Lyr add: Anathea

Subject: who knows this song?
From: Banjoman_CO
Date: 13 Jun 99 - 12:51 AM

I'm looking for a song and chords. Its about a man named Lazlathia and his sister Annathia. It seems that he stole a stalion and she tries to save him. I don't know the title and could use some help. I would appreciate it.

Fred

Subject: RE: who knows this song?
From: Ferrara
Date: 13 Jun 99 - 01:20 AM

Search the Digitrad database for annathea and you'll find one version. I suspect the girl's name was originally "Anna Thea" but who knows? - Rita F

Subject: RE: who knows this song?
From: Ian HP
Date: 13 Jun 99 - 05:45 AM

The song is 'Lazlo Feher', an Eastern European traditional song popularised in the west in translation by, I think, AL Lloyd. Dave and Toni Arthur did it, and Bob Dylan rewrote it and (as usual) gave no credit and by default claimed it as his own. I don't know if it's in the database.

Subject: RE: who knows this song?
From: lesblank
Date: 13 Jun 99 - 10:40 PM

Judy Collins did the best job I ever heard on this ballad. I will have to look up the LP, but I believe It was "Judy Collins - 5". Same LP with "Let the Bullgine Run". Anyway the lyrics (no Chords, but play it in any minor key) are on the insert to the album. I'll look tomorrow !!

Subject: RE: who knows this song?
From: Captain Swing
Date: 14 Jun 99 - 02:05 PM

I think Donovan recorded it as well

Subject: RE: who knows this song?
From: Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin
Date: 14 Jun 99 - 06:17 PM

Tony Capstick also did a version.

Shoh slaynt,

Bobby Bob

Subject: RE: who knows this song?
From: Last Wheeze
Date: 15 Jun 99 - 05:24 PM

Lesblank is right about Judy Collins. the album is recollections, produced by Mark Abramson on the EXULTA label from elektra corp usa. album numbers 42035 (EKS - 74055)

Subject: RE: who knows this song?
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 15 Jun 99 - 05:36 PM

Also on Judy Collins' album entitled "Three". This album was an example of my third album theory. New folk singers seemed to peak on their third album. When an artist was signed, they used up most of their repertoire recording the first two albums. The third was the first burst of new music since they were signed. This theory seemed to work for a while in the 60's and 70's.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: who knows this song?
From: John Wood
Date: 21 Jun 99 - 08:58 PM

This is in the JUDY COLLINS SONG BOOK.
There it's called ``ANATHEA´´,and is credited to:
Words by Neil Roth,Music by Lydia Wood.
According to the music,the brother is called Lazlo Feher.
Song copyright is from 1963 Fall River Music.
Bob Dylans ``cover´´version is called SEVEN CURSES.
Greetings John.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 11:08 AM

Thanks for the info.

There's a YouTube clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJvpRn5K23w) described as "A very young Judy Collins appearance on TV show Hootenanny 1963, singing Anathea". Introducing the song, the MC says: "This is an international collaboration. American composer, Judy's friend, by the name of Lydia Wood. She first heard these words as verses written by a poet in Paris." He doesn't name the poet, and for that matter doesn't say the poet was French. (She heard these words in Paris? They were written in Paris?)

Subject: Lyr Add: ANATHEA (from Judy Collins)
From: RunrigFan
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 12:01 PM

http://www.tsrocks.com/j/judy_collins_texts/anathea.html

Theres a video there as well ;)


ANATHEA
(from Judy Collins)

Lo, lo, lo
Lazlo Feher stole a stallion,
Stole him from the misty mountain
And they chased him and they caught him,
And in iron chains they bound him.

Word was brought to Anathea
That her brother was in prison.
"Bring me gold and six fine horses,
I will buy my brothers freedom."

"Judge, oh, judge, please spare my brother,
I will give you gold and silver."
"I don't want your gold and silver,
All I want are your sweet favours."

"Anathea, oh, my sister,
Are you mad with grief and sorrow?
He will rob you of your honour,
And he'll hang me from the gallows."

Anathea did not heed him,
Straight way to the judge went running.
In his righteous arms at midnight,
There she heard the gallows groaning.

"Cursed be that judge so cruel,
Thirteen years may he lie bleeding,
Thirteen doctors cannot cure him,
Thirteen shelves of drugs can't heal him."

"Anathea, Anathea,
Don't go out into the forest.
There among the green pines standing,
You will find your brother hanging."
Lo, lo, lo

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: kendall
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 12:32 PM

Gordon Bok used to sing this one.
Minor differences: in his GOLDEN bed...
and he will rob you of your FLOWER...

then, seven years...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 06:55 PM

Regarding Roger in Baltimore's 3rd album theory of 15 June 1999, a few posts up; certainly true for Judy Collins, not so true for others I can think of. Dylan's 2nd album, Freewheelin', was better than his 3rd; Phil Ochs' 2nd album, I Ain't Marching Any More, was better than his 3rd (In Concert); Tom Paxton's 3rd album came as a bit of a disappointment to me, compared to his 2nd; I prefer Clouds (joni Mitchell's 2nd) to Ladies of the Canyon (her 3rd).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: Jack Campin
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 04:12 PM

More here:

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=45376

and here:

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=621

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 02:59 PM

The original can be found in several old books of Hungarian folk songs. The trouble is, Google Books does a lousy job of digitizing Hungarian—so you can see the pages but you can't copy and paste. It would be a tedious (and maybe pointless) job for me to retype the Hungarian, especially since I don't read or write Hungarian, so I won't attempt it, beyond this first verse, anyway:

Fehér László lovat lopott,
A fekete halom alatt;
Minden nyereg-szerszámostul,
Csikós fékkel, kantárostul.

