We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Bruton Town

from With Teeth by Broadside Electric

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

This ballad has been in our live repertoire since 1996. It's got a little of everything: love, conspiracy, hunting, murder, a ghost story, sibling rivalry and class struggle. We first heard it from a recording by the Pentangle, and we use much the same version of the words and tune. According to Sharp, the story goes back to the Middle Ages and appears to be of European (likely Italian) origin. There's a longer version of it in Bocaccio's Decameron, which inspired a poem by Keats.

lyrics

In Bruton town there lived a farmer
Who had two sons and one daughter dear.

One told his secrets to no other,
but to his brother this he said,
"I think our servant courts our sister,
I think they have a mind to wed.
I'll put an end to all their courtship,
I'll send him silent to his grave."

A day of hunting was prepared,
Where only bush and briars grew.
And there they did this young man murder,
And in the brake his body threw.

"Now welcome home, my dear young brothers,
Our serving man, is he behind?"
"We've left him where we've been a-hunting,
"We've left him where no man can find."

As she lay dreaming on her pillow,
She thought she saw her own true love;
She dreamt she saw him standing by her,
She saw his coat was red with blood.

"Don't weep for me, my dearest jewel,
Don't weep for me nor care nor pine,
For your two brothers killed me cruel-
In such a place you may me find.

"Rise up, my love, tomorrow morning,
Go straightway to that brake you know,
For there you'll find my body lying,
Where only bush and briars grow."

She went out early in the morning,
And in the garden brake she stood
And there she found her own dear jewel,
All covered o'er in a gore of blood.

She took a kerchief from her pocket,
And wiped his eyes though he was blind.
"Because he was my own true lover,
My own true love and a friend of mine."

Three days and nights she did sit by him,
And her poor heart was filled with woe,
Till cruel hunger crept upon her,
And home she was obliged to go.

credits

from With Teeth, released August 17, 1999
(trad. English) with Final Advance on Reykjavik (Jim Speer)

AD: drums, kettledrum; AK: oboe, whistle, vocal; TR: acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, cittern, vocal; JS: stick; HZ: violin

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Broadside Electric image

Broadside Electric Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Broadside Electric is a five-piece electric folk band from Philadelphia, PA (US). They have earned a reputation for thoroughly original arrangements and painstaking research into traditional English, Celtic and Eastern European music. Broadside Electric has been at turns called “Pennsylvania’s answer to Steeleye Span” and “folk music’s answer to death metal.” ... more

contact / help

Contact Broadside Electric

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

If you like Broadside Electric, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Saxophonist Isaiah Collier chats about his new LP and the influence of Pharoah Sanders.
listen now