Shire of the Northern Outpost Songbook

DEDICATION

The original Shire of the Northern Outpost Songbook was compiled by the late Lord Thomas MacSeamus, a.k.a. Tom the Tinker, a.k.a. Seamus, a.k.a. Tom Daunt. When I heard that there were no more known copies of this on disk available to the Shire, I set out to do something about it!

This contains all but one of the songs that were in the original songbook (I know, because I helped and I have the first printed copy!) with very little editing. I changed a few spelling errors, and added some missing words. I have added additional songs, since I had already planned to type them out for myself.

Thomas was a wonderful person and one of my dearest friends, and I still miss him enough to cry about it sometimes. I hope that by helping to keep the songbook tradition alive, a spark of him will remain in the Shire for years to come.

Away with us he's going,

The solemn-eyed:

He'll hear no more the lowing

Of the calves on the warm hillside

Or the kettle on the hob

Sing peace into his breast,

Or see the brown mice bob

Round and round the oatmeal chest.

For he comes, the human child,

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand,

From a world more full of weeping than he can

understand.

 

W.B. Yeats

 

SnS

AFTER HOURS

ALAS MY LOVE

ALL THE FINE YOUNG MEN

ANOTHER DAMNED PENNSIC SONG

ARTHUR MCBRIDE

BABYLON IS FALLING

BANNED FROM ARGO

BANKS OF CLAUDY

THE BANKS OF RED ROSES

BARRETT'S PRIVATEERS

BEGGARS TO GOD

BELLE QUI

BERSERKER

BLACK-EYED SUSAN

THE BLACKBIRD

BLACKSMITH

BLOW THE CANDLE OUT

BLUENOSE

THE BONNIE SHIP THE DIAMOND

BOOZING

BORDERLAND

THE BOUNTY HUNTER

BOYS OF BEDLAM

BRING ME A STAR

BULLY IN THE ALLEY

CARRIGHFERGUS

CATALAN VENGEANCE

CELTIC ELVIS

THE CHALLENGER

CHASTITY BELT

CHICKASAW MOUNTAIN

THE CHILL EASTERN WINDS

CIRCLE THE MOON

COME BY THE HILLS

THE CRUEL SISTER

CRUISER DREAMINGS

CURSUM PERFICIO

DANCE WITH ME

DANCING AT WHITSUN

DARK EYED MOLLY

THE DEAR GREEN PLACE

THE DEMON LOVER

DEMON LOVER

DENBRAE

DINNY THE PIPER

DOCTOR FREUD

DO YOU LOVE AN APPLE

DUMB AS DIRT

THE EARTH'S FIRE BREATHING DAUGHTER

THE ELFIN KNIGHT'S RIDDLE

ELMA TURL

THE ENFOLDING

EUMENIDES

EVENING FALLS

EXILE

F.A.P.

FAIR ELEANOR

THE FANAID GROVE

FAREWEEL TAE TARWATHIE

FAREWELL TO NOVA SCOTIA

FERRYMAN

FINAL TRAWL

FISHERMAN'S WHARF

FOREVER AUTUMN

FORTY-FIVE YEARS

FOR THE HONOR OF THE EAST

THE FOUR LETTER WORDS

FOUR NIGHTS DRUNK

GATHERING PACE

GAELIC BLESSING

GAUDETE

GIANT

GIL-SHALLOS

GOD BLESS COWBOYS

GOD BLESS THE HUMAN ELBOW

GOD IF I SAW HER NOW

GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN

GOLDEN EYES

GOLDEN, GOLDEN

GOODBYE MY LOVE

THE GOOD OLD WAY

THE GREEN MIST

GREENSLEVES

GYPSY SONG

HAAKON GOT RUN OVER BY A SHEILD WALL

HALLELUJAH! (THE GREAT STORM IS OVER)

HALLOW'S DIRGE

HARD TIMES COME AGAIN NO MORE

HARRIS AND THE MARE

HARVEST DANCE

HEART OF THE HOME

HELEN OF KIRKCONNEL

THE HIGHWAYMAN

THE HONOUR OF VISSIVALD SELKIRKSSON

THE HOUSE OF ORANGE

HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING

THE HUMOURS OF WHISKY

HYMN TO THE NIGHT MARE

I LIVE NOT WHERE I LOVE

INFIDELS

JACK HAGGERTY

JACK THE SLOB AND THE GODDESS OF LOVE

THE JEANNIE C

JENNY BRYCE

JIREL OF JOREY

JOHN BARLEYCORN

JOHN MONROE

KELLSWATER

KENTUCKY SONG

KEROWYN'S RIDE

KING HENRY

KING HENRY

LADY OF THE LAKE

LADY'S BRANSLE

THE LAIRD O' ELVEN

LAMMAS NIGHT

LAND OF'THE LEAL

THE LARGE, DARK AARDVARK SONG

THE LAST LEVIATHAN

LAY DOWN YOUR BURDEN

LET HER GO DOWN

LIES

LITTLE FUZZY ANIMALS

LITTLE SIR HUGH

LOCK KEEPER

THE LONG SHIPS

LONGBONE

LOOT

LORD OF THE DANCE

LORD OF THE DANCE

LOVER'S HEART

LUCIFER

LUGHNASAD DANCE

LULLABY

LUNAR TWILIGHT

MAID IN BEDLAM

THE MAID ON THE ROAD

MAID ON THE SHORE

THE MARY ELLEN CARTER

McINTYRE

MEDIC

MERLIN'S TIME

MISCONCEPTIONS

MONTROSE

MOOSE

MOUNT TAM

MY FEET ARE SET FOR DANCING

MY GEORDI

MY HELM HAS FELT THE POUNDING

MY HUSBAND'S GOT NO COURAGE IN HIM

MY JOHNNIE WAS A SHOEMAKER

NELL FLAHERTY'S DRAKE

NEVER SET THE CAT ON FIRE

NO MORE SONGS

NORTHWEST PASSAGE

O'DONNELL ABU

OCEAN GYPSY

OF CABBAGES

OLD TIME RELIGION

OH NO, NOT I

ON LADY DAY

THE OUTSIDE TRACK

THE PARISH OF DUNKELD

PHEONIX

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS

PHREEDMERE'S SONG

THE PICT SONG

POOR OLD MARAT

PRETTY SARO

PRINCE LYR'S SONG

THE PRIDE OF SHINURR

THE QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS

THE QUEEN OF ARGYLE

THE QUEST

THE RAMBLIN ROVER

THE RAVEN IS CALLING

THE RAWDON HILLS

RETURN OF THE KING

RISE UP BRIGHT SUN

ROSEBUD IN JUNE

THREE BLIND MICE ARE DEAD

CERTAINLY

THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIRGE

THE ROYAL COURT TONIGHT

ROYAL WHIMS

SCARBOROUGH SETTLER'S LAMENT

THE SCOTSMAN

SECOND EFFORT

SHE MOVED THROUGH THE FAIR

A SHEEPISH SONG

SHIP OF STONE

SIGNY MALLORY

SIMPLE GIFTS

SIRIL AGRAR

SIR JAMES THE ROSE

THE SLIPRAILS AND THE SPUR

THE SNOWS OF FRANCE AND HOLLAND

SO EARLY EARLY IN THE SPRING

SOMEBODY'S MOGGY

SONG OF MARI

THE SONG OF SCHEHERAZADE

THE YOUNG PRINCE AND PRINCESS

THE FESTIVAL

SONG OF THE SOUL

SON OF A SCOUNDREL

SONG OF THE BEAR

SONG OF THE CANDLE

SPANCIL HILL

SPANISH LADIES

A STAR IN HER SERVICE

STOLEN CHILD

THE STONE DANCE

STREETS OF LONDON

THE SUN IS ALSO A WARRIOR

THE SUN GOD

SUSANNA MARTIN

TAMLIN

THE TERROR TIME

THANKSGIVING EVE

THEY WOUNDED OLD IRELAND

THREE JOLLY BUTCHERS

THE THREE POACHERS

THREE THINGS

TRIP TO THE FAIR

TWA CORBIES

THE TWELVE DAYS OF DECADENCE

TWO MAGICIANS

UNQUIET GRAVE

THE VIKING WOMAN'S LAMENT

THE VULTURES FLY HIGH

THE WAGER

WASSAIL SONGS

APPLE TREE WASSAIL

WELCOME ROYAL CHARLIE

WESTLIN WINDS

WHEN I WAS IN MY PRIME

THE WEYHOOP

WHICH WAY THE WIND BLOWS

WHISKEY 'FORE BREAKFAST

THE WHITE COLLAR HOLLER

WHITE MAN'S RAIN CHANT

WHITE SQUALL

WHO'S THE FOOL NOW?

THE WILD GEESE

WILLIE OF WINSBURY

WIND'S FOUR QUARTERS

THE WINTRY QUEEN

THE WINTER IT IS PASSED

THE WITCH OF THE WESTMERE LANDS

WITCHES' COVEN DANCE

WOAD

WOLFE

WORMS OF THE EARTH

THE WRECK OF THE ATHENS QUEEN

YES THEY'RE REAL

ZEN GOSPEL SINGING

ZOMBIE JAMBOREE

AFTER HOURS

Charlie McGettigan

Going in through the side door,

No need to worry now, the coast is clear.

We can make a little music now, the night is ours,

And it'll sound a lot sweeter after hours.

 

Chorus:

After hours, really let your hair down.

After hours when the lights are low,

Forget about your troubles and morning blues,

Put up another round.

 

Paddy sing the song like a good man,

Sing it in your own way like only you can,

You can give it all your feelings now, the floor is yours,

And it'll sound a lot sweeter after hours.

 

Chorus

 

Out in the clear light of dawning,

Street seems so strange in the early morning.

Never heard the birds sing like this before,

And they sound a lot sweeter after hours.

Source: The Battlefield Band, On the Rise

ALAS MY LOVE

To the tune of Greensleeves

Alas, my love, you've done me dirt.

You've sewn green sleeves on my purple shirt.

And then you did me worst of all

You made me go and wear it.

 

Chorus:

Oh what a dismal fate!

To be seen at events in this dismal state!

God, how I wish that I could be late

Say, seven days after it's over.

 

Alas, my love, I've got the blues

You've sewn pink lace on my orange shoes

And then you did me worst of all

You made me go out and wear them.

This song was originally meant as a contest, with each successive person coming up with a new and more unusual verse. Try it!

Source: The Concordia Songbook

ALL THE FINE YOUNG MEN

Eric Bogle

They told all the fine young men

Of when this war is over

There will be peace,

And the peace will last forever.

In Flanders field, at Lonepine, and Barsheba

For King and country, for honor and duty

The young men fought, and cursed, and wept, and died.

 

They told all the fine young men,

Of when this war is over

In your country's grateful heart

We will cherish you forever.

At Tobruk and Alamein, at Bhuna and Kokoda

Like their fathers before, in a world mad with war

The young men fought, and cursed, and wept, and died.

 

For many fine young men

All the wars are over

They have found peace,

It's the peace that lasts forever.

When the call comes again

They will not answer

They're just forgotten bones

Lying far from their homes

As forgotten as the cause for which they died.

Ah, young men, can you see now why they lied?

Source: DeDannan, Ballroom, Green Linnet

ANOTHER DAMNED PENNSIC SONG

by the Lonely Bards of Battle Rock

Sung to the tune of "Hotel California"

On a damp Pennsic morning

Duck tape in my hair

Warm smell of my armor

Rising up through the air

 

Up ahead in the distance

I saw a shimmering knight

My sword grew heavy and my outlook grim

I had to stop for the fight.

 

There we stood on the listfield

I heard the herald's yell

I was thinking to myself,

"This could be Pennsic or this could be Hell."

 

Then she put up her hand and

Then she called out, "Oyez!"

I heard the voices from the shield wall

Thought I heard them say,

 

"Welcome to the Pennsic field of battle!

See the lovely mace. It will smash your face.

Plenty of room at the Pennsic field of battle.

You can find us here just this time of year."

 

She was vocally gifted,

Her garb was studded in gems.

She had a lot of pretty, pretty toys

That she called men.

 

See them fall on the listfield

All dripping with sweat.

Some fights you'll remember

Some fights you'll forget.

 

So I called to the herald,

"Please buy me some time.

We haven't cried out 'Hold!' here

Since A.S. 29!"

 

And still the shield wall was chanting from far away.

They shake you up in the middle of the fight

When you hear them say...

 

"Welcome to the Pennsic field of battle.

See the lovely mace. It will smash your face.

Plenty of mud on the Pennsic field of battle.

Can you hear the cries as we bruise your thighs?"

 

Banners to the ceiling

Bruises packed with ice

And she said, "We are all just personas here

With our own device."

 

In the 'castle' 's great hall

We gathered for the feast.

We stabbed it with our spoons and knives

Until our hunger ceased.

 

Last thing I remember

The king was such a bore.

I had to find the passage back

And get through the privy door.

 

"Hold," cried the herald.

"How rude can you be?

While the king is droning on

You can never leave!"

 

lute solo

ARTHUR MCBRIDE

Traditional

Oh me and my cousin, one Arthur McBride

As we went a walking down by the sea side

Do mark what followed and what did betide

Being on Christmas morning.

 

When for recreation we went for a tramp

And we met Sergeant Tucker and Corporal Bampf

And a little, wee drummer intending to camp

The day being pleasant and charming.

 

"Good morning, good morning," the Sergeant did cry.

"And the same to ye gentleman," we did reply,

Intending no harm but content to pass by

It being on Christmas morning.

 

When he says, "My fellows, if you will enlist,

It's ten guineas in gold I will place in your fist

And a crown in the bargain for to kick off the dust

And drink the King's health in the morning.

 

"For a soldier he leads a very fine life

And he always is blessed with a charming young wife.

He pays all his debts without sorrow or strife;

He always lives pleasant and charming.

 

"Oh, a soldier, he always lives decent and clean;

In the finest of clothing he is constantly seen.

While other poor fellows go dirty and mean

And sup on thin gruel in the morning."

 

"But," says Arthur, "I would not be proud of your clothes

For you've only the lend of them, as I suppose

And dare not change them one night, for you know

If you do, you'll be flogged in the morning.

 

"And although at that we are simple and free

Well we take great delight in our own company,

And we have no desire strange faces to see

Although that your offers are charming.

 

"We've no inclination to take your advice.

All hazards and dangers we dare not chance.

For you would have no scruples and you'd send us to France,

Where we would get shot without warning."

 

Said the Sergeant, "Young fellows, I'll have no such chat,

And neither will take it from slackey nor brat.

And if you insult me with talk such as that

(ARTHUR MCBRIDE cont.)

I'll cut off your heads in the morning."

 

And Arthur and I we soon took our hats

We scarce gave them time to launch out their blades

When our whacking shillelaghs came over their heads

And bade them take that as fair warning.

 

And we having no money, paid them off in cracks

And we showed no respect to the two bloody backs

Ah, we lathered them well like a pair of wet sacks

And left them for dead in the morning.

 

And the little, wee drummer we rifled his bough

And we made a football of his rowdy dow dow

Kicked it out in the tide for to rock and to roll

And bade it a tedious returning.

 

And their own rusty rapiers which hung by their sides

Well, we flew them as far as we could tae the tide

Ah, take them, oh, devils, said Arthur McBride

And temper their edge in the morning.

 

Oh me and my cousin one, Arthur McBride

As we went a walking down by the sea side

Mark what followed and what did betide

Being on Christmas morning.

Source: Donal MacCian - Warwickshire Faire

BABYLON IS FALLING

Traditional

Hail the day so long expected

Hail the year of full release

Zion's walls are now erected

And her watchmen publish peace.

 

Through the Shiloh's wide dominion

Hear the Trumpet loudly roar

Babylon is falling, is falling, is falling

Babylon is falling to rise no more.

Babylon is falling, is falling, is falling

Babylon is falling to rise no more.

 

All her merchants stand with wonder

What is this that comes to pass?

Murmuring like a distant thunder

Crying, "Oh, alas! Alas!"

 

Swell the sound ye kings and nobles

Preach to people rich and poor

Babylon is falling, is falling, is falling

Babylon is falling to rise no more.

Babylon is falling, is falling, is falling

Babylon is falling to rise no more.

Blow the trumpet in Mount Zion

Christ will come a second time

Ruling with a rod of iron

All who now as foes combine.

 

Babel's garments we've rejected

And our fellowship is o'er

Babylon is falling, is falling, is falling,

Babylon is falling to rise no more.

Babylon is falling, is falling, is falling

Babylon is falling to rise no more.

Source: Clam Chowder

BANNED FROM ARGO

(The Louisville Burglar)

When we pulled into Argo port in need of R and R

The crew set out investigating every joint and bar.

We had high expectations of their hospitality

But found out too late is wasn't geared for spacers such as we.

 

Chorus:

And we're banned from Argo, everyone;

Banned from Argo, just for having a little fun.

We spent a jolly shore leave there of just three days or four

But Argo doesn't want us anymore.

 

The captain's tastes were simple, but his methods were complex.

We found him with five partners, each of a different world and sex.

The shore police were on their way - we had no second chance -

Be beamed him up in the nick of time - and the remnants of his pants!

 

Our engineer would yield to none at putting down the brew;

He out drank seven space marines and a demolition crew.

The navigator didn't win, but he out drank almost all,

And now they've got a shuttlecraft on the roof of City Hall.

 

Our proper, cool First Officer was drugged with something green,

And hauled into an alley where he suffered something obscene.

He sobered up in Sickbay and he's none the worse for wear;

Except that he's taught the Ship computer how to swear.

 

The Head Nurse disappeared a while in the Major Dopr Bazaar,

Buying an odd green potion "guaranteed to cause Pon-Farr."

She came home with no uniform and an oddly cheerful heart

And a painful way of walking - with her feet a yard apart.

 

Our lady of Communications won a ship-wide bet

By getting into the planet's main communication's net.

Now every time someone calls up on an Argo telescreen

The flesh is there, but the clothes they wear are nowhere to be seen.

 

Our Doctor loves humanity, his private life is quiet.

The shore police arrested him for inciting whores to riot.

We found him in the city jail, locked on and beamed him free -

Intact except for hickeys and six kinds of V.D.

 

Our helmsman loves exotic plants; the plants all love him too;

He took some down on leave with him, and we wondered what they'd do

'Til the planetary governor called and swore upon his life

That a gang of plants entwined his house and then seduced his wife.

 

A gang of pirates landed and nobody seemed to care.

They stomped into the nearest bar to announce that they were there.

Half our crew was busy therein and invited them to play

But the pirates only looked at us, and turned and ran away.

 

Our crew is Starfleet's finest, and our record is our pride

And when we play we tend to leave a trail a mile wide.

We're sorry about the wreckage and the riots and the fuss;

At least we're sure that planet won't be quick forgetting us!

BANKS OF CLAUDY

Traditional

As I walked out one morning all in the month of May

Down by a flowery garden I carelessly did stray

 

I overheard a young maid in sorrow did complain

All for her absent lover who plows the raging main

I boldly stepped up to her and put her in surprise

I know she did not know me, I being in disguise

 

I says, "Me charming creature, my joy, my heart's delight

How far have you to travel this dark and dreary night?"

 

"I'm in search of a faithless young man, Johnny is his name.

And along the Banks of Claudy I'm told he does remain."

 

"This is the Banks of Claudy, fair maid, where you stand.

But don't depend on Johnny for he's a false young man.

 

"Oh don't depend on Johnny for he'll not meet you here.

But tarry with me in yon green woods. No danger need you fear.

 

"Oh, it's six long weeks or better since Johnny left the shore.

He's crossing the wild ocean where the foam and billows roar.

 

"He's crossing the wild ocean for honour and for fame.

But this I've found, his ship was wrecked all on the coast of Spain."

 

Oh it's when she heard this dreadful news she flew into despair

By the wringing of her milk white hands and the tearing of her hair.

 

Saying, "If Johnny he is drowned, no man on earth I'll take.

But through the lonesome groves and valleys I'll wander for his sake."

 

Oh it's when he saw her loyalty no longer could he stand.

He flew into her arms, saying, "Betsy, I'm the man."

 

Saying, "Betsy, I'm the young man, the cause of all your pain

But since we've met on Claudy Banks we'll never part again."

Source: Loreena McKennitt, Elemental, Quinlan Road

THE BANKS OF RED ROSES

When I was a wee thing and easy led astray,

Before I would work I would rather sport and play,

Before I would work I would rather sport and play

Wi' my Johnnie on the banks o' red roses.

 

On the banks o' red roses my love and I sat down.

He took out his tuning bow to play his love a tune.

In the middle o' the tune, his love broke down and cried,

"Oh, my Johnnie, oh, my Johnnie dinna leave me."

He took out his pocket knife, and it was long and sharp,

And he pierced it through and through his bonnie lassie's heart

And he left lying low among the roses.

Source: DeDannan, The Best of DeDannan, Shanachie

BARRETT'S PRIVATEERS

Stan Rogers

 

Oh the year was 1778

(How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now!)

A letter of marque came from the King

To the scummiest vessel I've ever seen

(God damn them all!)

 

Chorus:

I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold

We'd fire no guns; shed no tears.

Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier,

The last of Barrett's Privateers.

 

Oh, Elcid Barrett cried the town...

For twenty brave men, all fishermen who

Would make for him the Antelope's crew...

 

The Antelope sloop was a sickening sight...

She'd a list to her port and her sails in rags,

And the cook in the scuppers with the staggers and jags...

 

On the King's birthday we put to sea...

We were twenty one days to Montego Bay,

Pumping like madmen all the way...

 

On the ninety-sixth day we sailed again...

When a bloody great Yankee hove on sight

With our cracked four pounders we made to fight...

 

The Yankee lay low down with gold...

She was broad and fat and loose in stays

And to catch her took the Antelope two whole days...

 

Then at length we stood two cables away...

Our cracked four pounders made an awful din

But with one fat ball the Yank stove us in...

 

The Antelope shook and pitched on her side...

Barrett was smashed like a bowl of eggs

And the main truck carried off both me legs...

 

So here I lay in my twenty-third year...

It's been six years since we sailed away

And I just made Halifax yesterday...

Source: Stan Rogers, Fogarty's Cove, Fogarty's Cove

BEGGARS TO GOD

Traditional?

The song of Gypsy Davie rang delighted through the night.

The wise and foolish virgin kept her candle burning bright.

Rise up my young and foolish one and follow if you can,

There'll be no need for candles in the arms of such a man.

 

Chorus:

Make love to each other,

Be free with each other,

Be prisoners of love

'Til you lie in the sod.

Be friends with each other,

Forgive one another,

See God in each other,

Be beggars to God.

 

The night was dark and cold and wet as they wandered on alone.

The sky became their canopy, and the earth became their throne.

And as their raiment turned to rags they thought is nothing wrong

For earth and sky are robe enough when you sing the gypsy song.

 

Chorus

 

They sang and played the gypsy song wherever they were sent

To some it seemed a dancing tune, to some a sad lament.

But in every heart that heard the two, their tear became a smile

And the pauper or the prince became the gypsy for a while.

Chorus X 2

BELLE QUI

Belle qui tiens ma vie Captive dans tes yeulx,

Qui m'as l'ame ravie D'un soubz-ris gracieux,

Viens tost me secourir Ou me fauldra mourir.

 

Pourquoy fuis tu, mignarde, Si je suis pres de toy?

Quand tes yeulx je regarde, Je me perds dedans moy.

Car tes perfections Changent mes actions.

 

Tes beautez ta grace, Et tes divins propos

Ont eschauffe la glace Qui me gloites os

Et ont remply mon coeur D'une amou reuse ardeur

 

Mon ame vouloit estre Libre de passions

Mais amoursest faict maistre De mes affections

Et a mis soubs sa loy Et mon coeur et ma foy

Approche done, ma belle Approche toy, mon bien.

Ne me sois plus rebelle Puis que mon couer est tien

Pour mon mal appaiser Donne moy un baiser

 

Je meurs mon Anglelte, Je meurs ent baisant;

Ta bouche tant doucette Va mon bien ravissant

Ace coup mes espritz Sont tous d'amour espris

 

Plustost on verra l'onde Contre mont reculer

Et plus tost l'oil du monde Cessera de brusher

Que l'amour qui m'epoinet Decrisse d'un seul poinet.

BERSERKER

Oh do not seek to know what lies

Behind these mild and patient eyes

For I have seen the demon's powers

And even let the monster run

In certain unforgotten hours.

 

The fire that sleeps within the blood

Can waken to a burning flood

That sweeps away whatever moves

Before the wordless killer's eyes

Oh do not cry to see it proved.

 

So leave the devil where it lies

Cast no blood into my eyes

And never place my life in threat

For when the monster comes alive

If you survive, you won't forget.

 

The roar when language falls away

The vision leaps to black and gray

The speed that makes the wind feel slow

The strength beyond the bones' design

These are the signs I too well know.

 

I wear my weapons openly

Taller and kind though I must be

I keep the Fenris wolf in Rein

But this much warning I must give

That while I live, the beast remains.

Source: Chichsaw Mountain

BLACK-EYED SUSAN

Doug McArthur

There was a girl in a cold norther harbor

She came with me when I asked her to go.

Although I knew she was a captain's lady

But he was so far away, and how was he to know?

 

So we traveled south through the warm gulf stream waters

And she stayed with me in the ports along the way.

And as the time went by, this lady she grew distant

But I grew closer to her every day.

 

Chorus:

I was in love with a black-eyed Susan.

Where is my heart? Where is my soul?

To be in love with a black-eyed Susan

Is to travel down to the harbour no more.

 

She cried aloud, it was early one morning.

He heard her voice though he was far away

But too many miles, too many lovers

Too many voices down in English Bay.

 

The next thing I knew, she was off and she was running

Down to the shore into the water far below.

That's when I knew I was just another lover

Now I'm walking on this cold beach alone.

 

Chorus:

Alone and in love with a black-eyed Susan.

Where is my heart? Where is my soul?

To be in love with a black-eyed Susan

Is to travel down to the harbour no more.

 

Later that day where the gold coast was shining

His ship went down, and nobody reached the shore.

And in his log book, her captain, he'd written,

"There's only one thing that I'm not sorry for."

Source: Garnet Rogers, Garnet Rogers, Snow Goose Records

THE BLACKBIRD

Andy M. Stewart

I am a young sailor, my story is sad

Though once I was carefree, and a brave sailor lad.

I courted a lassie, by night and by day

Ah, but now she has left me, and sailed far away.

 

Chorus:

If I was a blackbird

Could whistle and sing

I'd follow the vessel my true love sails in

And in the top rigging, I would there build my nest

And I'd flutter my wings o'er her lily white breast.

 

Or if I was a scholar and could handle a pen

One secret love letter to my love I'd send

And I'd tell of my sorrow, my grief and my pain

Since she's gone and left me in yon flowering glen.

I sailed o'er the ocean, my fortune to seek

Though I missed her caress and her kiss on my cheek.

I returned and I told her my love was still warm

But she turned away lightly and great was her scorn.

 

I offered to take her to Donnybrook fair

And to buy her fine ribbons to tie up her hair;

I offered to marry and stay by her side

But she sails in the morning; she sails with the tide.

 

My parents they chide me and will not agree

Saying that me and my false love, married should never be.

Ah, but let them deprive me or let them do what they will

While there's one breath in my body,

She's the one I love still.

Source: Silly Wizard, Wild and Beautiful, Shanachie

BLACKSMITH

Traditional

A blacksmith courted me nine months and better

He fairly won my heart, wrote me a letter.

With his hammer in his hand, he looked quite clever

And if I was with my love I'd live forever.

 

But where is my love gone with his cheeks like roses?

And his good black Billycock on decked round with primroses?

I'm afraid the scorching sun will shine and burn his beauty

And if I was with my love, I'd do my duty.

 

Strange news is come to town, strange news is carried

Strange news flies up and down that my love is married.

I wish them both much joy though they can't bear me

And may God reward him well for the slighting of me.

 

"Don't you remember when you lay beside me

And you said you'd marry me and not deny me."

"If I said I'd marry you it was only for to try you

So bring your witness love and I'll not deny you."

 

"No witness have I none, save God Almighty

And may he reward you well for the slighting of me."

Her lips grew pale and wan, it made a poor heart tremble

To think she loved a one and he proved deceitful.

 

A blacksmith courted me nine months and better

He fairly won my heart, wrote me a letter.

With his hammer in his hand he looked quite clever

And if I was with my love, I'd live forever...

Source: Loreena McKennitt, Elemental, Quinlan Road Limited

BLOW THE CANDLE OUT

When I was prenticed in Plymouth, I went to see my love

The candles they were burning, the moon shone bright above.

I knocked upon her window

To ease her of her pain;

She rose to let me in, and she barred the door again.

 

I like your good behavior, darling, thus I often say

And you know that I miss you when you are far away.

The winds they are so cold

We cannot go there out;

So roll me in your arms, love, and blow the candle out.

 

Now father and mother in yonder room do lie

A-huggin' one another, so why not you and I?

A-huggin' one another

Without a fear or doubt

So roll me in your arms, love, and blow the candle out.

Source: The singing of Lady Siobhan NiStandun

BLUENOSE

Stan Rogers

Once again with the tide she slips her lines

Turns her head and comes awake

Where she lays so still there at Privateer's Wharf

Now she quickly gathers way

She will range far south from the harbour mouth

And rejoice with every wave

Who will know the Bluenose in the sun?

 

Feel her bow rise free of Mother Sea

In a sunburst cloud of spray

That stings the cheek while the rigging will speak

Of sea-miles gone away

She is always best under full press

Hard over as she'll lay

And who will know the Bluenose in the sun?

 

That proud fast Queen of the Grand Banks Fleet

Portrayed on every dime

Knew hard work in her time, hard work in every line

the rich men's toys of the Gloucester boys

With their token bit of cod

They snapped their spars and strained to pass her by

But she left them all behind.

 

Now her namesake daughter remains to show what she has been

What every schoolboy remember and will not come again

To think she's the last of the Grand Banks Schooners

That fed so many men

And who will know the Bluenose in the sun?

 

So does she not take wing like a living thing?

Child of the moving tide

See her pass with grace on the water's face

With clean and quiet pride

Our own tall ship of great renown still lifts into the sky

Who will know the Bluenose in the sun?

Source: Stan Rogers, Turnaround, Fogarty's Cove

THE BONNIE SHIP THE DIAMOND

Traditional

The Diamond is a ship me boys, for Greenland she is bound

And the quay it is all garnished with bonnie lassies 'round.

The Captain gives the order to sail the ocean wide

But the sun it never sets, me lads, nor darkness dims the tide.

 

Chorus:

So cheer up me lads, let your hearts never fail

While the bonnie ship the Diamond goes fishing for the whale.

 

Along the quay at Peterhead the lassies stand around

With their shawls about their heads, and salt tears running dow.

"I'll never weep, my bonnie lad, though I'm left behind

For there's not a rose in Greenland's ice to make you change your mind."

 

Here's a health to the Resolution, likewise the Eliza Swan

A health to the Battle of Montose, and the Diamond, ship of fame.

They wear the trousers of the white, the jackets of the blue,

When they return to Peterhead, they'll find that we've been true.

 

It'll be bright both day and night when the Greenland lads come home

With a ship that's full of oil, me lad, and money to their names.

They'll make the cradles for to rock, and the blankets for to tear,

And every lass in Peterhead sing, "Hushabye, my dear."

Source: Judy Collins, So Early in the Spring

BOOZING

Traditional

Chorus:

Boozing, boozing, just you and I

Boozing, boozing, when we are dry

Some do it openly, some on the sly

But we all are bloody well boozing.

 

Well what are the joys of the single young man?

Why, boozing, bloody well boozing.

And what is he doing when ever he can?

He's boozing, bloody well boozing.

Well you may think I'm wrong and you may think I'm right

I don't want to argue, I don't want to fight

But what do you think I'll be doing tonight?

Why boozing, bloody well boozing.

 

Chorus

 

And what are the joys of a poor married man?

Why boozing, bloody well boozing.

And what is he doing when ever he can?

Why boozing, bloody well boozing.

He goes out a shopping and makes many a call

He comes home at night and he gives his wife all

But what brings home hanging on to the wall?

Why boozing, bloody well boozing.

 

Chorus

 

And what do the Temperence Unions run down?

Why boozing, bloody well boozing.

And what are they banning in every town?

Why boozing, bloody well boozing.

They stand on the street corners they rail and they shout

They shout about things they know nothing about

But what are they doing when the lights are turned out?

They're boozing, bloody well boozing.

 

Chorus

 

And what is the thing I loves more than me tea?

Why boozing, bloody well boozing.

And what keeps us all nipping out for a wee?

Why boozing, bloody well boozing.

Your pocket gets empty, your bladder gets tight

You're gargling your beer and the best part of the night

Your nose goes brick red and your face goes dead white

From boozing, bloody well boozing.

 

Chorus

Source: Oak and Ash and Thorn, Wild Oats, Off Centaur; Clam Chowder

BORDERLAND

Roger Quin

Archie Fisher

From the moorlands and the meadows to this city of shadows

Where I wander old and lonely comes a call I understand

In clear soft notes enthralling it is calling ever calling

'Tis the spirit of the open from the dear old Borderland.

For this grim huge city daunts me, its wail of sorrow haunts me

A nameless figure tossed amidst the human surf that beats

Forever and forever in a frenzy of endeavour

All along the cruel barriers of its never ending streets.

 

But I'll leave it in the morning, slip away without a warning

Save a handclasp from the friend that knows the call that leads me on

In the city's clang and clatter, one old man the less won't matter

And no one here will say me nay or care that I am gone.

By Caddonfoot I'll linger it has charms to stay the singer

And from the bridge a painter's dream of beauty there I'll see

But I'll leave it all behind me when the purple evening shadows find me

Past the vines of Cloven fords to haunted Torwoodlee.

 

Fair Dryborogh and Melrose, touched by the wizard's spell arose

And Bemerside and Leadersfoot and Elwyns fairy dene

With the Tweed serenely gliding, clearly seen then shyly hiding

Where eildons raise their triple crest to sentinel the scene.

But alas the dream is over I awake now to discover

The city's rush, the bustling crowd and the din on every hand

But my ear a-softly falling I can hear the curlews calling

And I know that soon I'll see them in the dear old Borderland.

Source: Archie Fisher, Off the Map, Snow Goose Records

THE BOUNTY HUNTER

Mike Cross

Good evening to you mister, the bounty hunter said

You don't know me but there's a price upon your head

I know you're wanted dead or alive, that's what the posters say

But I never shoot a man at night when he ain't had time to pray.

 

So, I'll give you unto sunrise tomorrow, my friend

Before I come to shoot you down and bring your body in

I warn you that I do my work quite well with a gun or knife

I've tracked down many a man. I've taken many a life.

 

Chorus:

Father do not mourn for me, mother do not weep

Whatever a man soweth, that also shall he reap.

 

I spent a long a sleepless night with fear upon my breast

Trying to get ready for my morning duel with death

I hid up in a hayloft out on the edge of town

And at sunrise the bounty hunter came to shoot me down.

 

I fired down at the bounty hunter standing in the street

He raised his gun and fired a round of shots back up at me

He hit my chest and shoulder and my gun flew from my hand

Now I'm trapped up in this hayloft, a wounded, unarmed man.

 

The bounty hunter holds his fire and hollers up at me

Come out and take it like a man, I'll make it quick and clean

I know my time is running out and there's no way I can stall

So I reach and grab the pitchfork that's hanging on the wall.

 

My body arches as I rise and face the morning sun

And I feel like a warrior's bow freshly carved and strung

I launch my body through the air and the pitchfork in my hand

Stabs the bounty hunter through the chest and pins him to the sand.

 

Now my muscles start to rust, my thoughts are growing cold

While Gabriel and Satan shoot craps for my soul.

Source: Mike Cross, Live and Kicking, Kicking Mule

BOYS OF BEDLAM

Traditional

For to see mad Tom of Bedlam

Ten thousand years I'd travel

Mad Maudlin girls go on dirty toes

For to save their shoes from gravel

 

Chorus:

Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys

Bedlam boys are bonny

For they all go bare and they live by the air

And they want no drink nor money

 

I now repent the devil

For Tom was so disdained

My wits are lost since him I trust

Which makes me go unchained

 

I went down to Satan's Kitchen

For to get me food one morning

There I saw souls piping hot

All on the spit a turning

 

There I took up a cauldron

Where boiled ten thousand harlots

The full of blame I drank the same

To the health of all such varlots

 

Oh my staff has murdered giants

And my bag a long knife carries

For to cut mince pies from children's thighs

With which to feed the fairies

 

The spirit's white as lightning

All on my travels guide me

For the moon would shake and the stars would quake

Whenever they espy me

 

No gypsy slut nor doxy

Shall win my Mad Tom from me

I'll weep all night, with stars I'll fight

The fray shall well become me

 

And when that I have mortared

The man in the moon to a powder

His staff I shake and his bones I'll break

And there'll howl no demon louder

 

So drink to Tom of Bedlam!

Go fill the seas in barrels

I'll drink it all well brewed with qaul

And more than drunk I'll quarrell

 

For to see Mad Tom of Bedlam

Ten thousand years I'd travel

Mad Maudlin girls go on dirty toes

For to save their shoes from gravel

Source: Steeleye Span, Please to See the King

BRING ME A STAR

Bring me a star that's fallen from the sky

To lay in my lady's hand.

Stay time in it's flight,

Keep tomorrow from this night

But time it does fly,

And stars do not fall.

 

If I had a song I would sing it for her

To tell all the love that I bear.

I wish I had ribbons of crimson and gold

To bind in her bonny bright hair.

 

But I am a poor man, no ribbons have I

No gold, nor songs I can sing.

Tomorrow she weds at her father's command

And I have not even a gift I can bring.

 

So give me a star that's fallen from the sky

To lay in my lady's hand.

Stay time in it's flight,

Keep tomorrow from this night

But time it does fly,

And stars do not fall...

Source: Mercedes Lackey ???

BULLY IN THE ALLEY

Traditional

So help me bob I'm bully in the alley

Way hey, bully in the alley

So help me bob I'm bully in the alley

Bully down in Shinbone alley...

