Maddy Prior and Tim Hart: “Dancing at Whitsun” (1971)
Maddy Prior is on a very short list of women who could lay claim to the title of Queen of British Folk.
Mostly notable for her tenure with stalwart lynchpins of the genre Steeleye Span, she’d recorded two, uh, prior albums as half of a duo with Tim Hart.
Folk Songs of Olde England Volumes One and Two were released in 1968 and 1969, just before both Hart and Prior joined up with Ashley Hutchings to form the nascent Steeleye Span lineup in late ’69.
After recording the first three Steeleye Span albums, Hart and Prior returned to the studio to record once more as a duo. While retaining the acoustic contours of the Folk Songs of Olde England LP’s, Summer Solstice was a more polished recording, and featured string arrangements by Robert Kirby, known for his hauntingly beautiful work on Nick Drake’s records.
Hart remained in the Steeleye Span lineup throughout their years of peak creative and commercial success, leaving the band in 1982. He passed away of lung cancer in 2009. Prior remains in the still-active Steeleye Span lineup as its only remaining original member. The band celebrated 55 years in 2024.
Summer Solstice is a quiet triumph, and considered a minor classic of traditional English folk. Some songs feature Maddy on vocals, some feature a solo Hart, and some are sung as duets.
“Dancing at Whitsun” is a beautiful ballad, but one with a message–however understated. If it can be called a protest or anti-war song (you be the judge) it’s surely one of the gentlest and most wistful you’ll ever hear.
It’s fifty long spring-times since she was a bride
But still you may see her at each Whitsuntide
In a dress of white linen and ribbons of green
As green as her memories of loving
The feet that were nimble tread carefully now
As gentle a measure as age do allow
Through groves of white blossom, by fields of young corn
Where once she was pledged to her true love
The fields they stand empty, the hedges grow free
No young men to tend them or pastures go see
They have gone where the forests of oak trees before
Had gone to be wasted in battle
Down from their green farmlands and from their loved ones
Marched husbands and brothers and fathers and sons
There’s a fine roll of honour where the Maypole once stood
And the ladies go dancing at Whitsun
There’s a straight row of houses in these latter days
All covering the downs where the sheep used to graze
There’s a field of red poppies, a wreath from the Queen
But the ladies remember at Whitsun
And the ladies go dancing at Whitsun
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