Alone Maids Do Stray

from Never So Red by Frankie Archer

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about

cw: rape

This is a difficult song for me to perform and to share as it deals upfront with sexual violence. It’s a very sensitive topic and I thought long and hard about whether I should perform and release it. The last thing I want to do is cause harm to people. I researched a lot, I read the words of people who have experienced sexual violence, and considered the context of the song and what I want to say.

Alone Maids Do Stray is the only written-from-scratch song on the EP. I made it sound very traditional so that fans of English folk music can have a different perspective on the songs they will have listened to. In English traditional music, there’s a common narrative that goes like this: a man goes out roving, normally on a morning in May, he spies a fair young maiden, and basically wants to have sex with her. In most of these types of songs, this does happen, but how it happens is shrouded in ambiguity and metaphor. In many of these cases I’d say it’s rape, but it’s never called that. Using deflective, flowery language and glossing over rape makes it impossible to call it out. It’s condoning male violence through wilful ignorance or prudishness, and often the people who don’t want it to be discussed are those who aren’t victims of it, but would rather be ignorant of it because it’s seen as a bit ugly. They ignore it because they can.

This could be especially true when we’re talking about the world of folk music, which we can be guilty of seeing as an idyllic, rose-tinted simpler time, a purer time full of fresh air and fair maidens. It’s easy to get swept up in this imagined time and forget that real people had real experiences then, just like now.

lyrics

cw: rape

As I rode out one morning in May
I spied a pretty fair maid, alone she did stray
A finer young maiden I never did see
I bid her good morning come wander with me

Kind Sir I can see your robes they are grand
The gloves are costly that cover your hands
I'm a poor young maiden whose status is low
So not to insult you my answer is no

I care not for riches or kings in their courts
I seek to lie with you by persuasion or force
I drew up to the maiden so fair and so fine
Your lily-white body it soon will be mine

I took her by the hand and the middle so small
I laid her down in the rushes so tall
I raped her in the green bush that morning in May
These things they can happen when alone maids do stray

credits

from Never So Red, released November 3, 2023
Written by Frankie Archer
Recorded and produced by Frankie Archer and Jim Moray
Mixed by Jim Moray
Mastered by Piper Payne
Artwork by Frankie Archer
Supported by Help Musicians

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Frankie Archer Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

electrofolk 🪩🎻 pre-order Never So Red EP

Frankie Archer is fresh on the scene and shaking up genres and traditions, sharing the lesser told sides of stories, championing women, challenging perspectives and calling for a fairer future, all to a unique mix of synths, manipulated samples, drum tracks and earthy Northumbrian fiddle and voice. ... more

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