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
The Brean Lament
June Tabor Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And they never will sail the seas no more
We laid them along by the churchyard wall
And all in a row we buried them all
But their boots we buried below the tide
On Severn-side
The gulls they fly over so high, so high
They fly all around and loud they do call
Where all in a row we buried them all
But their boots we buried below the tide
On Severn-side
"Spoken:"
The bodies of the drowned at sea were not buried at the church
But at the tideline, until the Eighteen-Seventies
And even when accorded Christian burial,
Were never brought into the church itself
But buried in the sailors′
Graveyard. The sea might wish to reclaim them
Many people believed, drowned sailors returned as seagulls
And that according to Astral Law,
A gull would attack an exhausted swimmer
Who was still managing to escape his
Fate, out of sheer envy of the living
On many Western coasts it was the
Practice, even in days of more Christian funerals
To bury the boots of the dead on the tideline
The waters they washed them ashore, ashore
And they never will sail the seas no more
We laid them along by the churchyard wall
And all in a row we buried them all
But their boots we buried below the tide
On Severn-side
The Brean Lament is a poignant song by June Tabor, which talks about the bodies of drowned sailors who never made it back home. The lyrics are haunting, and the song is steeped in history and folklore. In the first verse, Tabor sings about how the sailors' bodies were washed ashore and how they will never sail the seas again. The bodies were laid by the churchyard wall, but their boots were buried below the tides on Severn-side. In the second verse, Tabor talks about seagulls flying over to where the bodies lie and how some people believed that the sailors returned as these birds.
In the spoken part of the song, Tabor gives insight into the burial practices of the drowned sailors. She explains that, until the 1870s, the bodies of drowned sailors were not buried at the church. Instead, they were laid at the tideline. Even when accorded Christian burial, the bodies were never brought into the church, but buried in the sailors' graveyard. Graveyard practices were rooted in superstitions such as seagulls, who were believed to be the transformed spirits of the drowned sailors. Many coastal regions would bury the boots of the dead on the tideline.
The Brean Lament is a beautiful and haunting song, steeped in history and folklore. It is a reminder of the lives lost to the seas and the superstitions that were born from them. The song paints a vivid picture of the sailors' fate, who are now only remembered by their boots below the tide on Severn-side.
Line by Line Meaning
The waters they washed them ashore, ashore
The drowned sailors were brought to the shore by the waves of the sea.
And they never will sail the seas no more
The sailors will never return to the sea again.
We laid them along by the churchyard wall
The bodies of the drowned were buried beside the wall of the church.
And all in a row we buried them all
All of the bodies were buried in order, one after the other.
But their boots we buried below the tide
Only the boots of the drowned were buried under the tide of the water.
On Severn-side
This took place near the River Severn.
The gulls they fly over so high, so high
Seagulls fly over the site where the sailors are buried.
To the sea where their bodies all safe do lie
The gulls fly over the sea where the drowned sailors now rest.
They fly all around and loud they do call
The gulls make loud noises while flying all around the burial site.
Where all in a row we buried them all
The gulls fly over the burial site where the sailors were buried in a row.
But their boots we buried below the tide
The boots of the drowned sailors were buried under the tide of the water.
On Severn-side
This took place near the River Severn.
Spoken:
This is a spoken interlude with historical context.
The bodies of the drowned at sea were not buried at the church
The bodies of drowned sailors were not given Christian burials in the church.
But at the tideline, until the Eighteen-Seventies
Until the 1870s, the bodies of drowned sailors were left at the tideline.
And even when accorded Christian burial,
Even when given Christian burials, the bodies were not brought into the church.
Were never brought into the church itself
The bodies of drowned sailors were never brought into the church.
But buried in the sailors′
Instead, the bodies were buried in a separate graveyard for sailors.
Graveyard. The sea might wish to reclaim them
Many believed that the sea may try to reclaim the bodies of drowned sailors.
Many people believed, drowned sailors returned as seagulls
Some believed that drowned sailors would be reincarnated as seagulls.
And that according to Astral Law,
This belief was considered part of Astral Law.
A gull would attack an exhausted swimmer
According to the belief, a seagull would attack a swimmer who was trying to escape their fate.
Who was still managing to escape his
The swimmer would be attacked out of envy for their ability to still be alive.
Fate, out of sheer envy of the living
The seagull would be jealous of the swimmer's life.
On many Western coasts it was the
This was a common practice on the coasts of Western countries.
Practice, even in days of more Christian funerals
Even as Christian funerals became more common, this practice continued.
To bury the boots of the dead on the tideline
The boots of the drowned sailors were still buried on the tideline.
Writer(s): Traditional, Len Graham
Contributed by Grace C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.