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Lyke Wake Dirge

[ Roud 8194 ; Ballad Index OBB033 ; trad.]

This is probably the Young Tradition's best-known song. It is from their eponymous debut album of 1966, The Young Tradition. It was also included in quite a lot of anthologies, among them Karl Dallas' famous anthology The Electric Muse, and The Acoustic Folk Box. The original album's sleeve notes comment:

The dirge as we sing it is an adaptation of Aubrey's manuscript version of 1686. Descriptions of the song have come from Scotland and from the north of England as far south as Yorkshire, and the idea of the departed soul going on a hazardous journey to Purgatory has its parallels throughout Indo-European lore. Widespread too is the belief that alms given by the living will be given back to the donor at the beginning of the soul's journey, so that a pair of shoes given away during the subject's lifetime will enable his soul to cross prickly Whinny Moor without injury. Whether the dirge was sung, chanted or recited over the corpse is not clear; there is no evidence of an air to the dirge in the tradition. The tune used here was given to us by Hans Fried, who heard it long ago from an old Scots lady, Peggy Richards.

Pentangle sang Lyke Wake Dirge on their album Basket of Light.

In the 1970s, Steeleye Span used the Lyke Wake Dirge in their live sets as Maddy Prior told in the Spanning the Years sleeve notes but they didn't record it before 2002 for the double CD Present which accompanied their Winter 2002 reunion tour:.

(...) Five nights at the LA forum with Jethro Tull, 18,000 seats. We were opening our set with the Lyke Wake Dirge, a grim piece of music from Yorkshire concerning purgatory and we all dressed in dramatic mummers ribbons with tall hats. The effect was stunning. Five gaunt figures in line across the front of the stage, lit from below casting huge shadows, intoning this insistent dirge alarmed some members of the audience whose reality was already tampered with by 70s substances. It was most satisfying.

Lyrics

The Young Tradition sing the Lyke Wake Dirge

This ae nighte, this ae nighte,
    Any nighte and alle,
Fire and fleet and candle lighte,
    And Christe receive thy saule.

If thou from here away does past,
    Any nighte and alle,
To Whinny Moor thou com'st at last;
    And Christe receive thy saule.

If thou gavest ever hosen or shoen,
    Any nighte and alle,
Then sit ye down and put them on;
    And Christe receive thy saule.

But if hosen or shoen thou ne'er gav'st nane
    Any nighte and alle,
The whinnes will prick thee to thy bare bane;
    And Christe receive thy saule.

If thou from there away dost pass,
    Any nighte and alle,
To Purgatory fire thou com'st at last;
    And Christe receive thy saule.

If thou gavest ever meat or drink,
    Any nighte and alle,
The fire will never make thee shrink;
    And Christe receive thy saule.

But if meat or drink thou gav'st nane,
    Any nighte and alle,
The fire will burn thee to thy bare bane;
    And Christe receive thy saule.