June Tabor (born 31 December 1947 in Warwick, England) is considered one of… Read Full Bio ↴June Tabor (born 31 December 1947 in Warwick, England) is considered one of the foremost English folk singers of her generation. Aside from her highly-acclaimed solo music career, she has also combined her talents with greats such as Maddy Prior (as one half of Silly Sisters), Martin Simpson, Elvis Costello and Oysterband. In 2004, and again in 2012, she was named Folk Singer of the Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. In 2011 the album "Ragged Kingdom" by June Tabor & Oysterband was named "Album of the Year" in the fROOTS critics poll.

Tabor's earliest public performances were at the Heart of England Folk Club (at the Fox and Vivian pub) in Leamington Spa in the mid 1960s. In the late 1960s an appearance at the Sidmouth Folk Festival led to folk club bookings and she contributed to various records. One of her earliest recordings was in 1972 on an anthology called Stagfolk Live. She also featured on Rosie Hardman's Firebird (1972) and The First Folk Review Record (1974). At the time she was singing purely traditional unaccompanied material but in 1976 she collaborated with Maddy Prior on the Silly Sisters album and tour, with a full band that included Nic Jones. It provided the launching pad that same year (1976) for her first album in her own right, Airs and Graces. She later joined again with Prior, this time using the name Silly Sisters for their duo. Starting in 1977 Martin Simpson joined her in the recording studio for three albums before he moved to America in 1987. (Simpson has returned from America to be a guest guitarist on albums in the 2000s.) After his departure, she started working closely with pianist Huw Warren.

In 1990, Tabor recorded an album with the folk-rock band OysterBand entitled Freedom and Rain. She went on tour with OysterBand, and the Rykodisc label published a limited-run promotional live album the following year. Many of her current fans first discovered her through this tour and album with the OysterBand. In 1992 Elvis Costello wrote "All This Useless Beauty" specifically for Tabor, and she recorded it on Angel Tiger.

Since then her solo albums have included:
A Quiet Eye (1999)
Rosa Mundi (2001)
An Echo of Hooves (2003)
At the Wood's Heart (2005)
Apples (2007)
Ashore (2011)

Ragged Kingdom is a 2011 album by June Tabor & Oysterband.

Since 2006, Tabor has also been working with Huw Warren and Iain Ballamy as Quercus.

Website: www.junetabor.co.uk

Go From My Window
June Tabor Lyrics

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Go from my window, my love, my dove,
Go from my window, my dear.
For the wind is in the West and the cuckoo's in her nest
And you can't have a lodging here.

Go from my window, my love, my dove,
Go from my window, my dear.
For the weather it is warm, it will never do you harm

And you can't have a lodging here.

Go from my window, my love, my dove,
Go from my window, my dear.
For the wind is rising high and the ship is lying by
And you can't have a harbouring here.

Go from my window, my love, my dove,
Go from my window, my dear.
Oh, the wind and the rain have fetched him back again
But he can't have a harbouring here.

Go from my window, my love, my dove,
Go from my window, my dear.
Oh, the devil's in the man that he will not understand
That he can't have a lodging here,

Fare thee well,
That he can't have a lodging here.

Overall Meaning

The song "Go from my Window" by June Tabor is a haunting ballad about a woman bidding farewell to her lover who is not welcome to stay with her. The song begins with the woman asking her love to leave as the wind is blowing from the west and the cuckoo is singing in her nest. She then offers a weather warning to her love, indicating that he won't come to any harm because of the weather. However, the woman states that her lover can't stay with her.

As the song progresses, the woman offers more reasons why her lover must leave - the wind is rising up, there's a ship lying by and the lover can't have a harbouring place there. Eventually, she reveals that her lover has come back, but the wind and the rain have brought him back to her, yet he still can't stay with her. In the final verse, the woman sings that the devil is in her lover because he won't understand that he is not welcome to stay with her.

The song is full of melancholy and longing, and the emotions are heightened by the singer's mournful vocals. The lyrics may appear simple, but they are layered with meaning. The woman in the song is torn between her love for her lover and the knowledge that he is not the right person for her. The lover, on the other hand, appears to be stubborn and unable to accept the reality of the situation.

Line by Line Meaning

Go from my window, my love, my dove,
Leave my window, my beloved, my dear.

Go from my window, my dear.
Get away from my window, my beloved.

For the wind is in the West and the cuckoo's in her nest
The wind is blowing from the west, and the cuckoo is in her nest.

And you can't have a lodging here.
You cannot stay here.

For the weather it is warm, it will never do you harm
The weather is warm, and it won't harm you.

And you can't have a lodging here.
You cannot stay here.

For the wind is rising high and the ship is lying by
The wind is getting stronger, and the ship is nearby.

And you can't have a harbouring here.
You cannot find a shelter here.

Oh, the wind and the rain have fetched him back again
The wind and rain have brought him back.

But he can't have a harbouring here.
He cannot find a shelter here.

Oh, the devil's in the man that he will not understand
He is a foolish man for not comprehending.