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Blackening
I Once Loved A Lass (Orkney Blackening)
The following images are video still-frames showing Orcadian weddings and blackenings taking place around the Merkit Cross and St Magnus Cathedral on Broad Street in Kirkwall. These events feature in a forthcoming music video produced for Sikkersnapper – an arrangement of the ancient ballad I Once Loved A Lass (aka The False Bride). The video will be released to coincide with the song release on all major music streaming platforms on the 1st of September 2023.
Sikkersnapper – I Once Loved A Lass Orkney Blackening St Magnus Cathedral
Sikkersnapper – I Once Loved A Lass Orkney Blackening music video still-frame showing part of St Magnus Cathedral mirrored and superimposed against a paint texture.
Sikkersnapper – I Once Loved A Lass Orkney Blackening
Sikkersnapper – I Once Loved A Lass Orkney Blackening music video still-frame showing a woman waving a stick on the back of a flatbed truck carrying a Blackening party covered in treacle and feathers.
I Once Loved A Lass Orkney Blackening brawl
Sikkersnapper – I Once Loved A Lass (Orkney Blackening) video still-frame showing 2 men from a blackening wrestling on the Kirk green infront of St Magnus Cathedral while baffled tourists watch.
Sikkersnapper – I Once Loved A Lass Orkney Blackening wedding party.
Sikkersnapper – I Once Loved A Lass (Orkney Blackening) music video still-frame showing wedding guests entering St Magnus Cathedral. One man in a suit strides out of the shot.
I Once Loved A Lass Orkney Blackening flatbed truck
Sikkersnapper – I Once Loved A Lass Orkney Blackening music video still-frame showing a strawberry superimposed on a mirror image of a Blackening party on the back of a flatbed truck.
Sikkersnapper – I Once Loved A Lass Orkney Blackening glass darkly.
Sikkersnapper – I Once Loved A Lass Orkney Blackening music video still-frame showing an abstract image composed of black and white mirrored seaweed footage.
The music video is inspired by the song lyrics, which include some evocative imagery and ask possibly the oldest riddle recorded in the English language:
“The men o’ yon forest
They askit o’ me
How many strawberries grow in the saut sea?
I askit ’em back
Wi’ a tear in my e’e
How many ships sail in the forest?”
I Once Loved A Lass (traditional)
I Once Loved A Lass is an unhappy love song about a man who must watch as the woman he loves marries another. A blackening is a pre-wedding Scottish custom in which a bride or groom are “tarred and feathered” and paraded through the streets in the back of a flatbed truck, before being tied up and publicly humiliated (usually far from sober). In Summer, people banging the sides of a flatbed truck is a very common sound in Kirkwall.
Sikkersnapper‘s version of the ballad is currently available to listen to on Bandcamp. Spotify, Apple Music, etc. will follow on the 1st of September.
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