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
You Don
June Tabor Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
'Til you've learned the meaning of the blues
Until you've loved a love you've had to lose,
You don't know what love is
You don't know how lips hurt
Until you've kissed and had to pay the cost,
Until you've flipped your heart and you have lost,
Do you know how a lost heart fears
At the thought of reminiscing,
And how lips that taste of tears
Lose their taste for kissing?
You don't know how hearts burn
For love that can, not live yet never dies
Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes,
You don't know what love is
These soul-stirring lyrics from June Tabor's "You Don't Know What Love Is" articulate the bitter truth about love. The song's verses speak volumes about how one cannot fathom the depth and intensity of love until they have experienced heartbreak and distress in their romantic pursuits. It suggests that one cannot understand the true meaning of love until they have come across a painful and trying episode of love. Love is an emotion that provides an unparalleled feeling of contentment and joy, but it is also a double-edged sword that can cut through the depths of one's heart.
The song's first stanza suggests that love cannot be understood until one has lost and mourned its loss. The meaning of the blues is deeply rooted in the difficulties that come with love, which brings its heart-rending moments that engulf one's soul with melancholy. When the songwriter says, "Until you've loved a love you've had to lose," it implies that true love comes with the risk of being lost, and the pain and suffering that accompanies this loss is an integral part of the journey of love.
The second stanza continues to paint a grim picture of love's cost, one that cannot be measured until it has been experienced. The lyrics reveal the pain that comes with lost love, how it shakes one to the core, and how it robs one of the euphoria of love. The reference to a "lost heart" and "rememiscing" implies that the cost of love is not only financial but also emotional and can lead to an insurmountable loss of happiness.
In conclusion, June Tabor's "You Don't Know What Love Is" is a melancholic masterpiece that encapsulates the pangs of love and how it shatters dreams and reigns supreme. It is a song of heartache, loss, and disappointment, but it also illustrates how the human heart can keep beating despite the onslaught of sorrow and regret.
Line by Line Meaning
You don't know what love is
You have not experienced genuine love.
'Til you've learned the meaning of the blues
You cannot fully appreciate or comprehend the depth of love until you have experienced the pain and sorrow of losing it.
Until you've loved a love you've had to lose,
Only through the experience of loving someone that you have lost can you truly understand love.
You don't know how lips hurt
You are unaware of the physical pain that can result from kissing someone who you have lost.
Until you've kissed and had to pay the cost,
You cannot appreciate the emotional toll that is taken on a person when they kiss someone who they have had to let go.
Until you've flipped your heart and you have lost,
You are unaware of the heartache and pain that comes from the loss of a person whom you have loved with all your heart.
Do you know how a lost heart fears
Have you ever experienced the fear of losing your heart to someone and then having to face the pain of losing them?
At the thought of reminiscing,
The mere thought of reliving the memories of a lost love can cause anxiety and dread in the heart of the person who has lost them.
And how lips that taste of tears
Do you know the taste of tears that come from kissing someone who you have lost?
Lose their taste for kissing?
After going through the pain of losing someone, a person's desire to kiss and be intimate can be lost.
You don't know how hearts burn
You are unaware of the intense and painful longing that can consume someone who has lost a love.
For love that can, not live yet never dies
The love for someone that is no longer around can persist and remain strong, despite the fact that it will never be able to be acted on again.
Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes,
You cannot comprehend the exhaustion and emotional pain that comes from trying to get through each day after losing someone you love.
You don't know what love is
Without experiencing the pain and heartache that often accompanies it, you cannot truly know what love is.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: DON RAYE, GENE DE PAUL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Tim Turpin-Fleck
I used to have this album on concert. It used to be my favourite album and was one of the main reasons for an interest in jazz music. Not sure what it it; the voice, the piano, the choice of jazz classics? Whatever it is, they got it right. Like I said, I had this album on cassette playing constantly through the autumn months of 1989; first year of work and staying bat my parents caravan in Kirkby Lonsdale. I always regretted never replacing the cassette with a CD when I saw it for sale in a record shop back in Bowness. Now I have these rare opportunities to listen to a couple of tracks from the album. Please reissue the album if only for me
MrDimwits
Yes to all of Mark's comments. I had a cassette copy too, played it constantly. Thanks for posting this.
Mark Pie
I'm back under a different user name and still missing this album so much