100 Greatest Songs of the 00’s #51 Vashti Bunyan – If I Were

Released: 2005

If you want a more detailed insight into Vashti Bunyan’s early career, Rob Young’s spellbinding book on the genesis of British folk Electric Eden is the ultimate companion. Even her name seemed to come from another world, that of a Persian queen, although reality did bite later when having gained a place at Oxford in 1964 she was summarily thrown out for participating in the illusion of attending lectures.

But abridgement is sorely needed. Bunyan subsequently met Donavan, before dropping out and taking a two year trip in a gypsy caravan to the Scottish Hebrides with her partner, recording an album about their experiences Just Another Diamond Day. In a direct parallel with Nick Drake it flopped and she withdrew from public life. Over time – again, like Drake – opinion was revised, and now an original copy of ..Diamond Day will cost you near enough two thousand pounds.

After a reissue in 2000 to little short of raptures and having had a career truncated much like that of Shirley Collins, Bunyan returned to music just as the spirit of folk began to regain popular strength. In 2005 she released Lookaftering, and it was as if time had stood still, an audacious concept at a point where contemporary music was equal parts plastic and spunk.

With guest appearances from the likes of Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom and Max Richter amongst many, Lookaftering was sublime and captivating, utterly against any grain. If I Were was an anti-love song, a study in diffidence with mellotron and harp in conjuration and Bunyan’s voice coming from Summerisle. There’s so much more story here to explore. But this song can do just as much of the telling.