 

I'll leave my gal and I'll go a-whaling

Way hey, bully in the alley

I'll leave my Sal and I'll go a-sailing

Bully down in Shinbone alley

 

Well Sally is the girl that I love dearly

Sally is the girl that I spliced nearly

Source: Clam Chowder, Stewed

CARRIGHFERGUS

Traditional

I wish I was in Carrighfergus

Only for nights in Ballygrant

I would swim over the deepest ocean

Only for nights in Ballygrant

 

But the sea is wide, and I can't swim over

Neither have I wings to fly

If I could find me a handsome boatman

To ferry me over to my love and die

 

Now in Kilkenny, it is reported

They've marble stones there black as ink

With gold and silver I would transport her

But I'll sing no more now, 'til I get a drink

 

I'm drunk today, but I'm seldom sober

A handsome rover from town to town

Ah, but I am sick now, my days are over

Come all you lads, and lay me down

 

I wish I was in Carrighfergus

Only for nights in Ballygrant

Source: Loreena McKennitt, Elemental, Quinlan Road

CATALAN VENGEANCE

to the tune of Spring Hill Mine Disaster

Chorus:

These six golds rings were dearly bought

My comrade's blood for the plate I own

Our front rank spear met the French knight's charge

Of a hundred men I return alone (repeat last line)

 

We were Spanish troops in Sicilian ships

That the King of Greeks had sent to hire

Our thousand spear to scour the Turks

From his Eastern realm with sword and fire

 

We drove the Turks from the iron gates

But the faith of the prince kept not the day

We were bandits now, said the King of the Greeks

So he hung our captain and stole our pay (Chorus)

 

The crusader kings of the east we told

Of our own hard fight and the Greek king's shame

But the Germans laugh and the Frankish sneer

Said a rabble of spear were but fair game

 

From the wine-dark sea we marched on west

Til we came to the Duke of Athens' land

His herald cry we wear chains or die

By Kephisses River we're forced to stand (Chorus)

 

We made our camp on a grassy hill

In the midst of a league of marshy ground

Where a light-armed man might cross with care

Where an armoured horse must soon sink down

 

Our hundred best at the marsh's edge

Six hundred more in the reeds behind

While a thousand horse of the Duke's own troops

Rode along the stream to surround our line (Chorus)

 

An arrow's flight from the waiting spear

The knights formed rank with a joyous sound

Now the first wave comes at a walk, now trot

Five hundred ride for the killing ground

 

At a hundred yards we see their blades

But the horses' hooves are what you fear

Five hundred tons of steel and flesh

And you guard their path with an eight foot spear (Chorus)

 

At fifty yards their lances dip

We grip our pikes in gauntlet hand

As a steel shod thunder drowns our cries

And the ground shakes so you can hardly stand

 

They smashed our line and trampled all

Who stood to fight, who turned to flee

And plunged in over the marsh's edge

In the red-soaked mud to the horses' knees (Chorus)

 

The knights looked up and saw our troops

Still standing on the further shore

Form up! cried the Duke in the knee-deep mud

We'll smash these dogs with one charge more

 

They sank in the mud to the riders' thighs

Push on! the Duke of Athens said

We hurled our darts and fired our bows

Five hundred trapped and the rest are fled (Chorus)

 

Free pass and ransom! the Duke he cried

But we know the worth of a French knight's word

So we cut his throat and stripped his arms

And left the flesh for the dogs and birds

 

I crawled out onto the shaky ground

As the crows dipped low on stiffened wing

Where a young squire groaned with his face plate gone

Cut his right hand off for his golden ring (Chorus)

 

Rich gifts, they brought, these Frankish knights

Who called us bastard Spanish curs

We had arms and mail and a Duke's own helm

Two bushels brim with silver spurs

 

My comrades lie in the white Greek soil

But they do not lie in the earth alone

Five hundred knights and a Frankish duke

Share a pool of blood as a marking stone (Chorus)

Lyrics by Lord Moses Ben Eldad

CELTIC ELVIS

Kill a tree for Christ

It's such a festive sacrifice

Wrench it from the ground

In the name of glad tradition.

 

Throw it in the trunk

And tie it down with cords of bungee

You'll need the needles every year

'Cause you're a Christmas junkie.

 

I said Chop that puppy

Stick it on a stand

Smother it with tinsel

God'll understand

I said saw that puppy for the holy land

Come New Year's Day

Just throw it in a can (repeat line three times)

Just throw it away!

 

The aztecs killed their llamas

The mayans killed their precious virgins

The moslems don't like cameras

It's religious superstition.

 

So kill a tree for Christ.

It's such a festive sacrifice

Wrench it from the ground

In the name of glad tradition

We'll celebrate with sugar plums

For all the stumps in Christendom.

THE CHALLENGER

When I was a child I dreamed, but they were not dreams at all

Of far off lands, of far off times, of watching kingdoms rise and fall.

Other bodies and names I had, but always the same work to do

Always artisan warrior witch, I never thought the dreams were true.

 

Slowly through the years I learned, hands that ached to hold a pen

A rebel soul no orders held, and visions into minds of men.

At last I read in an ancient book and saw what I had always known

Then I knew that the dreams were true for the tale it told was once my own.

Why do I come circling back? Slowly did the memories clear

Of ancient wars, of friends and foes, but never of my purpose here.

Still I sharpened my three fold skills for use in some unknown game

Only knowing that age upon age, my enemy was still the same.

 

Patterns that repeat I see; faster through the world they skew

The stars turn right, the fates take flight, and all the myths and dreams come true.

Whatever battles the gods prepare for artistry, for weapons, or for mine

There I haste for the answer waits, the purpose I was born to find.

Then I saw the armies march, saw him raise his powers high

He preached obey, he practiced rule, and fattened on the ancient lie.

His wheedling words, his mystic might, his ultimately iron hand

His promised hell, I know it well, finally I understand.

Master of the secret dark are you so surprised to see

The ancient foe you should well know come to spoil your victory.

Is your enemy worse than mine, or wouldn't you believe that it was true

That I have haunted the ages down fated to come after you.

Source: Chickasaw Mountain

CHASTITY BELT

Traditional

"Oh pray, gentle maid will you be my lover?

Condemn me no longer to mourn and to weep.

My heart it is breaking and I need no longer

Oh let down your drawbridge and I'll enter your keep."

I'll enter your keep, nonny nonny

Enter your keep, nonny nonny

Let down your drawbridge and I'll enter your keep.

 

"I thank you kind sir but I am no maiden.

I'm the wife of Sir Osborn, that cunning old Celt.

He's off tae the wars for ten years or longer

And he's taken the keys to my chastity belt."

Chastity belt, nonny nonny

Chastity belt, nonny nonny

He's taken the keys to my chastity belt.

 

"Fear not, gentle maid for I know a locksmith.

He lives in the village; let us visit his shop.

He's wise in his craft; locks pose him no problem.

Let us discover if he can unpick your lock."

Unpick your lock, nonny nonny

Unpick your lock, nonny nonny

Let us discover if he can unpick your lock.

 

"Kind Sir, Gentle Maid, I must speak of sorrow.

All my wisdom, all my craft will be to no avail.

Sir Osborn, that cad, he had a head on his shoulders;

That nasty old Celt, he's fitted a Yale."

Fitted a Yale, nonny nonny

Fitted a Yale, nonny nonny

That nasty old Celt, he's fitted a Yale.

 

"Well I'm back from the wars with news of disaster,"

Said Sir Osborn, whose ship had come in with the tide.

"While my craft is was passing through the Straits of Gilbralter

I must have carelessly dropped the key over the side."

Over the side, nonny nonny

Over the side, nonny nonny

Carelessly dropped the key over the side.

 

"Then alas and alack, I'm trapped here forever."

When up spoke the pageboy, "Fear not," said he.

"If my lady will allow me once more to retire to her chamber,

I will undo the lock with my duplicate key."

Duplicate key, nonny nonny

Duplicate key, nonny nonny

Undo the lock with my duplicate key.

Source: From the singing of Donal MacCian (Steve Schoenbohm)

CHICKASAW MOUNTAIN

High up on the mountain of Chickasaw they say

Is one patch of darkness that never yields to day.

Deep are the shadows, old as the mountains

Something is waiting in there - call on Her if you dare.

Seek no level of god or devil, She's something older by far

Call her Lady of the Morning Star.

 

She offers the bargains, the price is steep and dark

One takes your life and the other leaves a mark.

If there's a third one, I've never heard one

Choose for yourself what's to be - nothing She gives is free.

Name your goal She won't ask your soul she might even give you Her own

And maybe you'd be better off alone.

 

My old fellow rebel, I know what deal he made

Power rang through every song he wrote and played.

Made him the best of his generation

Sang to the end of the war - and not a moment more.

Then it left him, the power bereft him

Left only one face to see

Hanging on his sister's apple tree.

 

Forgive my old buddy who soon forgot my name.

I chose not to follow his seven years of fame.

He took the high road, I take the low road

Sing second best, but sing long - and have always one more song.

Take your stars and give me my scars

I'd rather live long and live free

So take his cup of hell away from me.

 

Whoever has wisdom can guess what lies unsaid

The cost of the gift to the living and the dead.

So if you feel you'll gain from the deal

You'll play with the old Morning Star - no need to travel far.

Don't just count on Chickasaw Mountain if there's a deal meant for you

Any wild place on earth will do.

Source: Chickasaw Mountain

THE CHILL EASTERN WINDS

Andy M. Stewart

Prepare you, sweet flowers, for winter advances

And drink well the sunlight that touches your form.

Draw strength from the earth and repay her with beauty

For the dark days are coming, and they'll do you harm.

 

Chorus:

When the chill eastern winds replace summer breezes

And the long summer days are remembered no more;

Then you'll know how it feels when a woman's love changes

When at last she has told you she loves you no more.

 

I saw her today when she walked with her new love

In all the fine places that we'd walked before.

They kissed by the rocks where she told me she loved me

And soon she'll be using those same words once more.

 

There's none that could blame me for wanting her beauty

But it lies like a snowflake in the hands of a child;

When the warmth of my love tried to reach out and hold her

It's then she's gone, the proof she's still wild.

Source: Silly Wizard, A Glint of Silver, Green Linnet

CIRCLE THE MOON

Look down, what can you see?

Snow white the holly tree.

Sleeping the earth it seems

Deep in a winter dream.

 

Chorus:

Circle the moon, circle the sun

Fill the earth with love

And let the sweet river run for all of life

Begin again where it begun.

 

Pray for the desert rose

Who burns in sweet solitude.

Pray for the frozen lands

By loving as we should.

 

Pray for the forest rain

She can make you breathe and live again.

And secrets the spring will bring

That flower with the autumn grain.

Source: Pentangle, In the Round

COME BY THE HILLS

Traditional

Come by the hills to the land where fancy is free

And stand where the peaks meet the sky and the rocks reach the sea

Where the rivers run clear and the bracken is gold in the sun

And cares of tomorrow must wait 'til this day is done.

 

Come by the hills to the land where life is a song

And sing while the birds fill the air with their joy all day long

Where the trees sway in time, and even the wind sings in tune

And cares of tomorrow must wait 'til this day is done.

 

Come by the hills to the land where legend remains

Where stories of old stir the hears and may yet come again

Where the past has been lost and the future is still to be won

And cares of tomorrow must wait 'til the day is done.

 

Come by the hills to the land where fancy is free

And stand where the peaks meet the sky and the rocks reach the sea

Where the rivers run clear and the bracken is gold in the sun

And cares of tomorrow must wait 'til this day is done.

Source: Loreena McKennitt, Elemental, Quinlan Road

THE CRUEL SISTER

Traditional

There lived a lady by the north sea shore

(Lay the bend to the bonny broom)

Two daughters were the babes she bore

(Fa la la la la la la la la la)

 

As one grew bright as is the sun

So cold dark grew the other one

 

A knight came riding to the lady's door

He traveled far to be their wooer

 

He courted one with gloves and rings

But he loved the other above all things

 

"O, sister will you go with me

To watch the ships sail on the sea?"

 

She took her sister by the hand

And led her down to the north sea strand

 

And as they stood on the windy shore

The dark grew her sister o'er

 

Sometimes she sank sometimes she swam

Crying, "Sister, reach to me your hand

 

"Oh sister, sister, let me live

And all that's mine I'll surely give"

 

"Your own true love, that I'll have and more

But thou shalt never come ashore"

 

And there she floated, like a swan

The salt sea tore her body on

 

Ten minstrels walked along the strand

And saw the maiden float to land

 

They've made a harp of her breast bone

Whose sound would melt a heart of stone

 

They took three locks of her yellow hair

And with them strung the harp so rare.

 

They went into her father's hall

To play the harp before them all

 

But as they laid it on the stone

The harp began to play alone

 

"The first string played a doleful sound

The bride her younger sister drown'd"

 

The second string, as that they tried,

In terror sits the black-haired bride

 

The third string sang, beneath their bow

"And surely now her tears will flow"

Source: Pentangle, A Maid that's Deep in Love

CRUISER DREAMINGS

She is always on my mind as she lies in space

She is mine and my thoughts embrace

In time I am hers, out of time she waits through me

But how much longer can this be?

 

Chorus:

Cruise dreamings, dances seeming

Can never be as real as sponges to my ship and me

Starlight haunts us through subconsciousness

Wrapped around the stars and through eternity

 

Though she is infinity she is a point in time

She is one with others of her line

She speaks and she hears

She guides and understands

How can she be a work of man?

 

In another time and space she would share my bed

Here and now we share dreams instead

Her body is another's

But her soul belongs to me

One day we two will be set free.

CURSUM PERFICIO

Cursum Perficio

Cursum Perficio

Cursum Perficio

Cursum Perficio

Cursum Perficio

 

Verbum sapienti (eo plus cupient)

Verbum sapienti eo plus cupient

Quo plus habent

Verbum sapienti eo plus cupient

Quo plus habent

 

Post nubila, Phoebus

Post nubila, Phoebus

Post nubila, Phoebus

Quo plus habent, eo plus cupient

Quo plus habent, eo plus cupient

Quo plus habent, eo plus cupient

 

Post nubila, Phoebus

Post nubila, Phoebus

Post nubila, Phoebus

 

Post nubila, Phoebus

Post nubila, Phoebus

Post nubila, Phoebus

 

Iternum

Iternum

Iternum

 

Inspired by the inscription in the portico of Marilyn Monroe's last home:

My Journey Ends Here

Source: Enya, Watermark

DANCE WITH ME

Steeleye Span

A knight he rode his lonely way

Thinking about his wedding day

As he rode through a forest near

The elf-king's daughter did appear

Out she stepped from the elven men

Smiling, she held out her hand

"Welcome, Sir Knight, why such speed?"

 

Chorus:

Dance, dance, follow me

Round and round the greenwood tree

Dance, dance while you may

Tomorrow is your dying day

Dance with me, dance with me

 

"Please, Sir Knight, come dance with me

Spurs of gold I'll give to thee!"

"Dance, neither, I will or may

Tomorrow is my wedding day."

"Please Sir Knight, come dance with me,

A shirt of silk I'll give to thee

A shirt of silk so white and fine

My mother's bleached in the moonbeam's shine!"

 

"Please, Sir Knight, come dance with me,

A crown of gold I'll give to thee!"

"Your crown of gold I'll freely take

But I'll not join your elven wake."

"Do you refuse to dance with me?

The pain of death shall come o'er ye!"

Between his shoulders, a blow she dealt

Such a blow he'd never felt!"

Steeleye Span, All Around My Hat, Chrysalis

DANCING AT WHITSUN

John Austin Martin

It's fifty long springtimes since she was a bride

But still you may see her at each Whitsuntide

In a dress of white linen and ribbons of green

As green as her memories of loving.

 

The feet that were nimble tread carefully now

As gentle a measure as age will allow

Through groves of white blossoms, by fields of young corn

Where once she was pledged to her true love.

 

The fields they stand empty, the hedges grow free

No young men to tend them, or pastures to see

They are gone where the forests of oak trees before

Have gone to be wasted in battle.

 

Down from the green farmlands and from their loved ones

Marched husbands and brothers and fathers and sons

There's a fine roll of honor where the maypole once stood

And the ladies go dancing at Whitsun.

 

There's a straight row of houses in these latter days

All cov'ring the downs where the sheep used to graze

There's a field or red poppies, a wreath from the Queen

But the ladies go dancing at Whitsun

And the ladies go dancing at Whitsun

Source: Jean Redpath, Jean Redpath, Philo

DARK EYED MOLLY

Archie Fisher

Deep and dark are my true love's eyes,

Blacker still is the winter turning,

As the sadness of parting proves.

And brighter now is the lantern burning

That lightens my path to love.

 

No fiddle tune will take the air,

But I will see her swift feet advancing

And the swirl of her long brown hair,

Her smiling face and her dark eyes glancing

As we stepped out "Blinkbonny Faire."

 

And if my waiting proves in vain,

Then I will pack and track ever take me.

The long road will ease my pain.

No gem of womankind will make me

E'er whisper love's words again.

 

For in drink I'll see good company.

My ears will ring with the tavern's laughter

And I'll hear not her last sweet sighs.

Then who's to know the morning after

That I long for her dear dark eyes?

Source: Archie Fisher, A Man with a Rhyme, Folk Legacy

THE DEAR GREEN PLACE

Alan Reid

It was by the clear Molendinar burn

where it meets and runs with the river Clyde,

And they tell the tale of the holy one

who was fishing down by the riverside,

A holy man, from Fife he came,

his name they say was Kentigern,

And by that spot where the fish was caught

the dear green place was born.

 

Now the salmon ran through the river stream

and they salted them by the banks o' Clyde,

And the faces glowed as the silver flowed

and the place arose by the riverside

There was cloth to dye and hose to buy,

the trades came from miles around,

And they raised a glass to the dear green place

the place that was a town.

 

There is a town that once was green

and a river flowed to the sea.

The river flows forever on,

but the dear green place is gone.

 

When the furnaces came to fire the iron

and the folk were thrown from the farmland,

Then the Irishman and the Highland man

and the hungry came with willing hands.

They wanted work, a place to live,

their empty bellies needed fill,

And the farm yard was another world

from the dirty, overcrowded mill.

 

Now you may have heard of the foreign trade

and the fortunes made by tobacco lords,

But the working man slaved his life away

and an early grave was his sole reward.

A dreary room, a crowded slum

disease and hunger everywhere,

And the price to pay was another day

to fight the anger and despair.

 

A thousand years have been here and gone

since Kentigern saw the banks o' Clyde.

How many dreams and how many tears

in a thousand years of a city's life?

A city hard, a city proud,

and "No Mean City," it has been'

Perhaps tomorrow it yet may be

the dear green place again.

Source: The Battlefield Band, On the Rise, Topic

THE DEMON LOVER

Traditional

"Where hae ye been my dearest dear, these seven long years or more?

I've come to seek my former vows, that you promised to me before."

"O haud yer tongue o' yer former vows, for they will breed sad strife.

And haud your tongue o'yer former vows, for I am become a wife."

 

"For you I scorned the crown of gold, the King's daughter also'

Now I am come for you my love, and with me you must go.

See ye not yon seven pretty ships, the eighth brought me to land?

With merchandise and mariners and wealth on every hand."

 

So she has gone tae her young son, and kissed him on cheek and chin.

Next tae her sleeping husband gone, and done the same tae him.

She's set her foot on board the ship; 'twas rigged with silk and gold

But no mariners on board the ship, to sail her could she behold.

 

And they had na' sailed away, away, it's miles but barely one,

When she began tae weep and mourn, and think on her young son.

They had na' sailed away, away, it's miles but barely two,

When she espied his cloven hoof, from his grey robes stickin' thro'.

 

"I said ye'd see the lillies grow, on the banks of Italy,

But I'll let ye see the fishes swim, on the bottom of the sea."

They had na' sailed away, away, it's miles but barely three,

When grim grew his countenance, and raging grew the sea.

 

And the masts that were of beaten gold, bent not on the heaving seas;

And the sails that were of silk so fine, filled not on the east land breeze.

And aye she turned her round about, aye taller he seemed to be;

Until the tops of that gallant ship, hae taller were than he.

 

And the clouds grew dark, the wind grew loud, and the levin filled her e'ye;

And waisome wailed the snow white sprites, on the heaving sea.

He struck the tap-most wi' his hand, the foremast wi' his knee

And he brake that gallant ship in twain, and he sank her in the sea.

Source: Kornog, Premiere, Green Linnet

DEMON LOVER

Traditional

Where have you been my long lost love

These seven long years and more?

Seeking gold for thee, my love

And riches of great store.

I might have married a king's daughter

Far far beyond the sea

But I refused the golden crown

All for the love of thee.

 

What have you to keep me with, if I with you should go?

If I forsake my husband dear, and my young son also?

 

Chorus:

I'll show you where the white lillies grow

On the banks of Italy

I'll show you where the white fishes swim

At the bottom of the sea.

 

Seven ships all on the sea

The eighth brought me to land

With four and twenty mariners

And music on every hand.

She set her foot upon the ship

No mariner could behold;

The sails were of shining silk

The masts of beaten gold.

 

Oh what are yon high high hills the sun shines sweetly in?

Those are the hills of heaven, my love, where you will never win.

 

What is that mountain yonder there

Where evil winds to blow?

Yonder's the mountain of hell, he cried

Where you and I must go.

He took her to the topmast high

To see what he could see

He sunk the ship in a flash of fire

To the bottom of the sea.

Source: Steeleye Span, Commoner's Crown, Chrysalis

DENBRAE

Archie Webster

Come all you bold plowmen, and list to my tale

As you sit 'round the table, drinking your ale.

And I'll take you back to a far distant day

When I drove the last Clydesdales to work in Denbrae.

 

They were two bonnie blacks, with white faces and feet.

In the country around they could never be beat.

And you'd look far and wide 'tween the Forth and the Tay

For to match my two Clydesdales, the pride of Denbrae.

 

They were matchless in power in the cart and the plow,

And my hands on the reins and my voice they'd well know.

There was never a thought in their hearts but obey;

They were two bonnie Clydesdales, the pride of Denbrae.

 

But the years they wear on, and the winters grow cold.

Horses, like men, can do naught but grow old.

But my memories are with them, though I'm far away

They were my two bonnie Clydesdales, the pride of Denbrae.

Source: Garnet Rogers, The Outside Track, Snow Goose

DINNY THE PIPER

Traditional

In the year '98 when our troubles were great,

It was treason to be a militian.

And the Black-Whiskers said that we'd never forget

And our history shows there were Hessians.

In these troubled times oh it was a great crime

And murder it never was riper;

Near the town of Glensheed, not an acre from Meath

Lived one Dinny Byrnes, a piper.

 

Neither wedding nor wake would be worth a shake

If Dinny was first not invited;

For at squeezin' the bags or emptyin' the kegs

He astonished as well as delighted.

But in these times Dinny could not earn a penny

Martial law had him strung like a viper,

And it kept him within 'til the bones of his skin

Grinned through the rags of the piper.

 

Well one day it did dawn as Dinny crept home

Back from a fair at Lafangen,

When what should he see from the branch of a tree

But the corpse of a Hessian there hangin'.

Says Dinny, "These rogues have got boots - I've no brogues."

He took hold of the boots with a gryper

And the boots were so tight and he pulled with such might

Legs and all came away with the piper.

 

Ah, then Dinny did run for fear of bein' hung

'Til he came to Tim Halley's cabin.

Says Tim from within, "I can't let you in,

You'll be shot if you're caught out there rappin'"

So he went to the shed where the cow was in bed

He began with a wisp for to wipe her.

And they lay down together in seven foot of heather

And the cow took to huggin' the piper.

 

Well, the day it did dawn and Dinny did yawn

Then he stripped off the boots from the Hessian.

And the legs, by the law, he left in the straw

Then he slipped home with his new possessions.

Now breakfast bein' done, Tim sent his young son

To get Dinny up like a lamplighter;

When the legs there he saw, he flew up like a jackdaw

And said, "Daddy, the cow's ate the piper."

 

"Ah, bad luck to that baste, she'd no musical taste

To eat such a jolly old chanter

A phad raig a mhic, take a lump of a stick

Drive her off down the road and we'll canter."

Well the neighbors were called, Mrs. Kennedy bawled

She began for to humbug and gyper

And in sorrow they met and their whistles they wet

And like divvils lamented the piper.

 

Then the cow she was drove, a mile or two off

'Til they came to a fair at Killaly

And there she was sold for four guineas in gold

To the clerk of the parish, Sean Daly.

Then they went to the tent where the pennies were spent

(Tim bein' a jolly auld swiper)

And who should be playin' "The Rakes of Kildare,"

Just your bold Dinny Byrnes, the piper.

 

Ah then Tim gave a jolt like a half drunken colt

And he stares at the piper like a gamuck

"I thought, by the Powers, for the last eight hours

You were playin' in the auld cow's stomach."

Well when Dinny observed that the Hessian's being served

Began just to humbug and gyper

Oh in grandeur they met and their whistles they wet

And like divvils they danced 'round the piper.

Source: Andy M. Stewart & Manus Lunny, Dublin Lady, Green Linnet

DOCTOR FREUD

David Lazar

Oh, it started in Vienna not so very long ago

When not enough folks were getting sick

That a starving young physician tried

To better his position by discovering

What made his patients tick.

 

Chorus:

Oh Doctor Freud, oh Doctor Freud,

How I wish you had been otherwise employed

For this set of circumstances

Sure enhances the finances

Of the followers of Doctor Sigmund Freud.

 

He forgot about sclerosis

But invented the psychosis

And a hundred ways that sex could be enjoyed;

He adopted as his credo,

"Down repression! Up libido!"

And that was the start of Doctor Sigmund Freud.

 

Now he analyzed the dreams

Of the teens and the libertines

And he substituted monologues for pills;

He drew crowds just alike Wells-Sadler

When along came Jung and Adler

Who said, "By God, I think there's gold in them thar hills."

 

They encountered no resistance

When they served as Freud's assistants

As with Ego and with Id they deftly toyed;

And instead of toting bed-pans

They bore analytic dead-pans

Those ambitious Doctors Adler, Jung and Freud.

 

Now the big three have departed

But not the cult they started.

It's been carried along by many a goodly hand;

And to trauma, fugue, and war-shock

Someone went and added Rorschach

Now the whole thing's got completely out of hand.

 

Now old men with double chin-seys

And a million would-be Kinseys

Will discuss it at the end of a repression;

I wouldn't mind complaining

But for all the dough I'm paying

Just to lie on someone's couch

And say confession.

Source: from the singing of Stephen J. Easter

DO YOU LOVE AN APPLE

Triona NiDhomhnaill

Do you love an apple, do you love a pear

Do you love a laddie with curly brown hair

I do, I love him, I can't deny him

I'll be with him where e'er he goes.

 

Before I got married I wore a black shawl

But since I got married I wear coveralls

But still, I love him, I can't deny him

I'll be with him where e'er he goes.

 

He stood at the corner, a fag in his mouth

Two hands in his pockets, he whistled me out

But still, I love him, I can't deny him

I'll be with him where e'er he goes.

 

He works at the pier for nine bob a week

Come Saturday he comes rollin' on home

But still, I love him, I can't deny him

I'll be with him where e'er he goes.

 

Before I got married I'd sport and I'd play

But now the cradle, it gets in me way

But still, I love him, I can't deny him

I'll be with him where e'er he goes.

Repeat first verse.

Source: The Bothy Band

DUMB AS DIRT

Dumb as dirt and twice as mean,

Such a son makes mother crazy.

Foul as sewers I have seen

Ugly, loutish, large and lazy

That's the child I've had to raise, what's a mom to do?

Drag him into an ocean cave, and stay to watch him too.

 

Chorus:

Son of mine, you've been a disappointment since your birth

Now I've got to bury you in this cold Northern earth;

I know you would be sorry if you weren't so very dead

But you never listened to a word I said.

 

Everybody needs to rest, even I get sleepy

Sonny left our little nest, on errands cruel and creepy

Came back with a haunch of man, gnawed down to the bone

Left each night from that day on while I slept like a stone.

 

Vikings gathered in their hall, heroes all in war delighting

When my Grendal came to call, he was met with mighty fighting

One of them took his arm, ripped it off for good

Chased him to our ocean home and killed him where he stood.

 

When I found my wine was spiked it was far too late to aid him

Though there wasn't much I liked, I was often glad I'd made him

So I must avenge him now, what's a mom to do?

If he was yours anyhow, I guess that you would to.

SONGDEDI.doc

THE EARTH'S FIRE BREATHING DAUGHTER

The earth's fire breathing daughter came up from Oakland town

With her high priest and her coven, who had good jobs all around

Now where to find a stretch of land, and a good big house there in

Enough to hold them everyone - where else but Marin?

 

The day that they were moving in, the welcome wagon came

'Twas a guru in a nightshirt, and a wealthy local dame.

They murmered, "Groovy, what's your sign?" "Not now," the priestess said;

"Would you help me haul this freezer in?" The couple turned and fled.

 

Next week the priest went shopping and he came back with a steer

Alive and well and mooing, the couple said, "My dear,

Is this organic lawn control?" "Hell no," the priest did say

"It's our summer solstice sacrifice." The neighbors ran away.

 

The summer solstice ox roast was a blast you couldn't beat

The coven ate and drank and danced, they passed out on their feet

The neighbors peering through the fence yelled, "Where do you think you are?

The nudity and grass are fine, but the dancing goes too far!"

 

The neighbors got together, they said these freaks must go.

They must be smoking Mary Jane, we'll tell the sheriff so

We'll hide our coke and call the law but first lets warn them fair

We'll burn a hot tub on the lawn, then chase them out of there.

 

The sheriff of laid-back county and all his laid-back men

Went roaring up the coven's hill but they never came back again

For the hill did shake and the earth did quake and a mudslide thundered down

A police car model stereo deck was all that anyone found.

 

There is a house in North Marin the locals all ignore

For since the earthquake hit it has no neighbors anymore

But late at night when the moon is bright there's a fire on the hill

And the sound of pipes and laughter where the coven dances still.

Source: Chickasaw Mountain

THE ELFIN KNIGHT'S RIDDLE

Traditional

An elfin knight stands on yon hill

And he blows his trumpet so loud and shrill

 

He blows it east, he blows it west

He blows it where he likes the best

 

Would I'd his trumpet in my chest

And was in the arms of him I love best

 

She has no sooner these words said

Than the Elfin knight stood by her bed

 

'Tis strange my lady for to see

I can scarce blow my horn but you call for me

 

Tell me what is louder than the horn

Tell me what is sharper than the thorn

 

O thunder is louder than the horn

And pain is sharper than the thorn

 

Anger is greener that the grass

And you are worse than e'er woman was

Source: Thomas the Rhymer, Ellen Kushner

ELMA TURL

Mike Cross

Elma Turl was a beautiful girl

I'd love to have her for my wife

She's just the kind of woman

Who could make me happy

For the rest of my life.

But my Daddy said, "Son,

There's something you don't know

And it's something I think you'd ought to.

You see Elma Turl is a beautiful girl,

But Son, she's my daughter."

 

Alice Green is a beautiful thing

I'd love to have her for my wife

She's just the kind of woman

Who could make me happy

For the rest of my life.

But my daddy said. "Son,

There's something you don't know

And it's something I think you'd ought to.

You see Alice Green is a beautiful thing

But Son, she's my daughter."

 

Now I've been all around this country

Like a buck hunting for a doe

And it seems every girl I'd like to marry

Is a wild oat Daddy sowed.

So, I went to my Momma with my head hung down

And she asked me what the matter could be

I told her my problem and she took my hand

And said, "Son, now listen to me.

You see your Daddy is such a good lookin

Young man and like an eager young stallion horse

His blood ran hot so you can't blame him for letting

Mother Nature take her course.

But you've got no reason to be upset,

Don't you worry, don't fret, don't bother

You see your Daddy ain't your Daddy

Like he thinks he is

So you can marry who ever you want to...

Source: Mike Cross, Child Prodigy, Live and Kicking, Boot Hill

THE ENFOLDING

Lui Collins

Deep within this softly moonlit night

We awoke, to find our loves' sweet expression

Unfolding of its own accord.

A touch in gentle sleepiness, a fingertip, a pressing lip,

The kindness of our bodies, speaking softly in the dark.

 

Our love began so tentative; a smiling eye, a voice soft spoken

Touching in a way our lives had never quite been met.

The quiet grace acceptance of the truth within each other,

The meeting of two people, man and woman for all time.

 

So in this night our love unfolds, your body is akin to mine.

Another half once left behind in generations long ago.

To finally meet together, in a silent true immersion.

The natural culmination of a love we can't define.

 

And this loving is a drawing close, a tuning in, an opening

Until one perfect moment; but how can it be expressed?

A receiving, and enfolding as I cradle you in my arms.

Within my heart, within my soul,

You are my true love.

Source: Garnet Rogers, Speaking Softly in the Dark, Snow Goose

EUMENIDES

Leslie Fish

What's packed in my hold is dearer than gold

Revenge is my cargo this day.

You think you have won, but when my job's done

The fury will force you to pay.

My people weren't strong, they'd done you no wrong

They just happened to be in your way.

You take what you seek with contempt for the meek

And your battlefleet came yesterday.

Like the cowards you are, you strike from afar

And death is the harvest you reap.

For all we were brave, no warning you gave

My people you slaughtered like sheep.

 

Alone in the dark, and near to my death

With hate in my heart, and with my final breath

To whatever gods would listen did pray

That they'd witness your crime and they'd force you to pay.

On Terra, long dead, old gods, it is said

Created the furies to fly

Grim justice to seek and revenge for the weak

On those whom the law had passed by.

Those gods heard my plea and granted to me

The means of achieving my goal

I think they are just, for to do what I must

A fury they placed in my soul.

 

Transformed by her hate, now I am your fate

The god's chosen weapon of right

The fury inside will not be denied,

And I seek my vengeance this night.

I've stolen this ship packed with weapons of war

So you will not profit as you have before

Eluding your fleet past your sentries I slip

And the fury has guided me straight to your ship.

She steadies my hand, her tool to command

Accounting you will not deny

Your ship is in sight of my fury led flight

And the fires of my vengeance burn high.

 

What's packed in my hold is dearer than gold

As dear as my people who fell When I ram in your side at the end of my ride

This fury will send you to hell, to hell, this fury will take you to hell!

EVENING FALLS

When the evening falls and the daylight is fading

From within me calls, could it be I am sleeping?

For a moment I stay, then it holds me completely

Close to home - I cannot say

Close to home - feeling so far away.

 

As I walk the room there before me a shadow

From another world were no other can follow

Carry me to my own, to where I can cross over...

Close to home - I cannot say

Close to home - feeling so far away.

 

Forever searching; never right,

I am lost in oceans of night - forever

Hoping I can find memories

Those memories I left behind.

 

Even though I leave will I go on believing

That this time is real - am I lost in this feeling

Like a child passing through, never knowing the reason

I am home, I know the way

I am home, feeling so far away.

Source: Enya, Watermark

EXILE

Cold as the northern winds

in December mornings,

Cold is the cry that rings

from this far distant shore.

 

Winter has come too late,

too close beside me.

How can I chase away

all these fears deep inside?

 

I'll wait the signs to come

I'll find a way

I'll wait the time to come

I'll find a way home.

 

My light shall be the moon

and my path the ocean

My guide the morning star

as I sail home to you.

 

I'll wait the signs to come

I'll find a way

I will wait the time to come

I'll find a way home.

 

Who then can warm my soul?

Who can quell my passion?

Out of these dreams - a boat

I will sail home to you.

Source: Enya, Watermark

F.A.P.

(FELINE AMERICAN PRINCESS)

Leslie Fish

Aren't I kind to allow to live in my house

Aren't I gracious to grant you the use of my chair

Aren't I wonderful when I give you a dead mouse

Aren't I utterly, totally beyond compare

And don't you admire the virtues you see

In marvelous, lovely, magnificent me-ow, me-e-e-ow-ow-ow, me-ow, me-e-e-ow

 

I will carefully shed just selected dark hair

When I lie on all the clean laundry you did

And the dark hair will go when I bother to lair

On black velvet, where they can't be brushed off or hid

They look so much better that way you'll agree

They'll remind you of lovely, magnificent me-ow, me-e-e-ow-ow-ow, me-ow, me-e-e-ow

 

If you try to insist that I live on dry food

I will either look thin and pathetic and sad

Or I just might do something disgusting and rude

Such as eat it and throw up all over your bed

Only chicken and liver and fish naturally

Are fit for the palette of marvelous me-ow, me-e-e-ow-ow-ow, me-ow, me-e-e-ow

 

I really don't understand why should look

At anything else or have things in your hands

So I'll patiently sit on your papers and books

To suggest that you treat me as my rank demands

You really should pet me when your hands are free

It's a privilege to fondle magnificent me-ow, me-e-e-ow-ow-ow, me-ow, me-e-e-ow

 

For just when you're maddest at something I've done

I'll go do something else that's so touching and sweet

So charming, adorable, silly or fun

It'll just knock the stockings right off of your feet

Now you know you can't win so why fight it you see

I know you're a sucker for marvelous me

Source: Mercedes Lackey, Magic, Moondust & Melancholy, Firebird A&B

FAIR ELEANOR

Ellen Kushner

My love built me a bonny bower

So sweetly set with the lily flower

A finer bower you ne'er did see

Than my true love he built for me.

 

It was my mother's deadly spite

For she sent thieves in the dark of night

Put my servants all to flight

They broke mt bower, they slew my knight.

 

They swore to do to me no harm

But they slew my baby in my arms

Left me naught to wrap him in

But the bloody sheet that he lay in.

 

They left me naught to dig his grave

But the bloody sword that slew my babe

She buried him, herself alone

She buried him, making her moan.

 

And think you not her heart was sore

As she laid the mold on his yellow hair?

And think you not her heart was woe

When she turned about, away to go?

 

I cut my hair, I changed my name

From Fair Eleanor to Sweet William

Went to court to serve my King

As the famous flower of servingmen.

 

So well I served my lord the King

That he made me his chamberlain

He loved me as his own son

The famous flower of servingmen.

 

But all at night to myself alone

It's there I sit and grieve my song:

Alas the day that I became

The famous flower of servingmen.

 

Our king is to the hunting gone

Taking no lords nor gentlemen

To follow after yon white dove

He's hunted over hill and grove.

 

He's hunted up, he's hunted down

As through the wood it made its moan,

"Alas the day my love became

The famous flower of servingmen."

 

The king stood fast, all in amaze

So loud unto the dove he says,

"Come pretty bird, what means this rain

This mourning for my servingman?"

 

"Oh it was her mother's deadly spite

For she sent thieves in the dark of night

Put her servants all to flight

They broke her bower, they slew her knight.

 

"She cut her hair, she changed her name

From Fair Eleanor to Sweet William.

Went to the court to serve her king

As the famous flower of servingmen."

 

The king, having discovered this, marries Eleanor on the day her mother is

burned for her deed. The knight's soul, so long imprisoned in the dove, is at

last free to go to heaven. The fairie queen's spell is broken.

