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

I Want To Vanish
June Tabor Lyrics

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I want to vanish
This is my fondest wish
To go where I cannot be captured
Laid on a decorated dish
Even in splendor this curious fate
Is more than I care to surrender
Now it's too late

Whether in wonder or indecent haste
You arrange the mirrors and the spools
To snare the rare and precious jewels
That were only made of paste

If you should stumble upon my last remark
I'm crying in the wilderness
I'm trying my best to make it dark
How can I tell you I'm rarer than most
I'm certain as a lost dog
Pondering a sign post

Whether in wonder or indecent haste
You arrange the mirrors and the spools
To snare the rare and precious jewels
That were only made of paste

I want to vanish
This is my last request

I've given you the awful truth
Now give me my rest

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of June Tabor's "I Want to Vanish" express a profound desire to disappear from society and the pressures of fame. The singer longs to escape the endless cycle of publicity, the constant judgment, and lack of privacy that comes with a life in the public eye. She wishes to retreat somewhere she cannot be found, somewhere free from the burden of being a celebrated artist. The opening line of the song perfectly captures the essence of the singer's desire: "I want to vanish, this is my fondest wish."

In the first verse, Tabor sings of the absurdity of being put on display like a piece of art, even if it is adorned with decorations. She would rather escape from the public eye, wishing that fate doesn't capture her even in splendor. The following verses express her frustration with society's obsession with superficiality, even at the cost of losing what is true and valuable. She compares this obsession with capturing the valuable jewels with mirrors and spools to the greed of those who try to capture her worth as an artist but fail to recognize her true worth.

The last verse is a plea to be left alone. Tabor wants to disappear completely, asking for her last request to be fulfilled - that she is given her rest. The lyrics speak to the struggles of those who find themselves in the limelight and how they long for some degree of normalcy and control over their lives.

Line by Line Meaning

I want to vanish
My greatest desire is to disappear completely.

This is my fondest wish
I hold this wish dearer than any other dream.

To go where I cannot be captured
I seek a place where nobody can find or claim me.

Laid on a decorated dish
I don't want to be reduced to mere decoration in someone else's story.

Even in splendor this curious fate
Even if it's a fascinating prospect, it's not worth giving up my freedom for.

Is more than I care to surrender
I value my autonomy more than anything else.

Now it's too late
I can't change the choices I've made up to this point.

Whether in wonder or indecent haste
Whether one acts in amazement or without consideration.

You arrange the mirrors and the spools
You orchestrate the situation to lure me in.

To snare the rare and precious jewels
To capture something unique and valuable.

That were only made of paste
But upon closer inspection, turn out to be fake.