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
I Never Thought My Love Would Leave Me
June Tabor Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Until that morning when he came in
He sat down and I sat beside him
'Twas then our troubles they did begin
…
Oh love is pleasing and love is teasing
But love grows older and grows quite colder
And fades away like the morning dew
…
There is a tavern in yon town
And there my love goes and he sits down
He takes a dark girl on his knee
And tells her what he once told me
…
There is a blackbird sits on yon tree
Some say he's blind and cannot see
Some say he's blind and cannot see
And so is my false love to me
…
I wish my father had never whistled
I wish my mother had never sung
I wish the cradle had never rocked me
I wish I'd died, love, when I was young
The lyrics of June Tabor's "I Never Thought My Love Would Leave Me" tell a story of heartbreak and betrayal. At the beginning of the song, the singer expresses her initial disbelief and shock that her love has left her. However, as the song progresses, she comes to accept the reality of the situation and reflects on the fleeting nature of love. The image of the blackbird who is blind and cannot see becomes a metaphor for the singer's former lover, who was once so dear to her but has now become a stranger. The final lines of the song reveal the singer's deep despair at having ever been born, suggesting that the pain of lost love has become unbearable.
The lyrics of the song are not attributed to any particular writer, but rather are part of the traditional folk music canon. The song has been performed by many different artists over the years, including June Tabor, Sandy Denny, and Judy Collins. The mournful melody of the song reflects the sadness and disappointment captured in the lyrics.
Line by Line Meaning
I never thought that my love would leave me
The singer is shocked that her love has actually deserted her in reality
Until that morning when he came in
It was the morning when her lover came home and left her that the singer's apprehension was realized
He sat down and I sat beside him
After coming back home, the lover and the singer sit down together
'Twas then our troubles they did begin
That is the moment their problems began
Oh love is pleasing and love is teasing
Love is both delightful and frustrating
And love is a pleasure when first it's new
At the start of the relationship, love is joyful
But love grows older and grows quite colder
As love grows older, it becomes frigid and lifeless
And fades away like the morning dew
Love disappears as quickly as the morning dew evaporates under the morning sun
There is a tavern in yon town
In a nearby town, there is a pub
And there my love goes and he sits down
The singer's love goes to that pub and sits down there
He takes a dark girl on his knee
The singer's ex-lover now flirts with another woman who has dark skin
And tells her what he once told me
He tells her the same things he used to tell the singer
There is a blackbird sits on yon tree
There is a blackbird sitting on a nearby tree
Some say he's blind and cannot see
Some claim that the blackbird is blind and cannot see his surroundings
And so is my false love to me
The singer thinks that her former lover is just like that bird - he is blind to the fact that he has hurt her
I wish my father had never whistled
The singer wishes that her father had never brought music and love into the world and tempted her
I wish my mother had never sung
She does not want to hear another song again so that she doesn't have to suffer from these types of heartbreaks
I wish the cradle had never rocked me
The singer wishes she was never born into the world of love, pain, and heartbreak.
I wish I'd died, love, when I was young
The singer wishes that she had died while she was young than living with a broken heart and in pain
Contributed by Henry D. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@johnseabron
Thank you, Bonnie. And June too.
@FishCow
Came to this through Will Odlham's version. So glad I did.
@PermittedAloud
One of my favourite June Tabor tracks of all time.