Source: Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner

THE FANAID GROVE

Twas on a winter's evening when first came down the snow,

O'er hills and lofty mountains, the stormy winds did blow;

A damsel she came tripping down all in a drift of snow,

With a baby in her snow-white arms she knew not where to go.

 

Hard-hearted was my father that shut the door on me

And more so was my mother for plainly she did see

That dark and stormy was the night, it pierced my heart with cold

And cruel was that false young man that sold his love for gold.

 

Unto a quiet grove she went and there she did kneel down

Turning her eyes to heaven in sorrow she made moan

She kissed the baby's cold, cold lips and laid it by her side

And in that silent fanaid grove in lonely grief she died.

FAREWEEL TAE TARWATHIE

Fareweel tae Tarwathie, adieu Mormond Hill,

And the dear land o' Crimond, I bid ye fareweel.

I'm bound out for Greenland and ready to sail

In hopes to find riches in hunting the whale.

 

Adieu to my comrades, for a while we must part

And likewise the dear lass who first won my heart;

The cold ice of Greenland my love will not chill

And the longer my absence, more loving she'll feel.

 

Our ship is well-rigged and she's ready to sail,

Our crew they are anxious tae follow the whale;

Where the icebergs do float and the winds blaw

Where the land and the ocean are covered with snaw.

 

The cold coast of Greenland is barren and bare,

No seed time nor harvest is ever known there;

And the birds here swing sweetly on mountain and dale

But there isna a birdie to sing to the whale.

 

There is no habitation for a man to live there

And the king of that country is the fierce Greenland bear;

And there'll be no temptation to tarry long there,

Wi' our ship bumper full, we will homeward repair.

Source: Hubert Hughes, Irish Country Songs - County Donegal

FAREWELL TO NOVA SCOTIA

The sun was setting in the west

The birds were singing on every tree

All of nature seemed inclined for to rest

But still there was no rest for me

 

Chorus:

Farewell to Nova Scotia, the seabound coast

Let your mountains dark and dreary be

But when I am far away on the briny ocean tossed

Will you ever heave a sigh and a wish for me

 

I grieve to leave my native land

I grieve to leave my comrades all

My aging parents who I always held so dear

And the bonny, bonny lass I do adore

 

The drums are beating, the horns do alarm

The captain calls and we must obey

So farewell, farewell to Nova Scotia's charms

For it's earlie in the morning I am far, far away

 

I have three brothers and they're at rest

Their arms are folded upon their breast

But a poor simple sailor just like me

Must be tossed and driven on the dark blue sea

Source: Touchstone, The New Land, Green Linnet

FERRYMAN

A harsh wind hammered and bent down the trees

'Til they moaned and they wailed in the dark.

A wind cold and bitter and wiser as that,

As cruel as the jaws of the shark

So high ran the river, so heavy and wild

The waves were as high as the sea's

A fool could have seen it was no night to be

Out earning a ferryman's fee.

 

Chorus:

Ferryman, ferryman, won't you be kind?

My mother and father are waiting for me.

Ferryman, ferryman, take me across

Though I haven't the price of your fee.

 

She stood there alone on the cold, heaving dock

She was pale and she trembled with fear.

Her hands were clenched white as the moon on her breast

As she waited his answer to hear.

Although it's no night to be crossing, he said

For their sake I'll take you aboard

They must be near dying with worry for you

And one fare I'll easily afford.

 

The ferry fought hard, it bucked, yawed and rolled

With the waves surging over the bow.

Grimly the old pilot clung to the tiller

And steered the craft over somehow.

The wind-lashed young maiden stood near to the rail

Her eyes fixed upon the far side

She seemed not to notice the wind or the waves

That threatened to finish their ride.

 

By fate or by whim of old blind lady luck

He brought them in safely to shore.

The young girl turned round, and she took off her shawl

Saying I haven't anything more

But I'll bring you your money tomorrow, I swear

Tomorrow at first morning light.

Until then keep this as a trust of my pledge

And she disappeared into the night.

 

I hear that the ghost has been walking again

The passenger said with a yawn.

Oh yes sir, it has, said the pilot who took

The old ferry's tiller at dawn.

The annual storm that sank this ferry's twin

Came down just the same time last year

And now any night that a high wind comes up

That spirit is like to appear.

 

A ghost on the ferry, his second fare asked

A young girl who paled with fright.

Oh yes miss, and that's why we can't hire a pilot

Who will dare take the ferry at night.

Eleven poor souls there were lost on that night

And it seems that there's one that can't rest

Some duty of conscience still binds it to earth

Some promise, or sin unconfessed.

 

They're buried up there on the river's far shore

You can see all the graves plain from here.

The pilot's the last one... he cut off his words

As the young maiden cried out in fear.

They stared where she pointed her pale, trembling hand

And there on the shore they could see

Her shawl lay folded on the old pilot's grave

Her pledge for the ferryman's fee.

Source: Chickasaw Mountain

FINAL TRAWL

Archie Fisher

It's been three long years since we made her pay

Sing haul away, my laddie-o

And we can't get by on the subsidy,

Sing haul away, my laddie-o.

 

So now you heave away for the final trawl

It's an easy pull for the catch is small.

 

And then you take your gear, lad, and batten down

And I'll take her wheel, lad, and turn her 'round.

 

And we'll join the Venture and the Morningstar

Riding high and empty towards the bar.

 

For I'd rather beach her on the Skerry rock

Then to see her torched in the breaker's dock.

 

Then when I die, you can stow me down

In her rusty hold where the breakers sound.

 

And then I'll make the haven of the Fiddler's Green

Where the grub is good and the bunks are clean.

 

For I've fished a lifetime, boy and man

And this final trawl scarcely makes a cran.

 

And it's been three long years since we made her pay

And we can't get by on the subsidy.

 

Sing haul away, my laddie-o

Source: Garnet Roger, Garnet Rogers, Snow Goose & Archie Fisher, Off the Map, Snow Goose

FISHERMAN'S WHARF

Stan Rogers

It was in the spring, this year of grace,

With new life pushing through

That I looked from the Citadel down to the Narrows

And asked what it's coming to?

I saw upper Canadian concrete and glass

Right down to the water line

And I heard an old song down on fisherman's wharf

Can I sing it just one time?

Can I sing it just one time?

 

With half-closed eyes against the sun,

To the warm wind giving thanks

I dreamed of the days of the deep-laden schooners

Thrashing home from the Grand Banks.

The last lies, done, in the harbour sun

With her picture on a dime

And I heard an old song down on fisherman's wharf

Can I sing it just one time?

 

Then haul away and sheet her home!

That song is heard no more

No boats to sing it for. No sails to sing it for.

There rises now a single tide of tourists passing through

We traded old ways for the new, old ways for the new

For the new.

 

"So," you ask,"What's this romantic boy

Who laments what's done and gone?

There was no romance on a cold winter ocean

And the gales sang an awful song."

But my fathers knew of wind and tide

And my blood is maritime

And I heard an old song down on fisherman's wharf

Can I sing it just one time?

Can I sing it just one time?

Source: Stan Rogers, Fogarty's Cove, Fogarty's Cove

FOREVER AUTUMN

Jeff Wayne, Gary Osborne, Paul Virgrass

The summer sun is fading

As the year grows old

And darker days are drawing near.

The winter winds will be much colder

Now you're not here.

 

I watch the birds fly south

Across the autumn sky

And one by one they disappear

I wish that I was flying with them

Now you're not here.

 

Like the sun through the trees

You came to love me.

Like a leaf on a breeze

You blew away.

 

Through autumn's golden gown

We used to kick our way

You always loved this time of year

Those fallen leaves lie undisturbed now,

'Cause you're not here.

 

A gentle rain falls softly

On my weary eyes

As if to hide a lonely tear

My life will be forever autumn

'Cause you're not here.

Source: Jeff Wayne, War of the Worlds

FORTY-FIVE YEARS

Stan Rogers

Where the earth shows its bones of wind-broken stone

And the sea and sky are one

I'm caught out of time, my blood sings with wine

And I'm running naked in the sun

There's God in the trees and I'm weak in the knees

And the sky is a painful blue

I'd like to look around, but Honey, all I see is you.

 

The summer city lights will soften the night

'Til you think that the air is clear

And I'm sitting with friends where forty-five cents

Will buy another glass of beer

He's got something to say, but I'm so far away

That I don't know who I'm talking to

'Cause you just walked through the door,

And Honey, all I see is you.

 

And I just want to hold you closer than I've ever held anyone before

You say you've been twice a wife and you're through with life

Ah, but Honey, what the hell's it for?

After twenty-three years you think I could find

A way to let you know somehow

That I want to see your smiling face forty-five years from now.

 

Alone in the lights on stage every night

I've been reaching out to find a friend

Who knows all the words, sings so she's heard

And knows how all the stories end.

Maybe after the show she'll ask me to go

Home with her for a drink or two

Now her smile lights her eyes,

But Honey, all I see is you.

 

And I just want to hold you closer than I've ever held anyone before

You say you've been twice a wife and you're through with life

Ah, but Honey, what the hell's it for?

After twenty-three years you'd think I could find

A way to let you know somehow

That I want to see your smiling face forty-five years from now.

Source: Stan Rogers, Fogarty's Cove, Fogarty's Cove

FOR THE HONOR OF THE EAST

by Siobhan ni Coinneach

to the tune of "Brennen on the Moor"

 

Oh from out of the shires and baronies and cantons do we come

Brave, loyal East realm warriors to make the Midrealm glum!

With many a doughty ally will we give the Dragon grief

And leave him quaking in our wake just like an aspen leaf

For the honor of the East! For the honor of the East!

The great Tyger roars his war-call for the honor of the East!

 

Oh the Dragon snarls, and waves his tail, and puts on a brave front

And says the East realm Tyger is the prey that he will hunt.

Upon the morrow's battlefield we'll see that Dragon pause,

And whimper at the sharpness of the mighty Tyger's claws!

For the honor of the East! For the honor of the East!

The great Tyger roars his war-call for the honor of the East!

 

Oh the banners wave above the field, the battle fever's high

The morning sun of Pennsic is rising in the sky!

The marshall's let us at the foe, with death gripped in our paws -

Beware, you Midrealm Dragon, we're the Tyger's teeth and claws!

For the honor of the East! For the honor of the East!

The great Tyger roars his war-call for the honor of the East!

 

Dame Fortune does not always show her smile to the brave

And war's a chancy maid to court who'll tease you to your grave!

But if we stand, or if we fall, the outcome's still the same -

We are the Eastrealm's loyal sons, and proud to bear the name!

For the honor of the East! For the honor of the East!

The great Tyger roars his war-call for the honor of the East!

Source: Concordia Songbook

THE FOUR LETTER WORDS

Chorus:

The four letter words, the four letter words

They never say quite what you mean.

I'd rather be known for my hypocrite ways

Than vulgar, impure and obscene.

 

When nature is calling, plain speaking is out

When ladies, Lord love them, are milling about

So you may wee-wee, make water, or green up the grass

You may powder your nose, even Johnny may pass

Shake the dew off the lily, see a man 'bout a dog

Or when everyone's soused try condensing the fog

But please do remember if you would know bliss

That only in Shakespeare do characters ____.

 

Now a lady has bosoms, a bust, or a breast

Those lily-white swellings, that bulge 'neath her vest

They are towers of ivory, sheaves of new wheat

In moments of passion, ripe apples to eat

You may speak of her nipples as fingers of fire

With nary a question of raising her ire

But by Rabelais' beard she will throw several fits

If you speak of them roundly as good honest ____.

 

When a lady oppose your advance she'll be kind

As long as you intimate what's on your mind

You may tell her you're hungry, you need to be swung

You may ask her to see how your etchings are hung

You may speak of the ashes that need to be hauled

Put a lid on the saucepan, even lay's not too bold

But the moment you're forthright get ready to duck

For the girl isn't born yet who'll stand for "Let's ____!"

Source: The singing of Lady Caitrin Gordon

FOUR NIGHTS DRUNK

Now as I come home so drunk I couldn't see, oh

There I saw a horse. Where mine own horse should be.

I says unto my wife, "Tell this to me, oh

How come the horse there? No horse should there be."

"You old fool, you silly old fool! Can't you plainly see, oh?

Nothing but a milk-cow me mother sent to me, oh."

I expect I've travelled ten thousand miles or more, oh

Saddle on a milk cow I've never seen before, oh.

 

Now as I come home so drunk I couldn't see, oh

There I saw some boots. Where mine own boots should be.

I says unto my wife, "Tell this to me, oh

How come the boots there? No boots should there be."

"You old fool, you silly old fool! Can't you plainly see, oh?

Nothing but a flowerpot me mother sent to me, oh."

I expect I've travelled ten thousand miles or more, oh

Laces on a flowerpot I've never seen before, oh.

 

Now as I come home so drunk I couldn't see, oh

There I saw a hat. Where mine own hat should be.

I says unto my wife, "Tell this to me, oh

How come a hat there? No hat should there be."

"You old fool, you silly old fool! Can't you plainly see, oh?

Nothing but a chamberpot me mother sent to me, oh."

I expect I've travelled ten thousand miles or more, oh

Sweat band on a chamberpot I've never seen before, oh.

 

Now as I come home so drunk I couldn't see, oh

There I saw a man's head. Where mine own head should be.

I says unto my wife, "Tell this to me, oh

How come a man there? No man should there be."

"You old fool! You silly old fool! Can't you plainly see, oh?

Nothing but a baby that me mother sent to me, oh."

I expect I've travelled ten thousand miles or more, oh

Whiskers on a baby I've never seen before, oh.

GATHERING PACE

Triona Ni Dhomhnaill

It's on a day like today

When time's in the wind

To be blown away;

And it's easy to forget

At a time like this

That a momentary phrase

Can last, can last me for days...

And your words are not new,

But somehow they'll do

For what you have to say

Will take, will take my heart away.

 

And what seemed right for this song

I've found to be here in you all along;

And the movement comes free

As you're nearer to me,

And your voice brings out a sound

That turns everything around...

And your words are not grace,

But their pattern's like lace

And I look on your face

And things are gathering, gathering pace...

Source: Relativity, Gathering Pace, Green Linnet

GAELIC BLESSING

Traditional

Deep peace of the running wave to you

Deep peace of the flowing air to you

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you

Deep peace of the shining stars to you

Deep peace of the gentle night to you

Moon and stars shine their healing light on you

Deep peace to you.

GAUDETE

Traditional

Piae Cantiones c. 1582

Gaudete, gaudete. Christus est natus

Ex Maria, virgine, gaudete

 

Tempus ad est gratie

Hoc quod optabamus

Carmine laetitae

Devote redamus

 

Deus homo factus est

 

Naturam erante

Mundus renovatus est

A Christo regante

 

Ezecheelis porta clausa

Per transitor

Unde lux est orta

Sallus invenitor

 

Ergo nostra conti

Psallat jam in lustro

Benedicat domino

Sallus regi nostro

Source: Steeleye Span, Below the Salt, Chrysalis

GIANT

Stan Rogers

Cold wind on the harbor and rain on the road

Wet promise of winter brings recourse to coal

There's fire in the blood and a fog on Bras d'Or

The giant will rise with the moon.

 

'Twas the same ancient fever in the Isles of the Blessed

That our fathers brought with them when they went west

It's the blood of the Druids that never will rest

The giant will rise with the moon.

 

So crash the glass down! Move with the tide!

Young friends and old whiskey are burning inside.

Crash the glass down! Fingal will rise

With the moon.

 

In inclement weather the people are fey

Three thousand year stories as the night slips away

Remembering Fingal feels not far away

The giant will rise with the moon.

 

The wind's from the north, there be new moon tonight

And we have no circles to dance in it's sight

So light a torch, bring the bottle, and build the fire bright

The giant will rise with the moon.

 

So crash the glass down! Move with the tide!

Young friends and old whiskey are burning inside.

Crash the glass down! Fingal will rise

With the moon.

Source: Stan Rogers, Fogarty's Cove, Fogarty's Cove

GIL-SHALLOS

Leslie Fish

"Marry a doctor, and raise some kids," that's what your parents said.

They threw you out when you turned away to the life of a scholar instead.

Now you stand here watching the Keep of Dare with a thoughtful and worried brow

Gil Patterson, what would your parents say if they could see you now?

 

The history scholar who came to dream of a dark and haunted land

Learned dreams were true from a wizard who came to beg for a haven he'd planned

To hide in your world his infant prince; you agreed without taking much thought

But the dark came hunting across the void heading you to the prey they sought.

 

He pulled you to safety into his world; the dark blocked all return.

Since you were no wizard then to survive the art of the sword you had learned.

Gone was the scholar who lived her life in the world inside of her head

And in her place the warrior maid Gil-Shallos stood instead.

 

The Royal Guard took you to its ranks; you grew tough and battle scarred.

All trace of weakness was burned away like a weapon that's tempered hard.

All the intensity you once paid to the search for knowledge and truth

Has been re-aimed at survival now taking with it the last of your youth.

 

Hunger and fear have stiffened your spine, pain is a fact of life

Sleep brings only uneasy dreams, waking brings struggle and strife.

It was no magic that forced the change, but agony, laughter and tears

And you're half in love with that half mad mage of easily twice your years.

 

But you've got a home with the Royal Guard and you wear their silver and black

Do you wonder now if you had the chance if you'd still choose to go back?

And you pace the walls of the Keep of Dare with a troubled and pensive brow.

Gil-Shallos what would your old friends say if they could see you now.

Source: Mercedes Lackey, Magic, Moondust & Melancholy, Firebird A&M

GOD BLESS COWBOYS

Me and my uncle went riding down

From Colorado, west Texas bound,

And we stopped off in Santa Fe,

It bein' part about half way

And besides it was the hottest part of the day.

 

We led our ponies into a stall

Went to a bar, bought drinks for all.

Two days in the saddle, my body hurt;

It bein' summer, took off my shirt

And tried to wash off some of that dusty dirt.

 

 

West Texas cowboys all over town,

With gold and silver, were loaded down

Just in from roundup, it seemed a shame

So my uncle starts a friendly game

High low jacks, and the winner takes the game.

 

From the beginning, uncle starts to win.

Them Texas cowboys, they was mad as sin.

They say he's cheatin', but that can't be

For my uncle, he's honest as me

And I'm as honest as a Denver man can be.

 

One of those cowboys, he starts to draw

I grabbed a bottle, slapped him on the jaw.

I shot another, he won't grow old.

In the confusion, Uncle grabbed the gold

And we hightailed it off to Mexico.

 

Now God bless cowboys, and God bless gold.

God bless my uncle, and rest his soul.

He taught me well boys, taught me all I know;

Taught me so well that I grabbed the gold

And left him laying there by the side of the road.

Source: Judy Collins

GOD BLESS THE HUMAN ELBOW

From the singing of Oak, Ash, and Thorn

 

God bless the human elbow

God bless it where it bends

If it bent too short

We'd be dry, I fear

If it bent too long

We'd be drinking in our ears

So, God bless it where it bends.

GOD IF I SAW HER NOW

Anthony Phillips

"Rest your head my love;

Rest your tired limbs;

Leave your mind at peace, at peace, at peace,

What are you thinking now?"

 

"Thinking of a girl

As golden as the sun

She loved me not like you, like you, like you.:

"Pray do you love me more?"

 

"It's hard to say for sure.

A child, sixteen, was I

Both virgins did we buy, we buy, we buy."

"You loved her more than me."

 

Bridge

 

"She left me one dark night

She took my heart for free

I've seen her not since then, since then, since then,

God if I saw her now."

Source: Anthony Phillips, The Geese and the Ghost, Passport

GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN

From a poem by W.B. Yeats

I went out into the hazelwood

Because a fire was in my head.

Cut and peeled a hazel wand

And hooked a berry to a thread.

 

And when white moths were on the wing

And moth-like stars were flickering out

I dropped the berry in a stream

And caught a little, silver trout.

 

When I had laid it on the ground

And gone to blow the fire aflame,

Something rustled on the floor

And someone called my by my name.

 

It had become a glimmering girl

With apple blossoms in her hair

Who called my by my name and ran

And vanished in the brightening air.

 

Though I am old with wandering

Through hollow lands and hilly lands

I will find out where she's gone

And see her lips and take her hands.

 

And walk through long green dappled grass

And pluck 'til time and times are done

The silver apples of the moon

The golden apples of the sun.

Source: Judy Collins, So Early in the Spring

GOLDEN EYES

Heather Alexander

A shadow in the bright bazaar, a glimpse of eyes where none should shine

A glimpse of eyes translucent gold and slitted against the sun.

This the clue and this the sign that sets him on his quarry's line

But she has seen him in a dream and now she's on the run.

 

Faster than a thought she flees and seeks the jungle's sheltering trees

But he is steady on her track and half a breath behind.

She tastes his scent upon the breeze and looking past her shoulder sees

He treads upon her shadow she fears the hunter's mind.

 

So now she summons all her wit and every trick she knows to hide

To make him lose the twisting track to throw him off her trail.

In woman form, in leopard hide, folding, leaping side to side

She doubles back along her track and sees her efforts fail.

 

He stands before her dark and grim her terror now she can't suppress

He blocks the only pathway out and will not let her by.

Her gold flanks heaving in distress, half woman and half leopardess

To either side nowhere to hide it's time to fight or die.

 

But what is this? To her amaze the man has thrown his gun away

And quietly draws nearer now, a smile upon his face

Before she thinks to run or stay his body blurs like softened clay

Before her eyes to her surprise, a leopard in his place.

 

The hunter they have sought in vain now the talk of the bizarre

Is of the canny leopard pair, a sight none will forget

Who once has seen them near or far in sunlight or where shadows are

As side by side they hunt and hide; no-one has caught them yet.

Source: Mercedes Lackey, Magic, Moondust & Melancholy, Firebird A&

GOLDEN, GOLDEN

Andy M. Stewart

Slowly, slowly walk that path

And you might ne'er stumble or fall.

Slowly, slowly walk that path

And you might never fall in love at all.

 

Chorus:

Golden, golden is her hair

Like the morning sun over fields of corn

Golden, golden flows her love

So sweet and clear and warm

 

Lonely, lonely is the heart

That ne'er a lover can call its own.

Lonely, lonely lies the heart

That has to live all alone.

 

Wildy, wildly beats the heart

With a rush of love like a mountain stream.

Wildly, wildly play your part

As free as a wild heart's dream.

Source: Silly Wizard, Kiss the Tears Away

GOODBYE MY LOVE

The space shuttle pilot lies dreaming

Of adventures come the dawn;

His lover weeps, she cannot sleep.

Tomorrow he'll be gone.

 

Chorus:

Goodbye my love, minus ten and counting

The launch fires flame and roar.

Goodbye my love, going into orbit

On the wings of the future you'll soar.

 

A man confronts his destiny

Accepts what must be done.

A challenge faced in open space

For his unborn daughters and sons.

 

Bound away beyond the atmosphere

To sail infinity's sky.

A man's heart sings a wonder of wings

While planet-bound lovers cry.

 

A woman understands the secret

Desires and needs of men.

She knows someday he'll choose to stay

And never return from orbit again.

 

And I'll be waiting here, missing you

Until-planet bound lovers go orbiting too.

Source: Mercedes Lackey???

THE GOOD OLD WAY

John Cennick (1718-1755)

Lift up your hearts Emmanuel's friends

And taste the pleasure that Jesus sends.

Let nothing cause you to delay

But hasten in the good old way.

 

Chorus:

For I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul

I have a sweet hope of glory in my soul

For I know I have, and I feel I have

A sweet hope of glory in my soul.

 

Our conflicts ere the great day be

Shall not prevent our victory.

If we but strive and watch and pray

Like soldiers in the good old way.

 

Though Satan may his spells employ

Our happiness for to destroy

But never fear we'll gain the day

By marching in the good old way.

 

Ye valiant souls for Heaven contend

Remember glory is at the end.

Our God will wipe our tears away

When we have run in the good old way.

 

And far beyond this mortal shore

We'll meet with those who have gone before

And shout to think we'll gain the day

By marching in the good old way.

Source: Clam Chowder, Stewed, The Watersons, For Pence and Spicy Ale, Topic

THE GREEN MIST

Cathy Lesurf

Oh daughter, you look so pake and wan

As the frost is white on the window pane

When lately you bloomed in the summer sun

When will we see you smile again?

 

I am so cold and I am so dark

The frost lies hard on furrow and tree

How can I sing like the gentle lark

'Til the green mist brings the springtime to me.

 

Daughter the spring is coming soon

We'll see the fields stand green again

We'll leap and dance out under the moon

And we'll watch for the green mist over the fen.

 

I danced on the green when the cowslips bloomed

And the wind blew soft on leaf and tree

I long to see the golden burn

And I feel it will come too late for me.

 

But if I could see the flowers again

Hear the birds sing as they fly

See the cowslips dance in the sun

Well, then I would wither and gladly I'd die.

 

Daughter, daughter, mind what you say

The wind blows, whispering, over the fen

Your sickness will pass like the break of day

When the green mist brings the springtime again.

 

And though she was thin and though she was pale

As tender shoots in April time

When the earth and grew green, she smiled and was hale

And she laughed and she sang in the warm sunshine.

 

And by there came a fine young man

As the rose that holds the morning dew

They walked together hand in hand

And they walked out the gate where the cowslips bloomed.

 

There they talked and there they planned

As the sun sank red in the evening sky

And he held a cowslip in his hand

And the flower bloomed and began to die.

 

Her face was pale and deadly white

As the stars climbed over the willow tree

Oh, Mother, I will die tonight

Come and make my bed for me.

 

And on her breast the flower lay

As the evening mist fell softly around

As the light failed then so did they

As gently as the moon goes down.

 

Oh, Daughter, you look so pale and wan

The wind goes whispering over the fen

When lately you bloomed in the summer sun

When will we see you smile again?

Source: The Albion Band, Light Shining, Albino

GREENSLEVES

Traditional

Chorus:

Greensleves was all my joy;

Greensleves was my delight.

Greensleves was my heart of gold;

And who but my lady, Greensleves.

 

Alas! My love you do me wrong

To cast me off discourteously;

And I have loved you for so long

Delighting in your company.

 

I have been ready at your hand

To grant whatever you would crave.

I have both waged life and land

Your love and good will for to have.

 

I have brought the kerchers to thy head

That were wrought fine and gallantly

I kept thee both at board and bead

Which cost my purse most favouredly.

 

Thy smock of gold so crimson red

With pearls bedecked sumptuously;

The like no other lasses had

And yet, thou woulds't not love me.

 

I brought thee petticoats of the best

The cloth so fine as fine might be.

I gave thee jewels for thy chest

And all this cost I spent on thee.

 

Thy gown was of the grassy green

The sleeves of satin hangin by;

Which made thee be our harvest queen

And yet, thou woulds't no love me.

 

Thy smock of silk, both faire and white

With gold embroidered gorgeously.

Thy petticoat of sendal right

And these I bought thee gladly.

 

Thou coulds't desire no earthly thing

But still thou hads't it readily

Thy music still to play and sing

And yet, thou woulds't not love me.

 

My gayest gelding I thee gave

To ride wherever thou liked thee.

No lady ever was so brave

And yet, thou woulds't not love me.

 

My men were clothed all in green

And they did ever wait on thee.

And this was gallant to be seen

And yet, thou woulds't not love me.

 

For every morning when thou rose

I sent the dainties orderly

To cheer thy stomach from all woes

And yet, thou woulds't not love me.

 

Well, I will pray to God on high

That thou my constancy mays't see;

And that yet once before I die

Thou will vouch safe to love me.

 

Greensleves, now farewell! Adieu!

God I pray to prosper thee.

For I am still your lover true

Come once again and love me.

GYPSY SONG

Ralph McTell

Our fathers our from India come,

And stopped where they found water.

And the Giorgio boys with their greedy eyes they coveted our daughters.

They coveted our daughters.

And the moon shone into the sea

and crossed our paths will silver

There was music at night and the dark outside

And the music made you shiver, to be a Gypsy.

 

Across the desert our fathers come,

A dancing boy, a mare, a drum

And the Giorgio boys with their greedy eyes, they coveted our freedom.

They coveted our freedom.

And we fit in your landscape as

the six to their five senses

And the pastured close, and the traveller knows

That the world's cut up by fences, to catch a Gypsy.

 

Now the colors fade on the caravans

And all roads bend and change.

And the Vigilantes move on us, but still we do remain

And why do we remain?

For you roads only keep us on

the paths that we have chosen.

When it's cold at night and the fire won't light

And the children's hands are frozen, and it's hard to be a Gypsy.

 

Oh the fire that burns, the cage, the key

The dancer of delight.

The flame that burns behind your eyes still flickers in your sight

Still flickers in your sight.

And you may die of cold because

the path that you have chosen

Has warmed your hands but not your heart,

And left your cold souls frozen, let the Gypsy dance.

 

Now if the Gypsy cannot dance,

In your heart you may discover

That the fire needs air to burn

Or soon it'll be all over.

Source: Garnet Rogers, The Outside Track, Snow Goose

HAAKON GOT RUN OVER BY A SHEILD WALL

Horsa the Lost

Chorus:

Haakon got run over by a shield wall

Walking cross the field one Pennsic eve.

Now you can say there's no such place as Mid Realm,

But as for mighty Haakon he believes.

 

He'd been drinking to much Bear Paw,

And we begged him not to go,

But he'd left Binder in the field,

And he staggered out although we hollered "Hold".

 

Chorus

 

When we found him the next morning,

At the scene of the attack,

He had duct tape on his forehead,

And incriminating red tape on his back.

 

Chorus

 

Now we're all so proud of Eleanor,

She's been taking this so well,

See her sitting in the corner,

Sewing garb and using Boris as a pell.

 

Chorus

 

Now the feast is on the table,

Of the food take a taste,

Light the gold and silver candles,

That would just have matched the belt round Haakon's waist.

 

Chorus

 

It's not Pennsic without Haakon,

All the East is dressed in black,

And we just can't help but wonder,

Should we forfeit to the Mid or drive them back. (DRIVE THEM BACK)

 

Chorus

Source: The singing of Grace Cecil

HALLELUJAH! (THE GREAT STORM IS OVER)

Bob Franke

The thunder and lightning gave voice to the night

The little lame child cried aloud in her fright

"Hush little baby, a story I'll tell

Of love that has vanquished the powers of Hell."

 

Hallelujah! The great storm is over!

Lift up your wings and fly!

 

Sweetness in the air, and justice on the wind

Laughter in the house where the mourners have been.

The deaf shall have music, the blind have new eyes

The standards of Death taken down by surprise.

 

"Hush little baby, let go of your fear

The Lord loves his own, your mother is near."

The child fell asleep as the lantern did burn

Her mother sang on, 'til her bridegroom's return.

Source: Garnet Rogers, Speaking Softly in the Dark, Snow Goose

HALLOW'S DIRGE

Let me teach you to wonder and worry

Permit me to tell you how to wage ware

A creature's reach should exceed its grasp

Or what's a heaven for?

 

I'll show you the way to take thought for tomorrow

To struggle for dreams, and to hunger for more

A creature's right should outrun its might

Or what are the heavens for?

 

Taste of the fruit of the tree that is knowledge

Of good and of evil and all the world's lore

A creature's thought must exceed what its taught

Or who are the heavens for?

 

So come here and learn to live as the gods are

For I've got a wonderful secret to tell

A creature's reach should exceed its grasp

What else is heaven or hell?

HARD TIMES COME AGAIN NO MORE

Stephen C. Foster

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears

While we all sup sorrow with the poor;

There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;

Oh! Hard times come again no more.

 

'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary;

Hard times, hard times, come again no more;

Many days you have lingered around my cabin door,

Oh! Hard times come again no more.

 

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,

There are frail forms fainting at the door;

Though their voices are silent,

Their pleading looks will say,

Oh! Hard times come again no more.

 

'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary;

Hard times, hard times, come again no more;

Many days you have lingered around my cabin door,

Oh! Hard times come again no more.

Source: DeDannan?

HARRIS AND THE MARE

Stan Rogers

Harris, my old friend, good to see your face again.

More welcome, though, yon trap and that old mare,

For the wife is in a swoon and I am all alone.

Harris, fetch thy mare and bring us home.

 

The wife and I went out for a quiet glass of stout

And a word or two with neighbors in the room.

But young Cleary, he came in, as drunk and wild as sin

And swore the wife would leave the place with him.

 

But the wife as quick as thought, said, "No, I'll bloody not!"

And struck the brute a blow about the head.

He raised an ugly paw and he lashed her on the jaw

And she fell to the floor like she were dead.

 

Now, Harris,you well know, I've never struck an angry blow;

Nor would I keep a friend who raised his hand.

I was a "Conshie" in the war, crying, "What the hell's this for?"

But I had to see his blood to be a man.

 

I took him by his coat, spun him round, and took his throat

And beat his head upon the parlour door.

He dragged out an awful knife and roared, "I'll have your life!"

Then he struck me and I fell onto the floor.

 

Blood I was from neck to thigh, bloody murder in his eye,

And he shouted out, "I'll finish you for sure!"

But as the knife came down, I lashed out from the ground

And the knife was in his breast when he rolled o'er.

 

With the wife as cold as clay, I carried her away

No hand was raised to help us through the door.

And I've brought her half a mile but I've had to rest awhile

And none of them I'll call the friend the more.

 

For when the knife came down, I was helpless on the ground.

No neighbor stayed his hand; I was alone.

By God! I was man, but now I cannot stand

Please, Harris, fetch thy mare and take us home.

 

Oh, Harris fetch thy mare and take us out of here

In my nine and fifty years I'd never known

That to call myself a man for my loved one I must stand

Now, Harris, fetch thy mare and take us home.

Source: Stan Rogers, Between the Breaks, Live, Fogarty's Cove

HARVEST DANCE

Don now the wreath of gold and bear the torches in the cold

Through the brown and barren fields, where the fairies have trod.

Press the lights into the soil, and round the circle writhe and coil

For the abundant yield. Thanks be unto the God!

Bear the baskets filled with grain, oats and barley and rye.

Hide them from the pouring rain, soon to darken the sky.

 

Chorus:

Round and around and around we go, sometimes fast and sometimes slow;

Round and around and around the ring, of the summer-born king.

 

Old Gods are standing here to watch the turning of the year;

Far from the forest grove, fairies pipe their tune.

Strong staves of rowan trees shall keep the measure merrily;

Ash branch and sprig of rue flash beneath the moon.

Rise up and join the ring of the harvest-time place.

Praise now the waning king, in the last of his days.

 

Hand to hand we pass the blade and sheathe it by the ivy maid;

Keen the edge that cuts the hand of the dancer unwary.

Greet the God with open arms, and bind the ring with sylvan charms,

Praise the spirits of the land, sylph and nyaid and fairy.

Bear now the maiden's blade to the alter of stone

Here where the God has stayed, 'til the harvest has grown.

 

Round, round, upon the ground, where ( ) green in autumn bound

Whirl, whirl, the ivy girl, where the harvest was springing.

Bright, bright the fire light when day is turning into night

Swirl, swirl the smoked-out girl, while the dancers are singing.

Dance 'neath the autumn crown, 'mongst the fardles and sheaves.

Dance now upon the ground, branches, petals, and leaves.

Source: Gwydion Sings

HEART OF THE HOME

Andy M. Stewart

 

He still smiles when he recalls

How the gold ring fit her finger

How they made that moment linger

That its memory be strong.

They had made a brand new start

And found a whole new way of living

Two voices joined together singing no sad songs.

 

Chorus:

If the hard times come around

May you see them there together

And may there be love and laughter

In the Heart of your Home.

 

Leaving there was always hard

And leaving her was never easy

With those memories to tease you.

Summer nights seemed winters long;

In his heart there was a sound

And the only sound worth hearing

Two voices joined together singing no sad songs.

 

He still smiles when he recalls

How they counted little fingers.

And their gratitude still lingers

That the boy was born strong.

They had made a whole new life

And found a whole new way of living

Three voices joined together singing no sad songs.

Source: Andy M. Stewart & Manus Lunny, Dublin Lady, Green Linnet

HELEN OF KIRKCONNEL

Traditional

 

I wish I was where Helen lies

For night and day on me she cries;

I wish I was where Helen lies,

On fair Kirkconnel lea.

 

Cursed be the heart that thought the thought,

Cursed be the hand that fired the shot;

When in my arms poor Helen dropped

And died for sake o' me.

 

I lichted down my sword to draw,

I hacked him in pieces sma';

I hacked him in pieces sma';

For her sake that died for me.

 

I wish I was where Helen lies;

For night and day on me she cries.

Out of my bed she bids me rise,

Says hast and come to me.

 

Oh, Helen fair, beyond compare,

I'll make a garland o' yer hair;

Shall bind my heart for ever mair,

On fair Kirkconnel lea.

 

I wish I was where Helen lies;

For night and day on me she cries.

And I am weary of the skies

On fair Kirkconnel lea.

Source: Kornog,On Seven Winds, Green Linnet

THE HIGHWAYMAN

The wind was a lament of darkness among the gusty trees

And the moon was a ghostly galleon tossed on cloudy seas

And the road was a ribbon of moonlight looping the purple moor

When the highwayman came riding, riding riding riding

The highwayman came riding up to the old inn door.

 

Over the cobbles he clattered to a hall in the darkened yard

And he tapped with his whip at the shutters but alas, all was locked and all was barred

And he whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there

But the landlord's dark-eyed daughter, aye, the landlord's dark-eyed daughter

Plaiting a dark-red love knot into her long black hair.

 

"One kiss from my bonnie sweetheart, for I'm after a prize tonight

But I'll be back with the yellow gold before the morning light.

And if they press me sharply or hurry me through the day

Then look for me by moonlight, watch for me by moonlight

I'll come for thee by moonlight, though Hell should bar the way."

 

Well, he did not come at the dawning, and he did not come at noon

And out of the tawny sunset before the rising of the moon

When the road was a gypsy's ribbon looping the purple moor

The red coat troop came marching, marching marching marching

King George's men came marching up to the old inn's door.

 

They have bound a musket beside her and placed the barrel beneath her breast

"Now keep good watch," and they kissed her, and she could hear her dear man say

"Look for me by moonlight, watch for me by moonlight

I'll come for thee by moonlight, though Hell should bar the way."

 

Nearer he came and nearer, for her face was like a light

Her eyes grew wide for a moment, she drew one last deep breath

And her finger moved in the moonlight, the musket shattered the moonlight

Shattered her breast in the moonliht, and it warned him with her death.

 

Well, he's turned and spurred him Westward, he did not know who stood

Bowed with her head o'er the musket, drowned in her own red blood.

