The Night Visiting Song – Joe Salmon – Live in Mulligan’s Irish Bar, Amsterdam

The Night Visiting Song – Joe Salmon – Live in Mulligan’s Irish Bar, Amsterdam on 3rd of December 2015 beside the beautiful Amstel River.  

The Night Visiting song is a Scottish folk song, and of which there are very many versions, as with all folk songs I presume. This version became popular in Ireland in the 1960’s but the song itself dates to medieval times and is closely linked to a song called “The Grey Cock”.

“Dr. Hugh Shields suggests that The Grey Cock was in its earliest form a dawn song related to the Alba of the medieval troubadours. In this form it carried no supernatural elements for the hero and heroine of the narrative were entirely human. The subsequent mutation of some versions of the ballad into revenant form came with its acquisition of verses from supernatural ballads, notably Sweet William’s Ghost.
That the returned lover in this version is back from the grave is evident enough but it is also interesting to record that on asking John to explain the ‘burning temples’ referred to in the final verse he said: “I suppose he was a soul from purgatory and he had to return to it.”

See more from me and my music at;

http://franksshed.com/JoeSalmon.html