Icarus

Tonight I found a song that has haunted me for nearly twenty-five years: Anne Lister's "Icarus", as sung by Martin Simpson.

I heard it only once, in a live performance on a radio program, and yet it affected me so powerfully that it has stayed with me all these years. Though I could remember only the title and a line and a half of the song itself, I've tried repeatedly to find out who the singer was and hear it again, and failed each time. (There are, it seems, a lot of songs called "Icarus".)

Until today.

I'm listening to the rest of Simpson's album Bootleg USA right now. It's really good.

Here's a link to a YouTube version of the song.