Not 'til the dawn did he hear it, and his face grew gray to hear

That the landlord's dark-eyed daughter, aye, the landlord's dark-eyed daughter

Had waited for her lover in the moonlight and died in deep despair.

 

Back he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky

With the white road smoking behind him, and his rapier brandished high

Blood red were his spurs in the cold and gloom, wine red his velvet coat

And they shot him down on the highway, down like a dog on the highway

And he lay in his blood on the highway, with a bunch of lace at his throat.

 

Still on a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees

And the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed on cloudy seas

And the road is a ribbon of black moonlight looping the purple moor

The highwayman comes riding, riding riding riding

The highwayman comes riding up to the old inn door.

 

O'er the cobbles he clatteres to halt in the darkened yard

As he cuts with his whip at the shutters, but all is dark and barred

And he whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there

But the landlord's dark-eyed daughter, aye, the landlord's dark-eyed daughter

Plaiting a dark red love knot into her long black hair.

THE HONOUR OF VISSIVALD SELKIRKSSON

(to the tune of "the Rising of the Moon")

 

The writer of the following song has been placed under geas under by Master El of the Two Knives to disseminate said song to the four winds, and craves the sssistance of all gentle hearts in accomplishing the geas by publishing, singing, teaching, and otherwise distributing said song to the utmost of their

ability.

 

In the Laurel Kingdom of the East, not very long ago

There ruled a man whose heart was great, whose courage all did know.

He led the realm in peace and war, and of him bards yet sing

That the Kingdom knew a golden age when Vissivald was king

Chorus:

When Vissivald was king, when Vissivald was king;

The kingdom knew a golden age when Vissivald was king.

 

Then came the day in far Thescorre of which this song will tell

When Vissivald to Gavin gave the realms he'd ruled so well.

His Earldom was proclaimed, but then he said, "There's just one thing;

I may no more be Master-at-Arms now I'm no longer king."

Now I'm no longer king, etc.

 

"I won the Crown," he said, "without my lady's free consent,

And so my honor's forfeit -- and this is my intent:

My Masterhood I here renounce, my theigns I do release,

And as Lord Aelfwine's man-at-arms, I'll take a humble place."

I'll take a humble place, etc.

 

Thus spoke great-hearted Vissivald before the silent crowd;

He strode from out the festive hall, his head held high and proud.

His simple dignity set all the court to murmering,

"He's a man of rare nobility who lately was our king."

Who lately, etc...

 

Then up stepped Johan, Theign 1-A, and to the hall he said,

"Though by his will I must this day give back the baldric red

I wear it still within my heart in spite of everything."

A faithful Theign to Vissivald, who lately was our king.

Who lately... etc.

 

Then forth came bold Sir Garanhir, and humbly begged a boon:

"Though Jamie Selkirk of redeeming qualities has none,

His son has shown his worthiness to wear the belt of white,

And as a boon I pray that Selkirksson be made a Knight."

Selkirksson be made... etc.

 

For Gavin and for Tamera we'll live and we will die

But now and then our thoughts will turn to days not long gone by

And now and then some of us will tell or else will sing

Of the honor of Earl Vissivald, who lately was our king.

Who lately... etc.

 

Written on coronation night in Thescorre, April 19-20, A.S. XIV, by Katya the Halfhanded

THE HOUSE OF ORANGE

Stan Rogers

 

I took back my hand and I showed him the door.

No dollar of mine would I part with this day

For fueling the engine of a bloody, cruel war

In my forefather's home, far away.

Who fled the first Famine wearing all that they owned,

Were called Navigators, all ragged and torn,

And built the Grand Turk here, and found a new home

Wherever their children were born.

 

Their sons have no politics; none can recall

Allegiance from long generations before.

O' this or O' that name can't matter at all,

Or be cause enough for to war.

And meanwhile my babies are safe in their home,

Unlike their pale cousins who cower and cry

While kneecappers nail their poor dads to the floor

And teach them to hate and to die.

 

It's those cruel beggars who spurn the fair coin

The peace for their kids they could take at their will.

Since the day that King Billy prevailed at the Boyne,

They've bombed and they've maimed and they've killed.

Now they cry out for money and wail at the door

But Home Rule or Republic, 'tis all of it shame;

And a curse for us here who want nothing of war.

We're kindred in nothing but name.

 

All rights and all wrongs have since long blown away,

For causes are ashes where children lie slain.

Yet the damned U.D.L. and the cruel I.R.A.

Will tomorrow go murdering again.

But no penny of mine will I add to the fray.

"Remember the Boyne!" they will cry out in vain,

For I've given my heart to the place I was born

And forgiven the while House of Orange,

King Billy and the whole House of Orange.

Source: Stan Rogers, From Fresh Water, Cole Hill Music

HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING

Traditional

 

My life goes on in endless song

Of others' lamentation

I hear the (reels) of far off hills

That hails the new creation.

Above the tumult and the strife

I hear its music ringing

In sounds that echo in my soul

How can I keep from singing?

 

But though the tempest loudly roars

I hear the truth, it liveth

And though the darkness 'round me close

Songs in the night it giveth.

No storm can shake my inmost calm

While to that rock I'm clinging

Since love is heaven and earth

How can I keep from singing?

 

When tyrants tremble sick with fear

And hear their death knell ringing

When friends rejoice both far and near

How can I keep from singing?

In prison cells and dungeon vile

Our thoughts to them are winging

When friends ( ) are undefiled

How can I keep from singing?

 

My life goes on in endless song

Of others' lamentation

I hear the (reels) of far off hills

That hails the new creation.

Above the tumult and the strife

I hear its music ringing

In sounds that echo in my soul

How can I keep from singing?

Source: Clam Chowder

THE HUMOURS OF WHISKY

Traditional

 

Let your quacks and newspapers be cutting their capers

And curing the Vapours, the Scratch and the Gout

With their medical potions, their pills and their lotions

Upholding their notions, they're mighty put out.

Who can tell the true physic of all things pathetic

And pitch to the Devil Cramp, Colic, and Spleen?

Oh, you'll find them I think if you take a big drink

With your mouth to the brink of a jug of Poitin.

 

Then stick to the Cratur, the best thing in nature

For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys.

Oh what botheration no bolt to the nation

Can bring consolation like Poitin me boys.

 

No liquid cosmetic to lovers athletic

Or ladies pathetic can bring such a bloom

As the sweet, my the powers to the garden of flowers

Never brought its own powers such darling perfume.

And this liquid's so rare if you're willing to share

 

To be taking your hair when its grizzled and dead

Oh the sod has the merit to yield the true spirit

So strong it'll shake all the hairs from your head.

 

Then stick to the Cratur, the best thing in nature

For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys.

Oh since its perfection no doctor's direction

Can clean the complexion like Poitin me boys.

 

As a child in the cradle the nurse came from her ladle

Was swilling her mouth with a notion of "pep"

When a drop from her bottle fell in to me throttle

I capered and scrambled right out of her lap.

On the floor I lay crawling and screaming and bawling

'Til Father and Mother soon came to the fore;

Convinced I lay dying, all wailing and crying

They found I was only a-crying for more.

 

Then stick to the Cratur, the best thing in nature

For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys.

Oh Lord how I'd chuckle if babies in their truckle

Could only be suckled on Poitin me boys.

 

Through youthful digressions and times of depression

My childhood impression still clung to me mind.

In school and in college the basis of knowledge

I never could gulp 'til with whiskey combined.

Now as older I'm growing, time's ever bestowing

On Erin's potation a flavour so fine

And how e'er they may lecture on Jove or his nectar

Itself is the only true liquid divine.

 

Then stick to the Cratur, the best thing in nature

For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys.

Oh Lord, it's the right thing for courting and fighting

There's naught so exciting as Poitin me boys.

 

Come guess me this riddle what beats pipe and fiddle

What's hotter than mustard and wilder than cream?

What best wets your whistle, what's clearer than crystal

Smoother than honey and stronger than steam?

What'll make the dumb talk, what'll make the lame walk?

The elixir of life and philosopher's stone?

And what helped Mr. Brunnel to dig the Thames tunnel

Wasn't it Poitin me boys from old Innishowen.

 

Then stick to the Cratur the best thing in nature

For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys.

Oh Lord knows I wonder if lightning and thunder

Was made from the plunder of Poitin me boys.

 

Oh Lord knows I wonder if lightning and thunder

Was made from the plunder of Poitin me boys.

Source: Andy M. Stewart & Manus Lunny, Dublin Lady, Green Linnet

HYMN TO THE NIGHT MARE

If I see her again I must die or kill

In the bleak dark wood on the stone-ringed hill

When the year wears down and the trees are bare

In the form of an upright white-fanged bear

For when she appears death is on the air

And someone in sight must die.

 

Have you seen her again in the dark and cold

The night black mare and her grim nine-fold

With her thigh-bone staff and her storm cloud robe

With her jet black eyes that no light can hold

When more than a few must die.

 

We will see her again and the earth shall cry

When the hills fall down and the seas run high

She will strike her hoof on the earth-way fault

With her twelve limbs bare to the heaven's fault

She will dance in flame 'til the stars cry halt

And all but a few shall die.

Source: Chickasaw Mountain

I LIVE NOT WHERE I LOVE

Traditional

 

Come all ye maids who live at a distance

Many a mile from off your love

Come and assist me this very moment

For to pass away some time

Singing sweetly and completely

Songs of pleasure and songs of love

My heart is with you all together

Though I live not where I love

 

When I sleep I dream about you

When I wake I find no rest

Every moment thinking of you

My heart fixed within your breast

Though great distance may prove assistance

From my mind your love to remove

My heart is with you all together

Though I live not where I love

 

All the world should be of one religion

All living things should cease to die

If ever I prove false to my jewel

Any way my love deny

The world would change and be most strange

If ever I inconstant prove

My heart is with you all together

Though I live not where I love

 

So, farewell lads and farewell lasses

Now I think I've got my choice

I'll away to yonder island

Where I think I may hear your voice

If you call then I will follow

Though the ocean be so wide

 

My heart is with you all together

Though I live not where I love

Source: Jean Redpath, Jean Redpath, Philo

INFIDELS

(to the tune of "Jingle Bells")

 

Slashing through the foe

With a one hand sword I slay

To the East we go

Killing on the way (Hack, slash, stab)

On our first crusade

The Muslim foe we fight

What fun it is to laugh and sing

A slaying song tonight!

 

Infidels, infidels, we have come to slay

Seljuk Turks and Saracens

Come and join the fray (Hey Hey Hey)

Infidels, infidels, we have come to slay

If you will not fight with us

You'd better run away.

Source: 1990 Skaid-Brandr Thoralfsson (Carl Hylin)

 

editor's note: This song is, unfortunately, quite historically accurate. Popes such as Urban II and Innocent III would offer papal amnesty and all the loot they could carry to Christians it they would go off to win Jerusalem back from the Turks. They not only looted the holy land, but everywhere in between while they made their way over. With all the warfare, and land changing religious conquerors every 80 years or so, Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside weren't really very nice places to live.

JACK HAGGERTY

Tune: Mick Hanly

Lyrics: Traditional

 

I'm a heartbroken raftsman, from Greenville I came

All my virtue departed, with a lass I did feign

From the strong darts of Cupid I've suffered much grief

And my heart's broke asunder; I can get no relief

 

Of my trouble I'll tell you without much delay

Of the sweet little lassie my heart stole away

She's a blacksmith's fair daughter on the Flat River side

And I always intended to make her my bride

 

I worked on the river where the white waters roar

And my name I engraved on the high rocky shore

I'm the boy that stands happy on the dark burling stream

But my thoughts were onMolly; she haunted my dreams

 

I gave her fine jewels, the finest of lace

And the costliest muslins, her form to embrace

I gave her my wages all for the keep safe

I deprived her of nothing I had in this earth

 

While I worked on the river I earned quite a stake

I was steadfast and steady and ne'er played the rake

For camp flat and river I'm very well known

And they call me Jack Haggerty, the pride of the town

 

'Til she wrote me a letter which I did receive

And she said from her promise herself she'd relieve

For to wed with another she'd a long time delayed

And the next time I'd see her, she'd no more be a maid

 

To her mother Jane Tucker I lay all the blame

For she caused her to leave and go back on my name

And to cast of the rigging that God was to tie

And to leave me a rambler 'til the day that I die.

 

So come all you bold raftsmen with hearts stout and true

Don't trust to a woman, for you're beat if you do

But if you do meet one with the darkest of curls

Remember Jack Haggerty and the Flat River girl

Source: Touchstone, The New Land, Green Linnet Records

JACK THE SLOB AND THE GODDESS OF LOVE

Jack the Slob to Venus prayed

Prayed, prayed, merry merry prayed

Grant this night I shall get laid

Laid, laid, merry merry laid

This night I shall get laid.

 

Venus said this shall I do

Do, do, merry merry do

But first I ask three things of you

You, you, merry merry you

I ask three things of you.

 

Go clean your teeth and bod and hair

And change your week old underwear

Your week old underwear.

 

Pray put on clothes that flatter you

A clean t-shirt and jeans will do

A clean t-shirt will do.

 

And when a maid you would impress

Pray do not drool down her chest

Do not drool down her chest.

 

Jack replied no thank-you ma'am

Send a maid who'll take me as I am

Who'll take me as I am.

 

Venus said, I'll tell you what

Though I should kick your lazy butt

Should kick your lazy butt.

 

Perhaps would be more fitting far

To send a maid who'll take you as you

Who'll take you as you are.

 

Go at once to the city zoo

'Tis there you'll find the maid for you

You'll find the maid for you.

 

There he went his hopes held high

Until the ape house he came nigh

The ape house he came nigh.

 

There a maiden him did view

And she was struck with passion true

Was struck with passion true.

 

Her hair was wild, her looks were free

Indeed, she was a lovely chimpanzee

A lovely chimpanzee.

 

She leaped the fence 'ere he could run

And seized him boldy by the bun

Seized him by the bun.

 

She dragged him swiftly to her lair

For all that I know, he may still be there

He may still be there.

 

So lazy swains, you'd best believe

You should not get the Goddess peeved

You should not get her peeved.

Source: Chickasaw Mountain

THE JEANNIE C

Stan Rogers

 

Come all ye lads, draw near by me, that I be not forsaken

This day was lost the Jeannie C

and my living has been taken.

I'll go to sea no more.

 

We set out this day in the bright sunrise, the same as any other

My son and I, and Old John Price

in the boat named for my mother.

I'll go to sea no more.

 

Now it's well you know how the fishing has been

-it's been scarce and hard and cruel

But this day, by God, we sure caught cod,

and we sang and we laughed like fools.

I'll go to sea no more.

 

I'll never know what it was we struck,

but strike we did like thunder.

John Price gave a cry and pitched over side.

It's forever he's gone under.

I'll go to sea no more.

 

A leak we've sprung, let there be no delay

if the Jeannie C we're saving

John Price is drown'd and slip'd away.

I'll patch the hole while you're bailing.

I'll go to sea no more.

 

But no hole I found from bow to hold.

No rock it was that got her

But what I found made me heart stop cold,

for every seem poured water.

I'll go to sea no more.

 

My God, I cried as she went down. That boat was like no other.

My father built her when I was nine,

and named her for my mother.

I'll go to sea no more.

 

And sure I could have another made in the boat shop down in Dover

But I would not lave the keel they laid

like the one the waves rolled over.

I'll go to sea no more.

 

So come all ye lads, draw near by me that I be not forsaken

This day was lost the Jeannie C

and my whole life has been taken.

I'll go to sea no more.

Source: Stan Rogers, Turnaround, Fogarty's Cove Records

JENNY BRYCE

Jim Keelaghan

 

This morn as I was lost in thought, as up the hill I wandered.

Sitting there to greet the dawn, upon my life I pondered.

I glance along the shaded grove where often I had been

With Jenny Bryce, Jack the Rover's daughter.

 

Her family came of tinker's stock, baptized by flowing water

Old Jack, he was disposed to roam, and so his only daughter

And me a lad of seventeen, I left my parent's home

For Jenny Bryce, Jack the Rover's daughter.

 

And from wooded glen to heathered moor, with Jenny I went rowing

Her voice so sweet and soft and low, from daylight 'til day's closing.

And when, at night I laid to rest, 'twas in my lover's arms

Jenny Bryce, Jack the Rover's daughter.

 

One day she said, "Oh Willie, I weary of the road."

So, a fine small house I built for her, down in yon shaded grove

And there, with Jenny by my side, I led a settled life

With Jenny as companion, and as wife.

 

And one day she said, "Oh Willie, a child for us I bear."

And all that winter long I worked and helped her to prepare.

But none but God could help us, with a birth such as she had

She was Jenny Bryce, Jack the Rover's daughter.

 

And six tortured hours she lingered, and never once complained.

And all there was to do for her, I did to ease her pain

When morning came I carved a cross, and carved on it her name.

Jenny Bryce, Jack the Rover's daughter.

 

And this morn as I was lost in thought, as up the hill I ambled,

Back along the shaded stream, where with my love I rambled,

To greet a child of seven years, who bears her mother's name.

She is Jenny Bryce, Jenny Bryce's daughter.

Source: Garnet Rogers, The Outside Track, Snow Goose Records

JIREL OF JOREY

Leslie Fish

 

Once a spy rode boldly into Jorey town

Seeking someone to question at length.

To see how her people fared in Jorey's hand,

And to judge for himself Jorey's strength.

Behind lay a man who would make himself king,

Awaiting the spy's word to go;

So he asked of a guardsman, "Who is Jorey's Lord?",

And the man said, amazed, "Don't you know?"

 

Chorus:

She is Jirel of Jorey, no man is her master,

And well she protects us indeed.

For with her sword above we fear no mage nor blade,

No injustice or overlord's greed.

 

"Once to ransom her men, into Hell's Guard she rode,

From that place no one ever returned.

And yet, she came back, Hell's Guard's treasures she'd won,

And in Hell her men's captors soon burned.

Once she lay near to death at the hands of our foes

From her bed she was stolen away.

She was taken by Darkness himself for a bride,

And yet, Jirel stands with us today.

 

"When conquered, she went into Hell for a means

To slay that foe, and free her men.

And when she found her enemy's spirit bound there

Then to free it, she went back again.

When a foul wizard ambushed and slaughtered her guard;

She leveled his Keep to the ground

And then travelled in realms of the fairie and worse

'Til at last that damned wizard she found."

 

Much taken aback was the spy by this speech

And he wasted no more time that day

But saddled his horse and left Jorey at once

Rode in haste to his master away.

The Lord heard his news and then said,

"These are strange, the words of a guardsmen unknown.

But he who would rule does not squander his strength

So I think we'll leave Jorey alone."

Source: Mercedes Lackey, Magic, Moondust & Melancholy, Firebird A&M

JOHN BARLEYCORN

There were three men came out of the west

Their fortunes for to try.

And these three men made a solemn vow

John Barleycorn must die.

They've plowed, they've sowed, they've harrowed him in

Threw clods upon his head.

And these three men made a solemn vow

John Barleycorn was dead.

 

They've let him lie for a long, long time

'Til the rains from heaven did fall

And little Sir John swung up his head

And so amazed them all.

They've let him stand 'til Midsummer's Day

'Til he looked so pale and wan

And little Sir John's grown a long white beard

And so become a man.

 

They've hired a man with scythes so sharp

To cut him off at the knee

They've rolled him and tied him at the waist

Serving him so barbarously.

They've hired men with sharp pitchforks

To pierce him through the heart

And the granary has served him worst of all

For he's bound into a cart.

 

They've wheeled him around and around the field

'Til they came unto a barn

And these three men made a solemn vow

On poor John Barleycorn.

They've hired men with battering sticks

To cut him skin from bone

And the miller he has served him worst of all

For he's ground him between two stones.

 

But little Sir John of the nut-brown bone

Proved the strongest man at last.

For little Sir John of the nut-brown bone

Is whiskey in a glass.

The hunter he can't hunt the fox

Though so loudly blow his horn

And the tinker he can't fix cobble nor horn

Without a little Barleycorn.

 

Source: Celtic Stone

JOHN MONROE

Traditional

 

There was a man called John Monroe,

Who did Miss Vale a courting go.

This girl was handsome, young and fair

And few with her there could compare.

Monroe was married; it is true.

He had a wife and children too.

Still Miss Vale he went to see

Not caring what the talk might be.

 

In course of time an offspring came

Which brought to light their hidden shame.

But still together they did go

Until he proved her overthrow.

Poor thing, he led her all about

To Boston by another route

Then did take her at his will

To the place she would be killed.

 

He led her to her final spot

There he fired the fatal shot.

A bullet buried in her brain

She fell in death, there to remain.

Then killed the baby with a rush

And covered them with moss and brush;

Hurried off with rapid flight

Not thinking it would come to light.

 

The jury found it very plain

Miss Vale and baby had been slain.

The jury found it plain also

They were killed by John Monroe.

By his own hand the deed was done

Now he is sentenced to be hung.

For the murder of Miss Sarah Vale.

He was hang'd by the neck in the county jail.

Source: East River Consort, Laurasia

KELLSWATER

Traditional

 

Here's a health to you bonny Kellswater

Where you get all the pleasures of life

Where you get all the fishing and fowling

And a bonny wee lass for your wife.

 

Oh it's down where your waters run muddy

I'm afraid they will never run clear

And it's when I begin for to study

My mind is on him that's not here.

 

And it's this one and that one may court him

But if any one gets him but me

It's early and late I will curse them

The parting lovely Willie from me.

 

Oh a father he calls on his daughter

Two choices I'll give unto thee

Would you rather see Willie's ship a'sailing

See him hung like a dog on yonder tree.

 

Oh father, dear father, I love him

I can no longer hide it from thee

Through an acre of fire I would travel

Along with the lovely Willie to be.

 

Oh hard was the heartbreak I'm finding

She took from her full heart's delight

May the chains of old Ireland come find them

And softly their pillows at night.

 

Oh yonder there's a ship on the ocean

And she does not know which way to steer

From the east and the west she's a'blowing

She reminds me of the charms of my dear.

 

Oh it's yonder me Willie will be coming

He said he'd be here in the spring

And it's down by yon green shades I'll meet him

And among wild roses we'll sing.

 

For a gold ring he placed on my finger

Saying love bear this in your mind

If ever I sail from old Ireland

You'll mind I'll not leave you behind.

 

Here's a health to you bonny Kellswater

Where you get all the pleasures of life

Where you get all the fishing and fowling

And a bonny wee lass for a wife.

Source: Loreena McKennitt, Elemental, Quinlan Road

KENTUCKY SONG

Mike Cross

 

Kentucky winter morning, like a baby freshly born

Its snowy blanket may look cold but the feeling's soft and warm.

And though the world looks trapped beneath the ice on evergreen

Life is waiting crouched and set to spring.

 

Chorus:

Kentucky's just as close to heaven as I'll ever come

Up there the morning dew shines like emeralds in the sun.

The bluegrass in the meadow lifts you right up to the sky

And I hope that I can go back to Kentucky when I die.

 

Kentucky springtime afternoon with perfume in the air

Is like a young girl running free with flowers in her hair.

Warm threads of sunlight weave a blanket on the meadow

A bed just right for any weary fellow.

 

Kentucky summer days are lazy and long

The air is full of sunshine and the woods are full of song.

A father and his son sit beside a crystal stream

Reflecting on their past and future dreams.

 

Kentucky autumn evening, front room rocking chair

And old man lights his pipe and blows smoke rings in the air.

Smiles down at the children sitting at his knee

And tells them stories made of memories.

Source: Mike Cross, Alive and Kicking, Kicking Mule

KEROWYN'S RIDE

Leslie Fish, Heather Alexander

 

Kerowyn, Kerowyn, where are you going?

Dressed in men's clothing, a sword by your side

Your face pale as death, your eyes full of fury

Kerowyn, Kerowyn, where do you ride?

 

Last night in the darkness black raiders attacked us;

Our hall lies in ruins below.

They've stolen our treasure, and the bride of my brother,

And to her aid now I must go

To her aid now I must go.

 

Kerowyn, Kerowyn, where is your father?

Where is your brother? This task should be theirs.

It is unseemly for maids to be warriors.

Go back to your valley and to women's cares.

 

My father lies dead at the hands of their leader,

My brother lies raving in pain.

The raiders left no man unwounded to free her,

But in their hands she'll not remain.

I vow she'll not with them remain.

 

Kerowyn, Kerowyn, where are your senses?

What can you hope to accomplish alone?

You have no knowledge of war or of weapons;

Why lose your life for a girl you've scarce known?

 

This is far more than a matter of honor

And more than a matter of pride.

She is but a child all alone and unaided,

And someone at least must have tried

So now to her rescue I ride.

 

Grandmother, Grandmother, I need a weapon.

I'm one against many, and I am afraid.

The raiders have brought them a dark wizard's power;

I cannot help Donna without magic aid.

 

Kerowyn, Grandaughter, into your keeping

I'll give you the sword I once wore.

Need is her name, now ride fearless to battle;

She'll aid you as she did me before her magic is strong as before.

 

Grandmother, Grandmother, why change your story?

Why did you try to persuade me to stay?

Whence comes the sword of steel and of magic,

And why do you choose now to give it away?

 

Kerowyn, not for the weak or the fearful

Is the path of the warrior maid.

You've passed all my test, now ride of with my blessing

And trust in the spell of the blade.

Ride now and go unafraid.

 

Repeat first verse.

Source: Mercedes Lackey, Magic, Moondust & Melancholy, Firebird Arts and Music, Inc.

KING HENRY

Traditional

 

Let never a man a wooing ride e'er forget things three

A purse of gold, a heart to love, and full charity

 

For it happened to King Henry as a hunting he did ride

Ta'en his hawk, his good grey hound did lay down by his side

He's chased the hind, he's chased the buck all down to his den

And the fattest deer in all the flock, young King Henry has slain.

 

King Henry ate all the venison, the hounds drank all the blood

They lay down, they fell asleep, a sleep as if they were dead

It fell about the midnight hour, that hour when all men lay asleep

Such chill winds blew all around the house, the very trees did weep

 

Great shaking shook the house about, great shaking split the door

The foulest woman that e'er there was came a stamping on the floor

Her head hit the roof of the hunting lodge, her waist you could hardly span

If a fouler woman lived she was not known to God or man

 

Oh meat, meat, you King Henry, meat give though to me

What meat's there in the house, lady, that you're not welcome to

So she has ta'en his good goshawk, and oh, and oh but his heart was sore

She's ate it up all flesh and bones, left nothing but feathers bare

 

Oh meat, meat, you King Henry, meat give thou to me

What meat's there in the house, lady, that you're not welcome to

So she has ta'en his good greyhound, and oh, and oh but his heart was sore

She's ate it up all flesh and bones, left nothing but hide and hair

 

Oh drink, drink, you King Henry, drink give thou to me

What drink's there in the house, lady, that you're not welcome to

So he's sewn up his horse's hide and wine, a good wine he has put in

She drank it up, she drank it down, there was no drop left in

 

A bed, a bed, you King Henry, a bed for you and me

I do vow and I do swear, tonight to lie with thee

Oh take your boots off, King Henry, and let your clothes all fall

For you and I shall in one bed lie and I'll lie next to the wall

 

The night has gone, the day has come, the sun shone through the hall

The fairest woman that e'er there was lay 'twixt him and the wall

Oh what is this, cried King Henry, how long with this last with me?

And then up spoke the fair young lady, even 'til the day you dead be

I've met many a gentleman who's gave me all my fill

Ne'er met I a gentleman who's gave to me all my will

I've met many a gentleman who's gave me all my fill

Ne'er met I a gentleman who's gave to me all my will

Source: Martin Carthy, Sweet Wivelsfield, Rounder

KING HENRY

Traditional

 

Let never a man a wooing wend that lacketh things three:

A store of gold, an open heart and full of charity.

And this was seen of King Henry though he lay quite alone

For he's taken him to a haunted hall seven miles from the town.

 

He's chased the deer now him before and the doe down by the den

Til the fattest buck in all the flock King Henry he has slain.

His huntsmen followed him to the hall to make them burly cheer

When loud the wind was heard to sound and an earthquake rocked the floor.

 

And darkness covered all the hall where they sat at their meat.

The grey dogs, yowling, left their food and crept to Henry's feet.

And louder howled the rising wind and burst the fastened door

And in it came a grisly ghost stamping at the floor.

 

Her head hit the roof tree of the house, her middle you could not span.

Each frightened huntsman fled the hall and left the King alone.

Her teeth were like the tether stakes, her nose like club or mell

And nothing less she seemed to be than a fiend that comes from Hell.

 

Some meat, some meat, you King Henry, some meat you give to me.

Go kill your horse you King Henry and bring him here to me.

He's gone and slain his berry brown steed though it made his heart full sore

For she's eaten it up both skin and bones, left nothing but hide and hair.

 

More meat, more meat, you King Henry, more meat you give to me.

Go kill your greyhounds King Henry and bring them here to me.

He's gone and slain his good greyhounds though it made his heart full sore

For she's eaten them up both skin and bones, left nothing but hide and hair.

 

More meat, more meat, you King Henry, more meat you give to me.

Go fell your gosshawks King Henry and bring them here to me.

And when he's slain his gay gosshawks it made his heart full sore

For she's eaten them up both skin and bones, left nothing but feathers bare.

 

Some drink, some drink, you King Henry, some drink you bring to me.

Go you sew up your horse's hide and bring in drink for me.

And he's sewn up the bloody hide and a pipe of wine put in.

And she's drank it all up in one draught, left never a drop therein.

 

A bed, a bed now, King Henry, a bed you'll make for me.

Oh you must pull the heather green and make it soft for me.

And pulled had he the heather green and made for her a bed

And taken has he his gay mantle and o'er it has spread.

 

Take off your clothes now, King Henry, and lie down by my side.

Now swear, now swear, you King Henry, you'll take me for your bride.

Oh God forbid, says King Henry, that ever the like betide

That ever a fiend that comes from Hell should stretch down by my side.

 

When the night was gone and the day had come and the sun shone

through the hall

The fairest lady that ever was seen lay between him and the wall.

I've met with many a gentle night that gave me such a fill,

But never before a courteous night who's given me all my will.

Source: Steeleye Span, Please to See the King, Chrysalis

LADY OF THE LAKE

Traditional

 

Your words are hard and harsh, lady

Your heart's made of stone

For to see in this water with a naked sword

It never can be done.

 

She's struck the water with her hand

And it swirled stark and white

Oh, will you be a false villian

Or be my own true knight?

 

You've taken from my hand, she said

The belt, and aye, the blade

Now will you be a coward, knight

And let your courage fade?

 

You've taken from my hand, she said

The better and the nest

Now will you be a coward, knight

And fail like all the rest?

 

Your blade will turn all in your hand

As light as a leaf on a tree

But are you now your last world's breath

You'll come again to me.

Source: Thomas the Rhymer, Ellen Kushner

LADY'S BRANSLE

Oh, she will bring the buds in the spring

And laugh among the flowers.

 

In summer's heat her kisses are sweet

She sings in leafy bowers.

 

She cuts the cane and gathers the grain

When the fruits of fall surround her.

 

Her bones grow old in wintery cold

She wraps her cloak around her.

Source: Gwydion Sings

THE LAIRD O' ELVEN

Traditional

 

The Laird o'Elven stands on yon hill

Blaw, blaw, blaw winds blaw

An' he blaws his trumpet alood an' shrill

An' the wind it blaws my plade awa'

 

O gin I'd that horn in my kist

Blaw, blaw, blaw winds blaw

Then I'll be wedded wi' him next

An' the wind it blaws my plade away'

 

Maid, before I'll wed with thee

Blaw, blaw, blaw winds blaw

There is something ye maun do for me

An' the wind... etc.

 

Ye maun mark me a linen sark

Without a stitch of needle work

 

Ye maun wash it in yon dry well

Where waters never sprang nor fell

 

Ye maun dry it on yon hawthorne

Which has not blossomed since man was born

 

Man, before I'll wed with thee

I have some work ye maun do for me

 

Ye maun find me an acre o' land

Between the salt water an' the sea sand

 

Ye maun sow it wanton corn

An' row it with your ain horn

 

Y maun reap it with a sickle o' leather

An' bind it with a peacock feather

 

Ye maun stook it in the sea

An' bring the wheat-sheaf dry to me

 

An' when ye have done all o' this work

Come to me an' you'll get your sark!

Source: The singing of Lady Caitrin Gordon

LAMENT FOR PENNSIC WAR GARB

By Lady Anna Herold von Ossenheim

To the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic

 

The filth and mud of Cooper's Lake's embedded in my skirt

And ev'ry where I go I carry with me Pennsic dirt

And rain has made the mold begin to grow upon my shirt

And my war garb won't come clean!

 

Chorus:

Burn it, Burn the Pennsic war garb!

Burn it, Burn the Pennsic war garb!

Burn it, Burn the Pennsic war garb!

'Cause the war garb won't come clean!

 

From camp down in the gulley, a fair lady's moan doth sound

Her veil is soiled, the three-foot train's been draggin' on the ground

Her white chemise is edged now with dark grime all around

And her war garb won't come clean!

 

Beside the lake some Samurai have nearly lost their "face"

Their hippari and their hakima are now a great disgrace

And on the hill a Cavalier doth weep into his lace

And their war garb won't come clean!

 

The Celts and Scots and Romans will never see the mirth

Of tunics, kilts and chitons all well-marked with Pennsic earth

And Saturday in all the camps of clean garbs there's a dearth

And their war garb won't come clean!

 

Up on the ridge it's sad to hear the cries of royalty

The rain and mud has ruined all their court finery

Of Pennsic soil not even our brave Peerage will be free

And their war garb won't come clean!

 

As they strip off their armor you can hear the fighter's groan

Their tunics are so filthy that they'll stand up on their own

And you can smell them coming when they're half a mile from home

And their war garb won't come clean!

 

Next year clad in Tuchux dress, at Pennsic I'll be seen

For Tuchux leather diapers are so little to keep clean

Or better yet, I'll wrap myself in vines of forest green

And my war garb will stay clean!

Source: The Concordia Songbook

LAMMAS NIGHT

Heather Alexander

 

A waning moon conceals her face behind a scudding wind-tall cloud

She wraps herself in its embrace as in a tattered cloak The shadow wrote

The wind is blowing in the trees, their limbs are warped and bent and bowed. So weak and proud

I stand within the circle now to deal with what I wrought. Awake and seen but not yet free

 

A wanderer of wizard kind I was until a month ago So well I know

The headman of this village came and begged that I should stay So weak and fey

"For since our wizard died," he said, "and why he died we do not know So long ago

We have no one to weave us spells and keep the dark at bay." The dark so deep so cold complete

 

"His house and books are yours milady, if you choose but to remain." Remember pain

His offer was too tempting to be lightly set aside. Remember pride

I'd wearied of my travels, being plaything of the sun and rain. Choose to remain

This was the chance I'd hoped for, and I said that I would stay. I hope I pray that you must stay

 

Perhaps if I had been a man and not a maid; perhaps if I

Had been less lonely, less alone; or not of magic folk The spellbound broke

Whatever weakness was in me, or for whatever reason why I'm reason why

Something slept within that house that my own presence woke. You dream so much I try to touch

 

A half-seen shadow courted me, stood close at hand or by my side. To bid you bide

It left a lover's token, one fresh blossom on my plate. Afraid you wake

I woke to danger, knew the young magician still to earth was tied For freedom cried

And tied to me and I must act or I might share his fate. I need your aid be no afraid

 

I found a spell for banishment, the page then turned and not by me. Look now and see

The next spell differed by one word, a few strokes of a pen. And read again

The first one I had seen before, the spell to set a spirit free So I will be

The second let the mage born dead take flesh and live again. One spell and then I live

Now both these spells were equal in the risk to body and to soul I shall be whole

And both these spells demanded they be cast on Lammas Night The darkest night

And both these spells of castor and of spirit took an equal toll Task to the soul

But nowhere is it written that either spell is of the white. To live and see to touch to be

 

Can it be wise to risk the anger of the gods in such a task? Yet I must ask

But who am I to judge of who should live and who should die? Don't let me die

Does or duty call to him? Is his kindness to me all a mask? Take up the task

And could I trust his answer if I dared to ask him, "why?" Give all your trust my will you must

 

So I stand within the circles I have drawn upon the floor The open door

I have no further answer if this spirit's friend or foe Nor can you know

No godsign has been granted me, though I have prayed full often

Nor can I this moment answer if I'll tell him come, or go

Source: Mercedes Lackey, Magic, Moondust & Melancholy, Firebird A&M

LAND OF'THE LEAL

Traditional

 

I'm wearin' awa', Jean, like snaw wreaths in thaw, Jean;

I'm wearin' awa' tae the Land o' the Leal.

There's nae sorrow there, Jean, there's neither cauld nor care, Jean,

The day is aye fair in the Land o' the Leal.

 

Ye aye were leal and true, Jean, your task is ended noo, Jean,

And I'll welcome you tae the Land o' the Leal.

Our bonnie bairn's there, Jean, she was baith guid and fair, Jean

And oh, we grudged her sair, tae the Land o' the Leal.

 

So dry that tearful eye, Jean, my soul langs to be free, Jean,

And angels wait on me tae the Land o' the Leal.

So fare-thee-weel my ain Jean, this world's care is vain, Jean.

We'll meet and aya be fain, tae the Land o' the Leal.

 

I'm wearin' awa', Jean, like snaw wreaths in thaw, Jean,

I'm wearing awa' tae the Land o' the Leal.

There's nae sorrow there, Jean, there's neither cauld nor care, Jean.

The day is aya fair in the Land o' the Leal.

Source: Silly Wizard, Silly Wizard, Shanachie

THE LARGE, DARK AARDVARK SONG

The TOTSA Hymnal

 

This is the start of the Large, Dark Aardvark Song

Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom.

There is a large, dark aardvark in the park

They say he's missing from the zoo.

And the police are looking high and low

They haven't seen him; have you?

Why did he go? OH! I'll tell you the reason:

'Cause it's aardvark mating season.

When an aardvark makes a date

He slips right through the old zoo gate.

So if you see two aardvarks necking in the park,

Don't upset their apple pie;

You are not a spy, you're not the F.B.I.

You should never break an aardvark's heart.

 

This is the second chorus of the aardvark song

Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom.

Being an aardvark isn't easy folks;

All you get to eat is ants.

And all the other animals make jokes

At your attempts to find romance.

They do not laugh at hippopotamus-es

Or at fat rhinoceros-es.

