I adore this song. I love the comparison of physical attributes to nature; it’s a somewhat rare thing to come by in more modern songs. I can’t think of many, the only other one that comes to mind is (They Long to Be) Close to You by the Carpenters. “The first time ever I saw your face/I thought the sun rose in your eyes.” What a lyric. As if the sheer audacity of Ewan MacColl wasn’t apparent by this line alone, the rest of the song is as fluid and poetic as the rhythms of the natural world itself.
The melodic intonation is the key part of the entire song for me and makes the song soar, but not in the way that other soul singers may have done it. The music is demure, stripped to only a piano, barely-there strings, acoustic guitar and bass. Yet the vocal performance perfectly walks the line of complimenting the tone of the song and lifting it to simply ethereal heights with no dramatic flairs necessary. That warmth successfully creates the vocal equivalent of an embrace filled with a pure, glowing sense of love.
The entire song is such a delicate declaration, yet there is infinite power behind those words. Like a single hair holding up a skyscraper. There is strength in that beautiful fragility. Anybody who’s felt that will know the love that manifests itself in gentle, tender ways, but also that this gentleness comes from a white-hot, unyielding foundation rooted seemingly at the centre of the Earth. Where else does the power to love someone so ferociously come from?