The haunting charms of ‘The Long Black Veil’ have proved irresistible to many of the world’s leading musicians for more than 50 years. They include Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, The Band, Nick Cave, Mick Jagger and the Dave Matthews Band, while many others, such as Bruce Springsteen, have included it in their concert repertoire. That such fine songwriters chose to record this American murder ballad speaks of its calibre, as does its longevity.
The appeal of ‘The Long Black Veil’ lies in its memorable melody and chorus, and lyrics that tell a compelling story from an unusual perspective. It is related from the grave by a man who was hanged for a murder he did not commit. He could have saved himself but chose not to because his alibi carried a terrible price: ‘I’d been in the arms of my best friend’s wife.’ Death, rather than dishonour for his lover and himself, was his choice. The chorus tells how, ten years on, his grieving lover, wearing a long black veil, still visits his grave ‘where the night winds wail’.
The lyrics are masterfully economic yet vivid, the tale unfolding like a film in a mere three verses and chorus. The song was composed in the late 1950s, but evokes an America long past. Its lyricist Danny Dill said he wanted to produce ‘an instant folk song’, somewhat in the style of Burl Ives, who later recorded it. One of Dill’s inspirations was a newspaper story about a mysterious woman who, wearing a black veil, repeatedly visited the grave of film star Rudolph Valentino.
Dill’s co-writer was, like him, a southern singer-songwriter, Marijohn Wilkin, whose life was itself the stuff of a country song. Her first husband was killed in the Second World War, and two broken marriages and alcoholism followed, only for her eventually to find redemption in religion. This latter phase of Wilkin’s life inspired her to compose the hit song ‘One Day at a Time’ with Kris Kristofferson.
‘The Long Black Veil’ was first recorded in 1959, by the honky-tonk singer Lefty Frizzell, who applied his rich baritone drawl to a standard, hopalong country tempo. It proved an immediate hit in the country charts.
The song’s greatest champion, however, was Johnny Cash, who recorded it on his 1965 Orange Blossom Special album and his At Folsom Prison live record three years later. He also included it on a list of what he called ‘100 Essential Country Songs’ that he compiled for his teenage daughter Rosanne in 1973, when she was embarking on life as a professional musician. ‘This is your education,’ he told her. When Rosanne decided to make her 2009 album, called The List, for which she selected 12 songs from her father’s favoured 100, she included ‘The Long Black Veil’.
It is no surprise that the song’s darker qualities attracted the Man in Black, and it was also a predictable choice for The Band on their 1968 debut album, Music from the Big Pink. Their own compositions often conjured up a mythic American past, and this song slotted perfectly into the genre.
Perhaps the most radical rendition came from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in 1986. They gave it a bluesy, eerie feel and Cave’s voice wails and moans like the cold night winds in Dill’s lyrics. Nine years later came one of the most atmospheric versions when the Irish folk band The Chieftains made it the title track of a collection of collaborations with rock stars. They asked Mick Jagger to perform the vocal, and the result is a majestic, slower interpretation, with Jagger delivering a fine blend of country and Celtic vocal styles. Dave Matthews gave it a rockier stamp in 1999, and versions have kept coming since. This ballad of a man who decides to pay the ultimate price for his sin of betrayal seems destined to captivate for years to come.
Charles Morris