In 1972, the English folk group Steeleye Span released a seemly simple tune called The Weaver and the Factory Maid, about true love. It’s musically irresistible - for instance, the violin mimics the repetition of a loom. It’s compelling and anything but simple. On one level, it concerns the weaver confronting his own aging and mortality (including a not-so-veiled reference to his inability to perform sexually). In the first verse, his single voice is sure and steady, full of promise, but when the verse is repeated at the song’s end, it’s in four part harmony, full of regret and knowing and loss because he has lived and been defeated by life. Incredibly, the song’s other meaning is more complex still.
© 2024 John Oliver
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