And for your boatman choose old John O'Dreams

[sovay]

I realized that I don't think I ever heard Bill Caddick sing any of his own songs. I learned my first one as a lullaby, as though it were the folk tune it was often mistaken for, and started paying attention to his name somewhere between Priscilla Herdman and June Tabor. I just sang "John O'Dreams" to spatch as I remember learning it from my babysitter because I just read that Caddick has died. In a week of artists dying—Rob is mourning Ricky Jay—this is the one that caught me. The song frightened me as a child even when I loved the sound of it, I think because I heard in it the same likeness that makes sleep the sibling of death: sleep is a river and there are other rivers to cross. It haunted me and I have sung it as a lullaby. There are echoes of Housman and Stevenson and Sappho in it. I wonder if it will be the song people sing for him.

Comments

[cmcmck]

The Scot knew Bill well having got to know him when he was living and performing on the London folk scene back in the day. I remember seeing him at the Hope & Anchor in Islington.

He was a local lad, originally from the Wolverhampton area and retired to Jackfield, a village just up the road from us here in Wellington.

I remember him most from his work with that innovative outfit, Home Service.

He will be sadly missed.

[sovay]

I remember him most from his work with that innovative outfit, Home Service.

I saw their name in the obituary, but I don't think I've heard any of their music. I will try to find some.

He will be sadly missed.

He will.

[cmcmck]

Any band with both Bill and Jon Tams in it was likely to create something really special and it did.

[isis]

I heard in it the same likeness that makes sleep the sibling of death: sleep is a river and there are other rivers to cross. It haunted me and I have sung it as a lullaby.

I agree! The version I have (by a friend's DC area folk-rock group, from back when I was in college) has that sweet, sad sound to it, both soothing and faintly macabre.

[sovay]

The version I have (by a friend's DC area folk-rock group, from back when I was in college) has that sweet, sad sound to it, both soothing and faintly macabre.

Do you have a link? I've never heard any recorded version other than Herdman's, although I saw last night that there are approximately a million out there. (I was looking for Caddick's.)

[isis]

I've put it in my dropbox and shared it with you, since I just have it as an mp3. I don't think it's on YouTube. Though having listened to it again, I wonder if maybe my memories are of a different version, as I recall a smoother song?

The group, btw, is Clam Chowder, who used to play a lot of SF conventions in the 70s and 80s.

[sovay]

I've put it in my dropbox and shared it with you, since I just have it as an mp3.

Thank you so much! Even if it is a different version.

[jesse_the_k]

Oh! Thank you for putting a name to this song I've heard so many times. It is indeed sweet and creepy.

...and perfect for a memorial.

(Have we bonded over chamber folk yet? That is, early Pentangle and June Tabor and Silly Sisters and Trapezoid (before Freyda died) and such?)

[sovay]

Oh! Thank you for putting a name to this song I've heard so many times. It is indeed sweet and creepy.

You're welcome.

(Have we bonded over chamber folk yet? That is, early Pentangle and June Tabor and Silly Sisters and Trapezoid (before Freyda died) and such?)

I don't think we have, but I'm happy to do so! I grew up on Pentangle; I got June Tabor and Silly Sisters from nineweaving; I don't think I know Trapezoid at all.

[jesse_the_k]

Trapezoid is a chameleon band that's had at least three lives. It started as a four-dulcimer instrumental group (hence the title). Then it opened up to include two highly-skilled fiddlers and singers, Loiraine Duisit and Freyda Epstein.

That middle period is the one that I adore: the first of their three albums is on YT here
https://youtu.be/82WzNZXkDuQ

I was a folk musician (alto, dulcimer, rhythm guitar) in an earlier life, and I adore the rough-and-ready sounds common to humans making music for their own delight. What mid-Trapezoid managed to do was combine the repertory of trad folk with exquisitely played arrangement and in-tune harmonies.

Thank you! I have so much to say on this topic I feel a post growing.

[negothick]

How about a shout-out to Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony, the acknowledged origin of the haunting melody? I have always loved the song, and the way Caddick folk-processed the melody so that it has become part of the tradition (I've heard it introduced as "a traditional Celtic lullabye," but then I've heard people call Shel Silverstein's "The Unicorn" "an ancient Irish ballad," without a hint of irony).

[cmcmck]

You know you've made it as a songwriter when your stuff gets labelled with 'trad'.

Bill Caddick's: 'she moves among men' has also been so labelled and he was once told not to sing it because it's a 'woman's song'..........

June Tabor's version

https://youtu.be/N52XAbYdhKA

[lauradi7dw]

Maybe it's time to rummage through the LPs for the Albion Band. Not sure that I ever owned anything by Home Service, but I vaguely remember them.

[cmcmck]

Home Service were an incredible band- light years ahead of the game.

One of their albums included this most haunting song of John Tams's which still makes me shiver every time I hear it.

https://youtu.be/4QBitsfxFi4

[sovay]

Maybe it's time to rummage through the LPs for the Albion Band.

I have one song of theirs! I'm not sure if it's from Caddick's era, though.

[genarti]

Clearly I need 1) more Priscilla Herdman albums and 2) more versions of "John O'Dreams"! I only have one of each.

The Priscilla Herdman is Darkness Into Light, which I bought after hearing her by chance at a Vermont folk festival and falling immediately in love with her voice; somehow I'd never thought to see out other albums, though! I guess it's because I'd never run into anyone who talked about knowing her stuff or recognized her voice when a song came on in the car, so I mentally filed her with the more obscure of the folksingers I heard at random points in the '90s or early aughts: beautiful voice, love the songs, probably has no web presence, may well have no other albums. If I'd thought to think about it for any length of time, of course, I'd have realized that googling would answer all these questions in very few seconds, but I didn't. So thank you for the tip!

And "John O'Dreams" I know from the Cherish the Ladies version. Another lovely rendition from a lovely album by a band I only have one cd of, although in this case I knew they'd done other stuff and just haven't gotten around to acquiring more. I definitely didn't realize so many others had covered that song, though. First, time to listen to this one on loop, now that it's on my mind...

(And I've never heard Bill Caddick at all. I will remedy that.)

[sovay]

If I'd thought to think about it for any length of time, of course, I'd have realized that googling would answer all these questions in very few seconds, but I didn't.

It makes sense to me: I very often don't think to internet-search for artists I discovered before the advent of Google even though it's not like they've stopped existing. I grew up on Herdman's The Water Lily (1976), so for years I thought she was Australian; I've collected a handful of other songs by her over the years and I just now saw that she features on Fred Small's No Limit (1985), which makes me want to listen to that formative album all over again even though we've only ever owned it on cassette. I envy you hearing her live!

the more obscure of the folksingers I heard at random points in the '90s or early aughts

Oh, yeah? Who else? (No guarantees.)

So thank you for the tip!

You're very welcome!

And "John O'Dreams" I know from the Cherish the Ladies version.

I don't think I know them at all! I've heard different versions on the radio, but the only one I actually have is Herdman's, and that only since 2010. I learned it first from the babysitter who used to sing with me before bed, which feels appropriate.

[jesse_the_k]

Spotify shows five Priscilla Herdman discs!

There are altogether too many vinyl records that never made it in to my current rotation. Thanks for poking me to search again on their names:

Huxtable, Christensen, and Hood's first album, WALLFLOWERS made life in 1980 much more bearable, and they released a new one in 2016!

https://www.hchmusic.com/Music/AllMusic