While idly leafing through Martin Elliots' Complete Recording Sessions I came across a song reference that intrigues me. It's song #259 UNKNOWN FOLK SONG aka INTERMEZZO which is in the film Charlie is my Darling.

Now the only 'unknown' song I can find in the film is @ the start just after Play With Fire & just before they all ham it up on 'Salty Dog'. If this is what Martin's referring to then it's far from being unknown, this is Bert Janschs' 'Needle of Death', well known to us folkies of the 60's.

I've long noted Keith playing this, on the one hand it shows his finger-picking skills even back then: Keith must have been aware of the English folk scene to have come across this tune. On the other hand I find it ironic that a couple of years later Keith himself was using needles of death.

In case you don't know the original I've ripped the audio from Charlie & then spliced in the first verse & chorus from Bert's version (Bert also did a much slower version later on). There's a sample on Amazon but it doesn't quite show what I'm talking about. There's a little guitar intro which makes it all clear.

It's only a small mp3 so I've posted it @ 2 different places

Needle of Death Keith - Bert Jansch

[www.filemojo.com]

[rapidshare.com]

In case you don't know about Bert there's a good article @ wiki about him.