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
Mrs. Rita
June Tabor Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The way that you keep us poor girls here in hell
And I never will sneak to the News of the World
Oh kind Mrs. Rita
Sincere Mrs. Rita
A friend to a stranger, a ma to a girl
We earn what we earn and it isn’t too much
Enough to keep half a step higher than trash
Oh kind Mrs. Rita
Sincere Mrs. Rita
So loose with the purse strings, so free with the cash
Some guardian angel take pity and sweep me away
Seems I work every hour God sends in a day
To line the pockets of Rita O’Connor
To line the pockets of Rita O’Connor
Oh you can’t call it stealing, more helping yourself
If the odd pair of nylons should fall off the shelf
And fall into somebody’s handbag let’s say
Oh kind Mrs. Rita
Sincere Mrs. Rita
It sort of makes up for the pitiful pay
Oh kind Mrs. Rita
Sincere Mrs. Rita
God keep and preserve you, we’ll love you always
The song "Mrs. Rita" sung by June Tabor tells the story of a group of poor seamstresses working for an abusive and exploitative employer named Mrs. Rita. The first two lines of the song provide a clue to the conditions faced by these women. Mrs. Rita is keeping them in "hell." The singer promises not to tell anyone about the conditions they are being made to work in, and she will not sneak to the "News of the World." The next few lines detail the work that the seamstresses are made to do, including "chalking and cutting and stitching." The women earn very little money despite working long hours.
The chorus of the song is an ode to Mrs. Rita, who is portrayed as a kind and sincere woman, both a friend to a stranger and a mother figure to the girls. The seamstresses are grateful for the little cash that they do earn, even though it is barely enough to keep them out of poverty. The song ends with the girls expressing their hope that some guardian angel will save them from their dilemma, which ultimately leads back to Mrs. Rita's exploitative practices.
Overall, the song serves as a commentary on the abuses and mistreatment of working-class women and the harsh realities they faced in the past. It is a story of endurance and oppression that demonstrates the enduring power of music as a means of highlighting social injustice.
Line by Line Meaning
Oh kind Mrs. Rita I never will tell
I promise not to reveal the terrible way you keep us poor girls here in hell, dear Mrs. Rita.
The way that you keep us poor girls here in hell
You run this place like we're in hell, Mrs. Rita, never treating us kindly or with respect.
And I never will sneak to the News of the World
You can trust me not to go to the press about your cruel treatment, Mrs. Rita.
Sincere Mrs. Rita
I genuinely mean it when I say you're a sincere person, Mrs. Rita.
A friend to a stranger, a ma to a girl
You're kind to strangers and act like a mother figure to us girls, Mrs. Rita.
With the chalking and cutting and stitching and such
All the work we do, like cutting and stitching, isn't paid enough, Mrs. Rita.
We earn what we earn and it isn’t too much
Our pay is measly, barely enough to keep us from being considered trash, Mrs. Rita.
Enough to keep half a step higher than trash
Our pay is only enough to keep us from being considered complete garbage, Mrs. Rita.
So loose with the purse strings, so free with the cash
You're very generous with your spending, Mrs. Rita.
Some guardian angel take pity and sweep me away
I desperately want to leave this job, begging for someone to save me from it, Mrs. Rita.
Seems I work every hour God sends in a day
I work all the time, every day I'm scheduled for, Mrs. Rita.
To line the pockets of Rita O’Connor
All my work pays your pocket and not mine, Mrs. Rita.
You can’t call it stealing, more helping yourself
If I happen to take something from here, like nylon stockings, it's not really stealing, more like compensating myself for the hard work, Mrs. Rita.
It sort of makes up for the pitiful pay
Taking things from here makes up for the terrible money that I make, Mrs. Rita.
God keep and preserve you, we’ll love you always
We will always love and bless you, Mrs. Rita.
Contributed by Liam C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Jos Behaeghel
I had the marvellous experience of having a dream coming true, many years ago. It happened in the Waranda (Turnhout, Belgium). After her set, June Tabor joined Richard in his set for bringing together this marvellous song. Still a favorite of mine! June told me afterwards that they had practised the song together in 5 minutes!