Two dark ditties

As a Pacific Canadian Celtic/Roots band Tiller’s Folly have long been known for “Stirring Up Ghosts,” as they tell tales of Pacific Canadian history in story & song. This Halloween however, the band will be “Stirring Up Ghosts” of a different kind…

Dancing with the Dead

Tiller's Folly

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Halloween or “All Hallow’s Eve” originated as the ancient Celtic festival of “Samhain”, when it was believed the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred, that the spirits of the dead returned Read more
Halloween or “All Hallow’s Eve” originated as the ancient Celtic festival of “Samhain”, when it was believed the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred, that the spirits of the dead returned to earth, and people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.

The haunting aspect of that ancient tradition is still acknowledged today in many parts of the world. Here’s a musical interpretation on the theme
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  1. Dancing with the Dead

DANCING WITH THE DEAD
(music & lyrics by Bruce Coughlan)

Full moon on the horizon casting shadows all around
Don’t you be surprised to feel a tremble underground
Such an anxious fate awaits you, what horrors lie ahead!
So quick, the hour’s advancing, you’ll be dancing with the dead!

For soon the skies will darken and the winds begin to wail
It’s then the veil is lifted, and you’ll see beyond the pale
As ghostly apparitions come rising from their beds
Wearing wooden overcoats and dancing with the dead!

Whistle past the graveyard it’s as eerie as a tomb
‘Till someone freed the horses now all Hell has broken loose!
Oh, the keening of the banshee will fill your heart with dread
As bones start rattling to-and-fro, dancing with the dead!

You can dance the Texas Cakewalk keeping one foot in the grave
As phantoms cluster ‘round you and you sing your last refrain
Oh, you’ll think you’re going crazy, feeling giddy in the head
Pushing up the daisy’s while you’re dancing with the dead!

So, whistle past the graveyard it’s as eerie as a tomb
Someone’s kicked a bucket now the hounds are on the loose!
Oh, the keening of the banshees will fill your heart with dread
As bones keep rattling up and down, dancing with the dead!

And you’ll feel like death warmed over as you’re hanging by a thread
Sleeping six feet under and dancing with the dead!
And the bones keep rattling left and right, dancing with the dead!

A Murder of Crows

Tiller's Folly

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As birds go, the Clan Corvus have often been demonised for their human-like social traits. Few creatures have been so unfairly maligned, their presence long believed to foretell evil events or as a sign of bad luck.

When Read more
As birds go, the Clan Corvus have often been demonised for their human-like social traits. Few creatures have been so unfairly maligned, their presence long believed to foretell evil events or as a sign of bad luck.

When threatened, crows will 'mob' an intruding hawk or other predator; dozens will gather around the invader. Since ancient times, a group of crows has been known as a “murder”

King Henry the Eighth of England (1491 – 1547) put a public bounty on crows along with their relation the rook.
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  1. A Murder of Crows

A MURDER OF CROWS
(music & lyrics by Bruce Coughlan)

The farmer stares out beneath sweat-furrowed brow 
As bolder than bandits, they follow the plough
He issues an oath at the black-hearted rogues
That's *"One seed to sew and one for the crows"

The Jackdaw's a thievish, mischievous soul
Hiding his seeds in the cracks and the holes
That's how we arrived at such terms, I suppose
An “unkindness of ravens”, a “murder of crows”

Rook, jay and magpie, jackdaw and crow
Cunning and clever as is each one of those
That if I were a hawk, I would keep on my toes
Sing fol-didde, di-diddle, fol the di-do

From a roost in the steeple the magpie is perched
(Not unlike the bishop, he's high in the church)
As all the day long, 'till the sun's setting low 
Like a priest from the pulpit he caws and he crows 

Rook, jay and magpie, jackdaw and crow
Cunning and clever as is each one of those
If I were a hawk, I would keep on my toes
Sing fol-didde, di-diddle, fol the di-do

Rook, jay and magpie, jackdaw and crow
Cunning and clever as is each one of those
That if I were a hawk, I’d have talons, not toes!
Sing fol-didde, di-diddle, fol the di-do

The beggar, he shoos him in ragged auld cloths
The poet salutes him in rhymes and with prose
The huntsman pursues him with slings and with bows 
An unkindness of ravens, a murder of crows
Sing fol-didde, di-diddle, fol the di-do…