Red Red Rose: Crazy Jenny's Song on New CD!

[David]

Is anyone here familiar with the late folk singer Eva Cassidy?
She died of leukemia at age 33 a number of years ago.
A brand new CD compilation: Eva Cassidy: Somewhere
includes My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose, the same song sung by Crazy Jenny in 1897!

Cassidy, BTW, had a lovely, haunting voice.
The CD is strongly recommended.

David 

[Miss_Winthrop]

Thanks for the information.  I'll check for the CD at my library.  I really liked that song from the series and thought Marie Wallace sang it well. Very sad to hear of such a young person passing away.  There was a young woman where I used to work who was only 35 with a husband and two young children who also died from Leukemia.

[Philippe Cordier]

I don't recall that song from the show at all, though I recognize the title as coming from the poem by Robert Burns.

When did Jenny sing it?  Was it the same version as the one by the folk singer Eva Cassidy (whom I'm not familiar with)?  If the music was the same, was that appropriate for events taking place in the 1897 storyline?  Or is the song a traditional piece that was simply recorded by Ms. Cassidy?  Do the lyrics follow Burns' poem?  I know that Burns himself made use of old songs and poems that he heard in the Scottish villages.

Thanks for any additional insight anyone might have.

- Philippe Cordier

[ProfStokes]

Hello, Philippe!  It's lovely to see you posting again.

Jenny sings the chorus of the song for Judith (judging from the episode guide summaries, this would be sometime between Episode 716-720) after [spoiler]cornering her with a pair of scissors in the tower room.  She accuses her sister-in-law of always being jealous of her.  In an attempt to calm Jenny, Judith reminds her how Grandmama always loved Jenny's singing, "especially the song about the red rose."[/spoiler] I don't think we ever heard the full lyrics or much of the melody.

ProfStokes

[Midnite]

Yes, I don't think Jenny sings the lyrics beyond the first line, though she hums more of it to [spoiler]calm her babies.[/spoiler] But it was enough to admire Marie Wallace's very beautiful voice.

A recording of Eva Cassidy singing it at a small club during the 90s is on YouTube, btw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_gqctUZ4Oc

It's basically the poem, Philippe, but with a little tweaking here and there to modernize the language, and most versions elongate it by repeating a stanza-- I know John Barrowman's does .  And now it's my turn to wish you all the best and tell you I love your new name!

[MsCriseyde]

Not to knock Eva Cassidy at all because she is freaking amazing, but, if you're surveying different renditions, another one worth a listen is Rosanne Cash's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80lGzI6nFsw

She's never recorded it, but she's performed it live at least twice in the UK when she's had the backing of Celtic musicians. (This won't come up in a search because whoever posted it lists the song title as "Seas Run Dry.")

Burns is outside of my period, but critics have suggested that he simply lifted an existing folk song without any restructuring. Burns himself referred to the poem as "a simple old Scots song which I had picked up." In other words, if you're under the impression that someone took Burns' poem and set it to music, it's actually a case of Burns taking song lyrics and presenting them as a poem.

[Philippe Cordier]

Merci!  I'll have to listen to these once I have my own internet service.  YouTube doesn't work on the public computer I'm using where I live.