AG: Okay, what else do we have (besides) “Thomas the Rhymer”?
Bruce Martin; We have “Tam Lin”.
AG: Okay, “Tam Lin”.
BM: Alright. “Tam Lin”. Has anyone ever heard “Tam Lin”
AG: I never did.
Student: Sure.
BM: Oh, great.
AG: You know it?
BM: It’s a…
AG: Who else? [to Student] – Do you know music? Are you a musician?
Student: Fairport‘s, (its a song of Fairport‘s), that’s what it is.
BM: Fairport Convention’s (version is) probably the easiestly accessible (one) is in this country. The Watersons do a version of it on Topic Records which, if you know anybody in England, you can get.
Student: You can get some of these records through the Denver Folklore Center and there’s a couple of places in town. Have you heard the version that Ray Fisher does?
BM: That’s really good too. It’s a great, great tune and the only trouble being that it’s longer than anything (Bob) Dylan ever wrote. It’s real long, but it’s.. [Bruce Martin starts singing] – “Oh I forbid you maidens all/ That wear gold all in your hair/ To come and go by Carterhaugh/ For Young Tam Lin is there, my love,/ Young Tam Lin is there/ There’s none that goes by Carterhaugh/ But they leave him a wad…”
AG: “They leave him a wad..?”
BM: “..Either their rings or their green mantles/ Or else their maidenheads, my love,/ Or else their maidenheads..” Let’s see, I had these (verses) checked off at one time..
AG: For special..
BM: For performance, yeah, of about twelve of them.
AG: Let me read just a little bit. I just want to see what the sound is [Allen starts reading] – “She’s let the seam drop to her foot,/ The needle to her toe/ She’s gone away to Carterhaugh/ As fast as she can go” – [Allen continues] – “She had not pulled a red red rose,/ A rose but barely three/ When up there started young Tam Lin/ Said, “Let the roses be”./ “Why pull through the rose, Margaret/ And why breaks thou the wand?/ And why com’st thou to Carterhaugh/ Withouten my command?”/ Carterhaugh it is my own,/ My father gave it to me/ And I will be at Carterhaugh/ And ask no leave of thee”/ He catched her by the milk-white hand/ Among the leaves so green/ And what they did I cannot say/ The green leaves were in between./ Now since you had your will of me/ Come tell to me your name… – Okay, there’s that jump, that jump-cut – “..(W)hat they did I cannot say/ The green leaves were in between./ Now since you had your will of me/ Come tell to me your name” – [Allen continues with the next six stanzas] – “May Margaret’s kilted her green, green skirt/ A little above her knee” – I haven’t (quite) got the rhythm there – “Out then spoke an old grey knight…” Nah, you’d have to sing it, I guess. [Allen continues with the next five stanzas] – “Now hold your tongue yon ill-faced knight..”..”The horse that my true love rides on/ is lighter than the wind/ With silver he is shod before/ With burning gold behind” –
No wonder she liked that. It’s really good.I mean Helen (Adam) really likes that, because the lines are good. [Allen concludes his reading of “Tam Lin”, reading the remaining 36 (sic) stanzas] – “Up then spoke her mother dear/ And ever alas said she…”..”If I’d had but half the wit yestereen/ That I have bought today/ I’d have paid my tithe seven times to hell/ Ere you’d been won away.” – Really good. (A) great dream.
Student: Expansive
AG: That’s really (Helen Adam’s) style. I can see where Helen Adam gets her violence.