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"Black Is the Color (of My True Love's Hair)" (Roud 3103) is a traditional ballad folk song known in the US as associated with colonial and later music in the Appalachian Mountains. It is believed to have originated in Scotland, as it refers to the River Clyde in the lyrics. American musicologist Alan Lomax supported the thesis of Scottish origin, saying that the song was an American "re-make of British materials." [1]
Many different versions of this song exist, some addressed to men and others addressed to women. There are other differences:
These words are set to two distinct melodies, one of which is traditional and the other was written by the Kentucky folk singer and composer John Jacob Niles by 1941. Niles recalled that his father thought the traditional melody was "downright terrible", so he wrote "a new tune, ending it in a nice modal manner." This melody was used in the Folk Songs song cycle by Luciano Berio. [2]
The song has become a part of the traditional repertory of Celtic music artists. The song was collected as "Black is the color" by Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles in 1916 from Mrs Lizzie Roberts, it is listed in English folk songs from the southern Appalachians (1917). [3] It also appeared in Sharps English Folksongs From The Southern Appalachians (1932). [4] In the 1960s, Patty Waters sang an extended version for an ESP record that leaned toward the avant garde and extremes of vocal improvisation. [5] [ unreliable source? ]
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Versions of the song have been recorded by many artists, including:
| Name | Album | Genre | Year | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Jacob Niles | American Folk Lore Vol. 3 | 1941 | Also appears on American Folk Love Songs to Dulcimer Accompaniment, Six Favorite Folk Songs and other Niles compilations. | |
| Burl Ives | Wayfaring Stranger | Traditional folk | 1944 | |
| Jo Stafford | American Folk Songs | Traditional folk | 1950 | |
| Jean Ritchie | Singing the Traditional Songs of Her Kentucky Mountain Family | Traditional folk | 1952 | |
| Gordon Heath & Lee Payant | Chants traditionnels des États-Unis / The Ballad of the Boll Weevil and Other Traditional Songs of the United States | Traditional folk | 1955 | |
| Robert Shaw Chorale | My True Love Sings | Traditional folk | 1956 | |
| Phineas Newborn, Jr. | While My Lady Sleeps | Jazz | 1957 | |
| Pete Seeger | American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 2 | Folk music | 1958 | |
| Alfred Deller | Western Wind | English folk songs | 1959 | "Reviews and Ratings of Popular Albums", Billboard, 2/2/1959, p. 39 |
| Nina Simone | Nina Simone at Town Hall | Jazz | 1959 | Nina Simone made it part of her standard repertoire, revitalizing the song's popularity. [6] |
| Joan Baez | Joan Baez in Concert | Folk music | 1962 | |
| Smothers Brothers | Think Ethnic | Folk | 1963 | Title line turned into "Black Is the Colour of My Love's True Hair" [But only her Hairdresser knows--/("Does she or Doesn't she?")--/Only her Hairdresser knows!] (a play on the advertising 'tag line' at that time for Clairol hair-coloring products). |
| Davy Graham | Folk, Blues and Beyond | Folk | 1964 | |
| Smothers Brothers | It Must Have Been Something I Said! | Folk | 1964 | (They also did a parody version, cf. 1963) |
| Nina Simone | Wild Is the Wind | Jazz | 1965 | |
| Patty Waters | Patty Waters Sings | Jazz | 1965 | Described as "the performance that established her as a vocal innovator" [7] |
| Hamish Imlach | Hamish Imlach | Folk | 1966 | |
| Carola | Carola & Heikki Sarmanto Trio | Jazz | 1966 | Recorded in the spirit of the modal jazz scene in Europe in the 1960s, [8] Carola's accosting tone [9] and the groovy approach of the Heikki Sarmanto Trio remained undiscovered until issued by the Jazzpuu label in 2004. [8] |
