"Fleance" and Chaucer's "Merciless Beauty".

The music of  "Fleance" - track included on "Music from Macbeth" - was composed by Denim Bridges during the sessions for the album.

Despite the fans' appreciation, as the same Bridges admitted on an e-mail sent to me on May 2011, "Glen and Paul hated that track because it didn't fit in with TEB concept". For myself, they was right...

Anyway the track, as we know, was sung by a very young Keith Chegwin with the lyrics based on a rondel poem written by the famous English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400, a bio from Encyclopaedia Britannica at http://www.biography.com/people/geoffrey-chaucer-9245691?page=1) - titled "Merciless Beauty".

These are the track's lyrics:

"Oh your two eyes will slay me suddenly
I may the beauty of them not sustain
so pierced is throughout my heart keen
unless your words will heal me hastily
my heart's wound while that it is green
oh your two eyes will slay me suddenly
upon my troth I tell you faithfully
that you are of my Life and Death the Queen
and with my Death the Truth be seen
oh your two eyes will slay me suddenly
I may the beauty of them not sustain
so pierced is throughout my heart keen
so hath your beauty from my heart chased
Pity that it avails not to complain
for Pride doth hold your Mercy in its chain
guiltless my death hath ye purchased
I say you sooth there is no need to feign
so hath your beauty from my heart chased
alas that Nature hath in your embrace
beauty so great that no man may attain
to Mercy though he starve for pain". 

Of course, this version is just a modern English adaptation of the original Middle Age one, that was this (note that the section used by Bridges for the track, probably provided to him by filmaker Polanski, is highlighted in red):

MERCILES BEAUTE

1. CAPTIVITY

"Your eyen two wol slee me sodenly,

I may the beaute of hem not sustene,

So woundeth hit through-out my herte kene.

And but your word wol helen hastily

My hertes wounde, whyl that hit is grene,

Your eyen two wol slee me sodenly,

I may the beaute of hem not sustene.

Upon my trouthe I sey yow feithfully,

That ye ben of my lyf and deeth the quene;

For with my deeth the trouthe shal be sene.

Your eyen two wol slee me sodenly,

I may the beaute of hem not sustene,

So woundeth hit through-out my herte kene.

2. REJECTION

So hath your beaute fro your herte chaced

Pitee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne;

For Daunger halt your mercy in his cheyne.

Giltles my deeth thus han ye me purchaced;

I sey yow sooth, me nedeth not to feyne;

So hath your beaute fro your herte chaced

Pitee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne.

Allas! that nature hath in yow compassed

So greet beaute, that no man may atteyne

To mercy, though he sterve for the peyne.

So hath your beaute fro your herte chaced

Pitee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne;

For Daunger halt your mercy in his cheyne.

3. ESCAPE

Sin I fro Love escaped am so fat,

I never thenk to ben in his prison lene;

Sin I am free, I counte him not a bene.

He may answere, and seye this or that;

I do no fors, I speke right as I mene.

Sin I fro Love escaped am so fat,

I never thenk to ben in his prison lene.

Love hath my name y-strike out of his sclat,

And he is strike out of my bokes clene

For ever-mo; ther is non other mene.

Sin I fro Love escaped am so fat,

I never thenk to ben in his prison lene;

Sin I am free, I counte him not a bene".

There're no proofs that the band played the song at live concerts, but a radio broadcast is documented on March 21th, 1972 during the radio programme "Drummond" (titled "Fleance's Song"): the TEB line-up was probably the same of the album...

The band appearance on the Polanski's movie (photo c0urtesy of TEB Facebook fan page): (L-R) Minns, Coff, Sweeney, Buckmaster and Bridges.

Just two anedocts to end: "Fleance", the only track with lyrics in the TEB first phase, was one of the Sex Pistols' John Lydon favourite as declared during a 1977 interview with Tommy Vance (read at http://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2010/03/johnny-rotten-selected-third-ear-bands.html). Just recently, reader Timothy Sommer has confirmed me by e-mail: "During the 1990s, I was friends with John Lydon... He made a point of buying me some TEB albums, and explaining to me that it was one of his favorite bands and a huge influence on him...". A quite incredible thing, you know, considering how much distant is the (great) Sex Pistols music from the TEB's one...

About Keith Chegwin (his personal Web site at http://www.keithchegwin.com/), at that time 14, I've discovered in the Net that he told about the "Macbeth" recording sessions during an interview:

How the hell as a 14-year old from Bootle do you end up in a Roman Polanski Shakespeare production?
"Well it was weird; I mean, to go back even further, as a rough synopsis, I used – when I was eight years of age – to be a great fan of Des O’Connor. And I used to emulate him by coming out from behind the sofa singing Des O’Connor songs".
And what was it like working with Polanski?
"Well, Roman Polanski, great film director, they’d say “He not turn up today”. That’s all we ever heard. I was booked to work on it for six weeks, and ended up working on it for six months!".
Just because he didn’t turn up?
"Just because he didn’t turn up. Or he’d turn up and go “I feel ill, I go home”".
Were you paid per day? 
"Yes, paid per day! The Evening Standard wrote an article, I’ll always remember, called The Gobstopper Millionaire, because of the money in those days…".
 

                             "Fleance" by the Third Ear Band (1972)

Apart "Fleance", a real hit song in TEB repertoire,  for myself the "Macbeth" soundtrack is a really treasure of sounds and moods, a spectacular pagan mass of blood, death and sublime...

no©2011 Luca Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)