The Banks of Green Willow is the saddest song of all. A young captain takes his pregnant bride to sea, and when she goes into labour, can't break the journey, so she says, '..then tak' me by the fingers, and cast me overboard and have nae pity on me'. He does, and 'see how she swims and see how she swaggers, and she'll no leave off swimming til she comes to safe harbour. When the Captain finally finds her, she is, 'lying there died on the cold sea strand...her babe it was born and lying at her feet'. After that, it actually gets worse, and now they all three lie sleeping on the banks of Green Willow. When I've sung this song, half the audience have been sobbing, although the woemn usually tolerate it more stoically.

Second saddest song for me is one I've heard sung by June Tabor. It concerns childhood and though nothing horrible happens, it has such a yearning, hopeless-but-still-beautiful quality it makes me feel very upset. 'It was a long wet year, and still she looked for summer.'Perhaps someone out there knows the title and songwriter. What skill! Those long wet summers move most of us to tears, but it seems to me that if you can't have a happy childhood then what hope is there.