Which Google translate renders thus:

László Fehér has stolen horses
The black under the pile;
Every saddle-szerszámostul,
Horseman brake kantárostul.

Not much help, is it?

Anyway, that version has 24 verses, and can be found in:

Népdalok és Mondák [Folk songs and legends] By János Erdályi (Pesten: József Beimel, 1846), page 383.

By the way, it seems to be customary that in Hungarian, surnames come before given names, and the order is reversed when Hungarian names are cited in an English text.

Thus the sister's name is Fehér Anna in Hungarian or Anna Fehér in English. So I guess calling her "Anathea" is sort of a mondegreen.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 03:52 PM

This page has some scanned musical notation from an old book:

http://www.sarkoz.extra.hu/nepdalgyujtes.html

the score being this:

http://www.sarkoz.extra.hu/fejerlaszlo.jpg

But this only one of MANY versions known (there are probably hundreds).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 04:35 PM

Wonderful version here, a woman with a great soaring voice (not much info - it's from a cassette, but the cover was so badly scanned you can't read any of the details):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECUGSug_V2Q

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: JeffB
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 07:53 PM

I made this note after reading the discussion of Anna Feyer on a previous thread :-

Published by Judy Collins in 1963, and recorded by both her and A. L. Lloyd in the 1970s, it was also recorded by Tony Capstick and Dave and Toni Arthur but seems have been overlooked by performers since then, although re-written as Seven deadly curses by Bob Dylan.
The original inspiration was a Hungarian ballad entitled Feyer Laszlo [or Ladislav] lovay lopott, which was collected by Bartok and adapted in his book of Hungarian folksongs of 1906. It was later "translated" by A. L. Lloyd. There are numerous variants in Hungary.
The Csanadi-Vargyas collection has one of 16 verses, of which a more literal translation begins :-           
Ladislav Feher stole a horse / at the foot of the black hill. / His leather whip cracked noisily, / it was heard in the town of Gonc. / Come on, come on, citizens of Gonc, / Ladislav Feher has been caught! / Anna Feher has heard the news; / she runs down to the stable.
It ends :-
May thirteen rows of medicines / be emptied for you! / May you be carried to the churchyard / at the end of the thirteenth year!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 25 Mar 11 - 01:18 AM

Jack, there's more information on that recording at http://www.erdelyert.hu/kinalat/termek/3026/szeredas-egyuttes-cuhare, unfortunately for me all in Hungarian. Looks like the singer is either Bárdosi Ildikó or Kulcsár Annamária.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 25 Mar 11 - 01:27 AM

Large amounts of information - in Hungarian - at http://www.folkradio.hu/album/felvetel_show.php?id=7454. Evidence of another recording by the same singer at http://www.folkradio.hu/album/felvetel_show.php?id=6538

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: Jack Campin
Date: 25 Mar 11 - 08:05 AM

JeffB - that quote doesn't make any more sense than it did when first posted.

If you're going to change Hungarian names, do it into English, not into other languages which haven't featured in the chain of transmission ("Feyer" is German, "Ladislav" is Czech). Just call the characters Larry and Annie White if you don't want to deal with the Hungarian.

The English version is due to Lloyd, so what doe it mean that Collins "published" it? Was she falsely claiming credit for it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: JeffB
Date: 25 Mar 11 - 02:34 PM

Errr ..... you've lost me a bit there Jack. Which quote doesn't make sense and posted when?

Well spotted that I got her name wrong. It's the way I happened to write it into my personal song book and it has rather stuck in my mind. Funny that should say "White" as I've been told that that's what Feher (forgotten how to do accents; can anyone remind me?) means in Hungarian.

I wrote the note for my own sake in order to try to sort out the contents of the original thread, which was quite long and had both speculative and (what seemed like) authoritative statements. I would have to refer back to the original thread to answer your last two questions, and right now I can't be bothered as I've better things to do, but I imagine it was said that Collins published a songbook which had the song in it. As I don't have any such songbook I can't say whether her text was attributed to anyone, or even if it resmbles Lloyd's version.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 05 Nov 11 - 07:10 AM

I'm interested by the tension between the Collins attribution to Roth/Wood as compared to the more usual (to my mind) story of translation by Lloyd from the Hungarian.

Can any survivor of the 60s or forensic historian clarify which it right.

I have the words (almost identical to the words Collins attributes to Roth) in my late wife's handwriting taken down I think directly from Lloyd - and the tune (not annotated) that I learned from her but than adapted is clearly the same as the one Collins attributes to Wood.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 03:47 AM

Refresh. Any info out there?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 06 Nov 11 - 03:54 AM

Incidentally, no answer to the Roth/Wood question on this other Mudcat thread to which I contributed at the time.

http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=621

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anathea
From: GUEST,Stuart Amesbury - Folkal Point.
Date: 25 Oct 21 - 10:10 AM

A version of this song appears on the eponymous Folkal Point / Midas Recordings MR.003.
Later CD re-issues have been available throughout the last ten years and the lyrics are printed in the Big Pink re-issue package.
A remastered vinyl re-issue of the album became available during 2018 via Hoxa Sound, with a bonus track.
And in 2019 Folkal Point opened their reunion concert event (part of the Clifton International Festival of Music) with a version of Anathea.
I hope this may be of some help or interest.