This is a song I wrote a couple of years ago, which, now that the Telecaster has been dusted off, I thought I’d revisit with guitars turned up to 11. I normally play this song on concertina, but this version is just electric guitars, a drum loop, and plenty of reverb to make it sound like it was recorded in a cave. I was trying to get it to sound a bit like “Anorak City” by Another Sunny Day. You can take the boy out of 1986, but you can’t take 1986 out of the boy…

But, even though it’s loud, it’s still a folk song. A murder ballad in fact, albeit a very compressed one. There’s a shotgun wedding in the offing, and our none-too-heroic narrator decides he’s having none of it.

My source for some of the lyrics was actually a poem by A.E. Housman, from the collection “A Shropshire Lad” – in particular that’s where the line about “my bloody hands and I” comes from.

Download Head For The Country (about 3.5 MB)

HEAD FOR THE COUNTRY

I have to run
Even after all we planned
Best head for the country
I took her love
But I would not take her hand
Best head for the country
Where the air is clean
And I can wash the stains
From my soul

I took her love
But I would not take a bride
But her father he insisted
And he would not be denied

I must be gone
I have said a sad goodbye
We’ll do no more harm
My bloody hands and I

And then there’s my equally-lapsed love of drum machines. I used to use electronics quite a lot but fell out of the habit a long while ago, so have resurrected Propellerhead Software’s magnificent ReBirth software emulation of the Roland 808, 909 and 303 machines.

So, as a result of some initial fiddling about with ReBirth, here’s a recording of Cuckoo’s Nest, in my arrangement of the version of the song that appears on the “Morris On” LP. It’s a great song, and not at all filthy. It is, of course, all about how great cuckoos are at building nests. Ahem.

I’ll probably redo this with a slightly more sophisticated percussion part at some point, but just wanted to get this done quickly. I also tuned the guitar very slightly out – not intentionally, but it seems to have left the concertina part sounding a bit like an off-key Augustus Pablo melodica part in a 1970s roots reggae recording… and be warned, it’s not short!

Download Cuckoo’s Nest mp3 (8MB)

As I was a-walking one morning in May
I saw a pretty fair maid and unto her did say
For love I am inclined, and I’ll tell you me mind
That me inclination lies in your cuckoo’s nest

Me darling, says she, I am innocent and young
And I scarcely can believe your false deluding tongue
Yet I see it in your eyes and it fills me with surprise
That your inclination lies in me cuckoo’s nest

Chorus:
Some like a girl who is pretty in the face
And some like a girl who is slender in the waist
But give me a girl that will wriggle and will twist
At the bottom of the belly lies the cuckoo’s nest

Then me darling, says he, if you see it in me eye
Then think of it as fondness and do not be surprised
For I love you, me dear, and I’ll marry you – I swear -
If you’ll let me clap me hands on your cuckoo’s nest

Then me darling, says she, you shall do no such thing
For me mother often told me it was committing sin
Me maidenhead to lose, and me sex to be abused
So have no more to do with me cuckoo’s nest

Then me darling, says he, it is not committing sin
But common sense should tell you it is a pleasing thing
For you were brought into this world to increase and do your best
And to help a man to heaven in your cuckoo’s nest

Then me darling, says she, I cannot you deny
For you’ve surely won me heart by the roving of your eye
Yet I see it in your eyes that your courage is surprised
So gently lift your hand in me cuckoo’s nest

So this couple they got married, and soon they went to bed
And now this pretty fair maid has lost her maidenhead
In a small country cottage they increase and do their best
And he often claps his hand on her cuckoo’s nest