She Moved Through The Fair

Simple Minds took the tune and wrote the godawful Belfast Child around it.

Kate Bush recorded a lovely and similar air called 'My Lagan Love' on the CD version on The Hounds Of Love, really worth checking out.

It's also been covered many times by the easy-listening classical set, Charlotte Church etc:

(I guess that's what I meant about generations; I am not sure I prefer Fairport's.)

Actually the AAE version isn't half bad, Jullianne Reagan can sing very well and the backing is that kind of ambient guitar style, like This Mortal Coil's version of Song To The Siren.

I bet if there's a Shirley Collins version out there it probably smoshes all others. But that's not the pop world, I know.

To those you can add...

Maireid Sullivan
Anne Murray
Feargal Sharkey
Annwn
Anuna
Dana
Meav
Christine Lavin
Carole Noonan
Margaret Barry
Stone Circle
Cantus
Ceoil Innisfree

Where?

I mean, wares???

She Moved Through the Fair
by Unknown

My young love said to me, my mother won´t mind
And my father won´t slight you for your lack of kine,
And she stepped away from me and this she did say,
It will not be long love ´til our wedding day.

She stepped away from me and she moved through the fair,
And fondly I watched her move here and move there,
Then she went her way homeward with one star awake,
As the swan in the evening moves over the lake.

The people were saying no two were e´er wed,
But one has a sorrow that never was said,
And I smiled as she passed with her goods and her gear,
And that was the last that I saw of my dear.

I dreamt it last night that my young love came in,
So softly she entered her feet made no din,
She came close beside me and this she did say,
It will not be long love ´til our wedding day.

SHE MOVED THROUGH THE FAIR. AKA – “Our Wedding Day,” “Out of the Window.” Irish, Air (3/4 time). D Mixolydian. Standard. One part. John Loesberg records that the song was collected in County Donegal by Herbert Hughes, and the words were rewritten by Padraic Colum. They begin:

***

My young love said to me, 'My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you for your lack of kine
And she stepp'd away from me and this she did say:

'It will not be long love till our wedding day.

***

She walked away from me and she moved through the fair;

She won several goldfish and one teddy bear;

And then she went onward with one star awake;

It was too dark to see, and she fell in the lake.

***

John Moulden remarks that a song called “Out of the Window” is an antecedent version of the song Colum transformed into "She moved through the fair." He notes there are three sources for the song: one recorded from Robert Cinnamond, another from Eddie Butcher and a third printed in the Sam Henry collection. All modern performances seem to stem from those sources, including the late Paddy Tunney, who adapted Robert Cinnamond’s version. Colum (A Treasury of Irish Folklore). Loesberg (Folksongs and Ballads Popular in Ireland), 1979; pg. 19. GIFT 10006, Mary Black – “Collected.” MCA/BMG MCVD 30012, Margaret Barry – “Margaret Barry & Pecker Dunne: Travellin' People" (1996). Polygram 834496, The Chieftains & Van Morrison – “Irish Heartbeat.” RCA 5798-2-RC, "James Galway and the Chieftains" (1986). RCA 62702, Chieftains & Sinead O’Connor – “Long Black Veil.” Rounder CD, Margaret Barry – “I Sang Through the Fairs” (1998. A compilation of Alan Lomax field recordings). Varrik 026, Pentangle – "Pentagle in the Round.” McPeake Family – "The Rights of Man". Meg Davis – "The Claddagh Walk.” Alison Pearce & Susan Drakes – "My Lagan Love and Other Songs of Ireland.”

well, quite an xpost.

Odd isn't it, that rather silly variation on the verse..

There's also another version about her going "out the window"

Then I dreamt last night that my love came in ,
And she walked up so soft that her feet made no din.
I thought that she spoke and those words she did say,
"It won't be long now, love, till our wedding day."

Then according to promise at midnight I rose
And found nothing there but the down-folded clothes,
The sheets they were empty, as plain as you see,
And out of the window with another went she.

Best variation ever.

But I have never heard anyone sing 'kine' before, or when they did I thought it was 'kind'! At last, this makes more sense.

Fascinating. Due to the Fairport version I guess I always thought it was English not Irish.

And Padraic Colum, too! An old friend of Joyce, no?