What's with "Scarborough Fair"?

[gregh]

I just kind of noticed, playing another arrangement of "Scarborough Fair", that it sounds like The Land of Lost Souls. Why does a song about a fair sound so lonely and forlorn?

[ianw]

The song's theme is really about lost love and revenge rather than the fair itself. It also seems  that the Scarborough Fair of medieval times involved a lot less hot dogs and candy floss than you might have hoped for, and a lot more parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. I mean a LOT more. Enough to make anyone forlorn.