A Vampire Weekend Japanese Bonus Track Features Jude Law Reading An Old Scottish Poem

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Today, Vampire Weekend released the Japanese version of Father Of The Bride, and it features a trio of region-exclusive bonus tracks: “Houston, Dubai,” “I Don’t Think Much About Her No More,” and “Lord Ullin’s Daughter.” Most notable of them all is that last one, as it features Jude Law reading a centuries-old poem of the same name, written by Scottish poet Thomas Campbell. Ezra Koenig revealed in an episode of his Time Crisis show on Apple Radio that “Lord Ullin’s Daughter” is “a radical reconfiguration” of Father Of The Bride track “Big Blue.”

The connection between Vampire Weekend and Jude Law isn’t as random as it may seem, as Law voiced a character in Koenig’s animated Netflix series Neo Yokio, and Koenig previously said of working with Law:

“I had met Jude before — he’d been to a Vampire Weekend show, and I had went out to a bar with him and some other people — so I think that helped. It wasn’t a fully cold call. Obviously, he is a movie star but he’s also a pretty idiosyncratic, interesting guy. He has picked a lot of unusual roles. Also, with animation, the time commitment isn’t crazy, so he popped in here and there. Almost the whole time we were recording, he was in Italy making The Young Pope, so any time we recorded him it was like 4 a.m. in LA. So I’d set my alarm, wake up, have a cup of coffee, get on Skype, and sit in my bathrobe talking to Jude.

Since he’s a serious actor, I wondered if the recording sessions with him would be super serious. But then we’d be like, ‘Hey, would you be down to try any other roles besides the butler?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah sure, what kind of accent?’ ‘Can you do an American accent?’ ‘I haven’t done an American accent in a while, let me try.’ The Talented Mr. Ripley is one of my favorite movies of all time, so I was like, ‘Maybe you can do your American voice from Talented Mr. Ripley.’ And he’s like, ‘That’s a good idea.’ Then he started to remember the role and was saying lines from that movie, and I was like, ‘This is sick.’ He’s such a cool dude.”

Read Campbell’s poem “Lord Ullin’s Daughter” below.

“A Chieftain, to the Highlands bound,
Cries, ‘Boatman, do not tarry!
And I ‘ll give thee a silver pound,
To row us o’er the ferry.’

‘Now who be ye, would cross Lochgyle
This dark and stormy water?’
‘O, I ‘m the chief of Ulva’s isle,
And this Lord Ullin’s daughter.

‘And fast before her father’s men
Three days we ‘ve fled together,
For should he find us in the glen,
My blood would stain the heather.

‘His horsemen hard behind us ride;
Should they our steps discover,
Then who will cheer my bonny bride
When they have slain her lover?’

Out spoke the hardy Highland wight,
‘I ‘ll go, my chief,–I ‘m ready:–
It is not for your silver bright;
But for your winsome lady:

‘And by my word! the bonny bird
In danger shall not tarry:
So, though the waves are raging white,
I ‘ll row you o’er the ferry.’

By this the storm grew loud apace,
The water-wraith was shrieking;
And in the scowl of heaven each face
Grew dark as they were speaking.

But still as wilder grew the wind,
And as the night grew drearer,
Adown the glen rode armèd men,
Their trampling sounded nearer.

‘O, haste thee, haste!’ the lady cries,
‘Though tempests round us gather;
I ‘ll meet the raging of the skies,
But not an angry father.’

The boat has left a stormy land,
A stormy sea before her,–
When, O, too strong for human hand,
The tempest gathered o’er her.

And still they rowed amidst the roar
Of waters fast prevailing:
Lord Ullin reached that fatal shore,
His wrath was changed to wailing.

For sore dismayed, through storm and shade,
His child he did discover:
One lovely hand she stretched for aid,
And one was round her lover.

‘Come back! come back!’ he cried in grief,
‘Across this stormy water:
And I ‘ll forgive your Highland chief,
My daughter!–O my daughter!’

‘T was vain;–the loud waves lashed the shore,
Return or aid preventing;
The waters wild went o’er his child,
And he was left lamenting.”

Father Of The Bride is out now via Columbia. Get it here.

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