A month or so back, during the Folk: Image & Presentation thread, Don Firth pointed out that the chilling soliloquy intoned by Lord Summerisle over Paul Giovanni's surreal reconstruction of Gently Johnny in The Wicker Man comes from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Thus inspired, I sought out the relevant passage (Part 32 of Song of Myself) and knocked together a demo in which a suitably canted rendering is bookended by two versions of Gently Johnny, one in its original bawdy form, the other as cleaned up by Cecil Sharp, and both sung to the traditional (Northumbrian?) melody. Needless to say it is Cecil's expurgated version that is the most effectively erotic of the two...

For the next week, this can be had gratis by clicking here: Gently Johnny & Song 32. By no means perfect, I feel it's just about passable as a floorspot in a virtual singaround; an entirely live take, in real time, just voice, Citera Beta and Shruti Box...

Sedayne / aka Insane Beard