Thursday 6 July 2017

Sedgemoor

“Oh Lord, where is my husband now –
    Where once he stood beside me?
    His body lies in Sedgemoor
    In grave of oak and ivy;
    Come tell me you who beat the drum,
    Why am I mistreated?
    To stand alone, a traitor’s wife,
    My will to live defeated.
    He swore to me he would be gone
    For days but two and twenty –
    And yet, in seven years and more
    his bed lies cold and empty.”

-Folk ballad, circa 1692 from here
http://www.andreazuvich.com/history/battlefield-of-sedgemoor/

3 comments:

Springinsfeld said...

Hi. I used to have this song on a cassette by a band called Magenta. Most of the album was Sedgemoor based as I recall, but there were a few Crimean songs as well. Do you know anything about this band? The cassette was released in 1985.

Ralphus said...

No Ive had a look on youtube nothing comes up - do you still have the cassette?

Springinsfeld said...

Sadly not....I think it stretched eventually. I was given it by a friend in the SK in about 1986. I remember one of the songs was sung in the first person as if by Judge Jeffreys... the chorus went something like "...so build your gallows good and strong, and build your gallows high... for they must stand for all to see and many many to die!". It would be worth trying to track down. I've a feeling they were from the West Country, and the friend who gave me the cassette was from Portishead.