I first encountered ‘Alexander’ (Roud number 6247) as a fuzzy field recording of Frank Harte. Field recordings can be fascinating, in that they can contain all kinds of unusual, unexpected sounds that force you to imagine the environment in which the recording took place. In this one, Frank seems to be pressed right up next to a dictaphone, singing softly (unusual for him), with the sounds of a session going on in the background. My suspicion is that he’s not so much performing the song as ‘giving’ the song to someone for the purposes of learning. The recorder probably nabbed him in the hallway as he returned from the gents. The result is so personal and intimate - as though he’s singing right in your ear - I was hooked from the second I heard it.
It’s like a classic ‘night visiting’ song, but with a twist. A young lad comes to a girl’s window, begging for her love, but rather than pleading, declaring that he’s cold and drenched to the skin, he attempts to gain her by flexing his knowledge of scripture and mythology. He paints vivid pictures of mountains in the Far East and the conquests of Alexander the Great. Who could resist?
To the best of my knowledge, Frank Harte learned it from Eddie Butcher, the singer and farmhand from Magilligan, Co. Derry, but made it very much his own. Frank makes two notable edits, substituting the word ‘celestial’ for Eddie’s ‘celestical’ and swapping ‘Alexander’ for Butcher’s ‘Alexandra.’ If there was a great conqueror named Alexandra, I haven’t yet found her.
This is one of those songs where the lyrics really take hold of you. Sometimes a song with basic words can get by on the right emotion or a beautiful melody. In this one, each verse has a painterly majesty to it: “Your sweet celestial charms, they have wounded quite my brain / Your skin’s far whiter than the swan that flies on yon’ purling stream.” Each line unfolds like a film reel. It’s a delight to sing.
When I sing it I try to follow the journey of the characters, their vulnerability, all the excitement and trepidation of young love. It’s so vivid, you hardly have to try. You’re right there with them from the opening lines: “Don’t you know the reason, love, this night that I am here?”
I've recorded it as a new track off my forthcoming record ‘Mudlark Ballads’. I think anyone who hears it will be in for one of the great English-language love songs in the Irish tradition.
Macdara Yeates performs in our Trad Night series at Cecil Sharp House on Wednesday 4 November