The aardvark really makes them howl

Because he's neither fish nor foul;

It's like a kangaroo in love with a g-nu

And that's what makes the zoo folks laugh.

You know my story's true

It's all been told you

By your friendly neighborhood giraffe.

 

This is the end of the Large, Dark, Aardvark Song

Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...

Source: The Temple of The Sacred Aardvark, Mugwort

THE LAST LEVIATHAN

Sheena Wellington

or

Andy Barnes

 

Last night I heard the cry of my last companion.

The roar of a harpoon gun and then I was alone.

I reflected on the days gone by, when we were thousands

And I know that I soon shall die, the last leviathan.

 

Chorus:

My soul has been torn from me and I am bleeding

My heart it has been rent and I am crying

All beauty around me fades and I am screaming

I am the last of the great whales, and I am dying.

 

This morning the sun arose in a crimson North sky.

The ice was the colour of blood and the wind it did sigh.

I rose up to take a breath and it was my last one

From a gun came the roar of death, and now I'm undone.

 

And now that we are all gone there is no more hunting.

The "big fellow" is no more and it's no use lamenting.

What race will be next in line all for the slaughter?

The elephant or the seal, or your sons and daughters.

Source: Archie Fisher, Off the Map, Snow Goose Records

LAY DOWN YOUR BURDEN

Colleen Crangle

 

Lay down your burden

Lay it all down

Pass the glass between you

 

Drink it up

Place the Light before you

Come through the door

The dragon doesn't live here anymore

 

Sing with the choir that surrounds you

And dance to the music in your soul

Look into the eyes that really see you

Place all that you have in to that bowl

 

Oh lay down your burden

Lay it all down

Pass the glass between you

Drink it up

Place the Light before you

Come through the door

The dragon doesn't live here anymore

Source: Paul Winter Consort, Common Ground

LET HER GO DOWN

Traditional

 

Sometime in October

We sailed from England's shore,

When we ran into a raging storm

Like I've never seen before.

And all the crew they were brave men

But the Captain, he was braver

He said, "Never mind the ship, me boys,

There's none of us here can save her."

 

Chorus:

Let her go down

Swim for your lives

Swim for your children

Swim for your lives

But let her go down.

 

Lost in the open ocean

There was some of the crew and me

While the Captain steered our wounded ship

To the bottom of an angry sea.

And with his dying breath we all heard him say,

"That's the fortune of a sailor."

And he said, "Never mind the ship, me boys,

There's none of us here can save her."

 

He wondered if his shipmates

Were ready just to pray and give in

So he called their names out one by one

But there was no-one else around but him.

He saw the ship go down in a brilliant light

And he knew they could have saved her.

He said, "The Captain lied when the Captain cried,

'There's none of us here can save her.'"

Source: Steeleye Span, Sails of Silver, Takoma

LIES

Stan Rogers

 

At last the kids are gone now, for the day,

She reaches for the coffee as the school bus pulls away.

Another day to tend the house and plan

For Friday at the Legion, when she's dancing with her man.

Sure was a bitter winter, but Friday will be fine,

And maybe last year's Easter dress will serve her one more time.

She'd pass for twenty-nine, but for her eyes,

But winter lines are telling wicked lies.

 

Chorus:

Lies! All those lines are telling wicked lies.

Lies! All lies! Too many lines there in her face,

Too many to erase or to disguise -

They must be telling lies!

 

Is this the face that won for her the man

Whose amazed and clumsy fingers put that ring upon her hand?

No need to search that mirror for the years.

The menace in their message shouts across the blur of tears.

So this is Beauty's finish! Like Rodin's "Belle Heaulmiere,"

The pretty maiden trapped inside the ranch wife's toil and care.

Well, after seven kids, that's no surprise,

But why cannot her mirror tell her lies?

 

Then she shakes off the bitter web she wove,

And turns to set the mirror, gently, face down by the stove.

She gathers up her apron in her hand,

Pours a cup of coffee, drips Carnation from the can

And thinks ahead to Friday, 'cause Friday will be fine!

She'll look up to that weathered face that loves her, line for line,

To see that maiden shining in his eyes

And laugh at how her mirror tells her lies.

Source: Stan Rogers, Northwest Passage, Fogarty's Cove Records

LITTLE FUZZY ANIMALS

Frank Hayes

 

When you land on Bailey 7

You may not like what you see.

There are monsters back of every rock

And up in every tree.

There are demon flies up in the skies

And manticores beneath

And there's little fuzzy animals

With big, sharp teeth.

 

Chorus:

There a little fuzzy animals

Little furry animals

Little fuzzy animals

With big, sharp teeth.

 

Now not all of the monsters there

Should fill you full of dread

For the demon flies speak English

And they love to scout ahead,

And the manticores will pull you

Through the swamp and through the mud

But the little fuzzy animals

Will drink your blood.

 

When nightfall comes to Bailey's

With the darkness growing deep

The music of the jungle night

Will lull you into sleep.

It' so restful and so peaceful

That you'll never feel the pain

Of the little fuzzy telepaths

That eat your brain.

 

So when you go to Bailey's now

You'll know what lies in store;

There are hoards of friendly fiends

And gentle monsters there galore.

But with all the cute and furry ones

You know what you must do:

Get the little fuzzy buggers

Before they get you!

Source: Frank Hayes, Don't Ask, Off Centaur

LITTLE SIR HUGH

Traditional

 

Chorus:

Mother, mother, make my bed

Make for me a winding-sheet

Wrap me up in a cloth of gold

See if I can sleep.

 

Four and twenty bonny, bonny boys playing at the ball

Along came little Sir Hugh, he played with them all.

He kicked the ball very high, he kicked the ball so well

He kicked it over the castle wall where no one dared to go.

 

Out came a lady gay, she was dressed in green

"Come in, come in, Little Sir Hugh, fetch your ball again."

"I won't come in, I can't come in, without my playmates all,

For if I should I know you would cause my blood to fall."

 

She took him by the milk-white hand, led him to the hall

'Til they came to a stone chamber where no-one could hear him call.

She sat him on a golden throne, she gave him sugar sweet;

She lay him on a dressing board and stabbed him like a sheep.

 

Out came the thick, thick, blood, out came the thin

Out came the bonny heart's blood 'til there was none within.

She took him by the yellow hair and also by the feet

She threw him in the old draw well fifty fathoms deep.

Source: Steeleye Span, Chrysalis

LOCK KEEPER

Stan Rogers

 

You say, "Well met again, Lock-keeper!

We're laden even deeper than the time before,

Oriental oils and tea brought down from Singapore."

As we wait for the lock to cycle

I say, "My wife has given me a son."

"A son!" you cry, "Is that all that you've done?"

 

She wears bougainvillea blossoms

You pluck 'em from her hair and toss 'em in the tide,

Sweep her in your arms and carry her inside.

Her sighs catch on her shoulder;

Her moonlit eyes go bold and wiser through her tears

And I say, "How could you stand to leave her for a year?"

 

"Then come with me," you say, "to where the Southern Cross

Rides high upon your shoulder."

"Come with me," you cry,

"Each day you tend this lock, you're one day older,

While your blood grows colder."

But that anchor chain's a fetter

And with it you are tethered to the foam,

And I wouldn't trade your life for one hour of home.

 

Sure I'm stuck here on the Seaway

While you compensate for leeway through the Trades;

And you shoot the stars to see the miles you've made.

And you laugh at hearts you've riven.

But which of these has given you more love or life,

You, your tropic maids, or me, my wife.

 

"Then come with me," you say, "to where the Southern Cross

Rides high upon your shoulder."

"Come with me," you cry,

"Each day you tend this lock, you're one day older,

While your blood grows colder."

But that anchor chain's a fetter

And with it you are tethered to the foam,

And I wouldn't trade your life for one hour of home.

Ah, your anchor chain's a fetter, and with it you are tethered to the foam,

And I wouldn't trade your whole life for one hour of home.

Source: Stan Rogers, From Fresh Water, Fogarty's Cove

THE LONG SHIPS

Hi - ri - u Hoireaun is oro

Ho - ro - ho Ta muid beo

Ho - ri - u Him oro ho

Him - o -ro - ho Go deo na ndeor

Source: Enya, Watermark

LONGBONE

Traditional

 

There was a king who built a ship and sailed away

To look for gold in the hills of Skone far away

The only gold in the hills of Skone

Is gold you'll never own

It belongs to the giant Longbone

Far away

 

Chorus:

The only gold I've ever known

It all belongs to the giant Longbone

 

His teeth are sharp, his claws are long, so they say

His eyes are like a fire that burns far away

We will go to the hills of Skone

We'll find the giant Longbone

We'll turn him into stone

Far away

 

Through the rain and through the snow we sailed away

To the land where only fools go far away

We set down on the shore

And then we heard him roar

He must have seen us!

 

We tried to hide, we tried to run, run away

He killed the crew, he threw the boat far away

And then he said, "We are alone

I am the giant Longbone

You should have stayed at home!

Far away!"

LOOT

Melissa Williamson

 

If you're fitting out a longship bound to raid the English coast

And it's spring and you're still desperate for a crew

To man the rowing benches

And fill out your fighting host,

I tell you what you're going to have to do.

Just a small appeal to greed that's the touch you really need

To quicken up the courage at the root

You can hear the call for miles

In the North and all the Isles

Then say you'll come to England for the loot.

 

Chorus:

Oh it's the loo-loo-loo-loo-loo-loo-loo-loo-loot

The loot, the loot, oh, there's lots loot, tons of loot

Lot's of stuff whose present ownership is moot.

We needs Swedes and Norse and Danes

Who will part some English Thanes

With the broadsword from their loo-loo-loo-loo-loot

Hey! Thor and Odin lead us to the loo-loo-loot!

 

Tell about the English pennies struck in silver, every one,

With Latin runes and pictures stamped out clear.

Tell how once you fight the English

And you've got them on the run

They'll pay you to fight someone else that year.

Tell how once the corpse is cold there's no-one who'll give more gold

Than an Angle or a Saxon or a Jute.

Just the bracelets off his arm

Will buy a longship or a farm

And they're waiting for the ones who'll find the loot.

 

If you want to raid an Abbey in North Umbria or Kent

Or clean out a Wessex mead all roof to floor

Let our fishermen and farmers

Know that plunder's your intent

And they'll do the job and help you hunt for more.

It's a long cold road to row down to where the waters flow

From the sweet and handsome Humber to the sea

But they'll pull with might and maim

And they'll never once complain

'Cause they know that stolen silver isn't free.

Source: The Best of Constellation, Off-Centaur Productions

LORD OF THE DANCE

When she danced on the water and the wind was her horn

The Lady laughed, and everything was born.

She lit the sun and his light gave him birth;

The Lord of the Dance then appeared on the Earth.

 

Chorus:

Dance, then, wherever you may be,

For I am the Lord of the Dance, said he

And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be

And I'll lead you all in a dance, said he.

 

I danced in the morning when the world was begun

I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun

I was called from the darkness by the song of the earth

I joined in the singing and she gave me birth.

 

I dance at the sabbat when you chant the spell

I dance and sing, that everyone be well

When the dance is over do not think I'm gone

I live in the music so I still dance on.

 

They cut me down but I leap up high

I am the light that will never never die

I'll live in you if you'll live in me

I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.

Source: Gwydion Sings

LORD OF THE DANCE

Sidney Carter

Tune: Simple Gifts

 

I danced in the morning when the world was begun

And I dance in the moon and the stars and the sun

I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth

In Bethlehem, I had my birth.

 

Chorus:

Dance, then, wherever you may be

I am the Lord of the Dance, said he

And I'll lead you all wherever you may be

And I'll lead you all in a dance, said he.

 

I danced for the scribe and the pharisee

And they would not dance, they would not follow me.

So I danced for the fishermen, for James and John

They came with me and the dance went on.

 

I danced on the sabbath and I cured the lame

The holy people they said it was a shame

So they whipped, they stripped, they hung me high

They left me there on the cross to die.

 

I danced on the Friday when the sky turned black;

It's hard to dance with the devil on your back.

Oh, they buried me body, they thought I'd gone

But I am the dance and I still go on.

 

They cut me down but I leapt up high

I am the light that will never, never die

But I'll live in you if you'll live in me

I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.

Source: Martin Carthy, But Two Came By, Topic

LORD OF THE DANCE

Harald (Giffin) Ulfson

 

I dance in the morning when the Sun kisses the Earth

I dance in the noontime blessing it with mirth

I dance in the evening when the babes start to drowse

And I dance at midnight on the moon's silvery brows.

 

Chorus:

Dance, dance, where ever you may be

I am the Lord of the dance, said he

And I'll lead you all where ever you may be

And I'll lead you all in a dance said he.

 

I dance in the Springtime as my lady wakes

I dance in the Summer on the sunshiney lakes

I dance in the Autumn as the leaves turn to gold

I dance in the Winter in the wind and the cold.

 

I dance in the East where the winds gently blow

I dance in the South where the fire warmly glows

I dance in the West as the rain settles down

I dance in the North with my feet rooted to the ground.

 

I dance with my Lady as the moon reaches full

I dance as it wanes remembering her still

I dance in the dark waiting for her face

I dance as it waxes as she returns to her place.

 

I dance on the mantle as the babe first appears

And I dance at his shoulder through out all his years

I'll dance with his children when he goes in the ground

'Cause I know he'll dance again on his next time around.

LOVER'S HEART

Music: Phil Cunningham

Lyrics: Andy M. Stewart

 

She was in a flowery garden

When first she caught my eye.

And I, just a marching soldier,

She smiled as I passed by.

The flowers she held were fresh and fair,

Her lips were full and red

And as I passed that shady bower

These words to me she said:

 

Chorus:

"Last night we spoke of love

Now we're forced to part;

You leave to the sound of a marching drum

And the beat of a lover's heart."

 

She was by the shore in the evening

When next I saw my dear

Running barefoot by the waterside;

She called as I drew near.

The sunlight glanced on the water's edge

Making fire of her auburn hair.

My young heart danced to her parting words

That hung in the evening air:

 

She was on the strand next morning

When orders came to sail

And as we slipped our ropes away

I watched her from the rail.

She threw me a rose which fell between us

It floated on the bay;

And as our ship pulled from shore

I heard her call and say:

 

Now the soldier's life won't suit me;

Sweet music is my trade

For I'd rather melt the hardest heart

Than pierce it with a blade.

Let the time be short 'til I return

To my home in the north of Skye

And the loving girl who stole my heart

With these words when I passed by.

Source: Silly Wizard, A Glint of Silver, Green Linnet

LUCIFER

Hear my voice, oh Lord of Hades

Ease my sorrow, light is fading

Muse, add thine eloquence to mine

End of year and end of Harvest

All that remains is memory's wine

 

Where the roses of the summer

Where the light when leaves are falling

Where are the works that I have done

As the sowing, so the reaping

Turn the year to joy or weeping

The hour of weighing grain has come

 

Wine distills the sun of summer

Now I wait and watch and slumber

Vigil to keep beneath the ground

Yet my eyes see light and darkness

Yet my soul knows truth and shadow

Yet I attend upon the spring

 

Deep in silence speaks the wisdom

Let me treasure autumn's season

Time to reflect the dream and plan

Burn the weeds and fill the grain bin

Rise the shades to whisper longings

Earth rents her garments, mourns the sun.

Source: Chickasaw Mountain

LUGHNASAD DANCE

Lugh the light of summer bright

Clothed all in green

Tell to you his mother true

Rise up and be seen

 

Chorus:

At the festival sounds the horn

Calling the people again

Child of folly corn

Newly of summer born

Ripening like the grain

 

Lugh grew tall from spring to fall

And sought to find a wife

But Balor came and made his claim

And swore to take his life

 

The two did fight from morn 'til night

When Lugh did strike and won

Balor's eye flew in the sky

And there became the sun

 

Lugh was wed and made his bed

With Airleen in the North

And there they lay for many a day

And soon a child came forth

 

The child grew tall from spring to fall

Setanta was his name

Then at length through honest strength

Cuthualin he became

Source: Gwydion Sings

LULLABY

Poem by William Blake

 

Oh for a voice like thunder, and a tongue

To drown the throat of war! - When the senses

Are shaken, and the soul is driven to madness,

Who can stand? When the souls of the oppressed

Fight in the troubled air that rages, who

can stand?

When the whirlwind of fury comes from the

Throne of God, when the frowns of his

countenance

Drive the nations together, who can stand?

When Sin claps his broad wings over the battle,

 

And sails rejoicing in the flood of Death;

When souls are torn to everlasting fire,

And fiends of Hell rejoice upon the slain,

O who can stand? O who hath caused this?

O who can answer at the thrown of God?

The Kings and the Nobles of the Land have done it!

Hear it not, Heaven, thy Ministers have done it!

Source: Loreena McKennitt, Elemental, Quinlan Road

LUNAR TWILIGHT

Lunar twilight, dying day

Shadows linger on as sunlight slowly fades

Darkness deepens as night is drawn

And it's so very long until another dawn.

 

The lunar miner stirs in his converted canister

Rubs his eyes and glances at the time.

Another day another shift tons of rock to dig and lift

And move and dozer through the shallow lunar mines.

Four a.m. or noon makes no difference on the moon

Clocks are just for keeping schedules defined.

 

The rugged miners claim a man can go insane

Seven days of sunshine, and seven more to go.

And midnight madness mars the beauty of the stars

Darkness is forever, Luna turns so very slow.

Then a hundred pairs of eyes are drawn to the skies

Scanning the horizon anticipating earth rise.

 

Eighteen months of tour lunar miners must endure

Many hardships, the work is never done.

A hundred men, no more, mine a million tons of ore

Every year to tame the power of the sun.

But somehow they survive, their spirits kept alive

With hope for their future and a dream of Island One.

 

Lunar sunrise, darkness wanes

Cold and grey dawn crawls across the plain

Blinding blur glistens on a crater rim

And it's so very long until the sun goes down again

So very long until the sun goes down again

So very long until the sun goes down...

MAID IN BEDLAM

Traditional

 

Abroad I was walking one evening in the spring

I heard a maid in Bedlam so sweetly for to sing

Her chain she rattled with her hands and thus replied she

I love my love because I know my love loves me.

 

O my cruel parents I'll be into unkind

They drove me and punished me and troubled my mind

Although I am cruel burned, he'll see, contented will I be

I love my love because I know my love loves me.

 

Would I become a swallow, I'd ascend into the air

And if I lost my neighbor and could not find him there

I quickly would become a fish and search the furling sea

I love my love because I know my love loves me.

 

With straw I'll make a garland and dross it very fine

I'll mix the same with roses, lily pink, and thyme

I will preserve it for my love when he returns from sea

I love my love because I know my love loves me.

 

Just as she was at weeping her love came on the land

Hearing she was in Bedlam, he ran straight out of hand

And as he entered in the gates he heard her sigh and say

I love my love because I know my love loves me.

 

He stood and gazed on her, he to his love complained

He could not stand any longer, he bled in every vein

He flew into her snowy white arms thus replied she

I love my love because I know my love loves me.

Source: John Renbourne Group, A Maid in Bedlam

THE MAID ON THE ROAD

Traditional

 

Come listen a while and I'll tell you a story

Of three merry gentlemen riding along.

They met a fair maid and to her did say

"We're afraid this cold morning will do you some harm."

 

"Oh no, kind sire," said the maid, "you're mistaken

To think that this cold morning can do me some harm.

There's one thing I crave and it lies twixt your legs, sir

If you give that to me it will keep me warm."

 

"Well, since you do crave it, my dear, you shall have it.

If you'll come with me to yonder green tree.

Well, since you do crave it, my dear, you shall have it,

I'll make these two gentlemen witness to be."

 

So the gentlemen lighted, and straightway she mounted

And looking the gentleman hard in the face

Said, "You knew not my meaning, you misunderstood me!"

And away she went galloping down the long lane.

 

"Oh gentlemen lend me one of your horses

That I might ride after her down the long lane.

If I overtake her, I warrant I'll make her

Return unto me my own horse again."

 

But soon as this fair maid she saw him a comin'

She instantly took her pistol in hand

She said, "Doubt not my skill but it's you I would kill

And I'll have you stand back or you are a dead man."

 

"Oh why do you spend all your time here in talking

Oh, why do you spend all your time here in vain?

Come give me a guinea, it's all she deserves

And I'll warrant she'll give you your own horse again."

 

"Oh no, kind sirs,you're vastly mistaken.

If it's his loss, well it is my gain

And you were a witness that he gave it to me."

And away she went galloping over the plain.

Source: Oak, Ash, and Thorn, Wild Oats, Off Centaur

MAID ON THE SHORE

Stan Rogers

 

There is a young maiden, she lives on the shore

She lives all alone on the shore-o

There is nothing she can find to comfort her mind

Than to roam all alone on the shore, shore, shore

But to roam all alone on the shore

 

'Twas of a young captain who sailed the salt seas

Let the winds blow high blow low

I will die, I will die, the young captain did cry

If I don't have that maid on the shore, shore, shore

If I don't have that maid on the shore

 

I have lots of silver, I have lots of gold

I have lots of costly ware-o

I'll divide, I'll divide with my jolly ship's crew

If they'll row me that maid on the shore, shore, shore

If they'll row me that maid on the shore

 

After much persuasion they got her aboard

Let the wind blow high blow low

They replaced her away in his cabin below

Here's adieu to all sorrow and care, care, care

Here's adieu to all sorrow and care

 

They replaced her away in his cabin below

Let the wind blow high blow low

She's so pretty and neat, she's so sweet and complete

She's sung captain and sailors to sleep, sleep, sleep

She's sung captain and sailors to sleep

 

Then she robbed them of silver, she robbed them of gold

She robbed them of costly ware-o

Then she took his broadsword instead of an oar

And paddled her way to the shore, shore, shore

And paddled her way to the shore

 

Me men must be crazy, me men must be mad

Me men must be deep in despair-o

For to let you away from my cabin do gay

And paddle your way to the shore, shore, shore

And paddle your way to the shore

 

Your men was not crazy, your men was not mad

Your men was not deep in despair-o

I deluded your sailors as well as yourself

I'm a maiden again on the shore, shore, shore

I'm a maiden again on the shore

 

Repeat first verse.

Source: Stan Rogers, Turnaround, Fogarty's Cove

THE MARY ELLEN CARTER

Stan Rogers

 

She went down last October in a pouring, driving rain

The Skipper, he'd been drinking and the Mate, he felt no pain.

Too close to Three Mile Rock and she was dealt her mortal blow

And the Mary Ellen Carter settled low.

There was just us five aboard her when she finally was awash

We'd worked like hell to save her, all heedless of the cost

And the groan she gave as she went down, it caused us to proclaim

That the Mary Ellen Carter would rise again.

 

Well the owners wrote her off, not a nickel would they spend

"She gave twenty years of service, boys, then met her sorry end

But insurance paid the cost to us, so let her rest below,"

They laughed at us and said we had to go.

But we talked of her all winter, some days around the clock

For she's worth a quarter million afloat and at the dock.

And with every jar that hit the boat we swore we would remain

And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

 

Rise again, rise again, that her name not be lost to the knowledge of men.

Those who loved her best and were with her to the end

Would make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

 

All spring now, we've been with her on a barge lent by a friend

Three dives a day in a hard hat suit and twice I've had the bends

Thank God it's only sixty feet and the currents here are slow

Or I'd never have the strength to go below.

We've patched her rents, stopped her vents,

Dogged hatch and porthole down,

Put cables to her fore and aft and girded her around

Tomorrow, noon, we hit the air and then take up the strain

And watch the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

 

For we couldn't leave her there, you see, to crumble into scale;

She's saved our lives so many times, living through the gale

And the laughing, drunken rats who left her to a sorry grave

They won't be laughing in another day.

And you, to whom adversity has dealt a final blow

With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go

Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain

And, like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!

 

Rise again, rise again

Though your heart it be broken

And life about to end.

No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love a friend

Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again!

Source: Stan Rogers, Between the Breaks, Live, Fogarty's Cove

McINTYRE

Some friends and I in a public house

Were playing dominoes one night

When into the room a fireman came, his face all chalky white.

"What's up," says Brown, "have you seen a ghost?

Have you seen my Aunt Mariah?"

"Well your Aunt Mariah be buggered," says he,

"The bleeding Pub's on fire!"

 

Well, "Oh," says Brown, "what a bit of luck.

Everybody follow me. It's down to the cellar

If the fire's not there and we'll have a grand old spree."

So we all went down after good old Brown

And the booze you could not miss

And we hadn't been there ten minutes or more

When we were quite like this...

 

Chorus:

And there was Brown, upside down

Lapping up the whiskey on the floor.

"Booze! booze!" the firemen said

As they came knocking at the door.

"Well, don't let 'em in 'til it's all drunk up."

Somebody shouted, "McIntyre!"

And we all got blue blind paralytic drunk

When the old Dun Cow caught fire.

 

Well Smith walked over to the port wine tub

And gave it just a few hard knocks.

He started takin' off his pantaloons,

Likewise his shoes and socks.

"Oh no," says Brown, "That ain't allowed.

You can't do that thing here.

Don't go washing your trotters in the port wine tub

When we've got some Guiness' beer"

 

Then all at once came a mighty crash

Half the bloody roof caved in.

We were drowned in the firemen's hose

'Til we were almost sober.

Well we got some tacks and some old wet socks

And we tacked ourselves inside

And we sat there getting bleary-eyed drunk

While the old Dun Cow got fried.

Source: Clam Chowder

MEDIC

Heather Alexander

 

Another year goes by, another transfer and I go

To seek another world that holds no faces that I know.

Another sky, another star, forgive me that I flee

You try to breach the barrier between yourselves and me.

Now leave me to my silences, and let me live apart.

I'll heal your battered bodies; don't try to touch my heart.

 

I know the things you say of me, you think that I don't hear.

You call me ice and steel (alt. "iron maiden"),well how can you know I fear

The day that always comes that means my visit here must end.

A day I cease to heal the wound and start to heal a friend.

So please don't offer me your hand, for sooner we must part.

I'll heal your battered bodies; don't try to touch my heart.

 

There was a time I did avail myself in home at night

When I had friends and lovers and the days we shared were bright.

But our ship fell and foundered in a stormy alien sky

Amid the shattered wreckage I could only watch them die.

So please don't wake the memory or the pain it must impart.

I'll heal your battered bodies; just never touch my heart.

 

So I have worn my armor tight ever since that day

No love or friendship's worth the pain of tearing it away.

As long as you are faceless I can heal the hurts I see

As soon as you have faces all your wounds cut into me.

So let me wall you out, and let no breaching every start.

I'll heal your battered bodies, but don't try to touch my heart.

Source: Mercedes Lackey, Leslie Fish,Magic, Moondust & Melancholy, Firebird A&M

MERLIN'S TIME

And I think of you now as a dream that I had long ago

On a kingdom lost to time.

In the forest of evening the archer is bending his bow

And I see you bring him bread and wine.

 

Down the legions of years the invaders have taken this land

And bent you to their will

And the memories fade of the ancients and all that they had

But their magic lingers 'round you still.

 

Oh who would walk the stony roads of Merlin's time

And keep watch along the border line

 

And who would hear the legends passed in song and rhyme

Upon the shattered pipes of Merlin's time.

MISCONCEPTIONS

Leslie Fish

 

I've got a unicorn's horn in the middle of my forehead

And the antlers of a stag on either side.

I've got pointed ears that are something like a deer's

Or something like an elk's; I can't decide.

I've got long green hair to match my flowing emerald mane

That turns red with the oak trees every fall

With my goatlike eyes it should come as no surprise

That I've got feathered eyebrows and that isn't all.

 

Chorus:

My mother never talks about that orgy

And I can't really blame her much although

I would love to read the guest list for that party

And if there's another like it let me know.

 

While my vampire's fangs make kissing kind of awkward

Like the set of gills implanted in my neck.

But my chest and arms aren't the least of all my charms

They somehow came out human, what the heck.

I've got phoenix wings well rooted in my shoulders

And I hope that you like legs 'cause I got four;

The furry forward pair would make a lion stare

'Cause they end in dragon's claws that rake the floors.

 

Chorus

 

I suspect my body's something like a centaur's

But my fur is somewhat tiger-like you'll find

And if you'd feared the legs in front were weird

You should only see the pair that walk behind.

They start off looking something like a horse's

But they're covered up with feathers, not with hair;

And they end in hooves like an antelopes which proves

That's there's nothing that the traffic will not bear.

 

Chorus

 

Now my tail is really something rather special,

Though you wouldn't think so seeing it at all.

For it's long and green like my hair and mane you've seen

And like them it turns red with every fall.

But beneath the hair, which is really quite attractive

The stinger of a manticore is hid;

So you really see when you look at all of me

That I really wish I knew what Mother did!

Source: Mercedes Lackey, Magic, Moondust & Melancholy, Firebird A&M

MONTROSE

Brian McNeill

 

Father, Father, tell me, why do the horsemen ride?

Why do the troopers look so grim by Jamie Graham's side?

Is it true that he's a traitor? But Father, tell me why

There's not a man among them all to look him in the eye?

 

Chorus: Montrose, Montrose, you were the rose

you gave your life for loyalty;

But it's not the hour for the rose to flower

between the kirk and royalty, Montrose.

 

Hearken, now, my bonny boy, as we stand before the kirk,

Or does the thunder of the horses' hooves hide all the devil'd work?

For the Covenant's a Campbell mare that rides across the law

And ever a Stuart bridles her, a Graham's head must fall.

 

I'll read you now a riddle, by the shining of the moon.

When King and Kirk sit down to sup, what needs the longer spoon?

When Scotland hides her head in shame and justice looks away

And the scaffold buys an English throne with the bravest heart of all.

Source: The Battlefield Band, On the Rise

MOOSE

Chorus: Moose, moose, I like a moose

I've never had anything quite like a moose

I've had lots of lovers, my life has been loose

But I've never had anything quite like a moose.

 

When I get in the mood for an awfully good lay

I go to the closet and get me some hay

I go to the window and spread it around

For moose always come when there's hay on the ground.

 

A gorilla's all right for a Saturday night

And lions and tigers they put up a fight

But it's just not the same when you slam the caboose

As the feeling you get when you've just had a moose.

 

I've done it with all sorts of beasties with hair

I'd do it with snakes if their fangs weren't there

I've done it with walrus, a duck and a goose

But I've never had anything quite like a moose.

 

Now I'm getting old and advanced in my years

I look back on my life and I shed not a tear

I sit in my armchair and sip my Matteus

And play hide the salami with Millie the Moose.

Source: The Concordian Songbook

MOUNT TAM

Leslie Fish

 

Here I sit on the head of Mount Tam

Might as well be in Vietnam

The battle is coming soon.

The stars are dim but the sky is grey

With the lights of the city that ring the bay

In the shape of a crescent moon.

 

Chorus: So if there be anything here

That cometh not in the name of the Powers of Light

Then in the name of the Powers of Light

Let it be gone.

 

Cities live, the stones have souls

As long as one dweller stands up whole

And here are three million lives.

Their spirits runs through the nerves of wire

Through the concrete bones and the furnace fire

The body of stone survives.

 

Warnings groan as the deep plates crack

Will shake one burden from Earth's green back

Tonight one of us goes down.

So here we fight with our wizard's force

To shift the fault on its other course

And swallow the southern crown.

 

We will feel the currents of power

Have no rest in the darkening hour

Of a war that we did not choose.

But if some city must fall to the brine

I swear that city will not be mine

I do not intend it to lose.

 

So aim the bolt, and raise the shield

The choice is cruel but we dare not yield

When life is a prize of war.

San Andreas we curse your name

As we strike your fault with our silent flame

And deflect and deflect once more.

Source: Chickasaw Mountain

MY FEET ARE SET FOR DANCING

Cathy Lesurf

 

No flirt or gigolo could reach me like you do

For sure, you are no hunter and I no wounded doe

I wish I knew what happened when my resistance was so low

I want to run, want to give in, and I wish you weren't so slow

 

Chorus: For my feet are set for dancing

Won't you turn the music on

My heart is like a loaded gun

Won't you let the water run

Won't you let the water run

 

This crazy love has got me drunk and the same rules apply

My heart wants me to play the fool

But my self respect says lie

You call up so much energy, I've got to let it free

Good company is what I need

I've got to laugh before I'm crying

 

Are my eyes a little starry?

Is my voice a little low?

Do I read your signals rightly?

Shall I stay or shall I go?

Your eyes don't give a thing away

So I guess you just don't care

But if you want to love me

Love me now or don't you dare

 

Oh you winners and your loses, you've all played the game

Thought the outcome may be different

Still the playing's just the same

So sweet sixteen or sixty

You think your heart does what you please

But love will creep up and he'll catch you

And he'll bring you to your knees

Source: Cathy Lesurf, Glady's Leap, Fairport Convention

MY GEORDI

As I walked out over London Bridge

One misty morning early

I overheard a fair pretty maid

Lamenting for her Geordy.

 

Oh my Geordi will be hanged with a golden chain

'Tis not the chain of many

He was born of King's Royal breed

And lost to a virtuous lady.

 

Go bridle me my milk white steed

Go bridleme my pony

I will ride to London's court

To plead for the life of Geordi.

 

Oh my Geordi never stold no cow nor calf

He never hurt nobody.

Stold sixteen of the King's royal deer

And sold them in (B......)

 

Two pretty babes have I born

The third lies in my body

I'd freely part with them everyone

If you'd spare the life of my Geordi.

 

The judge looked over his left shoulder

He said, "Fair maid, I'm sorry."

Said, "Fair maid, you must be gone

For I cannot pardon Geordi."

 

Oh my Geordi will be hanged in a golden chain

'Tis not the chain of many.

Stole sixteen of the King's royal deer

And he sold them in (B........)

MY HELM HAS FELT THE POUNDING

By Dominic Seamour

To the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic

 

My helm has felt the pounding of a hundred thousand blows

The times my sword had broken only God in Heaven knows

I've felt that fearsome ringing from my head down to my toes

And I ain't gonna fight no more!

 

Chorus: Gory, gory, what a colorful bruise I've got!

Of skin and bone unbroken there is not one single spot

I've hacked and slashed with all the rest

But now it's time to stop!

And I ain't gonna fight no more!

 

On the morning of the tourney I strode bravely on the field

And then I saw my foeman and my senses they did reel

He was six-foot-eight, three hundred pounds and forged out of steel

And I ain't gonna fight no more!

 

He struck me once, he struck me twice, and I fell on the ground

My armor it was scattered on the list field all around

My right arm it was broken and my head it still doth pound

And I ain't gonna fight no more!

 

I quickly sold my armor knowing I could not go wrong

For after all, my friends, you know that I am not too strong

So I'll sit here on the sidelines with the girls where I belong

And I ain't gonna fight no more!

Source: The Concordian Songbook

MY HUSBAND'S GOT NO COURAGE IN HIM

Traditional

 

As I walked out one May morning

To view the fields and the leaves a-springing

I saw two maidens standing by

And one of them her hands was wringing

 

Chorus: Oh dear-o, Oh dear-o

Me husband's got no courage in him

Oh dear-o

 

All sorts of victuals I did provide

All sorts of meats that's fitting for him

With oyster pie and rhubarb too

But nothing will put the courage in him

 

Me husband can dance and caper and sing

And do anything that's fitting for him

But he cannot do the thing I want

Because he's got no courage in him

 

My husband's admired where ever he goes

And everyone looks well upon him

With his handsome features and well shaped leg

But still he's got no courage in him

 

And every night he goes to bed

I lie and throw my leg right over him

And my hand I clap between his thighs

But I cannot put any courage in him

 

Seven long years I've made his bed

And every night I've lain beside him

But this morning I arose with my maidenhead

But still he's got no courage in him

 

I wish my husband he was dead

And in his grave I'd quickly lay him

And then I'd try another one

A one that's got some courage in him

Source: Maddy Prior and June Tabor as Silly Sisters, Chrysalis

MY JOHNNIE WAS A SHOEMAKER

Mick Hanley

 

My Johnnie was a shoemaker and dearly he loved me.

My Johnnie was a shoemaker but now he's gone to sea,

With pitch and tar to soil his hands, and sail across the sea,

The stormy sea

And sail across the sea.

 

His jacket was a deep sky blue and curly was his hair

His jacket was a deep sky blue it was I do declare;

But to rig the topsail to the mast, and sail across the sea,

The stormy sea

And sail across the sea.

 

One day he'll be a captain bold with a brave and a gallant crew

One day he'll be a captain bold with a sword and a spy glass too;

And when he gets a captain's sword he'll come home and marry me,

He'll marry marry me.

 

Repeat first verse

NELL FLAHERTY'S DRAKE

Oh, me name it is Nell, and the truth for to tell

I come from Caudill which I'll never deny;

I had a fine drake and I'd die for his sake

That me Grandmother left me when she gone to die.

 

That dear little fellow, his legs they were yellow;

He could fly like a swallow, or swim like a hake.

'Til some dirty savage, to grace his white cabbage

Most wantonly murdered me beautiful drake.

 

Now, his neck it was green, most fit to be seen;

He was fit for a queen of the highest degree.

His body was white; it would you delight

He was plump, fat, and heavy, and brisk as a bee.

 

He was wholesome and sound, and would weigh twenty pound

And the universe round I would roam for his sake;

But look to the robber, be he drunk or sober

That murdered Nell Flaherty's beautiful drake.

 

May his spade never dig, may his sow never pig,

May each hair in his wig be well ( ) with the ( )

May his door never latch, may his roof have no thatch

May his turkey not hatch, may the rats eat his mill.

 

May every old fairy from Cork to Dunlerry

Dip him snug and nary in river and lake

That the eel and the trout, they may dine on the snout

Of the monster that murdered Nell Flaherty's drake.

 

May his pig never grunt, may his cat never hunt,

May a ghost o'er haunt him at the dead of the night.

May his hens never lay, may his horse never lay,

May his goat fly away like an old paper kite.

 

May the flies and the fleas may the rats ever tease

May the cold northern breeze make him shiver and shake;

May the lumps of the stick raise the bumps fast and thick

On the monster that murdered Nell Flaherty's drake.

 

Well, the only good news that I have to infuse

Is that old Barney Hills and young Anthony Blake;

Also Johnny Dwyer and Corny McGiure

They each have the grandson of my darling drake.

 

Me treasure had dozens of nephews and cousins

And one I must get or me heart it will break;

I'll get me none other if I have my druthers

So ends the story of Nell Flaherty's drake.