| The Human Beinz | Nobody But Me | 1968 | A version by US act | |
| Cathy Berberian | Folk Songs | Classical | 1968 | Recorded with the Berio setting, followed by two more recordings next decade, all conducted by the composer to whom she was married for a time |
| Mike Seeger | Music from True Vine | Folk | 1971 | This a capella recording was done on his solo album of Appalachian and America folk music on the Mercury label |
| Tia Blake | Folk Songs & Ballads: Tia Blake and Her Folk-Group | Folk | 1971 | Released on SFPP (Société Française De Productions Phonographiques) [10] |
| Alfred Deller, Desmond Dupré, Mark Deller | Folksongs | Classical | 1972 | |
| Christy Moore | Live in Dublin | Folk | 1978 | |
| Marc Johnson's Bass Desires | Bass Desires | Jazz rock | 1985 | Instrumental version featuring guitarists Bill Frisell and John Scofield |
| Joe Sample | Invitation | Jazz | 1993 | Instrumental version recorded as "Black Is the Color". This version has been featured on The Weather Channel's Local on the 8s segments. |
| Luka Bloom | Turf | Folk/Singer-songwriter | 1994 | |
| Christy Moore | Live at the Point | Folk | 1994 | |
| The Irish Descendants | Livin' on the Edge | Folk, World, & Country | 1996 | |
| Kendra Shank | Wish | Vocal jazz | 1998 | |
| Susan McKeown | Mighty Rain | Traditional folk | 1998 | |
| Judy Collins | Both Sides Now | 1998 | ||
| Seanchai and the Unity Squad | Rebel Hip Hop | 1998 | Female-addressed version with a different lyrics titled "Ballad of Mairead Farrell" | |
| Fred Hersch | Let Yourself Go (Live at Jordan Hall) | Jazz | 1999 | |
| Niamh Parsons | In My Prime | Traditional folk | 2000 | Also performed on Live at Fylde (2005) |
| Stringmansassy | Persuasion | 2000 | ||
| Gaelic Storm | Tree | Folk rock | 2001 | Sixth track of the album Tree . [11] Female-addressed version |
| The Liberty Voices | A Cappella Americana | 2001 | As seen at Epcot's American Adventure | |
| Cara Dillon | Cara Dillon | Folk | 2001 | Irish folk singer Cara Dillon chose to perform a female-addressed version opening her eponymous album which won her many awards including "Best Traditional Song" at the 2002 BBC Folk Awards. It has become a favourite in her live repertoire and has undergone huge success as a Trance remix by 2Devine (see below) [12] |
| Andreas Scholl | Wayfaring Stranger | Classical | 2001 | |
| Blue Mountain | Roots | Alternative country/roots rock | 2002 | |
| Grace Griffith | Sands of Time | 2003 | ||
| Larry Mathews | Easy and Slow | Folk | 2003 | Third track on the Album Easy and Slow [13] |
| Nurse with Wound | She and Me Fall Together in Free Death | Experimental | 2003 | |
| Ensemble Planeta | Aria | A capella | 2003 | Tenth track of the Aria Album [14] |
| Paul Weller | Studio 150 | Rock | 2004 | |
| 2Devine featuring Cara Dillon | House | 2005 | DJ Pete Devine (also known as 2Devine and Coco & Green) produced a trance remix to Cara Dillon's version. | |
| The Corrs | Home | Pop folk | 2005 | |
| Espers | The Weed Tree | Psychedelic folk | 2005 | |
| The Czars | Sorry I Made You Cry | Rock | 2006 | Male-addressed version by American rock band |
| The Twilight Singers | She Loves You | Rock | 2007 | Female-addressed version |
| Karan Casey | Ships in the Forest | Folk | 2008 | Acoustic piano version by Karan Casey, an Irish folk singer |
| The King's Singers | Simple Gifts | Classical/Folk | 2008 | A capella |
| Kokia | Fairy Dance: Kokia Meets Ireland | Celtic | 2008 | Female-addressed version by Japanese songstress. |
| Natacha Atlas | Ana Hina | Arabesque/World | 2008 | Male-addressed version with the Mazeeka Ensemble [15] |
| Angelo Kelly | Lost Sons Up Close | Pop rock | 2008 | Appears as the last track in Lost Sons and was also recorded live for Up Close |
| Rea Garvey | Often covers it on tours and performed it on The Voice | |||
