Lady In Black

From the liner notes of the Salisbury LP: "Lady in Black, written early in November in Bradford, was inspired by the vision of an unknown girl."

In Cheltenham, England, about 20 people saw a mysterious "Lady In Black" in the years 1882 to 1889. In Texas a story is told that the lady in black was the wife of a rich man from Spain that was hung one day. Since that day, her ghost visits the area near Highway 281 in Alice, Texas. Many drivers reported that they have seen a mysterious woman, a lady in black.

In his interview with Songfacts, the song's writer, Ken Hensley, addressed the question about the real-life experience that inspired this song. "It's true, I did see this young lady and she was dressed in black and her hair was blowing around in the 'mid-winter wind,'" said Hensley. "But she wasn't 'coming to me,' she was just walking up the street outside of my hotel in northwest England during a tour. I just picked up my guitar and let my over-active imagination run with this vision and, as is often the case, let the lyric go wherever it wanted to go."