During the week that the sixties icon Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull passed on, aged 78, Iona felt it appropriate to pick one of her songs. However, the actual tune was written by a 24-year-old brash, busty, bubbly lass from Tennessee and released in 1970. The song appeared on Ms Faithfull’s 2008 album of covers titled Easy Come, Easy Go (her 18th release), and this was the first time we heard it.
Given that a quintessentially English lady sang our first encounter with this song, we assumed the ‘Dover’ in the title meant the English town in Kent; however, on finding out that Dolly Rebbeca Parton wrote the song, we think the ‘Dover’ refered to in the title is one of the 31 places in the USA with the same name, presumably the one in Stewart County, Tennessee!
The lyrics are very poigient and ‘mature’ given Ms Parton’s tender years at the time of writting and Marianne’s rendition is sublime, in our humble opinion!
Along side Hank Williams’ song At the First Fall of Snow, written by Lorene Rose and released by Hank in 1955, our choice this week Down from Dover is one of the saddest songs we have heard! The final line is a ‘killer”, and we hope you like the song too….
What a song, and what a wonderful version, thanks.