| Julie Murphy | Black Mountains Revisited | Folk/Singer-songwriter | 2009 | |
| Nyle Wolfe | Home Ground | Folk/Classical | 2009 | |
| Wye Oak | Splice Today Presents: The Old Lonesome Sound | Folk | 2009 | An original compilation album |
| Phil Coulter | Timeless Tranquility: 20 Year Celebration | Folk Celtic Classical | 2008 | |
| Marc Gunn | Irish Drinking Songs: A Cat Lover's Companion | Folk | 2007 | Album was a followup of Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers which included the track "Black Is the Color (of My Cat's Fur)" based on this song. |
| Angel Olsen | Lady of the Waterpark | Indie Folk | 2010 [16] | Limited cassette-only release |
| Lisa Lambe | Celtic Woman: Believe | Folk Celtic | 2011 | Female-addressed version |
| Katherine Jenkins | Daydream | Classical-popular crossover | 2011 | Male-addressed version |
| Celtic Thunder | Heritage | Folk Celtic | 2011 | |
| Mark Stewart & Richard H. Kirk | The Politics of Envy | Rock, dub | 2012 | Bonus track on the iTunes version of the album |
| Siobhan Owen | Storybook Journey | Folk Celtic Classical-popular crossover | 2012 | Male-addressed version, vocal and harp |
| Arborea | Red Planet | Psych-Folk | 2011 | |
| Anne Janelle | So Long at The Fair | 2013 | ||
| Brian McFadden | The Irish Connection | Soft rock | 2013 | featuring Sinéad O'Connor |
| Méav Ní Mhaolchatha | The Calling | Folk | 2013 | Male-addressed version |
| Shearwater | N/A | Indie rock | 2014 | Male-addressed version, later verses are rewritten. |
| Body/Head | Coming Apart | Noise Rock | 2013 | Re-titled Black |
| Gregory Porter | Autour de Nina | Jazz | 2014 | Female-addressed version |
| Peter Hollens & Avi Kaplan | Peter Hollens | Folk | 2014 | Female-addressed version |
| Coppelius | Hertzmaschine | metal | 2015 | |
| Rhiannon Giddens | Tomorrow Is My Turn | Americana | 2015 | |
| Damien Leith | Songs from Ireland | 2015 | ||
| Lauryn Hill | Nina Revisited... - A Tribute to Nina Simone | 2015 | ||
| Youn Sun Nah | She Moves On | 2017 | ||
| Bill Frisell and Mary Halvorson | The Maid with the Flaxen Hair | Avant-garde / Classical guitar | 2018 | Arranged for two guitars and performed by Frisell and Halvorson. |
| Nicole Cabell and Alyson Cambridge | Sisters in Song | Classical | 2018 | Arranged for two voices and orchestra by Joe Clark |
| Luka Bloom | Luka Bloom Live at De Roma | Folk | 2020 | Recorded live at De Roma, Antwerp, 16 November 2019 and included on "Luka Bloom - Live at De Roma" (2020) |
| Susu Laroche | Venus Rising From The Sea | Sufi gospel | 2024 |
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"Black Is the Color" is featured in The Twilight Zone season 3 episode entitled "The Passersby", which aired on October 6, 1961.
"Black Is The Color" is featured in the 1962 pilot for the western TV series Gallaway House, starring Johnny Cash, Merle Travis, Karen Downs and Eddie Dean.
"Black is the Color" is featured in The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. A sailor sings it to Heather as she and her new husband, Brandon Birmingham, pass by on the way to an inn before leaving London.
The "Lover's Lament" / "Love's Jewels" lyrics sung in Anne Bishop's Tir Alainn book series are loosely based on this song.
A cover of the song by Jim Moray featured on the Class season 1 finale "The Lost", appearing in both the post credit opening and closing fight sequence.
A cover of the song by Cara Dillon featured on Derry Girls (2018 TV series) season 3, episode 4 ‘The Haunting’ ending sequence.
Cecil James Sharp was an English collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was a key figure in the folk-song revival in England during the Edwardian period. According to Roud's Folk Song in England, Sharp was the country's "single most important figure in the study of folk song and music."