Source: Clancy Brothers, Irish Songs of the Rebellion

NEVER SET THE CAT ON FIRE

Frank Hayes

 

Never set the cat on fire

You only will annoy it

The heat will make the beast perspire

She surely won't enjoy it

Likewise do not ignite the dog

The snake, the gerbil or the frog

No, never set the cat on fire

 

Chorus: And mind your manners

As circumstances may require

And never set the cat on fire

 

Don't open up the cabin hatch

The air is sure to leave it

And air is very hard to catch

You never will retrieve it

And though you think your life's a bore

Don't open the reactor door

Don't open up the cabin hatch

 

Don't change the navigator's data

Someone's sure to see ya

You know the captain's view of that

A very bad idea

He doesn't want his ship to race

Forever lost in endless space

Don't change the navigator's data

 

Don't start an interstellar war

It has no helpful uses

If people ask you what's it for

You'll only make excuses

If thirty trillion folks get hurt

You'll go to bed with no dessert

Don't start an interstellar war

Source: Frank Hayes, Don't Ask, Off Centaur

NO MORE SONGS

Hello hello hello is there anybody home?

I only called to say I'm sorry

But the drums are in the dawn and all the voices gone

And it seems that there are no more songs.

 

Once I loved a girl, she was a flower in a flame

I loved her as the sea sings sadly

But the ashes of the dreams can be found in magazines

And it seems that there are no more songs.

 

Once I knew a saint and he sang upon the stage

He told about the world his lover

Now a ghost without a name stands ragged in the rain

And it seems that there are no more songs.

 

The ripples all were here, they stood behind the door

They told me that the moon was bleeding

Then much to my surprise they took away my eyes

And it seems that there are no more songs.

 

A star is in the sky and I now must say goodbye

A whale is on the beach he's dying

A white bone in the sand and a white flag in my hand

And it seems that there are no more songs.

 

Hello hello hello is there anybody home

I only called to say I'm sorry

But the drums are in the dawn and all the voices gone

And it seems that there are no more songs.

Source: Chickasaw Mountain

NORTHWEST PASSAGE

Stan Rogers

 

Chorus: Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage

To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea

Tracing one long line through a land so wide and savage

And make a Northwest Passage to the sea

 

Westward from the Davis Straight, 'tis there 'twas said to lie

The sea route to the Orient for which so many died

Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered broken bones

And a long forgotten cairn of stones

 

Three centuries there after, I take passage overland

In the footsteps of Brave Kelso, where his "sea of flowers" began

Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again

This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain

 

And through the night behind the wheel, the mileage clicking West

I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest

Who cracked the mountain ramparts, and did show a path for me

To race the roaring Frasier to the sea

 

How then am I so different from the first me through this way?

Like them I left a settled life, I threw it all away

To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many men

To find there but the road back home again

Source: Stan Rogers, Northwest Passage, Fogarty's Cove Records

O'DONNELL ABU

Traditional

 

Proudly the note of the trumpet is sounding

Loudly the war cries arise on the gale

Fleetly the steed by Lough Swilly is bounding

To join the thick squadrons on Swaimer's green vale

Oh, every mountaineer, strangers to flight or fear

Rush to the standard of dauntless Red Hugh

Connaught and Gallowglass, throng from each mountain pass

Onward for Erin, O'Donnell Abu

 

Princely O'Neill to our aid is advancing

With many a chieftain and warrior clan

A thousand proud steeds in his vanguard are prancing

'Neath the borderers brave from the banks of the Bann

Many a heart shall quail under its coat of mail

Deeply the merciless foeman shall rise

When on his ear shall ring borne in the breeze's wing

Tir Connell's dread war cry, O'Donnell Abu

 

Wildly o'er Desmond the war wolf is howling

Fearless the eagle sweeps over the plain

The fox in the streets of the city is prowling

And all who would scare them are banished or slain

On with O'Donnell then, fight the old fight again

Sons of Tir Connell, are valiant and true

Make the proud Saxons feel Erin's avenging steel

Strike for your then, O'Donnell Abu.

Source: Donal Maccian at the Warwickshire Faire The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem

OCEAN GYPSY

Betty Thatcher

 

Tried to take it all away

Earn her freedom just inside a day

And find her soul to find their fears allayed.

Tried to make her love their own

And took her love they left her there

They gave her nothing back that she would want to own

Gold and silver, rings and stones

Dances slowly of moon

No one else can know she stands alone

Sleeping dreams will reach for her

She cannot say the words they need

She knows she's alone, and she is free

 

Chorus: Ocean Gypsy of the moon

The sun has made a thousand nights for you to hold

Ocean Gypsy where are you

The shadows followed by the stars

Have turned to gold

Turned to gold

 

Then she met a hollow soul

Filled him with her light and was consoled

She was the moon and he the sun was gold

Eyes were blinded with his light

The sun she gave reflected back the night

The moon was waning, almost out of sight

Softly Ocean Gypsy calls

Silence holds the stars awhile

They shine sadly for her where she falls

Just the time before the dawn

The sea is hushed, the ocean calls her

Day has taken her, and now she's gone

 

No one noticed when she died

Ocean Gypsy shackled to the tide

The ebbing waves were turning, spreading wide

Something gone within her eyes

Her fingers lifeless stroke the sand

Her battered soul was lost, she was abandoned

Silken threads like wings still shine

Winds take pleasure, still make patterns

In her lovely hair, so dark and fine

Stands on high beneath the seas, cries no more

Her tears are dried, oceans weep for her, the ocean sighs

Source: Renaissance, Scheherazade, Sire

OF CABBAGES

Leslie Fish

 

I've always been a farmer and my heart's bound to the land.

The earth's deep roots are in me blood, She answers to my hand.

I grow the best of cabbages you ever hope to see

And once upon a moonstruck night I watched the dancing Sidhe.

 

Their music came before them and it pulled me from me bed.

It flowed like cool wine on the breeze and got inside me head,

It made be drunk and sober both, it made me sing and cry

It made me want to weep and dance and dream that I could fly.

 

And then their voices caroling like bells like birds like rain

In words I almost understood, in joy too near to pain.

The songs were like the ones you hear in dreams but can't recall

They fill your mind in slumber but with dawn you lose it all.

 

And then they came so wondrous bright so quite beyond compare

With starshine in their eyes and silver roses in their hair.

Rapt with an aching beauty, sweet and bitter, crystal light

A beauty that you fear to see but fear to lose the sight.

 

I saw them that there dancing, leaping air and silver flame

And conscious, all too conscious of my clumsy mortal frame.

I watched them at their dancing; light, light-footed, full of grace

While my legs of wood and feet of lead stood rooted in me place.

 

I am a framer, bound to earth, I know what I do well.

I'm mortal and I'm common, like the cabbages I sell.

There's virtue in a cabbage; even elves eat, I suppose;

But once, just once I wish that I could grow a silver rose.

Source: Mercedes Lackey, Magic, Moondust & Melancholy, Firebird A&M

OLD TIME RELIGION

It was good enough for Odin

though that creakin' was forebodin'

'Til at last the giants rode in

still it's good enough for me.

 

Chorus: Gimme that Old Time Religion

Gimme that Old Time Religion

Gimme that Old Time Religion

It's good enough for me!

 

Montezuma liked to start out

rites by carrying a part out

That would really tear your heart

and it's good enough for me.

 

It was good enough for Kali

though embracing her was folly

She'd be quite an armful, golly!

So it's good enough for me.

 

It was good enough for Dagan

that conservative old pagan

Who still votes for Ronald Reagan

and it's good enough for me.

 

It was good enough for Isis

she will help us in a crisis

And she's never raised her prices

so she's good enough for me.

 

Plus what ever anyone else makes up!

OH NO, NOT I

Traditional

 

A Newfoundland sailor when walking on the strand

He spied a pretty fair maid and he took her by the hand

"Oh will you go to Newfoundland along with me?" he cried

But the answer that she gave him was. "Oh no, not I."

 

"If I were to marry you, on me 'twould be the blame

Your friends and relations would scorn me to shame.

If you were born of noble blood and me of low degree

Do you think that I would marry you? It's oh no, not me."

 

Six months being over and seven drawing nigh

This pretty fair young maiden she began to look so shy

Her corsets would not meet and her apron would not tie

Made her think on all the times when she said, "Oh no, not I."

 

Eight months being over and nine coming on

This pretty fair young maiden she brought forth a son.

She wrote a letter to her love to come most speedily

But the answer that he gave her was, "Oh no, not me."

 

He said, "My pretty fair maid, the best thing you can do

Is take your child upon your back and a begging you may go.

And it's when you get tired you can sit you down to cry

And think on all the times when you said, 'Oh no, not I.'"

 

So come all you pretty fair maids, a warning take by me:

Don't ever put your trust in the green willow tree

For the leaves they will wither and the root it will die

Make you think on all the times when you said, "Oh no, not I."

Source: Stan Rogers, Turnaround, Fogarty's Cove

ON LADY DAY

When the silver barren winter casts its frozen cold

Over trees and grassy hilltops, rivers large and small

Suddenly, the snow stops falling, and from out of the cold

Comes the form of the fairy maiden, as the legends foretold.

Lady Day, on quiet Lady Day, with blossoms in her hair

Comes the form of the fairy maiden, leaving green every where.

 

Oh, the mighty fairy maiden rises from the earth.

'Tis the winter gently falling heralds her rebirth.

Softly now, the budding branched of the new life for old

And in splendor the holy maiden thus her mantle unfolds.

Lady Day, on quiet Lady Day, the world is fresh for spring

And in splendor the holy maiden lifts her silvery ring.

 

Treading softly through the valley, across the snowy field

She has brought the clouds to pass which every step revealed.

Quietly she bares her bosom where the fountain once played

And in hand several waters come forth to the will of the maid.

Lady Day, on quiet Lady Day, her smile has thawed the spring

And in hand several waters come forth through the winter born king.

Source: Gwydion Sings

THE OUTSIDE TRACK

Music: Gerry Hallom

Lyrics: Henry Lawson

 

The port lights glowed in the morning mist

that flowed on the waters green.

And over the railing, we grasped his fist

as the dark tide came between.

We cheered the captain, we cheered the crew

and our mates, time out of mind.

We cheered the land he was going to

and the land he had left behind.

 

Chorus: For they marry and go, as the world rolls back

They marry, and vanish, and die.

But their spirit shall live on the outside track

As long as the years go by.

 

We roared, "Old Lang Syne," as a last farewell

but my heart seemed out of joint.

I well remember the hush that fell

as the steamer passed the point.

We drifted home through the public bars;

we were ten less, by one

Who sailed out under the morning stars,

and under the rising sun.

 

And one by one, and two by two

they've sailed from the wharf since then.

I've said good bye to the last I knew;

the last of the careless men.

And I can't but think that the times we had

were the best times, after all

And as I turn aside with a lonely glass

and drink to the bar-room wall.

Source: Garnet Rogers, The Outside Track, Snow Goose

THE PARISH OF DUNKELD

Andy M. Stewart

 

Oh what a Parish, a terrible Parish

Oh what a Parish is that o' Dunkeld

They hangit their minister

Droon'd their precentor

Dang doun the steeple and fuddled the bell

The steeple was doun but the kirk was still standin'

They bigit a lum where the bell used to hang

A still pot they got and they brewed Highland whiskey

On Sundays they drank it and ranted and sang

 

Oh, had you but seen how graceful they lookit

To see the cramm'd pews so socially join

MacDonald the piper, stuck up in the pulpit

He made the pipes skirl out, the music diving

Wi' whisky and beer they'd curse and they'd swear

They'd argy and fecht like ye daurna well tell

'Bout Geordie and Charlie they bothered fu'rarely

Wi' whiskey they're worse than the Divil himsel'

 

When the heart cheerin; spirit had mounted their garret

To a ball on the green they a' did adjourn

The maids wi' coats kilted they skippit and lilit

When tired they shook hands and then hame did return

If the kirks of a'owre Scotland held like social meetings

Nae warnin' ye'd need from a far tinkling bell

For true love and friendship wad draw you together

Far better than roarin' the horrors o' Hell

Source: Andy M. Stewart, By the Hush, Green Linnet

PHEONIX

Deep I sleep in my dreams of fire

Dancing visions of crimson flame

'Til I wake on my funeral pyre

Rebirth the symbol of what I am

 

Chorus: And I'll rise to the start

Golden feather and flame I'll fly

And I'll touch your reams in the dark

Remember the glory that time passed by

 

Once I lived long ago in memory

Gliding like wind song above your land

Now I sleep may the Gods forgive me

Awaiting capricious time's demand

 

When I'll rise...

 

Touch my dreams and the magic wakens

Speak my name and the dream is yours

Born again in the name of Pheonix

Though lost in legend my power is yours

 

And we'll rise...

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS

Grit Laskin

 

Early Saturday morning while strolling in the woods

I chanced upon a lady who by the wayside stood

"And what, pray tell would such a lass as you be doing here?"

"I've come to take some photographs," she said as she drew near.

 

Says me, to her, "I do declare. This is a fateful day.

For I have come to photograph the same as you did say."

So I pulled out my Nikon F and placed it in her hand

She said, "That's quite a camera you've got at your command."

 

My camera so delighted her that with no more delay

She let me see her camera case, wherein her accessories lay

She had her shutter open wide for daylight had all gone

Likewise my naked camera lens it had its filter on.

 

We photographed from haylofts and up against the wall

If you've not photographed on Saturday night, you've not photographed at all.

We photographed the upright pines that reached up for the sky

We photographed the waterfall; I heard an eagle cry.

 

She said "I've had Minoltas, Yashikas, and Rolleis

Hasselblad and Pentax, likewise a Polaroid.

Miranda, Leika, Nikormat, a Kodak and the rest

But now I've had your Nikon F and surely it's the best.

Source: Grit Laskin, Unmasked, Fogarty's Cove

PHREEDMERE'S SONG

By Dominic Seamour

To the tune of Lord, it's Hard to be Humble

 

Chorus: Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble

When you fight well in every way.

I can't wait to get on the list field

'Cause I fight better every day.

To know me is to fear me

I must pack a hell of a wham

Oh, Lord, it's hard to be humble

But I'm doing the best that I can.

 

I used to have a lady

But I guess she just couldn't compete

With all of these fear-crazed wenches

Who keep shuddering at my feet.

I prob'ly could find me another

But I guess they're all in awe of me

Who cares, I'll never get rusty

'Cause I practice on people I meet.

 

I guess you could say I'm a loner

A man all armored and proud

Oh, I could have lots of slaves if I wanted

But their screams wouldn't seem quite as loud.

Some folks say that I am a sadist

Heck, I don't even know what they said

I guess it has something to do with the way

That I rip off my opponent's head.

Source: The Concordian Songbook

THE PICT SONG

Rome never looks where she treads

Always her heavy hooves fall

On bellies, on heart and on heads

And Rome never heads when we squall.

Her centuries pass on and that's all,

As we gather behind them in hoards,

And pland to reconquer our wall,

With only our tongues for our swords.

 

Chorus: We are the little folk we,

Too little to love or to hate,

But leave up alone and you'll see

How fast we can drag down your state.

For we are the worm in the wood,

We are the rot at the root,

We are the taint in your blood,

And we are the thorn in your foot.

 

Mistletoe killing an oak,

Rats gnowing cables in two,

Moths eating holes in a cloak,

How they must what they do?

Yes, and we little folk to,

We are as busy as they,

Working our works out on you,

Watch and you'll see us someday.

 

Chorus

 

No, maybe we are not strong,

But we know peoples who are.

Gladly we'll guide them along

To crush and destroy you at war.

Yes, we'll be slaves just the same,

But when have we never been slaves,

And you, you will die of the shame,

And then we will dance on your graves.

 

Chorus

 

Note: Some people like to adlib arrangments on the final chorus.

Source: The singing of Grace Cecil

POOR OLD MARAT

Four years after the Revolution and the old king's execution

Four years after remember how those torches took their final bows.

String up every aristocrat!

Out with the priests and let them live on their fat!

 

Four years after we started fighting Marat keeps on with his writing

Four years after the Bastille fell he still recalls the old battle yell:

Down with all of the ruling class!

Throw all the generals out on their ass!

 

Why do they have the gold? Why do they have the power?

Why why why why why

Do they have the friends at the top?

Why do they have the jobs at the top?

We've got nothing, always had nothing

Nothing but holes, and millions of them.

Living in holes, dying in holes

Holes in our bellies and holes in our clothes...

 

Marat we're poor, and the poor stay poor

Marat don't make us wait anymore

We want our rights, and we don't care how

We want a revolution now.

 

Chanted:Four years he fought and he fought unafraid

Sniffing out traitors, by traitors betrayed

Marat in the courtroom, Marat underground

Sometimes the otter, and sometimes the hound

Fighting all the gentry, fighting every priest

The business man, the bourgeois, the military beast

Marat always ready to stifle every scheme

Of the sons of the ass-licking, dying regime

We've got new generals, our leaders are new

They sit and they argue and all that they do

Is sell their own colleagues, or ride upon their backs

Or jail them, or break them, or give them all the axe

Screaming in language that no one understands

Of the rights that we grabbed with our own bleeding hands

When we wiped out the bastards and stormed through the wall

Of the prison that they told us would outlast us all!

 

Marat we're poor, and the poor stay poor

Marat don't make us wait anymore

We want our rights, and we don't care how

We want a revolution now.

 

Poor old Marat, they hunt you down

The bloodhounds are sniffing all over the town.

Just yesterday your printing press

Was smashed, now they're asking your home address.

 

Poor old Marat, in you we trust

You work 'til your eyes turn as red as rust

Poor old Marat

We trust

in

you.

 

Marat we're poor, and the poor stay poor

Marat don't make us wait anymore

We want our rights, and we don't care how

We want a revolution NOW.

Source: Judy Collins, So Early in the Spring

PRETTY SARO

Down in some lone valley, in a lonesome place,

Where the wild birds do all whistle

And their notes do increase

Farewell pretty Saro, I must bid you adieu

But I'll dream of pretty Saro

Where ever I go.

 

My love, she won't have me, and I understand.

She wants a rich merchant

And I have no land.

I cannot maintain her, I've no silver and gold

Can't give her the nice things

That a big house will hold.

 

But if I were a merchant, and could write a fine hand

I'd write my love a letter

That she'd understand.

I'd write it by the river, where the rivers o'erflow

And I'll dream of pretty Saro

Where ever I go.

Source: Judy Collins, So Early in the Spring

PRINCE LYR'S SONG

To the tune of The Ash Grove

From the Concordia Songbook

 

When I was a young man, and very well thought of

I couldn't ask aught that the ladies denied

I nibble their hearts like a handful of raisins

And I never spoke love but I knew that I lied.

 

But I said to myself, "Ah, they none of them know

The secret I shelter and savor and save:

I wait for the one who will see through my seeming

And I'll know when I love by the way I behave.

 

The years drifted over like clouds in the heavens;

The ladies went by me like snow on the wind.

I charmed and I cheated, deceived and dissembled,

And I sinned, and I sinned, and I sinned, and I sinned.

 

But I said to myself, "Ah, they none of them know

There's part of me pure as the whisk of a wave.

My lady is late, but she'll find I've been faithful

And I'll know when I love by the way I behave.

 

At last came a lady both knowing and tender

Saying, "You're not at all what they take you to be."

I betrayed her before she had quite finished speaking

And she swallowed cold poison and jumped in the sea.

 

And I say to myself, when there's time for a word

As I gracefully grow more debauched and depraved

"Ah, love may be strong, but a habit is stronger.

And I knew when I loved by the way I behaved."

Source: The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle

THE PRIDE OF SHINURR

Mercedes Lackey

 

Our eartucks are gleaming with rings of bright gold

Our dress is as rich as the goods in our hold

Yet we pause on the ramp for a moment in shock

To see the strange creature that bolts from the dock.

It dodges our claws and leaps straight through the lock

Right into the Pride of Shinurr.

 

Chorus: We are the Pride of Shinurr, glossy of eye, fang and fur

Our fame is unblemished, our ship is the best

For we are the Pride of Shinurr.

 

Now this is no beast, for it knows where to run

Knows when it's trapped, recognizes a gun.

In spite signs of hunger and cuts in its side

It stands to defy us with true honny pride

Then writes unknown letters in the blood from its hide

On the deck of the Pride of Shinurr.

 

Now this is a prize, and a mystery to track

And here come the Kipp theives demanding it back.

Now shall we give over and meekly obey

Once more let the pirates of Kipp have their way?

They've robbed us before, but they'll not win today

No deal from the Pride of Shinurr.

 

They've fired on the station, the jump points and more

They're halting all trade, and they've started a war.

Great Gods how enormous the trouble has grown

For the sake of one male of a species unknown.

Would we have done better to leave it alone?

Hell no, not the pride of Shinurr.

THE QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS

Poul Anderson

 

It was the Ranger Arvid rode homeward through the hills

Among the shadowy silver leaves, among the charming rills

The night wind whispered round him with scent of brok and rue

Both moons rose high above him, the hills a-flash with dew.

The dance weaves under the fire-thorn.

 

And dreaming of that woman who waited neath the sun

He stopped, amazed by starlight, and thus he was undone

For there beneath the barrow that bulked athwart a moon

The Outling folk were dancing in glass and golden shoon.

The dance weaves under the fire thorn.

 

The Outling folk were dancing, like water wind and fire

To frosty ringing harp strings, and never did they tire

To Arvid she came striding from where she watched the dance

The Queen of Air and Darkness, with starlight in her glance.

The dance weaves under the fire thorn.

 

"Light down you, Ranger Arvid, and join the Outling folk.

You need no more be human, which is a heavy yoke."

He dared to give her answer, "I may do naught but run.

A maiden waits me dreaming in lands beneath the sun."

The dance weaves under the fire thorn.

 

"And likewise waits me comrades and tasks I must not shirk,

For what is Ranger Arvid if he lays down his work?

So wreak your spells, you Outling, and cast your wrath on me.

Though maybe you can kill me, you'll not make me unfree!"

The dance weaves under the fire thorn.

 

The Queen of Air and Darkness turned rapt about with fear.

In northlight flares and beauty, he dared not look too near

Until she laughed like harp song, and said to him in scorn,

"I do not need a magick to make you always mourn!"

The dance weaves under the fire thorn.

 

"I leave you hear with nothing except your memory

Of moonlight, Outling music, night breezes, dew, and me.

And this shall run behind you, a shadow on the sun

And this shall lie beside when your day's work is done.

Your dull and foolish woman keep kindly as you can.

Go home now Ranged Arvid, set free to be a man!"

The dance weaves under the fire thorn.

 

In flickering wind and laughter, the Outling folk were gone.

He stood alone by moonlight, and wept until the dawn.

The dance weaves under the fire thorn.

Source: Clam Chowder, Stewed

THE QUEEN OF ARGYLE

Andy M. Stewart

 

Gentlemen it is my duty

To inform you of one beauty

Though I'd ask of you a favor

Not to seek her for a while

Though I own she is a creature

Of character and feature

No words can paint the picture

Of the Queen of all Argyll

 

Chorus: And if you could have seen her there

Boys, if you had just been there

The swan was in her movement

And the morning in her smile

All the roses in the garden

Would bow and ask her pardon

No one could match the beauty

Of the Queen of all Argyll

 

On the evening that I mentioned

I passed with light intention

Through a part of our dear country

Known for beauty and for style

Being a place of noble thinkers

Of scholars and great drinkers

But above them all for splendor

Shone the Queen of all Argyll

 

So my lads I needs must leave you

My intentions not to grieve you

Nor did what I deceive you

Oh I'll see you in a while

I must find some way to gain her

To court her and to tame her

Oh I fear my heart's in danger

From the Queen of all Argyll

Source: Silly Wizard

THE QUEST

The knight came home from the quest

Muddied and sore he came

Battered sore of shield and crest

Bannerless, bruised and lame.

Fighting we take no shame

Better is man for a fall

Merrily-borne, the bugle-horn

Answered the warder's call.

 

Chorus: Here is my lance to mend

And here is my horse to be shod

Aye, they were strong and the fight it was long

But I paid as good as I got

I paid as good as I got.

 

Oh dark and deep their van

That mocked my battle-cry

I could not miss my man

But I could not carry by.

Utterly whelmed was I

Flung under horse and all

Merrily borne, the bugle-horn

Answered the warder's call.

 

My wounds are noised abroad

But theirs my foeman cloaked

Ye can see my broken blade

But never the blade she broke

Paying them stroke for stroke

Good handsel over all.

Merrily borne, the bugle-horn

Answered the warder's call.

 

My shame ye count and know

Ye say my quest was in vain

But ye have not seen my foe

Ye have not told this slain

Surely he fights again, again,

But when ye prove his line

There shall come to your aid my broken blade

In the last, long fight of mine!

Source: a poem by Rudyard Kipling

THE RAMBLIN ROVER

Andy M. Stewart

 

Chorus: There are sober men and plenty

And drunkards barely twenty

There are men of over ninety

That have never yet kissed a girl.

But give me a ramblin rover

Fae Orkney down to Dover

We will roam the country over

And together we'll face the world.

 

There's many who feign enjoyment

From merciless employment

Their ambition was this deployment

From the minute they left the school

And they save and scrape and squander

See the world and roam and wander

And they're happier as a rule.

 

I have roamed through all the nations

Ta'en delight in all creation

And I've tried a wee sensation

Where the company did prove kind

And when parting was no pleasure

I've drunk another measure

To the good friends that we treasure

For they always are in our minds.

 

If you're bent with arthritis

And your bowels have got colitis

And you've galloping bollicitus

And you're thinking it's time you died

If you've been a man of action

Though you're lying there in traction

You may gain some satisfaction

Thinking, "Jesus, at least I tried."

Source: Andy M. Stewart, By the Hush, Green Linnet

THE RAVEN IS CALLING

The Raven is calling, she sits at my side.

She laughs like a demon, for death is my bride.

She has courted me often, but ne'er in the sun

And now she will wed me when the battle is done.

 

The stag is my totem, the bull is your own

'Tis reason we now that we fight all alone.

I call to my brother but now we must fight

And the victor be crowned as the day turns to night.

 

Oh, my brother is wary, I'll not easily die

Though the season is turning and the sun it stay high.

My sword it is heavy, my arms they are cold;

Though the raven is calling, I'll so battle sae bold.

 

My shield it is broken like the coveted sword

Twixt the guards and my mother on the day I was born.

They promised her truly that I would not die

'Til the sun stood quite still in the solstice day sky.

 

The raven is calling, with her black hawking voice

I would not heed it, but she leaves me no choice.

She sings as she flies across the sun's face

And her shadow it falls on this very place.

 

Now wisdom is folly and folly is wise

When the battle is joined and the sun's in your eyes

I have fought like the champion I was raised up to be

But the raven is calling, she keeps calling to me.

Source: Gwydion Sings

THE RAWDON HILLS

Stan Rogers

 

The worn down shacks of labor past

On a hill of broken stone

Once brought by men to the stamping mills

To crush away the gold

But before it could pass to their sons

The glory left the hold

The Rawdon Hills once were touched by gold

 

The grandsons of the mining men

Scratch the fields among the trees

When the gold played out, there were all turned out

With granite dusted knees

But at night around the stoves,

Sometimes the stories still are told

The Rawdon Hills once were touched by gold

 

Grandsons of the mining men

You'll see it in your dreams

Beneath your father's bones still lies the undiscovered dreams

Of quartzite in a serpentine vein

That marks the greatest yield

And around the Midland railway, it's still told

How the Rawdon Hills once were touched by gold

 

Eighty years have come and gone

Since there was colour in the hole

And the care worn shades of the hard-rock men

Surround the old Cope Lode

And through the tiny hillside farms the stories still unfold

The Rawdon Hills once were touched by gold

Source: Stan Rogers, Fogarty's Cove, Fogarty's Cove

RETURN OF THE KING

Dark, dark is the swirling flood

Black, black is the stain of blood

Deep slumbers the apple's bud while old fires burn.

Winds blow where the night is chill

Howl, shriek from the highest hill

She waits 'neath the moon until her lover's return.

Oh, now is the star in its course in the sky

Each day it passes by, enters not far.

 

Leaves fall from the dying trees

Cold bearing the autumn breeze

Now locked in deep mysteries

He sleeps in the earth.

Here long be the making those

Who crossed the fields and froze.

Earth waits for the King she loves

Waiting to give birth.

When the summer was high and the leaves were bright green

Stags in the wood were seen, birds blackened the sky.

 

Red mantle and silver wing

Flash bright in the early spring

True love is awakening

On the Lady's bright face.

Long winter is passing now

Buds swell on the apple bough

Earth every seeds to plow

Where lovers embrace.

All creatures rejoice for the King and his Queen

Wearing the gardens green, now speaking one voice.

 

Winds blow where the night is chill

Howl, shriek from the highest hill

She waits 'neath the moon until

Her lover's return.

Source: Gwydion Sings

RISE UP BRIGHT SUN

Rise up bright sun, bring back the days again

Rise up bright sun, show us your face again

Come calling the leaves back into the trees

Come breaking the ice flows out of the seas

Rise up bright sun

 

Rise up bright sun, give us your light again

Rise up bright sun, chase back the night again

Come driving the iron gray out of the sky

Come gather the clouds and hammer them dry

Rise up bright sun

 

Rise up bright sun, give us your lives again

Rise up bright sun, 'til spring arrives again

Come burning the snow to rivers of rain

Come turning the ice to oceans of grain

Rise up bright sun

 

Rise up bright sun, your children call to you

Rise up bright sun, our futures fall to you

Forgive us the days forgotten to fear

We know it too well this time of the year

Rise up bright sun

Rise up bright sun

Source: Chickasaw Mountain

ROSEBUD IN JUNE

Traditional

 

It's a rose bud in June and the violets in full bloom

And the small birds singing love songs on each spray

 

Chorus: We'll pipe and we'll sing love,

We'll dance in a ring love

When each lad takes his lass

All on the green grass

And it's oh to the plow

Where the fat oxen graze low

And the lads and the lasses to sheep shearing go.

 

When we have sheared all our jolly, jolly sheep

What joy can be greater than to talk of their increase

 

Their flesh it is good, it's the best of all food

And their wool it will clothe us and keep our backs from cold

 

Here's the ewes and their lambs, it's the hogs and their rams

And the fat whithers too they will make a fine show

Source: Steeleye Span, Below the Salt, Chrysalis

 

ROUNDS AND OTHER SILLY STUFF

THREE BLIND MICE ARE DEAD

Three blind mice are dead

Three blind mice are dead

See how they lie

See how they lie

Cold grey bodies on the ground

Cold grey bodies on the ground

Poor dead mice

Poor dead mice

CERTAINLY

If I'll be alive tomorrow

Really I don't know

But if I'm alive tomorrow

I am sure I'll drink tomorrow

That I promise you

Source: Oak, Ash, and Thorn, Wild Oats, Off Centaur

 

Drunk since ever I saw your face

Drunk since ever I met you

Drunk since ever I saw your face

And the devil if I can forget you!

THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIRGE

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday

Gloom doom and despair

People dying every where

 

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday

May the cities in your wake

Burn like candles on your cake

 

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday

Hear the women wail and weep

Kill them all but save the sheep

 

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday

Source: Randal of the Dark, then King of the East Kingdom

THE ROYAL COURT TONIGHT

By Dominic Seamour

To the tune of The Muppet Show

 

It's time to put on costumes!

It's time to speak forthright!

It's time to get things started

At the royal court tonight!

 

It's time to set the thrones up!

It's time to light the lights!

It's time to "Where's the herald?"

For the royal court tonight!

 

It's time to play the fanfare!

It's time for "All please rise!"

It's time to do our courtesy

As the King and Queen go by!

 

It's time to hear the speeches!

It's time to do things right!

It's time to hold the revel

(spoken) Why don't you hold the revel?

Come on let's hold the revel

After this most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, S-C-A-tional

This has been the Royal Court tonight!!!!

Source: The Concordian Songbook

ROYAL WHIMS

By Morimoto Ichihatsu-no-hime-gime

To the tune of My Favorite Things

 

Never serve mushrooms unless it's with raisins

Purple and chartreuse are both quite in fashion

Always serve Gatorade, chase it with Pimms

These are a few of the Crown's Royal Whims.

 

Chorus: When the feast's cold, or the field's hot and the mead's gone bad

They simply proclaim a few more Royal Whims

And then they don't feel so bad.

 

Please do not laugh at the king's padded codpiece

France, in this reign, shall be known as the Far East

No bawdy songs, we'll sing nothing but hymns

These are a few of the Crown's Royal Whims.

 

Ducks are protected and shouldn't be eaten

Music indeed is a sheep's mournful bleatin'

Never make fun of the Queen's double chin

These are a few of the Crown's Royal Whims.

Source: The Concordian Songbook

S 100 BUS

Frank Hayes

(to the tune of Bonnie Ship the Diamond)

 

When I young my friends all worked

Like fools to get their share

Of an S-100 system like the Imsai or Altair

Well the S-100's still around I'm very glad to say

But friends I'm here to tell ya

It ain't the same today

 

Chorus: And it's cheer up me lads

Let your hearts never fuss

When you're integrating systems

For the S-100 bus

 

To tell the truth the source of all

Our trouble seems to be

A committee on computers of the I of triple E

They settled on a standard spec, Six-ninety-six by name

Now everything is standardized

But nothing works the same

 

They say the 80 boards are way to slow

It's enough to give you fits

If the old I/O isn't fast enough then go to sixteen bits

Sixty-eight and Z-8000 and Eighty-six as well

And code compatibility

Goes straight to bloody hell

 

Then add a board for the modem line

And one for every port

Add a printer board and a keyboard board and as a last resort

For every problem we will add a board that has a cure

It's not too damned efficient

But it's a Mother, that's for sure

 

And when it's all assembled

There's computer to your collar

It's nice to have a micro but a mainframe would be smaller

And when they turn the power on it's sure to dim the lamps

At plus and minus sixteen volts

And fourteen-hundred amps

Source: Frank Hayes, Don't Ask, Off Centaur

SCARBOROUGH SETTLER'S LAMENT

Traditional

 

Away with Canada's muddy creeks

And Canada's fields of pine

Your land is a goodly land

But oh, it is not mine.

The heathy hill, the grassy dale

The daisy spangled lea

The purling burn and craggy linn

Auld Scotland's glens give me.

 

Oh I would like to hear again the lark on Tinny's hill

And see the wee bit gowany that blooms beside the rill

Like banished Swiss who views afar his Alps with longing eye

I gaze upon the morning star that shines on my country.

 

No more I'll win by Eskdale glen or Pentland's craggy comb

The days can ne'er come back again of thirty years that's gone

But fancy, oft at morning hour will steal across the sea

And yestereve, in a pleasant dream, I saw the old country.

 

Each well known scene that met my view brought childhood's joys to mind

The blackbird sang on Tushey linn the song he sang, "lang syne."

But like a dream time flies away, again, the morning came

And I awoke in Canada, three thousand miles frae hame.

Source: Stan Rogers, For the Family, Folk Tradition

THE SCOTSMAN

Mike Cross

 

A Scotsman clad in kilts left a bar one evening fair

And one could tell by how he walked that he'd drunk more than his share.

He stumbled on until he could no longer keep his feet

Then staggered off into the grass to sleep beside the street.

Ring ding diddle diddle aye de aye

Ring ding diddle aye dee

He staggered off into the grass to sleep beside the street.

 

Then later on two young and lovely girls did happen by

One said to the other with a twinkle in her eye,

"See yon sleeping Scotsman so strong and handsome built

I wonder if it's true what they don't wear beneath the kilt?"

Ring ding...

 

They crept up on that sleeping Scotsman, quiet as could be

Lifted up his kilt about an inch so they could see

And there behold for them to view beneath his Scottish skirt

Was nothing more than God had graced him with upon his birth.

Ring ding...

 

They marveled for a moment then one said, "We'd best be gone.

Let's leave a present for our friend before we move along."

So as a gift they left a blue silk ribbon tied into a bow

Around the bonnie star this Scot's kilt did lift them show.

Ring ding...

 

The Scotsman woke to nature's call and stumbled towards the trees

Behind the bush he lifts his kilt and gawks at what he sees

Then in a startled voice he says to what's before his eyes,

"Och, lad, I don't know where you've been, but I see you've won first prize!"

Ring ding...

Source: Mike Cross, Child Prodigy, Live and Kicking, Boot Hill Brian Bowers, The View from Home

SECOND EFFORT

Stan Rogers

 

I've been sitting here crying since long before the day began

With my pockets full of nothing but broken dreams

And my head in my empty hands

The winnings that I thought I had and come so far to get

Are further away than they've ever been

They've been taken away by another man.

 

I wouldn't take a train for home even if I could

'Cause they've been saving their joy for the hometown boy

Who went away to make it good

I bet they cleared away the parlour

So my Ma could dance me in the door

And the Old Man can wink, and pour me a drink

And ask me what the tears are for.

 

It's harder to try again than it was to begin

A man can play a lone hand in a high stakes game

But it doesn't mean he's gonna win

And somehow I've got to keep from getting further down

Before I buy me a bottle of cheap escape

And a ticket to another town.

 

I know I'm not crying 'cause I think I had it mighty tough

I did my best with all the rest

But it just wasn't good enough

Still, I've been working and training too long just to make it here

To merely swallow my pride and walk outside

And come back in another year.

 

It's harder to try again than it was to begin

A man can play a lone hand in a high stakes game

But it doesn't mean he's gonna win

And somehow I've got to keep from getting further down

Before I buy me a bottle of cheap escape

And a ticket to another town.

 

I wanna drown in the grape and make my escape

On a ticket to another town.

Source: Stan Rogers, Turnaround, Fogarty's Cove

SHE MOVED THROUGH THE FAIR

Traditional

 

My love said to me

My Mother won't mind

And me Father won't slight you

 

For your lack of kind

Then she stepped away from me

And this she did say

It will not be long love

'Til our wedding day.

 

She stepped away from me

And she moved through the Fair

And fondly I watched her

Move her and move there

And she went her way homeward

With one star awake

As the swans in the evening

Move over the lake.

 

The people were saying

No two e'er were wed

But one has a sorrow

That never was said

And she smiled as she passed me

With her goods and her gear

And that was the last

That I saw of my dear.

 

I dreamed it last night

That my true love came in

So softly she entered

Her feet made no din

She came close beside me

And this she did say

It will not be long love

'Til our wedding day.

Source: Lorenna McKennitt, Elemental, Quinlan Road

A SHEEPISH SONG

By Siubhan ni Coinneach

To the tune of The Ash Grove

 

There once was a young shepherd who lived in a far valley

And he longed for a fair face, in the morning, to greet.

He knew a great deal of the ways of his charges

But he knew not the way a fair maiden to meet.

And he said to himself, "Ah, I'm tired of the cold!

