Aardvark's Hand Held Video Top Ten - Number 3

Now we start to see the numbers of viewings rise exponentially as we go into the top three. All the songs on the top of the chart are by the same artists who have also got songs lower down in the chart. These songs are by Pentangle and one of the reasons that they are so popular is that they represent some of the last video capturing Bert Jansch shortly before his death on 5 October 2011 aged 67. Bert's final concert was at the Festival Hall London, but this gig at Cambridge was his penultimate show and one captured for posterity by the hand held images here. I am sure that there are other worthy image captures from that night Saturday 30th July 2011.

The first song is the timeless classic 'Cruel Sister' at number 3 tonight at the time of posting it has had 11,137 viewings. Here is what I posted on YouTube on 1st August 2011:-

"Although bedevilled by problems with the sound system the original Pentangle reformed and performed at this year's Cambridge Folk Festival which was for me a momentous event...

A bit of hand held history back to the late 1960s and the journey that has had a Pentangle soundtrack continously in my world, playing and never tiring nor going stale ever since those distant days in Mercia.

Cruel Sister some background to the song from Wikipedia:-

"The Twa Sisters" is a murder ballad that recounts the tale of a girl drowned by her sister. It is first known to have appeared on a broadside in 1656 as "The Miller and the King's Daughter." At least 21 English variants exist under several names, including "Minnorie" or "Binnorie", "The Cruel Sister", "The Wind and Rain", "Dreadful Wind and Rain", "Two Sisters", and the "Bonnie Bows of London". The ballad was collected by Francis J. Child (Child 10) and is also listed in the Roud Folk Song Index.

The Pentangle 1970 version of the song uses the tune and refrain from "Lay the bent to the bonny broom", a widely-used song (whose original lyrics are lost) which is also used, for example, by some versions of "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (Child 1). 

Enjoy!