Green Grow the Rushes, O, is an English folk song. It is sometimes sung as a Christmas carol. It often takes the form of antiphon, where one voice calls and is answered by a chorus.
Jean Ruth Ritchie was an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player, called by some the "Mother of Folk". In her youth she learned hundreds of folk songs in the traditional way, many of which were Appalachian variants of centuries old British and Irish songs, including dozens of Child Ballads. In adulthood, she shared these songs with wide audiences, as well as writing some of her own songs using traditional foundations.
Songcatcher is a 2000 drama film directed by Maggie Greenwald. It is about a musicologist researching and collecting Appalachian folk music in the mountains of western North Carolina. Although Songcatcher is a fictional film, it is loosely based on the work of Olive Dame Campbell, founder of the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina, and that of the English folk song collector Cecil Sharp, portrayed at the end of the film as professor Cyrus Whittle. The film grossed $3 million in limited theatrical release in the United States, which was generally considered as a respectable result for an arthouse film release in 2001.
"I Saw Three Ships (Come Sailing In)" is an English Christmas carol, listed as number 700 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The earliest printed version of "I Saw Three Ships" is from the 17th century, possibly Derbyshire, and was also published by William Sandys in 1833. The song was probably traditionally known as "As I Sat On a Sunny Bank", and was particularly popular in Cornwall.
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"On Top of Old Smoky" is a traditional folk song of the United States. As recorded by The Weavers, the song reached the pop music charts in 1951. It is catalogued as Roud Folk Song Index No. 414.
Appalachian music is the music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. Traditional Appalachian music is derived from various influences, including the ballads, hymns and fiddle music of the British Isles, the African music and blues of early African Americans, and to a lesser extent the music of Continental Europe.
"The Holly and the Ivy" is a traditional British folk Christmas carol, listed as number 514 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The song can be traced only as far as the early nineteenth century, but the lyrics reflect an association between holly and Christmas dating at least as far as medieval times. The lyrics and melody varied significantly in traditional communities, but the song has since become standardised. The version which is now popular was collected in 1909 by the English folk song collector Cecil Sharp in the market town of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire, England, from a woman named Mary Clayton.
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Carola Christina Standertskjöld-Liemola, professionally known as Carola, was a Finnish jazz and pop singer. Her style was partially inspired by American singers of the 1950s. Simultaneously, it was in the spirit of the modal jazz scene going down in Europe in the 1960s. Mostly, Carola's jazz repertoire consisted in idiosyncratic versions of American songs in English, while her most famous jazz track "The Flame" was an original composition by Esa Pethman and the lyrics by the singer herself. As the vocalist for Esa Pethman's quartet and Hazy Osterwald's sextet in the early 1960s, Carola made fame in Finland and Sweden, and toured Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Switzerland. Her most significant recording is a session with the Heikki Sarmanto Trio from 1966, which the Finnish Music Information Centre considers among the original blueprints of Finnish jazz. Carola's recordings have been credited for the accosting tone of her contralto voice and her phrasing. The singer also co-produced the groovy approach of her supporting orchestras. In late 1960s and early 1970s, she performed in nine languages and a wide variety of styles, including chanson, schlager, Latin, rock'n'roll, and soul. After her death of Alzheimer's disease in 1997, Carola's music was revived in 2004 with two Best of albums and Carola & Heikki Sarmanto Trio reaching the Finnish charts.
"Supper Time" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the 1933 musical As Thousands Cheer, where it was introduced by Ethel Waters. The song is about racial violence inspired by a newspaper headline about a lynching.
"Children, Go Where I Send Thee" is a traditional African-American spiritual song. Among the many different versions of the song, a defining feature is the cumulative structure, with each number accompanied by a biblical reference. Today, many Americans know it as a Christmas carol.
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"Rain and Snow", also known as "Cold Rain and Snow", is an American folksong and in some variants a murder ballad. The song first appeared in print in Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil Sharp's 1917 compilation English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, which relates that it was collected from Mrs. Tom Rice in Big Laurel, North Carolina in 1916. The melody is pentatonic.
