Season 400 Myths and Legends

I have to admit, Puff The Magic Dragon was my first thought too. But instead, here's a song I first heard about 35 years ago in a folk club, sung by a young Martin Simpson. It was written by Anne Lister, a songwriter and story teller.

 
Twa Corbies

A conversation between two ravens.
Was this the first ecological and environmental poem ever written:)
Birds that are black are rather ominous just ask Alfred or Edgar.

 
Here we have a song steeped in norse mythology and tales of epic battles.

 
Season 400. Submission 1. "Tin Angel" (Written and recorded by Joni Mitchell on her Clouds album in 1969)

Geoff, many thanks for your hosting this special 400th Season and offering the perfect theme for it. When I first joined the Seasons, I was in awe of the Seasonistas, all of whom were legends to me. You were very much an inspiration to me, as a result of your great understanding of folk music, which I love so much. :)

While I, too, thought of "Puff," a fine fine bring for this week, I went in a slightly different different direction. I thought of the songwriting legend herself - Joni Mitchell. And so I bring one of her songs which I've always loved. And guess what? It mentions "wizardry" and "a castle." Someone once said we are all believers in the myths of our lives. For me, Joni has been a great explorer of those myths and the legends we create around them.

Happy 400th, everyone! :)


Guitalele, vocal - Linda



 
One of my favorite urban legends is the one about the disappearing place. A lonely traveler on some isolated road comes across some place of business out in the middle of nowhere. This place seems to almost always be a bar or tavern or cafe or something of that ilk. He has a strange experience there, and when he goes back to try and find it again later, it's not there. This is a country song that uses this legend.

The fills were done on my baritone, with tremolo, echo, and reverb fx added with Audacity.

 
Daniel and the Sacred Harp

Oddly enough, this is my second entry out of my last four from the same side of the same album, Stage Fright by The Band. Hope you enjoy it - it's a good tale.

 
Sorry for interruption - Season 399 wrap is now posted. Thank you, and back to myths and legends.
 
thank you for the week Geoff.
this, a song from the Mountain Goats' Heretic Pride LP (2008)
about the benevolent monster of Tianchi Lake in Jilin Province, China.
baritone ukuleles, voice w/ joojoo on alto kalimba.
 
this song, and from the same LP
in which the protagonist mythologises himself as a sea dwelling creature
unable to survive terrestrially.
live recording on baritone ukulele.
 
I've finally got round to creating a playlist. I realised last night I'd forgotten to set one up but I was too tired so I've left it till this morning.

So far, I have added songs up to post #17 of the thread, Hendulele's Unicorn Song. I'll add more as I listen and comment. When I'm up to date, I'll post again.
 
Well, I'm now caught up with all of your legendary performances. Some super songs and performances.

I should have everything up to here on the playlist. PM me if I've left you off.
 
So this is maybe slightly left field. It's by Drenge, from their latest album Strange Creatures, released earlier this year. I finally got to see them while they were touring this album too, great show.

Anyway this is a song cynically describing a prom when suddenly a supernatural/urban legend type event happens. Hope it fits.

 
west country legend of the white hare, there are different forms of the story, but generally a witch or ghostly woman takes the form of a white hare, and goes out looking for prey at night. If you catch her eye she'll steal your soul away. this song of the story is by seth lakeman...

 
an original song for the season.



ICARUS

If I had wings again I'd fly
Not too low not too high
Somewhere in between the sun and sea

Where the birds they humbly glide
Without complacency or pride
All fledglings leave the nest to where they long to be

The minotaur's safe in the cage
But the King won't be appeased
None of us can hide from the darkness deep within

And to you, my knowing friend:
If I could have my time again
Surely I would heed my father's call
Now who is there to catch me when I fall?

Satan loved the mountain
Just like I loved the sun
The two of us burned up from the inside
Consumed by pride

I left my father in the clouds
Refused to hear the trumpet call
Now who is there to catch me when I fall?

I thought I knew much better
Separation is forever
Now who is there to catch me when I fall?
 
Mary Hamilton," or "The Fower Maries" ("The Four Marys"), is a common name for a
well-known sixteenth-century ballad from Scotland based on an apparently fictional
incident about a lady-in-waiting to a Queen of Scotland. It is Child Ballad 173 and Roud 79.
In all versions of the song, Mary Hamilton is a personal attendant to the Queen of Scots,
but precisely which queen is not specified. She becomes pregnant by the Queen's husband,
the King of Scots, which results in the birth of a baby. Mary kills the infant – in some versions
by casting it out to sea or drowning, and in others by exposure. The crime is seen and she
is convicted. The ballad recounts Mary's thoughts about her life and her impending death
in a first-person narrative.
 
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