, Janet," he said, "I think you go with child"
 "Well, if that be so," Janet said, "myself shall bear the blame 
There's not a knight in all your hall shall get the baby's name”
 For if my love were an earthly knight as he is an elfin grey 
I'd not change my own true love for any knight you have" 

Janet tied her kirtle green a bit above her knee 
And she's gone to Carterhaugh as fast as go can she 
"Oh, tell to me, Tam Lin," she said, "why came you here to dwell?"
 "The Queen of Faeries caught me when from my horse I fell 
And at the end of seven years she pays a tithe to Hell
I so fair and full of flesh and feared it be myself 
But tonight is Hallowe'en and the faerie folk ride 
Those that would their true love win at Miles Cross they must buy 
First let past the horses black and then let past the brown 
Quickly run to the white steed and pull the rider down 
For I'll ride on the white steed, the nearest to the town 
For I was an earthly knight, they give me that renown 
Oh, they will turn me in your arms to a newt or a snake 
But hold me tight and fear not, I am your baby's father 
And they will turn me in your arms into a lion bold
But hold me tight and fear not and you will love your child 
And they will turn me in your arms into a naked knight 
But cloak me in your mantle and keep me out of sight" 

In the middle of the night she heard the bridle ring 
She heeded what he did say and young Tam Lin did win 
Then up spoke the Faerie Queen, an angry queen was she
 ”Woe betide her ill-fought face, an I'll death may she die” 
"Oh, had I known, Tam Lin," she said, "what this night
I did see I'd have looked him in the eyes and turned him to a tree”

Whats in a Name Change Part Two: Dead by Racism

I like graphic design, specifically logo design, and especially the concepts that didn't make it.  I posted some designs before when the New Orleans Hornets changed their name and image to the New Orleans Pelicans at the end of the last NBA season.  Sports teams seem to lend themselves easily to reimaginings and redesigns.

The Washington football team is taking heat from many places recently, aside from the usual disgruntled American Indians.  recently the 99designs community held a contest for Washington football team designs.  Please go to the linky link to see them all, below are my favorites.  

Social Change on the Airwaves

Football season has started again.  Of course this means that every week for the next 19 weeks all sports networks will be doing nothing but talking about what happened on Sunday, and what may happen next Sunday.  Also, we should be talking about racism in athletics.

click me

The Oneida Nation has paid for a radio campaign aimed at the Washington football team with the goal of getting the mascot changed.  a full story can be read here on USA Today's site.  But a quick Google of Oneida Radio Ad will give many different links to similar stories.

click for article

Click the linky links below to hear the radio ads.  So far there are two spots.

click for first ad

click for second ad

Put this Sponge on Your Head, Please

Metallica

Ride the Lightning

1984, MegaForce

produced by Flemming Rasmussen and Mark Whitaker

James Hetfield- rhythmn guitar, vocals

Kirk Hammet- lead guitar

Cliff Burton- bass

Lars Ulrich- drums

singles-

• Creeping Death/Am I Evil/Blitzkrieg
• For Whom the Bell Tolls
• Fade to Black

This is my favorite Metallica album. To this day, every time I hear bells on the radio, I wait, hoping. After three bells, I get dissapointed, because that means the song is Hells Bells by ACDC and not For Whom the Bell Tolls, which I'd so much rather hear.  

I listened to this album the other day for the first time in years, and marveled at how much Hetfield doesn't sound like Hetfield. Compared to contemporary Metallica, it sounds like they have a completely different singer.

This album has many of my all time favorite Metallica songs. Ride the Lightning, Fade to Black, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Creeping Death, and Call of the Ktulu (Cthulhu, idiots) are each pretty fantastic, Trapped Under Ice isn't a bad song either. In fact, that only leaves Fight Fire with Fire, and Escape on the list of songs that make me go "meh". If only two out of eight tracks are unremarkable, that's a pretty great album.  

Also, this album was pressed as vinyl records (1984 was still two early for CDs to dominate the business) and created some cool collectors items. 500 pressings were packaged in green sleeves instead of the blue cover shown above. Also, the Fade to Black promo single was pressed in glow in the dark green vinyl. These both go up for auction once in a while and bring in 200 to 400 dollars.  Not as much as the clear pressing of NoFX's The Decline... that's ridiculous.  

Chris Cornell with his Head in the Oven

Soundgarden

Superunknown

1994, A&M

produced by Michael Beinhorn

Chris Cornell - vocals, guitars

Ben Sheppard - bass

Kim Thayll - guitars

Matt Cameron - drums

Artis the Spoonman - spoons

singles- 

• Day I Tried to Live/ Like Suicide/ Kickstand
• Spoonman/ Cold Bitch
• Black Hole Sun/ Like Suicide/ Kickstand
• My Wave/ Spoonman/ Birth Ritual
• Fell on Black Days/ Kyle Petty, Son of Richard

This came out when I was in Middle School, like most of the must have grunge, and post-grunge "alternative" music from the 90s. Soundgarden hit it big with this album. Although some hipster fans prefer Badmotorfinger, no one can deny the number of hit singles, good reviews, and Billboard #1 debut. Superunknown recieved 5 out of 5 stars from Allmusic, Q, and Rolling Stone. They definitely hit their stride here, it is a much more complete and diverse album.

The things the band had stated were influences on this album are interesting also. Aside from Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, which permeate throughout all their work, Ringo Starr, Sylvia Plath, and druids were also counted among influences, according to band members. I guess if your major influence is Led Zeppelin, druids make sense. And if you're going to write lyrics from a dark and miserable place, Sylvia Plath is probably your best friend.  

The band was marketed as a Grunge band like Nirvana, and Alice in Chains, which I never understood. Actually, I never understood the genre Grunge to begin with. None of the famous Seattle grunge bands sounded anything alike. Nirvana was far more punk rock than Pearl Jam or Soundgarden, Alice in Chains was far more miserable and muddled and actually sounded like something grunge ought to sound like, like that crap you find behind the washer at the laundromat. Soundgarden was a metal band with a melody, and a singer right out of the Judas Priest line of 80's metal singers. But, they were creative enough to feature a jug band spoon player on Spoonman, and delve into some psychedelic sounds on Black Hole Sun.