Peggy Gordon
Sep 25th, 2008 by oldfogey
This is a traditional Scottish love song, here sung by Sinead O’Connor, live, from a broadcast concert in February 2003. The song is sung from the male point of view, Sinead sings it straight, in both senses of the term. She does not pretend to give it a fashionable gay allusion. It’s a man’s song and she sings it as such.
Her voice is far from perfect. It is breathy and limited in range. There are times when it seems close to the end of its tether, but she keeps control of it. Its hard edge is still there at higher volume. For the most part it is whispered, her lips close up against the microphone. And she manages to invest it with an intimacy that other versions miss. It’s not a declaration of love more a man pleading and helpless in the pain of a love that is beyond his power to control.
“I wish I was in some deep valley, where womankind cannot be found, where little birds sing on their branches every morning a different song.”
O’Connor captures better than anyone else the abject helplessness of a man’s love, his own fascination with the object of it, and the agony of his doubt about its being returned.
It is unforgettable.
| Rate it: |
 Email it
|
      |
|