I need a fair form in my bed ere I'm old!

My sheep are quite warm, but I've heard lasses are more willing

And I'll know my true love by the sound of her bleat!"

 

He walked to the village at the end of his valley

And eyed all the maidens who walked down the street.

Their wiggles were enticing, but they spurned all his advances,

And wrinkled dainty noses at the smell of his sheep.

And he said to himself, "Ah, I'm tired of this hell!

I'm dreadfully lonely, and horney as well!

The ladies despise me, so I'll try out a different gender

And I'll know my true love by the sound of his bleat!"

 

The lads he approached with sweet words of passion

But they planted their boots on his most tender seat!

He ran back to his valley where he was most warmly welcomed

By a soft, wooly Venus of the multiple teat.

And he said to himself, "Ah, it's good to be home!

I know where I'm wanted, and will no further roam.

The lasses were fair, but my sheep are much more willing

And I know my true love by the sound of her bleat!"

Source: The Concordia Songbook

SHIP OF STONE

Once there was a ship of stone that orbited a mighty star

And from it flew the first ship's crew whose children we all are.

And no matter how long we've drawn our track

Still over our shoulders looking back

Through the hydrogen's hiss and the methane's moan

As the bomber clouds of the dead star's shrouds

All our roads run back to the ship of stone.

 

There the first crew all were formed and wakened from unknowing sleep

By the boundless sight of heaven's height and the fires on the deep.

And no matter how strange the forms we wear

How warped and wild, how rich and rare

How changed we've made the seeds we've sown

We are blood of those who singing rose

From the body of the ship of stone.

 

And their our own ships frames were formed to grow through glowing wings

And spread them wide to the farthest tide where the last lone beacon sings.

And no matter how tight the net they knot

Of our web where the wheel of light is caught

How strange and lost, how grand they've grown,

They too desire all heaven's fire

Our companions of the ship of stone.

 

Once there was a ship of stone, clear domed, broad hulled and clean

Where the air shone blue, through whose hold birds flew, whose decks were

growing green.

And no matter how odd these things may seem

As madly mazed as shards of dream

They are not a dream that you dream alone

All ships, all men, are of one kin

We shall not forgive the ship of stone.

Source: Chickasaw Mountain

SIGNY MALLORY

Heather Alexander

 

She's Captain of the Norway, a thorn in Union's side

Protector of Bell Station and source of grudging pride.

Left the Marziani with a price upon her head

And stayed to guard that stations that the Company left for dead.

They say she doesn't think about the lives that she has lost

They say when Norway goes to fight she doesn't count the cost.

That once she's planned a course she never reckons wrong or right -

So why does she stare sleeplessly into the dark all night?

 

Chorus: Captain Signy Mallory has no soul they say

The Captain of the Norway has a heart of frozen clay

And on the bridge of Norway she throws men's lives like dice

Captain Signy Mallory her eyes are fire and ice.

 

They say the Norway's Captain disciplines an iron whip

It's worth your life to break her rules in dock or on the ship

That no-one prospers under her command but if that's so

Then why do her troops cheer her when she passes them below.

They say the Captain has no crude emotions to control

Just an iron fist, an iron will, and an iron-banded soul.

They say she shows no mercy and they say she never can

So why is Norway refuge for a burned-out Union man?

 

She's Captain of the Norway, and a thorn in Union's side

The Marziani fear her, she's the heart of Norway's pride

And stationer or merchanter from Vargon back to Bell

For Mallory all Norway would fight demons out of Hell.

Source: Mercedes Lackey, Magic Moondust & Melancholy, Firebird A&M

SIMPLE GIFTS

Traditional Shaker Hymn

 

Chorus: When true simplicity is gained

To bow and to bend we will not be ashamed

To turn, turn will be our delight

'Til by turning, turning we come 'round right.

 

'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free

'Tis a gift to come down where we ought to be

And when we find ourselves in the place just right

It will be in the valley of love and delight.

 

'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free

For the proud are cast down deeper than the sea

The first shall be last and the last shall be first

And the meek at last shall receive the earth.

SIRIL AGRAR

'Twas oft I sat on my love's knee

And many a fine tale he's told to me

He's told me of things that ne'er shall be

He's gone, he's gone, my bonny boy.

 

I sold my cloak, I sold my ring

When my flax was spun I sold my reel

To buy my love a sword of steel

He's gone...

 

With fife and drum he's marched away

He would not heed what I would say

He won't be back for many a day

He's gone...

 

But now my love has gone to France

To try his fortune to advance

If he e'er comes back 'tis but a chance

He' gone...

 

I'll dye my petticoat, I'll dye it red

For all the world I've made my bed

'Til I find my love alive or dead

He's gone...

 

Siril siril siril agrar

Only death can end my woe

And the pain in my heart from me will go

He gone...

Source: Pentangle, In the Round

SIR JAMES THE ROSE

Traditional

 

Oh have you seen Sir James the Rose

The young hair of Loch Lagen

For he has killed a gallant squire

And his friends are out to take him.

And he's gone to the House of Mar

The nurse there did befriend him

And he has gone down on his knee

And begged for her to hide him.

"Where are you going, Sir James?" she said

"Where now are you riding?"

"Oh I am bound for a foreign land,

But now I'm on to hiding."

 

Chorus: Where shall I go?

Where shall I go?

Where shall I go for to hide me?

For I have killed a gallant squire

And they're seeking for to slay me.

 

Then he turned to right and round about

And rolled him in the bracken

And he's gone to take his sleep

In the lowlands of Lock Lagen.

He had not well gone out of sight

Nor was past the mill

When four and twenty belted knights

Came riding on the leaven.

"Have you seen Sir James the Rose,

The young heir of Loch Lagen?

For he has killed a gallant squire

And we're sent out to take him."

 

"You will see the bank above the mill

In the lowlands of Loch Lagen.

There you'll find Sir James the Rose

Sleeping in the bracken.

You must not wake him out of sleep

Nor yet must you affright him

Just run a dart right through his heart

And through the body pierce him."

They saw the bank above the mill

In the lowlands of Loch Lagen

And there they found Sir James the Rose

Sleeping in the bracken.

 

Then up and spake Sir John the Grail

Who had the charge of keeping.

"It will never be said, dear gentlemen

We killed him while he's sleeping."

They seized his broadsword and his helm

And closely him surrounded.

But when woke up out of sleep

His senses were confounded.

Now they have taken out his heart

And stuck it on a spear

They took it to the House of Mar

And gave it to his dear.

THE SLIPRAILS AND THE SPUR

Henry Lawson

Garnet Rogers

 

The colors of the setting sun withdrew across the western land

He raised the sliprails one by one

And shot them home with trembling hand

Her brown hands clung, her face grew pale

Ah! Quivering chin, and eyes that brim.

One quick fierce kiss across the rail

Then, "Goodbye Mary," "Goodbye Jim!"

 

Oh he rides hard to race the pain

Who rides from love, who rides from home.

But he rides slowly back again

Whose heart has learnt to love and roam.

 

One hand upon the horse's mane

One foot in stirrup set,

And stooping back to kiss again

With "Goodbye Mary, don't you fret!"

 

"When I return," he laughed for her,

"We do not know how soon 'twill be.

I'll whistle as I round the spur

You let the sliprails down for me."

 

She gasped for sudden loss of hope

Ah, with a backward wave to her.

He cantered down the grassy slope

And swiftly 'round the darkening spur.

 

And so often at the set of the sun

In winter bleak or summer brown.

She'd steal across the little run

And shyly let the sliprails down.

 

And listen there, 'til darkness shut

The nearest spur in silence deep.

And when they'd call her from the hut

Steal home, and cry herself to sleep.

 

Oh he rides hard to race the pain

Who rides from love, who rides from home

But he rides slowly back again

Whose heart has learnt to love and roam.

And he rides hard to dull the pain

Who rides from one who loves him best

But he rides never back again

Whose restless heart must rove for rest.

Source: Garnet Rogers, Speaking Softly in the Dark, Snow Goose

THE SNOWS OF FRANCE AND HOLLAND

The Battlefield Band

 

Oh the north wind knows no borders

As it shifts across the shore.

The road finds only other roads

And the dark hides even more

For there's many a weary corner

From Flanders to the Boigne.

 

Chorus:

And the snows of France of Holland

Have parted me and mine.

 

There's sounds to hear and sounds to feel

And sights to make you sing

And the bonniest in among them

Is the snow goose on the wing

For her neck is long and slender

Her road's a simple line.

 

Oh the moon stands over the ocean

And the waves roll back the tide.

The strongest man is the wisest fool

'Till he knows the road he rides.

For the snow goose cries to the cold north wind

And the fool cries out for signs.

Source: The Battlefield Band, Anthem for the Common Man

SO EARLY EARLY IN THE SPRING

Traditional

 

So early, early in the spring

I shipped on board to serve my king.

I left my dearest dear behind

She ofttimes swore her heart was mine.

 

My love, she takes me by the hand.

"If ever I marry, you'll be the man."

A thousand vows, so long and sweet

Say we be married when next we meet.

 

And all the time I sailed the seas

I could not find one moment's peace

In thinking of my dearest dear

But never a word from her could I hear.

 

At last we sailed into Glasgow town.

I strode the streets both up and down

Inquiring for my dearest dear,

But never a word from her did I hear.

 

I went straightway to her father's house

And loudly for my love did call.

"My daughter's married, she's a rich man's wife.

She's wed to another, much better for her life."

 

If the girl is married that I adore.

I'm sure I'll stay on land no more.

I'll sail the sea, 'til the day I die

I'll break the wave's rolling mountainside.

Sources: Judy Collins, So Early in the Spring John Renbourne * Stefan Grossman Pentangle, So Early in the Spring

SOMEBODY'S MOGGY

Eric Bogle

 

Somebody's Moggy

By the side of the road

Somebody's pussy

Has forgot his highway code

Someone's favorite feline

Has run clean out of luck

When he ran into the road

And tried to argue with a truck

 

Yesterday he pranced and played

In his pussy paradise

Decapitating tweety birds

And masticating mice

Now he's just six pounds of raw read meat

That don't smell very mouse

He's nobody's moggy now

 

Now you that love your pussy

Be sure to keep him in

Don't let him argue with a truck

The truck is bound to win

And if upon that busy road

You let him play and frolic

If you do I'm telling you

It could be catastrophic

 

If you let him play in the roadway

I'm afraid that will be that

You'll hear one last despairing meow

And a sort of squishy splat

And your pussy will be slightly dead

And very very flat

He's nobody's moggy

He's nobody's moggy

He's just squishy red and soggy

He's nobody's moggy now

Source: Clam Chowder

SONG OF MARI

She comes at the first hint of morning

As sweet as the breath of the sea

'Til the cock of the sun cries his warning

She will walk in the garden with me.

 

Her kisses so wild yet so tender

Shall make up my body aflame.

No cloud shall obscure her bright splendor

No veil, and no garment of shame.

 

Oh she is my lady of twilight

My comfort in life's darkest hour.

I see in her heavens of midnight

Her shield of omnipotent power.

 

The mortals deny and deride me

'Til love must rise up and depart.

In a dread secret place she will hide me

Sealed up, with the blood of my heart.

 

She comes at the first scent of morning

Her feet on the crests of the sea.

'Til the cock of the sun cries his warning

She will lie in the garden with me.

Source: Gwydion Sings

THE SONG OF SCHEHERAZADE

THE SULTAN

 

Sultan King, cruel majesty ordered that his women die

A single night, this for all his wives

Takes his pleasure, then their lives.

And so for many days with the dawn,

The sultan had his way

Wives were put to death

His name upon their dying breath.

 

Then one day as the evening came

Sultan sends for him a wife.

Choose her well, charms I wish to see

Bring her, send her in to me.

Then came to Scheherazade

To his side and her beauty shone

Like a flower grown gentle as he'd ever known.

 

Scheherazade bewitched him with songs of jewelled keys

Princes and of heroes and eastern fantasies

Told him tales of sultans and of talismans and rings

A thousand and one nights she sang to entertain her king,

She sings...

Scheherazade, Scheherazade, Scheherazade...

THE YOUNG PRINCE AND PRINCESS

AS TOLD BY SCHEHERAZADE

 

And you would cause the sun to see your light and then be shamed

You cover darkness with a thousand secret flames

With your love, oh my love, oh my love, my love.

 

And I would cause the wind to blow a hundred different ways

And bring the perfumes with a thousand secret flames

With your love, oh my love, oh my love, my love.

 

The crystal and the clay - nights and the day

All on the prince's seal

Eagle of the sky, lion of the earth

This is what the seal is worth, what the seal is worth.

Holds all of the dreams of a man

Tapestries, wishes of man, pictures and visions of man

The spirit, the soul of the man

And he would vow to love her for the rest of all his days.

SONG CONTINUED...

THE FESTIVAL

Scheherazade this day is yours

The bearers of your gifts they're all around you stand

The finest silk in all the land

Is waiting for your choice it shimmers at your hand.

Scheherezade your life is won

You have this day the Sultan's love

Your people wait, you step into the sun.

 

Stalls and bars of every kind

The food piled high on woven leaves for all to eat.

Drums and flutes at every turn

The music winding twisting through the crowded streets

Caravans from far away

Bring people laughing

People in to see the Sultan in Baghdad today.

 

Scheherazade her name is known

Her tale is told, the Sultan let her life be spared.

The festival begins this day

To celebrate her fame,

The people sing her praise.

Stories sung, the crowds are dancing

To the music and the entertainment, all the voices sing.

The people call to see the King

The Sultan smiles, his story is just begun,

The Sultan king and Scheherazade are one.

Scheherazade, Scherehazade, Scherehezade, Scheherazade...

 

She told him tales of sultans and talismans and rings

A thousand and one nights she sang to entertain her king,

She sings...

Scheherazade, Scheherazade, Scheherazade, Scheherazade...

Source: Renaissance, Scheherazade and Other Stories

SONG OF THE SOUL

Chris Williamson

 

Open my eyes that I may see

Glimpses of truth thou hast for me

Open mine eyes, illumine me

Spirit divine

 

Love of my life I am crying

I am not dying, I am dancing

Dancing along in the madness

There is no sadness

Only a song of the soul

 

Chorus: And we'll sing this song, why don't you sing along

And we can sing for a long, long times

Why don't you sing this song, why don't you sing along

And we can sing for a long, long time

 

What do you do for your living?

Are you forgiving, giving shelter?

Follow your heart, love will find you

Truth will unbind you

Sing out a song of the soul

 

Come to your life like a warrior

Nothing will bore you

You can be happy

Let in the light,

It will heal you

And you can feel you

And sing out a song of the soul

Source: Chris Williamson, The Changer and the Changed, Falcon

SON OF A SCOUNDREL

Ned Kelley

 

Big Barney Fish he got suddenly rich

Got a big fancy house in Melbourne.

With buckets of loot and big black leather boots

Acting so haughty and well born.

But we of Australia we're children of convicts

And some of us wear it quite proudly

So as he rides by in his carriage so fine

I wave and I call to him loudly.

 

Chorus: Was your Grandma a whore?

Was your Grandpa a thief?

Where they forgers and grafters?

Who fell to their grief?

If you're born of Australia

I know who you be

You're the son of a son of a

Scoundrel like me.

 

Maggie McKay's got a sweet loving way

And I know that she does adore me.

But her parents, they feel, it would be a bad deal

They say that she's much too good for me.

So as we said good-bye with a tear in our eye

They were smiling and glad of the breaking

But they didn't look so proud

When I shouted out loud

'Til the whole floggin' town was awaken.

 

Madame Marie loves the men from the sea

She says that they're good for business.

Her daughters are found in a section of town

Known for a certain rudeness.

Then the cops pay a call

And the judge says, "That's all.

It's time for a new profession."

Marie laughed out loud and in front of the crowd

Says, "Judge, will you answer this question?"

Source: Clam Chowder

SONG OF THE BEAR

Lyrics: Debra Doyle

Music: Melissa Williamson

 

Do you not know that under my skin

Are teeth and claws and a furry hide?

Do you not know that the mail and helmet

Are only to keep the bear inside?

 

Hark to the song of metal on metal

The song of battle, come if you dare

My sword is waiting, his grey tooth hungry

And I am the one with the soul of the bear.

 

Are you so brave that come before me

Eager to lie in your blood-stained robes?

Do you not know that the sword grows hungry

And hungrier still as the slaughter grows?

 

Hark to the song of metal on metal

The song of battle, come if you dare

Come where the grey sword spreads out carnage

Come now and face me and summon the bear.

 

Brave young men that come before me

Mortal now are you ready to die?

Brave young men in the thick of battle

Can you not hear the grey sword's cry?

 

Hark to the song of metal on metal

The song of battle, come if you dare

Come where I stride through the heaviest battle

My grey sword making the feast of the bear.

 

Do you not see by the light of battle

Something never a man in my eyes?

Do you not hear in the strong voice shouting

A thing not human behind those cries?

 

Hark to the song of metal on metal

The song of battle, come if you dare

Face what you dare to summon to slaughter

Know I am hungry and I am the bear.

Source: The Best of Constellation, Off Centaur

SONG OF THE CANDLE

Stan Rogers

 

I took up my pen tonight, I couldn't seem to write.

It's like I got religion and then I lost the light.

An old woman once told me that she'd always felt that way

She said, "Taken from the mold while it still can run

A candle may not keep you from the cold.

But buy another candle, son, it's not too much to pay

For one more try." And I had to smile

Before I walked away.

 

Coffee houses bother me. I cannot tell you why.

But, it never seems hello sounds as sweet as good-bye.

And the waitresses, in passing, remember all your names.

They say, "Look around and try to meet a single eye."

And, "Empty cups will mock me if I stay, but

Buy another coffee, Stan, it's not too much to pay

And we will try to raise your smile before you walk away."

 

Tonight in a room full of candles another cup of ashes drains away.

And, at times it gets so hard to handle

Knowing one more simple song has swiftly taken wing

And I'm left alone to hear the song a lonely candle sings.

 

The priest, I found, was nervous. He cleared his throat a lot.

But, framed in a stained glass window, his eyes were lost in thought.

And, I said, "Father, can you tell me, is some happiness my right?"

He said, "Rather seek you joy, the blessings of your God,

And happiness from worship in His sight.

And buy another candle, son, before you start to pray.

And don't forget to cross your breast

Before you walk away.

 

Tonight in a room full of candles,

Another cup of madness drains away

And at times it gets so hard to handle

Knowing one more simple song has swiftly taken wing

And I'm left alone to hear the song a lonely candle sings.

 

One too many cigarettes, slowly burning down

And the final cup of coffee was cold and full of grounds

And maybe one last pipeful might send the words around.

Still, underneath my hand this night has slipped away

And it leaves me as empty as this page.

One more candle flickers out, the night is turning grey

And I just can't watch the dying flame. I have to walk away.

 

Tonight I have burned all my candles

Leaving only ashes in their wake.

And at times, I get so hard to handle

'Cause simple songs leave me behind,

They all have taken wing

And I'm left alone to hear the song a lonely candle sings.

Source: Stan Rogers, Turnaround, Fogarty's Cove

SPANCIL HILL

Traditional

 

Last night as I lay dreaming

Of pleasant days gone by

My mind it started wanderin'

To Ireland I would fly.

I stepped on board a vision

A vision I can see still

'Til I went and set my anchor down

A mile from Spancil Hill.

 

It bein' on the 21st of June

The day before the fair

When Irish sons and daughters

Had all a-gathered there

The young and the old, the brave and the bold

Their duty for to full

All had gathered at the parish church

A mile from Spancil Hill.

 

Then I paid a final visit

To my first and only love.

She's white as any lily

And gentle as a dove.

She threw her arms around me

Saying, "Johnny I love you still."

She was the farmer's daughter

And the pride of Spancil Hill.

 

Then I dreamed I touched and kissed her

As in the days of yore.

She said, "Johnny, you're only foolin'

Like many's the time before."

Then the cock he crew in the morning

He crew both loud and shrill.

I awoke in California

Many miles from Spancil Hill.

Source: The singing of Frieda Toth-Webber

SPANISH LADIES

Traditional

 

Farewell and adieu to you Spanish ladies.

Farewell and adieu to you daughters of Spain.

For we've received orders for to sail for Old England

And we hope in a short time we will see you again.

 

Chorus:

We'll rant and we'll roar like true English sailors

We'll rant and we'll roar all along the salt sea.

Until we strike sounding in the Channel of Old England

From Ushant to Scilly be thirty-five leagues.

 

We hove our ships to with the winds from the so'west, boys

We hove our ships to, deep soundings at bay

It's forty-five fathoms with a sandy white bottom

So we squared our main yard and up Channel did make.

 

The first land we made was a point called the Deadman,

Next Ramshead off Plymouth, Stuart, Portland, and Wight.

We sailed them by Beachie, by Fairlee, and Dungyness

Then bore straight away for the South Foreland Light.

 

The signal was made for the grand fleet to anchor

And all in the downs that night for to lie

We stood by our stoppers, we brailed in our spankers,

And anchored ahead of the noblest of fleets.

 

Let every man drink up his full bumper

Let every man here drink up his full bowl

And let us be jolly and drown melancholy

Drink health to each jovial and true-hearted soul.

Source: From the singing of Peasant Under Glass heard at the Warwickshire Faire

Additional verses from Stan Hugill, Songs of the Sea

A STAR IN HER SERVICE

By Dominic Seamour

To the tune of The Ash Grove

 

I saw a fair lady who walked through the darkness

Outshining the stars in the heavens above

She summoned the skies with a wave of her hand

And the stars fell to serve her, the Lady they loved.

 

Chorus: And I said to myself, "Such beauty I see

A star in her service I wish I could be."

She is honored by ribbons of heavenly fire

And I love her more than my own heart's desire.

 

The stars fall about her in waves of bright jewels

The tail of a comet was weaved through the rows.

The stars shone the brighter to honor her beauty

And in their soft light her fair form darkly glows.

 

And then with her robe of bright stardust she dances

The stars show her motion with shimmering light.

About and around in her fullness of splendor

She danced and she danced through the mystical night.

 

Compelled by her beauty I went forth to greet her

I knelt at her feet and I showed her my heart.

A moment she stood, and then softly she kissed me

And I knew that we would be never apart.

Source: The Concordia Songbook

 

STOLEN CHILD

Poem by W.B. Yeats

 

Where dips the rocky highland

Of sleuth wood in the lake

There lies a leafy island

Where flapping herons wake

The drowsy rats

There we've hid our fairy vats

Full of berries

And of reddest stolen cherries

 

Chorus: Come away oh little child

To the waters and the wild

With a faery hand in hand

For the world's more full of weeping

Than you can understand

 

Where the wave of moonlight glosses

The dim grey sands with light

By far off furthest rosses

We foot it all the night

Weaving olden dances

Mingling hands and mingling glances

'Til the moon has taken flight

To and fro we leap

And chase the frothy bubbles

Whilst the world is full of troubles

And is anxious in its sleep

 

Where the wandering water gushes

From the hills above glen car

In pools among the rushes

That scarce could bathe a star

We seek for slumbering trout

And whispering in their ears

Give them unquiet dreams

Leaning softly out

From ferns that drop their tears

Over the young streams

 

Away with us he's going

The solemned eyed

He'll bear no more the lowing

Of the calves on the warm hillside

Or the kettle on the hob

Sing peace into his breast

Or see the brown mice bob

Round and round the oatmeal chest

 

For he comes, the human child

To the waters and the wild

With a faery hand in hand

For the world's more full of weeping

Than you can understand

Source: Loreena McKennitt, Elemental, Quinlan Road

THE STONE DANCE

On a hill far away stands a stone menhir ring

The emblem of druidic pride

And we love that stone ring and the circle within

As the Goddess as Hag, Mom, and Bride.

 

Chorus: So we'll dance 'round the stone menhir ring

'Til the flames of the fire have died down.

We'll emote, slit a goat's throat and sing

Then get dressed and drive back into town.

 

On a hill nearby stands a looped and stained cross

Of the sort that some folks call an ankh.

Keeping evil at bay like the shield of the law

For which we have Gardner to thank.

 

In the valley below shines a flashing blue light

On the car of the local police.

But the law's on our side, and we soon will be free

At least by next midsummer's eve.

Source: Chickasaw Mountain

STREETS OF LONDON

Have you seen the old man, walking down the streets of London

Kicking up the papers with his worn out shoes.

In his face you see no pride

His hands hang loosely by his sides

Yesterday's papers bringing yesterday's news.

 

Chorus: And how can you tell me that you're lonely?

How can you tell me that the sun don't shine?

Let me take you by the hand

And lead you through the streets of London

I'll show you something to help you change your mind.

 

And in the all-night cafe at quarter past eleven

An old woman sits, she is eating all alone

Watching the world go by

Over a cooling tea cup

Each tea lasts an hour then she wanders home alone?

 

Have you seen the old men outside the sailor's mission?

Their minds are fading like the ribbon that they wear

And in our winter city the rain cries out

Show little pity

On yesterday's heroes in a world that doesn't care.

 

Have you seen the old girl walking down the street by market?

Dirt in her hair and her clothes in rags.

She has got no time for talking

She just keeps on walking

Carting her life around in carrier bags.

Source: Donal MacCian, Warwickshire Fair

THE SUN IS ALSO A WARRIOR

Two men walked on a beach in the sun

One left footprints, the other left none.

One was a man that no man obeys

The other a god of the ancient days.

 

"Look," said the man, "How my kind make war.

I summoned you here to ask, 'What for?'"

"For wealth, or land," the God replies

"For life, or freedom, or some king's lies."

 

Chorus: The Sun is also a Warrior

Knowledge can also destroy

Nor can the kindest will

Preserve you from the kill

Not all of wisdom brings joy.

 

"Four of these five," the first one said

"Are not enough to appease the dead.

To save my kind all this strife must cease.

So now, I bid you, to conjure peace."

"This I will do, though it grieves me sore

For I was once a god of war

And I remember what you forget;

Four of these five you may still regret."

 

He raised his voice and he raised his hand.

All strife stopped at the god's command.

No voice ventured an angry word.

No hand struck and no weapon stirred.

In time the man called the old god back.

"Look," he cried, "what my people lack.

One lord rules over all the earth

And we're all his slaves from the hour of birth."

 

"He owns all the wealth and he owns all the land.

We starve and die under his command.

He speaks the truth and he gives us peace

But all that I hope for is our release."

The old god said, "This is what you willed

For only thus is your wish fulfilled.

War's five sources I took away

But I will give four of them back today."

He raised his hand and his voice once more.

All the world overturned in war

And when the last of those fires let fall

There was no lord in the world at all.

"Go rebuild now, " the old god said.

"Feed the living and bury the dead

And remember this when you think of war

And think upon what is worth fighting for."

Source: Chickasaw Mountain

THE SUN GOD

High on the mountain top

Up there, where the winds can blow free.

I saw the Sun God

Smilin' down on me.

He was the Sun God.

 

Cool was the morning breeze

Like fire was the touch of his hand.

He was the Sun God

And he came to me.

He was the Sun God.

 

I built an alter there

Spilled my blood upon the ground.

Gave to the Sun God

All I had to give.

He was the Sun God.

 

Ten million years ago

Mother Earth gave her love up to the Sun.

Lay with the Sun God

That her children might be free.

He was the Sun God.

 

High on the mountain top

Up there, where the winds can blow free.

I saw the Sun God

I saw the Sun God

I saw the Sun God!

Source: Gwydion Sings

SUSANNA MARTIN

Music: Claudine Langville

Lyrics: John Allison

 

Susanna Martin was a witch who dwelt in Amesbury

With brilliant eye and salty tongue she worked her sorcery

And when into the judge's court the sheriff brought her hither

The lilacs drooped as she passed by

And then were seen to wither.

 

A witch she was, though trig and neat with comely head held high

It did not seem that one as she with Satan would so vie

And when in court the afflicted ones proclaimed her evil ways

She laughed aloud and boldly then

Met Cotton Mather's gaze.

 

"Who hath bewitched these maids?" he asked and strong was her reply

"If they be dealing in black arts ye know as well as I."

And then the stricken ones made moan as she approached near

They saw her shape upon the beam

So none could doubt 'twas there.

 

The neighbors 'round swore to the truth of her Satanic powers

That she could fly o'er land and stream and come dry shod through showers

At night, 'twas said, she had appeared a cat of fearsome mien

"Avoid, She-Devil!" they had cried

To keep their spirits clean.

 

The spectral evidence was weighed, then stern the parson spoke

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live, 'tis written in the book."

Susanna Martin, so accused, spake with flaming eyes

"I scorn these things for they are naught

But filthy gossip's lies."

 

Now those bewitched, they cried her out, and loud their voice did ring

They saw a bird above her head, an evil yellow thing

And so, beneath a summer sky Susanna Martin died

And still in scorn, she faced the rope

Her comely head held high.

Source: Touchstone, The New Land, Green Linnet

TAMLIN

Rescued from Fairyland

by Janet of Carterhaugh

 

Young Janet sits in her bower high,

he gold comb in her hair

The leaves grow green in Carterhaugh

Oh, would that I were there!

 

She has not pulled the double rose

Twisted the stem full sore

When up there starts him young Tamlin

Says, Lady, pull no more.

 

Oh, pleasant is that other land

But an eerie place to dwell

For at the end of seven years

They pay a tithe to hell.

 

First let pass the black, Lady

And then let pass the brown

For I will ride on the white steed

The nearest to the town.

Because I was an earthly knight

They gave me that renown

 

She'd first let pass the coal black steed

And then let pass the brown

She's quickly ran to the white steed

And pulled the rider down.

 

At last they turned him in her arms

Into a naked man

She's wrapped him in her green mantle

And young Tamlin's she's won.

 

Up there spoke the Elfin Queen

An angry queen was she

Oh, ye haved robbed the fairest knight

In all my company.

 

And had I known, Tamlin, she said

What this night I have known

I'd have plucked out your earthly heart

Changed it for a heart of stone.

THE TERROR TIME

Ewan McColl

 

The heather will fade and the bracken will die

Streams will run cold and clear

And the small birds will be going

And it's then you will be knowing that the terror time is near.

 

Whaur will ye gan an' whaur will ye bide

Noo that th' work's a' done

And the fairmer disnae need ye

And the cooncils winnae hee' ye - and the terror time is come?

 

The woods give no shelter and the trees they are bare

Snow is falling all around

And the children are crying

For the bed on which they're lying is frozen to the ground.

 

The shaw winna lift and the stove winna draw

There's ice in the water churn

In the mud and snaw you're sloshing

Trying to do a bit o' washing

And the kindling winna burn.

 

When you need the warmth of your own human kind

You move near a town and then

The sight o' you is offending

An' the police they soon are sending

An' you're on the road again.

 

Whaur can ye gan an' whaur can ye bide

Noo that the work's a' done

An' the fairmers disnae need ye

An' the cooncils winnae heed ye - and the terror time is come?

Source: Jean Redpath, Jean Redpath, Philo

THANKSGIVING EVE

Bob Franke

 

It's so easy to dream of days gone by;

So hard to think of times to come.

And the grace to accept every moment as a gift

Is a gift that is given to some.

 

What can you do with your days

But work and hope?

Let your dreams bind your work to your play.

What can you do with each moment of your life

But love 'til you've loved it away?

Love 'til you've loved it away.

 

There are sorrows enough for the whole world's end.

There are no guarantees but the grave.

But this life that we live and the times that we spend

Are treasures too precious to save.

 

What can we do with our days

But work and hope?

Let your dreams bind your work to your play.

What can you do with each moment of your life

But love 'til you've loved it away?

Love 'til you've loved it away.

Source: Garnet Rogers, Garnet Rogers, Snow Goose

THEY WOUNDED OLD IRELAND

Andy M. Stewart

 

Come gather 'round, ye free-born men

And draw your chairs to mine

And I'll tell you of my country

That you might understand

And of the English army

That marched in for to stay

Oh that night they wounded old Ireland

And she's bleeding to this day.

 

Their dogs of war were loosed to run

And hunt the rebels down.

They hoped to rule this land by fear

And to hold it for the crown.

But a mighty thought was born in men

When they killed James Connolly

Oh that night they wounded old Ireland

And she's bleeding to this day.

 

The border lies like an open wound

That only love can heal.

For bitterness and cruelty

They will never close the weal.

The men of vision built a dream

Which blind men stold away

Ah that night they wounded old Ireland

And she's bleeding to this day.

 

My heart it holds a vision clear

That thousands more can see

Of Ireland free from hatred

And death and bigotry.

Where Irishman and Irishmen

Can in friendship clasp a hand

If we banish fright from the Ulster night

Then we'll free old Ireland.

 

Repeat first verse.

Source: Andy M. Stewart, Fire in the Glen, Shanachie

THREE JOLLY BUTCHERS

Traditional

 

It's of three jolly butchers as I've heard many say

They were going to some market for their money for to pay

They rode together for a mile or two

And a little more besides

Says Johnson unto Jenson, "Stop! I heard a woman cry!"

 

Then, "Stop I won't," says Jenson.

And, "Stop I won't," says Bride

"Then stop I will," says Johnson, "For I heard a woman cry."

Johnson he alighted and threw the brace around

And saw a naked woman with her hair tied to the ground.

 

"How came you here?" said Johnson

"How came you here?" said he

"Two highwaymen have robbed me, that you can plainly see."

Then Johnson being a valiant man, a man of courage bold

He took the cloak from off his back to keep her from the cold.

 

Then Johnson being a valiant man, a man of valiant mind

This lass he mounted on his horse and mounted up behind.

And as they rode along the road as fast as they could ride

She put her fingers to her lips and gave three piercing cries.

 

Out sprang then bold highway men

With weapons in their hands.

They up on young Johnson and boldly bid him stand

"Stand I will," said Johnson, "as long as ever I can.

For I was never in all my life afraid of any man."

 

Then Johnson being a valiant man, he made those villains fly

'Til nine of them bold highwaymen all on the ground did lie.

This wicked woman standing by young Johnson did not mind

She took a knife all from his side and stabbed him from behind.

 

This day it being a market day and people passing by

They saw this woman's dreadful dead and raised a hue a cry

Then she was down to Newgate court and bound in irons strong

For killing the finest butcher that ever the sun shone on.

Source: Gryphon, Gryphon, Transatlantic

THE THREE POACHERS

Traditional

 

Concerning of three young men one night in January

According laws contrary of poaching went straight way

 

They were inclined to ramble amongst the trees and bramble

A-firing at the pheasant, which brought the keepers down

 

The keepers dared not enter, nor cared nor would to venture

But outside near the center, in their old bush they stood

 

The poachers, they were tired, and to leave they were desired

Then at last young Parkins fired, and saw one keeper's blood

 

Fast homeward they were making, nine pheasants they were taking

Then another keeper faced him, they fired at him also

 

Beyond the ground lay crying, just like some person dying

With no assistance lie him, may God forgive their crime

 

And they were taken with all speed all for their inhuman deed

It caused their young hearts to bleed for their tender years

 

The scene before was never three brothers tried together

Three brothers condemned for poaching found guilty as they stood

 

Exiled and transportation, two brothers they were taken

And the other one hung as a token; may God forgive their crime

 

Concerning of three young men one night in January

According laws contrary of poaching went straight away

Source: Clam Chowder; Steeleye Span

THREE THINGS

Heather Alexander

 

Deep into the stony hills miles from keep or hold

A troop of guards come riding with a lady and her gold

Riding in the center shrouded in her cloak of fur

Companioned by a maiden and a toothless aged cur.

Three things see no end, a flower blighted 'ere it blooms

A message that was wasted, and a journey that was doomed.

 

One among the guardsmen has a shifting restless eye

And as they ride he scans the hills that rise against the sky.

He wears a sword and bracer worth more than he can afford

And hidden in his baggage is a heavy secret hoard.

Of three things be wary: Of the hungry hunting cat

The shepherd eating mutton, and the guardsman that is fat.

 

From ambush bandits screaming charge the pack train and its prize

All but four within the band are taken by surprise

And all but four are cut down as a woodsman fells a log

The guardsman and the maiden and the lady and the dog.

Three things know a secret; first, the lady in a dream,

The dog that barks no warning, and the maid who does not scream.

 

Then up the lady pulls her cloak, in armor she is clad

Her sword is out and ready and her eyes are fierce and glad.

The maiden gestures briefly and the dog's a cur no more;

A wolf, sword-maid and sorceress now face the bandit horde.

Three things never anger or will not live for long:

A wolf with cubs, a man with power, and a woman's sense of wrong.

 

The bandits growl a challenge and the lady only grins.

The sorceress bows mockingly, and then the fight begins.

When it ends there are but four left standing from that horde;

The wolf, the witch, the traitor and the woman with the sword.

Three things never trust in: the maiden sworn as pure

The vow a king has given, and the ambush that is sure.

 

They've stripped the traitor naked and they've whipped him on his way

Into the barren hillsides like the folk he used to slay.

They take a thorough vengeance for the women he's cut down

And then they mount their horses and they journey back to town.

Three things trust and cherish well: the horse on which you ride

The beast that guards and watches and the sister at your side.

Source: Mercedes Lackey

TRIP TO THE FAIR

Annie Haslan?

 

I took a trip down to look at the fair

When I arrived I found nobody there

It seemed I was all alone

Must be that they've all gone home

 

Chorus: A trip to the fair but nobody was there (repeat)

 

Voices of yesterday make not a sound

Even the roundabout stopped going round

I wonder just what it means

Is everything how it seems?

 

A creak as the dodgems came onto the scene

Wheels began turning, I started to scream

A carousel swung around

My head turned and hit the ground

 

I close my eyes to disguise the fear from inside

Trembling within my own mind I find no place to hide

Stars of tomorrow shine through the grey mist that has gone

I wish this trip to the fair had never begun

 

Suddenly thousands of faces I see

Everyone seems to be staring at me

Clowns laughed in the penny arcade

What was this game my mind played?

