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

Solitude
June Tabor Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

In my solitude
You haunt me
With dreadful ease
Of days gone by

In my solitude
You taunt me
With memories

That never die

I sit in my chair
And filled with despair
There's no one could be so sad
With gloom everywhere
I sit and I stare
I know that I'll soon go mad

In my solitude
I'm afraid
Dear Lord above
Send back my love
I sit in my chair

Filled with despair
There's no one, no one
No onecould be so sad
With gloom everywhere
I sit and I stare
I know that I'll soon go mad

In my solitude
I'm afraid

Dear Lord above
Send back my love

Overall Meaning

June Tabor's song Solitude speaks of the pain of being alone and haunted by memories from the past. The lyrics depict a person sitting in a chair, filled with despair, reminiscing about a lost love that continues to haunt them. The repeated lines of "In my solitude, You haunt me" and "In my solitude, You taunt me" emphasize the overwhelming nature of the memories that intrude upon the present. The sense of hopelessness and impending madness are palpable, conveyed through lines such as "There's no one could be so sad" and "I know that I'll soon go mad."

The final plea to the "Dear Lord above" to "Send back my love" highlights a sense of desperation, a desire to escape the crushing weight of loneliness, and to be reunited with the one who has been lost. The lyrics offer a poignant insight into the experience of grief, the unrelenting presence of memories, and the overwhelming sense of isolation that can follow a devastating loss. June Tabor's hauntingly beautiful vocal performance captures the intensity and raw pain of the lyrics, cementing the song as a poignant and moving expression of the human experience.

Line by Line Meaning

In my solitude
Being alone and by myself

You haunt me
Your presence is always there in my thoughts and memories

With dreadful ease
With a feeling of great pain and suffering that doesn't leave me easily

Of days gone by
Of events and experiences in the past that have left an indelible mark on me

You taunt me
You tease and provoke me with reminders of the past

With memories
Recollections of incidents, events, and emotions

That never die
That stay with me forever and cannot be forgotten

I sit in my chair
I remain seated, immobile and bereft of energy or motivation

And filled with despair
Overcome with feelings of hopelessness and grief

There's no one could be so sad
No one could understand the depth of my sorrow or pain

With gloom everywhere
With a sense of darkness and depression that pervades everything

I sit and I stare
I remain motionless, lost in my own thoughts and memories

I know that I'll soon go mad
I am aware that my mental state is precarious and that I might lose control of my emotions

I'm afraid
I am full of fear and dread

Dear Lord above
A supplication to a higher power for help and comfort

Send back my love
Restore the person or thing that is missing from my life and causing me so much pain

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Songtrust Ave, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: DUKE ELLINGTON, EDDIE LANGE DE, IRVING MILLS

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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