I've always thought Death Comes to Town is a bit of an oddball, lyrically speaking. It doesn't really fit with the tortured relationship laments of the Freaks/Separations period, or the more observational/sexy stuff that came along later. Then someone mentioned to me the other day that it's clearly a retelling of the Death and the Maiden story, which to my shame I'd never heard of. However, it's apparently been a well-known motif in art and music for hundreds of years, its best-known manifestations being in paintings by Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele, and in a folk song (better known as Death and the Lady) that's been done by countless people, as folk songs generally are. The premise of both is a young girl being seduced by the Grim Reaper, and then dying (of course).

The best-known recording of the song that young Jarvis might have heard is probably the one by Shirley and Dolly Collins, from 1970:

As I walked out one morn in May
The birds did sing and the lambs did play,
The birds did sing and the lambs did play;
I met an old man,
I met an old man by the way.

His head was bald, his beard was grey,
His coat was of a myrtle shade,
I asked him what strange countryman,
Or what strange place,
Or what strange place he did belong.

My name is Death, cannot you see?
Lords, Dukes and Ladies bow down to me.
And you are one of those branches three,
And you fair maid,
And you fair maid must come with me.

I'll give you gold and jewels rare,
I'll give you costly robes to wear,
I'll give you all my wealth in store,
If you'll let me live,
If you'll let me live a few years more.

Fair lady, lay your robes aside,
No longer glory in your pride.
And now, sweet maid, make no delay,
Your time is come,
Your time is come and you must away.

And not long after this fair maid died;
Write on my tomb, the lady cried,
Here lies a poor distressed maid,
Whom Death now lately,
Whom Death now lately hath betrayed.

Obviously it couldn't be said to be the same song, but I think the premise is unmistakeable. There's also the fact that (according to Steven Havenhand) DCTT was apparently first used in a one-off stage piece at the Leadmill about Death coming to Sheffield.

Anyone got any thoughts?