High Germany - Pentangle (1972)

[jederfri11]

Balcoth, i would agree, 1. Basket of light, 2. Cruel Sister 3. Solomons Seal

[barfoneandonly]

I prefer the Dubliners version mesel

[mauro9601]

Bellissima...

[herkyjerky42]

are they satanic?

[tombstonehand1]

@herkyjerky42

No. The pentangle comes from the shield of Sir Gawain (one of King Arthur's knights), and symbolizes the five wounds of Christ. It is NOT a satanic symbol, despite what many ignoramuses may tell you.

[3tangle3]

@tombstonehand1 funny thing is garwain and arthur would have spoken old welsh (brythonic)

[Nordis]

@tombstonehand1 Pentangle is an ancient symbol predating christianity, let alone King Arthur's legend, by several millenia. While it's not a satanic symbol, it's definitely a pagan one. Like other ancient symbols (swastika, seal of Solomon, sunwheel...), it's been used by different groups for different purposes in the history. Nowadays inverted pentacle is adopted mainly by satanists, so unfortunately many people associate it with them because they simply don't know about it's history.

[tombstonehand1]

@Nordis

It does predate Christianity, but so does the cross. That doesn't mean the cross isn't a Christian symbol as well.

[Nordis]

@tombstonehand1 Indeed. Nowadays the public just associates pentangle with satanism even though the satanists themselves use only the inverted version of it while the original is used mainly by wiccans and neopagans. Very few know the difference between the pentangle with one arm pointing upwards and the one that points down and I guess that confused herkyjerky here in the first place. Pentangle isn't as widely known as cross, I think no-one would confuse an upward cross with an inverted one :P

[alizarazell]

this melody is so beautiful... but I have to say it's quite a monster to sing! trying to sing it makes my respect for Jacqui's gorgeous performance all the greater.

[buchananstreet]

basket of light is ONE HELL OF A CD by them !

[willgonow]

thanks BoudiccaBlanc for the history,cheers!

[ib2fast]

Never heard this version before.

Very Good! Thank You!

KUDOS & *****

[LindsayCurran]

Wow! Had (and lost, alas!) Solomon's Seal on vinyl! Many thanks for posting!

[JollyJakester]

"Solomon's Seal" is Pentangle's best album, by far. With "High Germany," "Willy o Winsbury, "Sally free and Easy," etc.... even the non-traditional folk songs are great. This is their quintessential album. A "must have" for any folk and Celtic music collection.

[Pitfossil]

"Basket of Light" should be an addiction starter. Live album, recorded by BBC engineers and available on amazon, I just checked. (evil grin - I still have the original LP album, and no, I won´t sell. Ever.)

[Kailua1800]

In texas its hard to find any of their cds

[neavampire13]

I'm planning to buy a cd of them, but does anyone know what's their best cd/ are their best songs?

[balchoth]

In my humble opinion, it's "Basket of Light", though "Cruel Sister" and "The Pentangle" are awesome too...

[cottageorgan]

@balchoth Couldn't agree more. This was kind of the end of the road for The Pentangle. It's still a great album, but more inconsistent than the earlier stronger stuff, but nearly everything they did was gold dust in my humble opinion. RIP Bert...A

[Peskygee1]

Light Flight is a nice 2 disc sample of their music.

[johnnybacardi]

@neavampire13 : I like this one, Solomon's Seal, the best, but they're all good.

[joeheadblues]

@neavampire13 try their 20 CDs...all are of great level!

[trilobite3339]

@neavampire13 This album is great...Check out Jansch's "the black swan" too

[BoudiccaBlanc]

Thank you for posting this video :-)

Pentangle were really a first rate folk music group. The voices & music were very well balanced. :-)

(Hmm....The price of empire. I'm sure that few ,if any, of those pressed into the armies & navies of Europe's kings wanted to be there. What a terrible waste of life is war!)

[BoudiccaBlanc]

From the "comment" section of the Luke Kelly version...

"Grymm23 (1 day ago)--"It's most likely from the seven years war (1754-1763) Where British troops fought as part of an alliance with Hanoverians, Hessians and Prussians against the French, Russia, Austria, Sweden and Saxony at battles like Minden, Warburg, Kloster Kamp,Vellinghausen, Wilhelmstahl,(this war is also called the first world war as the confilct also spread to India and America) The earliest version of the song is English.."

[remindbender]

*SCHACH* der Ob ... "unter den liedern"

unter den blinden

ist der einäugige könig

unter den einäugigen

ist die blinde königin

dreiäugig

[balchoth]

häh????? Oo

[remindbender]

hä...was??? zuneigungsZwinkel ;-

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuund...evol??

bauer vor verwandlung auf f8

bischof in spree hehe

runner-up.mindestens!!!

[czobsessed]

@balchoth

dem schließe ich mich an.also häh?

Das lied ist genial ...

[Pvoorr65]

@ remindbender dass nicht gewust haben Wihr , danke shon .

[remindbender]

@Pvoorr65 you are welcome.its a pleasure to spread some positive vibrations in times of advancing distant confusion!

[IrishJV]

Seriously, it's a few months later and I can't stop listening to this! It's so good!

Jacqui has the voice of an angel. I come when she says "Tired".

[Eivob]

fuching wicked man!

[lynettekomidar]

cheers, really enjoying Pentangle

[247pjb]

GREAT.

[IrishJV]

Thanks a million for posting this song. I'd never heard it before. Pentangle were truly musical geniuses.

[pirbird14]

@IrishJV Judy Collins did a version of this song but gave it a very different treatment. It's called "The Wars of Germany". You can find one version of the lyrics at mudcat . org.