Burl’s Ghosts

 

I have heard this song quite often. Many have sung it. And, it is a cool, cool song.

Then, I stumbled upon the original recording by Burl Ives, and goosebumps ran up and down my body.

I could almost feel the hair ends tingling, and then I heard it again, in the dark.

The goosebumps were real, and so was the tingling in my nerve endings.

That is when you ask yourself the question – how much magic can one man and a simple guitar arrangement make? Just his voice, and the guitar.

You can almost feel the melancholy and the eeriness of the atmosphere in the song.

Correction – you can feel it. You are drawn into it, especially when he goes                             ‘ yippeeyaayyey’.

If this version is not considered to be one of the classics of Western popular music, then it is a bloody shame.

Do me a favour.

Switch of the lights, and listen to the song in the dark.

Then, tell me what you think of it.