We’ve already met Deep Purple — they of Magic Rainbow Sky Horse ballad Stormbringer. I bring this up because founding member of Deep Purple Ritchie Blackmore has a side project with his wife called Blackmore’s Night — he’s Ritchie Blackmore, she’s Candice Night.
We should all be so lucky as to find that true love that we can get a decent band name out of. I, for example, yearn to marry Ms. Conquest so our eventual band can be “The Norman Conquest”…
Ahem.
Blackmore’s Night is described by Wikipedia as a Folk Rock and Medieval Rock band. While they still use instruments like electric guitars and synthesisers, their songs are predominantly actual traditional folk songs, done in the style of traditional folk songs, or set to the music of traditional folk songs — Locked Within the Crystal Ball uses the melody of the medieval Spanish pilgrim song Stella Splendens.
They’ve got a lot of lyrics about castles and mythology and magic and mysticism — and that sounds way too dismissive, because that kind of the thing is absolutely my jam.
As you might expect from a Fantasy author…
And that brings us to Loreley…
From Blackmore’s Night’s 2003 album Ghost of a Rose — not to be confused with Seal‘s (himself not be confused with the aquatic mammal…) Batman-adjacent masterpiece Kiss from a Rose — Lorelei relates the folk tale about the Loreley.
Also spelled “Lorelei” depending on language/translation, the Loreley is a big rock jutting out the Rhine. The name is German for something like “whispering rock” and over the centuries, the rock itself has become associated with the legend of a alluring water spirit who lives on the rock, enticing sailors and causing them to wreck against the rock. The Lorelei spirit is almost literally one of Wagner‘s Rhinemaidens (link probably NSFW; Rhinemaidens are apparently allergic to clothing…), think “Freshwater Mermaid”.
And this all bears out in the lyrics of the song:
“You would not believe your eyes, how a voice could hypnotize
Lyrics via Musixmatch.
Promises are only lies from Loreley
In a shade of mossy green, seashell in her hand
She was born the river queen, ne’er to grace the land.”
And, like, a lot of Folk Songs, it starts feeling a lot darker when you actually listen to it…
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