Moving beyond words, perfectly fusing "the pity of war distilled", Europe's first attempt at suicide and the incomparable voice of June Tabor. She both sings, interprets, perform and feel this song, with subtle bathos and understated pathos and so superbly she does it too. It is a song that may make you lament the immense human waste or seriously make you reflect that the lessons of History have not been learnt and the 'song' within the song is heartbreaking. The lyrics are haunting, so is the melody but June's voice is a whole orchestra here, textured, shaded, appropriate (more than) in each register. This could haven be sung acapella and have the same effect but few people would have pulled it off and among the versions I know of only June.
I played this in my school concert. It was hard not to cry, our orchestra made it much more emotional than this. The singing, instruments, just made it sadder.
I would love to hear June perform the Bill Caddick song segued with a musical setting of the Robert Service poem `Tipperary Days` - that`s a folk song lyric waiting for a tune if ever I heard one...
