19. “She Moves Through The Fair”

Fairport Convention, What We Did On Our Holiday (Island, 1969); composer unknown

A group as mercurial as Fairport Convention was could never really hit a “peak,” but the coincidence (not confluence) of temperamental opposites, Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny, is the consensus favorite. Still, the numerous high points are shadowed by a handful of utter duds: not just dull listening but utterly misconceived. Which are what is purely subjective, however, and the serious intent of the duds speaks to how serendipitous the high points probably were. This particular high point, a traditional Irish folk song, was on their first album with Denny in 1969, when they still might have been aspiring to be Jefferson Airplane. Apart from Thompson’s electric guitar counterpoint, it is not rock, but their communalist approach illuminates and defines the song in a way no folklorist ever had, and inspired countless subsequent versions. It is both more playable and mysterious. In the first verse, a girl assures her lover that her parents have waived all objections to their marriage. The entirety of the second verse has him watching her walk away. In the last, she tells him: “It will not be long, love, ‘til our wedding day.” The original third verse explaining that she is now dead was omitted.

Note: 25 secular essays (each one exactly 200 words long) about 25 songs, originally intended to appear one per day during Advent (or so) from Dec. 1 through Dec. 25, now extended to Twelfth Night (or so).