SCARECROW (June Tabor)

Ah-ha! You thought I had "passed the curtain and joined the choir invisible", didn't you? Nope! I've just been having one batch of tech problems after another, and it's not like I really need anymore headaches, huh? (hee-hee) The latest is that my laptop won't recognize my video chip when I insert it to offload my raw vlog footage. Damned annoying, I say!

Until I get the kinks worked out, I thought that I'd return to my slide show / music video roots with my all-time favorite song performed by June Tabor (and so beautifully, too). The very first time I heard this piece on a contemporary Celtic folk music show on radio (back in the late 1980s), I instantly fell in love with it. And my affection for it has remained undeminished throughout the years. In truth, I've had the rough beginnings of this project stuck away inside my project files for a couple years, either in the form of digitally altered photos or partially cobbled together opening fragments. So now, it finally gets its big premiere.

My intention was basically to make an already dark song even DARKER, which should come as no surprise to anybody. The visual story differs from my interpretation of the song itself, but we can merely chalk it up to artistic license and leave it at that.

Also, the video footage stuck in here is from my archives, and it features some of the crows which occupy the area outside our house, many of whom are occasionally fed by yours truly.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. The lyrics are as follows:

"Scarecrow"

As I walked out
one summer's morn,
Saw a scarecrow tied to a pole
in a field of corn.
His coat was black,
and his head was bare,
When the wind shook him,
the crows took up into the air.

Ah, but you'd lay me down
and love me,
Ah, but you'd lay me down
and love me if you could.
But you're only a bag of rags
in an overall
That the wind sways and the crows fly away
and the corn grows tall.

As I walked out
one winter's day,
Saw an old man hanging from a pole
in a field of clay.
His coat was gone,
and his head hung low,
Till the wind flung it up to look,
wrung its neck and let it go.

How could you lay me down
and love me?
How could you lay me down
and love me now?
For you're only a bag of bones
in an overall
That the wind blows and the kids throw stones
at the thing on the pole.

As I walked out
one fine spring day,
Saw twelve jolly dons decked out
in the blue and the gold so gay.
And to a stake they tied
a child newborn,
Then the bells were rung and the songs were sung
and they sowed their corn.

Now you can lay me down
and love me,
Now you can lay me down
and love me if you will.
But you're only a bag of rags
in an overall
But the wind blew and the sun shone too
and the corn grew tall.

As I walked out
one summer's morn,
Saw a scarecrow tied to a pole
in a field of corn.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• scarecrow
• june
• tabor

[freyacatoct]

This song would go nice with leonard cohens (famous blue raincoat)..steve von till covers this song.

[gothling1955]

@freyacatoct Yeah, you're right, that'd be quite a fitting match. I love Leonard Cohen's work!

[freyacatoct]

Great song

[gothling1955]

@freyacatoct Yeah, you're right, it truly is quite atmospherically creepy. I've wanted to do something with it in terms of spooky visuals for many years, so I'm very pleased to have finally gotten around to doing so. Thanks for watching & commenting!

[9496tull]

what a great song, and the images are amazing

[gothling1955]

@9496tull Thank you, I appreciate your watching very-very much.

[9496tull]

Oh Ya, This is wounderful. you did a great job on the images to this great song. keep it up my friend.

[gothling1955]

@NikkoYM Thank you! :-)

[NikkoYM]

nice  :)

[gothling1955]

@gigsing Thanks so much for giving a look to this humble little clip. Yes, "Velvet Green it's not!", that's for certain. There's no richly lush expanse of casual lovers' playground in evidence here. I toiled away on this project a lot longer than usual, because I altered so many of the graphics myself -- incredible how time-consuming it can be. But wow, I've always found this song especially haunting, and I'm thrilled to have it completed and uploaded at last.