Every Song I Love — 16. Ivor Cutler — In The Chestnut Tree

Every Song I Love is a series where I try to write about every song that I love, or die trying. Sometimes I’ll explain why I love them, sometimes I’ll tell the stories behind how I fell in love with them, sometimes I’ll do both. Most importantly, I hope you love them too.

Sometimes you find beauty in the most unexpected places. Many years ago (well, eight) I was compiling a playlist of songs about wood for my wife (this isn’t quite as strange as it sounds, it was coming up to our fifth wedding anniversary, for which wood is the traditional gift. I did buy her a proper present as well), and was looking for some unfamiliar songs to include alongside the more obvious choices (Knock on Wood, Norwegian Wood, Feed The Tree etc.). I happened upon Ivor Cutler’s ‘In The Chestnut Tree’.

I was vaguely familiar with Ivor Cutler already. He had cropped up regularly on the John Peel show, and I had heard a song of his on a Rough Trade compilation. I understood him to be a slightly eccentric man, producing quirky songs and poems. They were funny and unique, from what I had heard, but I would never have described them as beautiful.

In The Chestnut Tree is different though. It’s a slight song, less than 90 seconds long, just a few lines of Cutler’s surprisingly pretty singing voice (I am a bit of a sucker for a Scottish singers), accompanied by a sparse piano, but I find it to be compelling, beautiful and deeply romantic.

“I want to sit beside you, I want to feel the breeze”. Such a simple line, but I can truly feel it in my heart. It’s more than I ever could have imagined of a track from a fifty year old, mainly spoken word album. I hope you love it as much as I do.

Originally published at http://markjwray.com on August 29, 2024.