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The Lover's Ghost

from Up The Cut by Jon Wilks

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THE LOVER’S GHOST [CHILD 248, ROUD 179]

This is one I learnt from recordings of Cecilia Costello, specifically an album called Recordings from the Sound Archives of the BBC (Leader Records, 1975). My introduction to Cecilia, one of Birmingham’s most formidable source singers, came via a conversation with the singer Emily Portman, who was visiting me to perform in a folk club I help to run. Her performance of ‘The Cruel Mother’ thoroughly gripped me, and I duly went off to order some dusty old vinyl releases from Discogs.

The melody for this song is something else. A wild, haunting lament that really challenges the singer, leaping from the lowest to the highest notes in the register. Recorded on November 30th, 1951, by Marie Slocombe and Patrick Shuldham-Shaw, the original BBC sleeve notes claim that, “the ballad was circulating in England as early as the seventeenth century, but no version as fine as Mrs Costello’s has been collected”. I’ve read theories elsewhere that suggest that the historical content of that sentence may be incorrect, but I’m willing to lay money on the latter part being entirely accurate. It’s extraordinary.

lyrics

I must be going, no longer staying
The burning Thames, well I have to cross
I must be guided without a stumble
Into the arms of my dear love

And when he's come to his true love's window
He's knelt down gently on a stone
And it's through the pane he's whispered slowly
My darling girl, are you alone

She lifts her head from her down-soft pillow
And snowy were her milk-white breasts
Saying, who's there, who's there at my bedroom window
Disturbing me from my long night's rest

Well, I'm your lover, don't discover
I pray you rise and let me in
For I am fatigued from my long night's journey
Besides, I am wet to the skin

And so she's gone to her bedroom window
And swiftly let her true love in
Well, they kissed, they held and loved each other
Until that long night was at an end

Then it's, Willie dear, my dearest Willie
Where is that colour you had some time ago
O Mary dear, the cold clay changed me
I am the ghost of your Willie O

Then it's cockerel, cockerel, handsome cockerel
I pray you not crow until it is day
For your wings I'll make of the very first beaten gold
Your comb I will make of the silver ray

But the cock he crew and he crew so fully
He crew three hours before it was day
And before't was day, well, my love had to go away
Not by the moon nor the light of day

Well, it's Willie dear, my dearest Willie
Whenever shall I see you again
When the fish they fly, love, and the seas run dry, love
And the rocks they melt in the heat of the sun

credits

from Up The Cut, released February 12, 2021
Arranged, performed and recorded by Jon Wilks.

Mixed and mastered by Andi Lee, Kosi Studios.

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Jon Wilks Whitchurch, UK

'The sort of performer folk circles mean when they talk of the living tradition' - Mike Davies, Folking.com

“One of the best of the New Wave of Folk Blokes. As a guitar player and arranger of traditional songs, Jon Wilks already deserves speaking of in the same breath as your Simpsons and your Morays.” – Ian A. Anderson, fRoots Mag ... more

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