This week’s theme for Song Lyric Sunday has been suggested by Di, who blogs at pensitivity101. Jim’s post Chill You To The Bone tells us all about it: we are invited to play songs with the lyrics “eerie, ghost, haunting, paranormal or spooky.” I don’t know about you but I am at a loss to recall any songs with three of those in their lyrics – to me they are more the feeling evoked by a song rather than actual lyrics. But I know a song or several with “ghost” in both their title and their lyrics, or as something described in them, and I’m playing you two of them today.
Ghosts have long been a staple of songs, and as a lover of English folk music I’ve come across a few in my time. My second song for today is one such, but I’m starting with a much more recent original tune by one of my favourite English folk rock bands. I’m guessing that, unless you are a regular reader with a very good memory, the name Merry Hell won’t mean much to you, so welcome to their world:
And here are the lyrics:
There’s a ghost in our houseIt’s watching me, watching youIt sees everything we areThe secrets we’ve hidden from view
It’s not death we fear, it’s mediocrityNot dying, but fading awayIt’s the will to do more than just exist
It’s the chance we missed, it’s the chance we missed
There’s a ghost in our houseThere’s a ghost in our house, ha
There’s a ghost in our houseIt’s watching us through the yearsIt collects our regrets, yeahMakes souvenirs of our tears
It’s not change we fear, it’s standing stillTurning to face the wallIt’s holding onto nothing with a tight clenched fist
It’s the chance we missed, it’s the chance we missed
There’s a ghost in our houseThere’s a ghost in our house
Close the nursery door very softlySomeone’s at the windowHide your dreams and your deepest yearning
Someone’s at the window
It’s not death we fear, it’s life unlivedStars unwilling to shineUpstaged by the brilliance of fate’s last twist
It’s the chance we missed, it’s the chance we missed
There’s a ghost in our houseThere’s a ghost in our houseThere’s a ghost in our houseThere’s a ghost in our house
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriter: Virginia Kettle
Merry Hell are a band from Wigan in the north west of England, who are well known on the folk music circuit here, as they play many gigs and festivals – originally in their local area but in recent years they have travelled around the country. They formed from the nucleus of The Tansads, which included the three Kettle brothers, John (guitar), Bob (mandolin) and Andrew (vocals), and others in the current eight piece lineup include John’s wife Virginia, who wrote this song and is a solo performer in her own right. They also have in their ranks Simon Swarbrick on fiddle, who is the nephew of the late Dave Swarbrick, a legendary fiddler from his Fairport Convention days. To date they have released six albums, a compilation, and two DVDs – I have them all in my collection, and am a big fan. This song was (just about) the title track of their third album, The Ghost In Our House And Other Stories, which was released in 2015. It is typical of their music: a lively tune, lyrics with a meaning, and a fun video to accompany it. As I’ve said before, folk music isn’t really a chart thing here, but that compilation album – Let The Music Speak For Itself – did make an appearance at #49 in the UK Albums chart last May. The band has a link to a fellow blogger, too: Paul Ariss has several strings to his bow, being a scriptwriter, storyteller and songwriter, and his records are produced by John Kettle. Small world, eh? You can find his music on Apple Music and elsewhere, and his blog was the wonderfully named Sliced Yogurt though he appears to have changed the name in its latest version.
For today’s second song I’m going with a traditional piece, which revolves around a favourite topic: the supernatural. I think I can claim that this one scores on four of Di’s five criteria. I tried to find a live performance but none were suitable, so I’m giving you the original album track, which is absolutely lovely. It is long, but very much worth hearing:
Pentangle were relatively short-lived in their original incarnation – just six years – but they have regrouped on a number of occasions and are still playing now. They have made some superb music featuring great musicianship and the beautiful vocals of Jacqui McShee. This tale of the girl coming back from the afterlife to haunt her cruel sister, who had murdered her, is one that has been recorded several times, but Pentangle’s is my favourite. I didn’t get to see them in concert until they reformed the original lineup and undertook a number of tours. Their final dates were in 2011, including performances at the Cambridge Folk Festival and at Glastonbury, and one last concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 1 August, which was guitarist Bert Jansch’s last ever public performance, just two months before we lost him to lung cancer (on 5 October). They must have known his end was near, which makes what was an amazing concert all the more remarkable – that was my one and only time seeing them. They closed the first half of the show with this, and it was magical. Cruel Sister was the title track of their fourth album, released in November 1970, which spent two weeks at #51 in the UK Albums chart in the run up to Christmas that year.
That’s it for today, and I hope you enjoyed this little dabble in the paranormal. See you again on Tuesday 😊
