The sense of grief in ‘I Am Stretched on Your Grave’ is overwhelming, says the Scullion singer
Having Sinéad O’Connor sing one of your songs was a privilege. Photo: Michel Linssen/Redferns)
The wind is howling around the slopes of Sliabh an Iolair in the west Kerry Gaeltacht, as Philip King reflects on probably his most famous and enduring song, I Am Stretched on Your Grave – a lament he wrote in 1979 for his band Scullion.
The song was inspired by an old Irish poem about a man who cannot bear life without his one true love and lies bereft on her grave from morning to night, hoping she will return to him.