Death and the Lady – Waterson:Carthy [Traditional Folk Song with Score and Video]

[ Roud 1031 ; Ballad Index ShH22 ; VWML COL/5/29 , COL/5/28 , CJS2/9/1158 ; Bodleian Roud 1031 ; Wiltshire 288 , 776 ; trad.] “The first writings of it were in the 17th Century, but Martin and I think it goes back much further to the Black Death. The plague made people realise that death was coming, and people tried to buy their way into heaven and buy more time for themselves on Earth. The song used to be much longer, with each verse a conversation between Death and the lady.” - Paraphrased from Norma Waterson’s introduction to the song (go to 3:40) Waterson:Carthy sang Death and the Lady on their fourth album, A Dark Light (2002). Martin Carthy noted: “Norma learned Death and the Lady from [the Cecil Sharp collection One Hundred English Folksongs (1916)]. It's a dark song here and she did what was second nature to the Watersons in their heyday, transforming the tune by altering just a couple of notes.” The entire book, along with Cecil Sharp’s arrangement of this song, can be accessed for free via IMSLP (page 52). Waterson:Carthy studio recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpJDwa5e07E Shirley Collins' version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKTWxI_DJOE More information: https://mainlynorfolk.info/shirley.collins/songs/deathandthelady.html This score was created for the purposes of this video. All scores are transcribed by ear onto Sibelius software. For copyright reasons, these videos will not be monetized. Subscribe for more folk transcriptions and comment any suggestions of songs you'd like to see!

Added 16 Sept 2026