Jan Gillies - Cuckoo

A traditional old English ballad, thought to be several hundred years old, this song has changed much over the centuries but still speaks to the universal experience of loss and regret. I learned this version in the 1960s, and it has stuck with me ever since. As a naturalist and biologist, I find it interesting that the actual cuckoo bird is notorious for killing the eggs of other species, leaving its own eggs for the original nest builder to inadvertently hatch and raise as its own.