Wintertime blues call for warm and rich imagery. Might I recommend folk singer Vashti Bunyan?
Her voice sounds like what she sings about. Picturesque, coy nature. Thoughtful existence. Simple pleasure. Longing. The backing is sparse—lilting fiddle or guitar cradles her melody. Her lone voice set against only one or two other instruments suits her wander-wondering lyrics.
Her memoir, Wayward: Just Another Life to Live, published in 2022, tells the decades-long story of her 1970 debut album, Just Another Diamond Day and includes lyrics, photographs, and illustrations.
This book transformed her song lyrics for me; what before were simply sweet image-poems became, in prose, clear-eyed stories of homelessness. The context adds dimension to her music and shows the strength in her seemingly childlike outlook.
“Timothy Grub” was one of the earliest songs she wrote and it encapsulates in its verses both her journey and her dreamy perspective.
Maurice Snail and Timothy Grub
Swanney and Blue and Emily Grub
Decided one day to go into the wood
And build them a house and live there if they could
And they stayed there a while in the trees and the rain
Till one day two blue men said “you’re all insane”
And to please not come here again
Bunyan had gone to live with a friend and his dog, Swanney, her boyfriend at the time, and her dog, Blue, at a makeshift campsite until cops made them leave the area.
They had a green car called Happiness Runs
Friday comes and Happiness Runs
Out of petrol and everyone gets out to push
And suddenly see through a gap in the bush
A real caravan just like the one in their dreams
The gypsy doesn’t want it for nowadays it seems
His home stays in one place and gleams
They began traveling and sleeping in their car. They would work odd jobs to make enough money to eat and keep moving. In one town, they found an old wagon. They worked out a deal and replaced their ride with an old-fashioned horse and buggy.
He told them that he had a horse down the lane
Saturday morning they went back again
He showed them a shed that was built out of tin
He opened the door and they all peered within
And there lying in straw was a horse black as night
With a star on her forehead and eyes full of light
And they all fell in love at first sight
When she did finally settle down, she recorded the songs she’d written during her travels but it didn’t really go anywhere. She didn’t record anything else and instead worked her farm and raised her family. The album itself, released in 1970, simmered in obscurity until the new century when it got passed around online, and noticed by a string of the right people including eclectic folk-punk band, Animal Collective.
She only learned that her music had an audience when she first got on the web, thirty odd years after recording it.
They thought and they thought about having Black Bess
Timothy planted some mustard and cress
They lived in a cupboard and made it their home
And lay there and dreamed of the days when they’d roam
Up and down all the hills of the north countryside
With the dogs eating buttercups on the wayside
And they’d wave all the cities goodbye
Now, the album has been remastered and expanded, the original is a collector’s item, and Vashti Bunyan is making new music again. I’m hoping she’ll write more books to go with it too.
Bunyan, Vashti. Wayward: Just Another Life to Live. White Rabbit. 2022.
Bunyan, Vashti. “Timothy Grub.” Just Another Diamond Day, Philips Records, 1970.
