Wedding dress of gold

¯(mp3, 64k/s, 614Kb)

I wanted to write a song in a very traditional style, so I set the story in a farming community in the 19th century. I worked out the plot over the course of a week on holiday in Palma. It was more like writing a short story than a song, I got quite attached to the characters. They're very real to me. Gather round my friends and relatives For I've a story I must tell you Of a boy and a girl who loved each other And their tale will sadden and surprise you 1877 in Northumberland The scene is of a graveyard Six mourners stand, hand in hand As they bring the coffin into the churchyard The dead man's bride stands to one side Barley seventeen summers old Childlike fears and a woman's tears She still wears her wedding dress of gold Her wedding dress of gold This is not the end, oh no my friends For this is just the beginning Let's go back in time, let me tell you why This tragedy needs tellin' Kenneth was a farmer's son, the fields were where his job was done Where he sweated, laboured and toiled The four seasons grow and the four winds blow And all year long he worked the soil In the northern hills where the winds can kill And the earth is mean and frozen Kenneth was right it was love at first sight He had no doubts about the bride he'd chosen And though they were poor, he promised to make sure Their wedding was a day to remember As the seasons turned, he saved all he earned For a wedding dress of gold he wanted to buy her A wedding dress of gold he wanted to buy her Kenneth soon realised, no matter how he tried He wouldn't be able to afford it A thought he could not stand, so he sold some of his father's land Without telling him about it So the big day came and through the pouring rain Kenneth's father went for a drink to the tavern And some farm hands there, too drunk to care Told him what his son had sold them To the church he went, his anger to vent On a son who had betrayed him Kenneth was there waiting at the alter His father pushed him in anger Kenneth fell and banged his head, never to awaken Never to awaken For the rest of her life she wore only black Out of respect for her dead husband But she wore the dress of gold every anniversary So his spirit could touch her if it wanted By candle light she sits all night And remembers their best moments Like the night in the barn, lying in his arms She is perpetually haunted And in the community and throughout the valley Her story is still told And it is believed her ghost often appears Wearing a wedding dress of gold Wearing a wedding dress of gold And to this day, locals say Her ghost wears a wedding dress of gold And to this day, locals say Her ghost wears a wedding dress of gold A wedding dress of gold