Source: Renaissance, Scheherezade and Other Stories

TWA CORBIES

Traditional

 

As I was walking all aline

I heard twa corbies makin' a main

And tain untay the t'ither did say-o

Where sa'll we gang and dine today-o

Where sa'll we gang and dine today

 

In behind you auld fell dike

I would there lies a new slain night

And nae body kens that he lies there-o

But his hawk and his hound and his lady fair-o

Hawk and his hound and his lady fair

 

His hound has ta'en a hunting game

His hawk tae fetch the wild fowl game

His lady has ta'en a nither mate-o

So we may mak our dinner sweet-o

We may make our dinner sweet

 

Ye'll sit on his white haws bane

And I'll pike out his bonny blue ain

With many a lock of his golden hair-o

We'll fleece our nest when it grows bare-o

We'll fleece our nest when it grows bare

 

Many a one for him maks mane

But nane sall ken where he is gane

O'er his white bones when they are bare-o

The wind sall blow forever maire-o

The wind sall blow forever mare

Source: Steeleye Span, Now we are Six, Chrysalis

THE TWELVE DAYS OF DECADENCE

Sung to the Twelve Days of Christmas

 

On the first day of decadence my camp-mates gave to me

A peach in a glass of pink champagne

 

On the second day of decadence my camp-mates gave to me

Two loaded dragons

And a peach in a glass of pink champagne

 

On the third day of decadence my camp-mates gave to me

Three war virgins

Two loaded dragons

And a peach in a glass of pink champagne

 

On the four day of decadence my camp-mates gave to me

Four leaning nuns

Three war virgins

Two loaded dragons

And a peach in a glass of pink champagne

 

On the fifth day of decadence my camp-mates gave to me

Five crammed in one......tent

Four leaning nuns

Three war virgins

Two loaded dragons

And a peach in a glass of pink champagne

 

6th day: Six Non-committals

7th day: Seven brazen candles

8th day: Eight gourmet picnics

9th day: Nine cold, glazed chickens

10th day: Ten hours to Pennsic (are we there yet?)

11th day: Eleven cups of coffee (I gotta go pee!)

12th day: Twelve rhinestone baubles

Source: The Concordia Songbook

TWO MAGICIANS

Spoken:

A lady sits at her own front door, as straight as the willow wand

And by there comes a lusty smith, with his hammer in his hand.

 

Sung: (Chorus)

Bide, Lady, bide! For there's no-where you can hide

And the lusty smith will be your love and he will lay your pride!

 

Why do you sit there lady fair, all in your robes of red

When come to morrow at this time, I'll have your maidenhead

Singing...

 

Away, away you cold blacksmith, would you do me this wrong?

For to think to have me maidenhead, which I have kept so long!

I'd rather I was dead and cold and me body laid in the grave

Then a husky, lusty cold blacksmith me maidenhead shall have.

 

So the lady she curled up her hand, she swore upon the mold

That he'd not have her maiden head for all the pots of gold.

But the blacksmith he curled up his hand and he swore upon the mass

That he would have her maidenhead for half of that or less,

Singing...

 

Spoken:

And thus began the battle of transmogrofication betwixt the two magicians

 

Sung:

The lady she turned into a dove and flew into the air

And he became an old cock pigeon and they flew pair and pair, cooing...

 

The lady she turned into a mare as dark as the night is black

And he became a saddle and clung upon her back.

The lady she turned into a hare and ran all over the plain

But her became a greyhound dog and ran her down again, barking...

 

She turned into a sailing ship and sailed toward the sea

But he became a bo'captain and aboard of her came he.

So the lady she turned into a sheep a-grazing on yon common

And he became a big horny ram, and soon he was upon her, bleating...

 

The lady she turned into a cloud floating in the air

And he became a thunderbolt and zipped right into her, shocking...

 

She's turned into a leafy tree a-hiding in the wood

But he came forth as the morning dew, and sprinkled her where she stood.

So the lady she ran out of tricks and she turned into a bed

And he became a coverlet, and gained her maidenhead, singing...

 

And when she woke he took her so and still he made her bide

And the lusty smith became her love, for all her mighty pride, singing...

Source: Celtic Stone

UNQUIET GRAVE

Traditional

 

Cold blows the wind to my true love

And gently drops the rain

I only have but one true love

And in Greenwood she lies slain

I'll do as much for my true love

As any young man may

I'll sit and mourn along the grave

For twelve month and a day

 

When the twelve month and a day was passed

The ghost began to speak

"Why sittest though beside my grave

And will not let me sleep?"

"There's one thing that I want, sweetheart,

There's one thing that I crave;

And that is a kiss from your lily-white lips

Then I'll go from your grave."

 

"My lips they are as cold as clay

My breath smells earthly strong

And if you kiss these cold clay lips

Your days they won't be long.

Go fetch me water from the desert

And blood from mountain stone

Go fetch me a letter from a fair maid's breast

That a young man never has known."

 

'Twas down in Cupid's garden

Where you and I would walk

The finest flower that ever I saw

Is withered to a stalk.

The stalk is withered and dry sweetheart

The flower will ne'er return

And since I lost my own true love

What can I do but mourn?

 

When shall we meet again sweetheart

When shall we meet again?

As the oaken leaves that fall from the trees

Are green and spring back again?

THE VIKING WOMAN'S LAMENT

from Rudyard Kipling's "Harp Song of the Dane Woman"

 

Ah what is it woman that you forsake her,

And the hearth-fire and the home-acre,

To go to the old, grey Widow-maker?

 

She has no house to lay a guest in

But one great bed that all can rest in

That the pale suns and the stray bergs nest in

 

She has no strong white arms to fold you

But the ten-times-fingering weed to hold you

Out on the rocks where the tide has rolled you

 

Yet, when the signs of summer thicken

And the ice breaks and the birch buds quicken

Yearly you turn from our sides and sicken

 

Sicken again for the shouts and the slaughter

You steal away to the lapping waters

And look at your ship in her winter quarters

 

You forget our mirth and our talk at the table

The kine in the shed and the horse in the stable

To pitch her sides and go over the cable

 

Then you drive out where the storm-clouds swallow,

And the sound of your oar-blades ringing hollow

Is all we have left in the months that follow

 

Ah, what is woman that you forsake her

And the hearth fire and the home acre

To go to the old grey widow maker?

 

From the Singing of Clam Chowder

THE VULTURES FLY HIGH

While in the street of all our fears

They reign and supreme as orders go

They are the last to have their say

And last to know

It doesn't matter how you try

It doesn't matter what you say

They always watch with hollowed eyes

To put you down

They always find a way to criticize

 

Chorus: The vultures fly high

They circle over us all

The vultures fly high

I'll take your hand if you fall

 

All those you sheltered in their smile

Are scattered here from yesterday

And if the weak are left behind

They have to pay

And though you haven't much to give

You know they'd take it yours and mine

Sometimes it looks as though we lose

But then in time

The finger points at them

The next in line

Source: Renaissance, Scheherazade and Other Stories

THE WAGER

Traditional

 

There was a lord of a north country manor and he courted a lady gay

And as they were riding side by side a wager he did lay

"And I will wager you five hundred pounds, five hundred pounds to one

That a maid I will go to the bonny green wood and a maid I will return."

For then she's sat in her own bowered hall and there's she's made a moan

Saying, "Shall I go to the broom filled hill or should I stay at home?"

 

Chorus: And a wager, a wager, a wager she did lay

A wager of five hundred pounds

That a maid she would climb that broom filled hill

And a maid she would climb down

 

Up then spake an old witch woman and she sat all alone

Saying, "You shall go to the broom filled hill and a maid you will return.

For when you go to the broom filled hill you'll find your love asleep

With his hawks and his hounds and his satin gown and the ribbons at his feet.

And you'll pick the blossom from off the broom and the blossom it smelled so sweet

And lay some down at the crown of his head and more at the soles of his feet."

So she's away to the broom filled hill and she's found her love asleep

With his hawks and his hounds and his satin gown and the ribbons at his feet.

And she's picked the blossom from off the broom and the blossom it smelled so sweet

And laid some down at the crown of his head and more at the soles of his feet.

 

When he awakened out of his sleep his birds began to swing.

They cried, "Awaken, awaken, awaken master! You're true love's been and gone!"

"Oh, where were you me good greyhawks? Where were you my steed?

And where were you me good greyhounds, why did you not awaken me?"

"Oh, I clapped with my wings, master, shook all my bells they rang,

I cried 'Awaken, awaken, awaken, master! You're true love's been and gone!'"

"And I stamped with my hoof master; shook my bridle bells they rang!

But there was nothing would awaken you, 'til she had been and gone!"

Source: Steeleye Span, Clam Chowder

WASSAIL SONGS

Traditional

 

MALPAS WASSAIL SONG (CORNWALL)

Of the harvest being over and Christmas drawing in

Please open your door and let us come in

 

Chorus: With our wassail, waissail, wassail, and joy come to our jolly wassail

 

Here's the master and the mistress sitting down by the fire

While we poor sailboys do trudge through the mire

 

Here's the master and the mistress sitting down at their ease

Put your hands in your pockets and give what you please

 

This ancient old house we will kindly salute

It is your custom you need not dispute

 

Here's a health to the master and a long time to live

Since you've been so kind and so willing to give

 

There's a saddle and bridle hanging up from the shelf

If you want any more you can sing it yourself

APPLE TREE WASSAIL

(DEVON & SOMERSET)

 

Oh, Lilly, white Lilly, oh Lilly, white pin

Please to come down and let us come in

Oh, Lilly, white Lilly, oh Lilly, white smock

Please to come down and pull back the lock

 

Chorus: And it's our wassail, jolly wassail

Joy come to our jolly wassail

How well do the May bloom, how well the May bear

So we may have apples and cider next year

 

Oh Master and Mistress oh are you within

Please to come down and pull back the pin

 

There was an old farmer and he had an old cow

But how to milk her, he didn't know how

He put his old cow down in his old barn

And a little more liquor won't do us no harm

Harm me boys, harm me boys harm

And a little more liquor won't do us no harm

Oh the ringles and the jingels and the teller of the song goes

Merrily, merrily, merrily;

For the teller of the song goes merrily

Hat fulls, cap fulls, three bushel bags full

Little eaves under the stairs; Hip, hip, hooray!

Source: The Watersons, For Pence and Spicy Ale, Topic

WELCOME ROYAL CHARLIE

Traditional

 

The prince who should our king hae been

He wore the royal red and green

A bonnier lad was never seen

Then our brave royal Charlie

 

Oh, ye've been long a-coming

Long, long, long a-coming

Oh, ye've been long a-coming

Welcome Royal Charlie.

 

Since our true king was sent away

A doited German rules us all

And we are forced against the law

For the right belongs to Charlie

 

We dare not brew a pack of malt

Or German Geordie finds a fault

And for our kail we'd scarce get salt

For the want of royal Charlie

 

When Charlie in the highland shield

Foregathered with the great Lochiel

Oh, what kindness did prevail

Between the chief and Charlie

 

At Falkirk and at Prestonpans

Supported by our highland clans

We broke Hanoverian bands

The right belongs to Charlie

 

The prince who should our king have been

He wore the royal red and green

A bonnier lad was never seen

Than our brave royal Charlie

Source: Archie Fisher, A Man with a Rhyme

WESTLIN WINDS

Robert Burns

 

Now westlin winds and slaughtering guns

Bring autumn's pleasant weather

The moorcocks spring on whirring wings

Among the blooming heather

Now waving grain, wild o'er the plain

Delights the weary farmer

And the moon shines bright as I rove at night

To muse upon my charmer

 

The partridge loves the fruitfull fells

The plover loves the mountains

The woodcock haunts the lonely dells

The soaring hern the fountains

Through lofty groves the cushat roves

The path of man to shun it

The hazel bush o'erhangs the thrush

The spreading thorn the linnet

 

Thus every kind their pleasure find

The savage and the tender

Some social join and leagues combine

Some solitary wander

Avaunt, away! The cruel sway

Tyrannic man's dominion

The sportsman's joy, the murdering cry

The fluttering, gory pinion

 

But, Peggy dear, the evening's clear

Thick flies the skimming swallow

The sky is blue, the fields in view

All fading, green and yellow

Come let us stray our gladsome way

And view the charms of nature

The rustling corn, the fruited thorn

And every happy creature

 

We'll gently walk and sweetly talk

'Til the silent moon shine clearly

I'll grasp thy waist and, fondly pressed,

Swear how I love thee dearly

Not vernal showers to budding flowers

Not autumn to the farmer

So dear can be as thou to me

My fair and lovely charmer

Source: Garnet Rogers, Garnet Rogers, Snow Goose

WHEN I WAS IN MY PRIME

When I was in my prime I flourished like a vine

There came along a false young man which stole the heart of mine

Which stole the heart of mine.

 

The gardener standing by, three choices he offered to me

The paint, the violet and red rose, which I refused all three

Which I refused all three.

 

The paint's no flower at all, for it fades away to soon

The violet is too pale a hue, I think I'll wait 'til June

I think I'll wait 'til June.

 

In June the red rose blooms, that's not the flower for me

I think I'll pull the red rose up and plant a willow tree

And plant a willow tree.

 

And the willow tree shall weep, and the willow tree shall whine

I wish I was in the young man's arms that stole the heart of mine

That stole the heart of mine.

 

If I should last for one year more, and God should grant me grace

I'll save enough crystal tears to wash his deceitful face

To wash his deceitful face.

Source: Pentangle, A Maid that's Deep in Love

THE WEYHOOP

By Shoshonnah Jehane Ferch Emrys

To the tune of Greensleeves

 

A lady's life is not an easy one

Getting herself up before the sun.

Taking care of a castle isn't very much fun

While wearing the dreaded weyrhoop.

 

Chorus: Weyrhoop, weyrhoop, how it does catch

My feet and others, it doth make me retch.

Oh, I have become a miserable wench

Since wearing that dam-ned weyrhoop.

 

Once I was happy with carefree garb

Surcoats and head rails, the odd widow's barb

But a fashionable Tudor I wanted to be

And took up the dreaded Weyrhoop.

 

My dancing steps now I cannot control

Life was much simpler with just a bum roll

When dancing a pavanne I look like a troll

And all from the dreaded weyrhoop.

 

I wish I had never set eyes on that beast

It tripped up the King at the last great feast

The Queen wants to kill me, I'll soon need a priest

Save me from the dreaded weyrhoop.

 

Weyrhoop, weyrhoop, you're no more for me

My costume now; it fits to a "T"

Satins and fine laces I no more will see

I've fallen for Harold Tuchux!

Source: The Concordian Songbook

WHICH WAY THE WIND BLOWS

Anthony Phillips

 

Look, see how the world goes round,

Look see how the day goes on.

You, it won't stop to help you

Me, it won't stop to help you.

All the time a wind is blowing

Where it's blowing we don't know.

 

Look, some spend their days in slumber

Look, someone is weary toiling.

Home, be my guest and come back home.

Come, you'll be better off at home.

All the time someone is dying

Where he's dying next we don't know.

 

I sit in the sunset

Watching God's evening

Receding so gently now

Into the Westlands.

I think I'm at peace now

But of nothing am I certain

Only which way will the wind blow next time?

 

You, you might never have been saved

Ah, well, you might not have been so brave.

Time would have shown under the parting waves.

And now I know that nothing is what it ever seems.

 

I sit in the sunset

Watching God's evening

Receding so gently now

Into the Westlands.

I think I'm at peace now

But of nothing am I certain

Only which way will the wind blow next time?

Source: Anthony Phillips, The Geese and the Ghost, Passport

WHISKEY 'FORE BREAKFAST

Mike Cross

 

Well early one morning the sun wouldn't shine

I was walking down the street, not feeling too fine

I saw two old men with a bottle between them

And this is the song I heard them singing.

 

Lord preserve us and protect us

We've been drinking whiskey 'fore breakfast

 

Well I stopped by the steps where they were setting

And I couldn't believe how drunk they were getting

I said, "Old men, you been drinking long?"

They said, "Long enough to start singing this song."

 

Well they passed me the bottle and said, "Take a little sip."

And it felt so good that I just couldn't quit.

So I drank a little more and next thing I knew

There were three of us sitting there singing this tune.

 

Well one by one everybody in the town

Heard all our ruckus and they all came down.

And pretty soon all the streets were ringing

With sound of the whole town laughing and singing.

Source: Mike Cross, Live and Kicking, Kicking Mule

THE WHITE COLLAR HOLLER

Nigel Russell

 

Well, I rise up every morning at a quarter to eight

Some woman who's my wife tells me not to be late

I kiss the kids good-bye, I can't remember their names

And week after week, it's always the same

 

Chorus: And it's ho, boys, can't you code it, and program it right

Nothing ever happens in this life of mine

I'm hauling out the data on the Xerox line

 

Then it's code in the data, give the keyboard a punch

Then cross-correlate and break for some lunch

Correlate, tabulate, process, and screen

Program, printout, regress to the mean

 

Then it' home again, eat again, watch some TV

Make love to my woman at ten-fifty-three

I dream the same dream when I'm sleeping at night

I'm soaring over hills like an eagle in flight

 

Someday I'm gonna give up all the buttons and things

I'll punch that time clock 'til it can't ring

Burn up my necktie and set myself free

'Cause no one's gonna fold, bend or mutilate me

Source: Stan Rogers, Between the Breaks,Live, Fogarty's Cove

WHITE MAN'S RAIN CHANT

Chorus: Hail, Thor! Lord of Thunder,

Master of the Winds of the Western World!

Hail, Thor! Hammer-wielder

Lord of Lightning, Lord of Storms!

 

Bring the winds that bear the water

Master of the Winds of the Western World!

Call the cloud and all it utters

Lord of Lightning, Lord of Storms!

 

Fetch the flock of cloud sheep grazing

Master...

Lift the lash of lightning blazing

Lord...

 

Into your arms the waters gather

Whip the waters to raging lather

 

Draw the drops of the sky together

Break the back of burning whither

 

Join our joys of feast and singing

Set the sky with laughter ringing

Source: Chickasaw Mountain

WHITE SQUALL

Stan Rogers

 

Now it's just my luck to have the watch, with nothing left to do

But watch the deadly waters glide as we roll north to the 'Soo,

And wonder when they'll turn again and pitch us to the rail

And whirl off one more youngster in the gale.

The kid was so damn eager. It was all so big and new.

You never had to tell him twice of find him work to do

And evening on the mess deck he was always first to sing

And show us pictures of the girl he's wed in spring.

 

Chorus: But I told that kid a hundred times

"Don't take the lakes for granted

They go from calm to a hundred knots so fast they seem enchanted."

But tonight some red-eyed Wiarton girl lies staring at the wall

Her lover's gone into a white squall.

 

Now it's a thing that us old-timers know. In a sultry summer calm

There comes a blow from nowhere, and it goes off like a bomb.

And a fifteen thousand tonner can be thrown upon her beam

While the gale takes all before it in a scream.

The kid was on the hatches, lying staring at the sky

From where I stood I swear I could see tears fall from his eyes

So I hadn't the heart to tell him that he should be on a line

Even on a night so warm and fine.

 

When it struck, he sat up with a start; I roared to him. "Get down!"

But for all that he could hear, I could as well not made a sound

So, I clung there to the stanchions, and I felt my face go pale,

As he crawled hand over hand along the rail.

I could feel her heeling over with the fury of the blow.

I watched the rail go under then, so terrible and slow.

Then like some great dog she shook herself and roared upright again

Far overside I heard him call my name.

 

So it's just my luck to have the watch, with nothing left to do

But watch the deadly waters glide as we roll north to the 'Soo,

And wonder when they'll turn again and pitch us to the rail,

And whirl off one more youngster in the gale.

But I tell these kids a hundred times, "Don't take the lakes for granted.

They go from calm to a hundred knots so fast they seem enchanted."

But tonight some red-eyed Wiarton girl lies staring at the wall

And her lover's gone into a white squall.

Source: Stan Rogers, From Fresh Water, Cole Heather

WHO'S THE FOOL NOW?

Traditional

 

Chorus: Oh, Martin said to his man,

"Fie, man, Fie."

Martin said to his man,

"Who's the fool now?"

Oh, Martin said to his man,

"Fill now the cup and I the can.

Thou has well drunken man.

Who's the fool now?"

 

I saw the man in the moon

Closing up St. Peter's shoon

 

I saw a hare chase a hound

Twenty miles above the ground

 

I saw a mouse chase a cat

I saw a cheese eat a rat

 

I saw a maid milk a bull

Every stroke a bucket full

 

I saw a cart draw a horse

But the horse was drunk, of course

 

I saw a wolf that could sing

I saw a rabbit crowned a king

 

Make up versus as the whim strikes

Source: Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, Songs of Old England

THE WILD GEESE

Chorus: The wild geese are flying out on a bright wind

And never again will their song fill our sky.

They've taken their magic and grace from our ceiling

And followed to the dark in their eyes.

The wild gypsy gazed in the thousand sad cities

For takes of a chance to fly from their tears.

 

Out on a sunbreeze in a dark banshee wailing

A journey of more than a hundred light years.

The wild gypsy gazed like some star haunted pilgrim

By ones and by twos they all flew to the scene

They knew they would fly to the last if they had to

That every dark hunger might somehow be healed.

 

And though they were strangers they shared a wild dreaming

A meaning that first time they knew had a plan.

Without any warning, by some magic signal

They captured the ship that would see the stars dance.

And out on the sun wind they flew in their rapture

With never a thought to the world left behind

The poets, the singers, the dreamers the mystics

The ones who could see among so many blind.

 

And every gosling they birthed on the starship

Was heir to the wild streak that drove them all on

And still the dark dream and the wild banshee wailing

Would haunt all their sleep and at night without dawn.

Somewhere between the gold star that they came from

And one more unseen at the end of their flight

They lost their last yearning for somewhere to settle

And chased the wild wing across the dark night.

 

The wild geese are flying on sun-colored feather

In black velvet skies beyond galaxy shore

The wild geese with all our dreams in their pockets

Are wheeling away for ever more.

WILLIE OF WINSBURY

The King has been a prisoner

And a prisoner long in Spain

And Willie of Winsbury

Has lain with his daughter at home.

 

"What ails you, what ails you my daughter Janet?

Why you look so pale and wan.

O have you had any saucy cares

Or yet been sleeping with a man?"

 

"I have not had any saucy cares

Nor yet been sleeping with a man.

It is for you my father dear

Abiding so long in Spain."

 

"Cast off your berry-brown gown

And stand naked upon the stone

That I may know you by your shame

If you be a maiden or no."

 

And she's cast off her berry-brown gown

She stood naked upon the stone.

Her apron was lowered, her haunches were round

Her face was pale and wan.

 

"Who was it with a lord or duke or night?

Or a man of gallant mien?

Or was it with one of my serving men

That's lately come out of Spain?"

 

"No it wasn't with a lord or duke or night

Nor a man of gallant mien

But it was with Willie of Winsbury.

I could abide no longer alone."

 

And the King has called all his men up

By thirty and by three.

Said, "Fetch me this Willie of Winsbury

Or hanged he shall be."

 

But when we came the King before

He was clad all in red silk.

His hair was like the strands of gold

His skin was as white as milk.

"And it is no wonder," said the King

"That my daughter's love you did win.

For if I was a woman as I am a man

My bedfellow you would have been."

 

"And will you marry my daughter Janet

By the truth of your right hand?

Oh will you marry my daughter Janet?

I will make you a lord of my land."

 

"Oh yes I will marry your daughter Janet

By the truth of my right hand.

Oh yes I will marry your daughter Janet

But I'll not be the lord of your land."

 

And he's mounted her on a milk-white steed

And himself on a dapple gray.

He has made her the lady of Asmarch land

And she shall ride on a long summer's day.

WIND'S FOUR QUARTERS

Heather Alexander

 

Chorus: Winds' four quarters, air and fire

Earth and water hear my desire

Grant my plea who stands alone

Maiden, Warrior, Mother and Crone

 

Easter Wind blow clear, blow clean

Cleanse my body of its pain

Cleanse my mind of what I've seen

Cleanse my honor of its stain

Maid whose love has never ceased

Bring me healing from the East.

 

Southern Wind blow hot, blow hard

Fan my courage to a flame

Southern Wind be guide and guard

Add your bravery to my name

Let my will and yours be twin,

Warrior of the Souther Wind.

 

Western Wind blow stiff, blow strong

Grant me arm and mind of steel

On a road both hard and long

Mother hear my where I kneel

Let no weakness on my quest

Hear me Wind of the West.

 

Northern Wind blow cruel, blow cold

Sheath my aching heart in ice

All around my soul enfold

Crone I need not call you twice

To my foes bring cold of death

Chill me North Wind's frozen breath.

 

Editor's note: Do not sing this one lightly! And remember: Be careful what you ask for!

Source: Mercedes Lackey, Magic, Moondust & Melancholy, Firebird A&M

THE WINTRY QUEEN

Blood red skies in the morning, pitch black heavens every night.

Take them both as a warning that the winter fire need be bright.

Fierce the blaze on the mountain, sheds its light for miles around

While the stream and the fountain are frozen and locked in the ground.

 

Chorus: Now the leprous white lady leads her train of the lost

Meets the spirits through flame and wood and goodly fields of frost.

 

Summer's consort shine brightly the tall and golden haired prince

And she came to him nightly with pomegranate and quince.

Dead and gone is her lover, the most fair and radiant of all

Now she'll never recover the king cut down in the fall.

 

While the climbing sun tarries as if his marches were stayed

That wet summer they marry, mortal man and immortal maid.

Has the king ever reckoned what he gives for the royal crown

To be god but a second ere the sun starts its course ever down.

 

Through the summer and after, in the sere and brown of the fall

Days would fill with their laughter and nights with their echoing call.

But as autumn leaves smoulder and the smoke slowly drifts in the air

So the young king grew older and withered and died in despair.

 

Nine white maidens attend her where she treads without leaving spoor

As she speaks her defender who will take the ground once more.

By the light of the beacon you can see her pass through the ring

She'll not weary nor weaken 'til she finds the winter-tide king.

Source: Gwydion Sings with the California Wicca Blues Band, Songs for the Old Religion

THE WINTER IT IS PASSED

For the winter it is passed and the summer's come at last

And the small birds sing on every tree

Their little hearts are glad but mine is ever sad

Since my true love is far away from me.

 

The rose among the briar by the water running clear

Brings joy to the linnet and the bee

Their little hearts are blessed, but mine can know no rest

Since my true love is far away from me.

 

For my love is like the sun, in the firmament doth run

Forever constant and true

But hers is like the moon that wanders up and down

And every month it is new.

 

All you who are in love and cannot it remove

I pity the pain that you endure

For experience lets me know that your hearts are full of woe

And a woe that no mortal can cure.

Source: Archie Fisher, Off the Map, Snow Goose Records

THE WITCH OF THE WESTMERE LANDS

Archie Fisher

 

Pale was the wounded knight

That bore the rowan shield.

Loud and cruel were the raven's cries

That feasted on the field, saying

 

"Beck water cold and clear

Will never clean the wound.

There's none but the witch of the winding mere

Can make ye hale and sound."

 

"So course well me brindled hounds

And fetch me the mountain hare

Whose coat is as grey as the waste water

Or as white as the lily fair," who said

 

"Green moss and heather bands

Will never staunch the flood.

There's none but the witch of the west mer-lands

Can save thy dear life's blood.

 

"So turn, turn your stallion's head

'Til his red mane flies in the wind

And the rider of the moon goes by

And the bright star falls behind."

 

And clear was the paley moon

When his shadow passed him by;

Below the hill was the brightest star

When he heard the owlet cry, saying

 

"Why do you ride this way

And wherefore came ye here?"

"I seek the witch of the west mer-lands

That dwells by the winding mere."

 

"Then fly free your good grey hawk

To gather the golden rod

And face your horse into the cloud

Above yon gay green wood."

 

And it's weary by Ullswater

And the misty brake fern way

'Til through the cleft of the Kirkstone Pass

The winding water lay.

 

He said, "Lie down, my brindled hound,

And rest my good grey hawk.

And thee, my steed, may graze thy fill

For I must dismount and walk.

 

"But come when you hear my horn

And answer quick my call

For I fear e'er the sun shall rise this morn

You will serve me best of all."

 

And down to the water's brim

He's borne the rowan shield

And the golden rod he has cast in

To see what the lake might yield.

 

And wet she rose from the lake

And fast and fleet went she

One half the form of a maiden fair

With a jet black mare's body.

 

And loud, long and shrill he blew

And his steed was by his side.

High over head his grey hawk flew

And swiftly he did ride, saying

 

"Course well, me brindled hounds

And fetch me the jet black mare.

Stoop and strike my good grey hawk

And bring me the maiden fair." She said

 

"Pray sheath thy silvery sword

Lay down the rowan shield,

For I see by the briny blood that flows

You've been wounded in the field."

 

And she stood in a gown of velvet blue

Bound 'round with a silver chain.

She's kissed his pale lips once and twice

And three times 'round again.

 

And she's bound his wound with the golden rod

Full fast in her arms he lay,

And he had risen hale and sound

With the sun high in the day. She said

 

"Ride with your brindled hounds at heel

And your good grey hawk in hand.

There's none can harm a knight what's lain

With the witch of the west mer-lands."

Source: Archie Fisher, A Man with a Rhyme, Folk Legacy

WITCHES' COVEN DANCE

Now if you be my lady love and come and sit down near me

Then I will sing a dancing song so every one can hear me.

We'll drink the muses' wine so fine and eat the sacred bread

We'll dance the circle night and night and burn the candles red, oh

 

Chorus: Dance around the old black stone in a grove so shady

Kiss beneath the blood-red moon, protected by our Lady.

 

In a forest long ago our Lady took my hand

She led me to a temple bare and gave me her command.

"Go and find your mortal love, she awaits you daily

But she won't wait for ever more to dance the circle gaily."

 

Now that I have found you dear, oh won't you dance the penton.

The air is warm, the moon is clear, your love is what I'm bent on.

Dance the penton with me dear, the pentagram is waiting

My heart is beating faster dear at what your eyes are stating.

 

New serve the cauldron three times three and burn the incense nightly

For I have found the love at last that shook my passions brightly.

I'll dance with you around the grove, we'll dance until the dawn

And though the world is bright again our love will not be gone.

 

Gwydion Sings and the California Wicca Blues Band, Songs for the Old Religion

WOAD

What's the use of wearing braces

Hats, or spats, or shoes with laces

Vest, or pants you buy in places

Down on Brompton Road?

What's the use of wearing cotton

Studs that always get forgotten

These affairs are simply rotten

Better far is woad!

 

Woad's the stuff to show men. WOAD!

Woad to scare your foemen.

Boil it to a brilliant blue and

Rub it on your legs and your abdomen.

Ancient britons never hit on

Anything as good as woad to fit on

Neck or knees or where you sit on

Tailors be you blowed.

 

Romans came across the Channel

All dressed up in tin and flannel

Half a pint of woad per man'll

Clothe us more than these.

Saxons you may save your stitches

Building beds for bugs in britches

We have woad to clothe us which is

Not a nest for fleas.

 

Romans keep your armors

Saxons your pajamas

Hairy coats were made for goats,

Gorillas, yaks, retriever dogs and llamas

March on, snowed on, with your woad on

Never mind if you get rained or snowed on

Never need a button sewed on

Bottoms up ! To woad.

Source: Oak, Ash and Thorn, Wild Oats, Of Centaur

WOLFE

Ashley Hutchins

 

Spoken:

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power

And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave

Awaits alike for the inevitable hour.

The paths of glory but lead to the grave.

 

Sung:

The fleet was a floating forest

Spread before me on the Thames

And Greenwich bells saluted all her proud departing sons.

I stood upon the hillside with my spyglass misted o'er

And I turned to make my way to home once more.

 

Chorus: Oh to cross the line

And defy the tide forever.

To take the paths of happiness

And walk away the pain.

If for one last time

You could hold these hands together

Content to scale the heights of home again.

 

It's hard to lose your loved one

To a nation's grateful heart

For now you are a sweetheart and you never more to part.

Your virtue she may trade on and your life's loss she may be

But she'll not hold you half any more than I.

 

Last night I dreamed you lay with me

Your head upon my breast;

You had not thought of trading me for glory in the west.

The park was then our Eden and the stars a guileless game

We charted them until the comet came.

 

This land may want you for a hero she can call her very own

To glory of in ballads and do honour to in stone.

But I have no need of gratitude and grace and nothing more

I want my love beside me as before.

Source: The Albion Band, Light Shining, Albino

WORMS OF THE EARTH

Clam Chowder

 

Chorus: For we are the worms of the earth against the lions of might.

All of our days we are tied to the land

While they hunt and they feast and they fight.

We give our crops and our homes and our land

And the clerics tell us this is right.

And they've beat us before, and they'll beat us again

But we'll drink from their helmets tonight.

 

My father worked on the land as did his father before him

Plowing and sowing by hand, harvesting what the land bore him.

He was killed by the robbers before I was ten

One stroke of the sword and then they were gone

While our lord strutted bravely atop his tall wall

And did nothing to hinder the slaughter.

 

Chorus

 

Our lord went away to the wars mounted atop a bold stallion

To fight for some noble cause with his knights there and henchmen to guard him.

Then we heard they'd been captured, both he and his men

And for that they raised our taxes again

For to pay the great ransom in gold and in gems

To get our lord back to rule us.

 

Chorus

 

This year there was a great drought, our crops were burned to the ground.

Not that our lord went without for his men took all that they found.

Then our lord came among us with some of his men

To announce that the taxes were raised yet again

So a few of us acted on our desperate plan

Now his body is meat for the crows.

 

Into the fire we stare, behind our poor barricade.

Too tired to feel the despair, knowing no-one will come to our aid.

For when that sun rises the knights all around

They will gather in force and they'll hunt us all down

And mount our heads proudly on pikes in the town

And our final tax will be paid.

 

For we are the worms of the earth against the lions of might.

All of our days we are tied to the land

While they hunt and they feast and they fight.

We give our crops and our homes and our land

And the clerics tell us this is right.

And they've beat us before

And they'll kill us tomorrow

But we'll drink from their helmets tonight!

THE WRECK OF THE ATHENS QUEEN

Stan Rogers

 

We were drinking down to Ready's house when first we heard the blow

It seemed to come from Ripper Rock so boldy forth we go

And sure enough, a rusty tub could just be barely seen

As her stern was high up in the air we made out Athens Queen

Oh, the lovely Athens Queen.

 

Me boys, I must remind you, there's a bottle left inside

So let us go and have a few and wait until low tide

And if the sea's not claimed her when the glasses are licked clean

We will then set forth some dories, lads, and see what may be seen

On the lovely Athens Queen.

 

Some songs and old tall stories then came out to pass the time

Nor could a single bottle keep us all until low tide

And so it was before we left the house we were at sea

So I scarcely can remember how we made the Athens Queen

Oh, the lovely Athens Queen.

 

Oh the waves inside me belly were as high as those outside

And though I'm never seasick, I lost dinner overside

'Twas well there was no crew to save, for we'd have scared them green

We could scarcely keep ourselves from falling off the Athens Queen

Oh, the lovely Athens Queen.

 

Well, Ready goes straight down below and comes up with a cow

"Hello," I said, "now what would you be wanting with that now?

You'll never take a cow home in a dory in such seas!"

"Well, me son," he says, "I've always fancied fresh cream in me tea

'Fore the lovely Athens Queen."

 

I headed for the galley, then, as I was rather dry

And glad I was to get there, for what should I espy

Oh what a shame it would have been for to lose it all at sea

Forty cases of the best Napolean brandy ever seen

On the lovely Athens Queen.

 

I loaded twenty cases, boys, then headed for the shore

Unloading them as quick as that and then pulled back for more

Smith was seen pulling for the shore but he could scarce be seen

Under near two hundred chickens and a leather couch of green

From the lovely Athens Queen.

 

Well, here's to good salvagers, likewise the Ripper Rock

And to Napoleon Brandy of which now we have much stock.

We eat a lot of chicken and sit on a couch of green

And we wait for Ripper Rock to claim another Athens Queen

Oh, the lovely Athens Queen.

Source: Stan Rogers, Fogarty's Cove, Fogarty's Cove

YES THEY'RE REAL

Yes they're real (No, they can't be)

Yes they are, I've seen them walking out beyond the wooded garden

Through the town and through the valley.

 

Yes they're real (No they can't be)

Yes they are, you are not hearing for I say I've seen them drinking

In the tavern at the road.

 

Steel and mail and gilded cross bow

Feather of the ancient wind bird

Wide as wonder, tall as starlight

Lords of earth and lords of fire

Like the love that they desire

Lords of earth and lords of fire

Like the love that they desire

 

Yes they're real (No they can't be)

Come with me and see what might be (I'm afraid) Oh you are childish

Nothing kills that does not know ye!

 

Come right now (No I fear thee)

Did I say that I would lead thee? (We have walked the farthest side

Out beyond the fire light)

Come right now (No I fear thee)

Come with me, for I will take you dancing now with all my brothers

I am real, and like the others

Yes they're real, no you told me

Yes, I said you should believe me, now we have you wrapped in darkness

Now we keep you never leaving

Trade your life for not believing!

 

Steel and mail and gilded cross bow

Feather of the ancient wind bird

Wide as wonder, tall as starlight

Lords of earth and lords of fire

Like the love that they desire

Lords of earth and lords of fire

Like the love that they desire!

Source: Mercedes Lackey

ZEN GOSPEL SINGING

Bryan Bowers

 

Well I once was a Baptist

And on each Sunday morn

I'd be in church praying

As sure as you're born.

We'd sing there like angels

In that good harmony

But sin and salvation

Are no longer for me.

 

For now I'm a Buddhist

I chant my mantra each day

But I miss that hymn singing

In that good gospel way.

So I'll sing to old Buddha

And the wonders of Zen

We'll meet in Nirvana

Yes we'll be there then.

 

My old friends don't like me

Now I've shaved my head

They all talk about me

As if I were dead.

Now my good old Zen buddies

They like me okay

But I can't get them singing

More than one note a day.

 

As we sit here cross-legged

Eating brown rice and tea

We chant out our mantras

In four square harmony.

We don't sing of salvation

Or our heavenly home

In Zen gospel singing

It's just Om, Om, sweet Om.

Source: Brian Bowers, By Heart, Flying Fish Records

ZOMBIE JAMBOREE

(THE DANCE THAT KILLED CALYPSO)

Lord Invader and the Penetrators

 

Chorus:

Way now!

Back to back, belly to belly

And I don't give a damn 'cause I done that already

Back to back, belly to belly

At the Zombie Jamboree!

 

Zombie Jamboree took place in a New York cemetery

Zombie Jamboree took place in Long Island cemetery.

Zombies from all parts of the island

Some of them great Calypsonians

Since the season it was carnival

They got together in a bacchanal.

 

One female zombie would not behave

She say she want me for her slave

In the one hand she's holding a bottle of wine

In the other she's pointing that she'll be mine.

Now believe me, folks, yes I had to run

The husband of a zombie ain't no fun

I said, "Oh , no my turtledove

That old bag of bones I cannot love."

 

Right then and there she raised her feet

"I'm going to get you now my sweet

Gonna make you call me sweetie-pie."

I said, "Oh no, get back, you lie!"

"I may be lying but will see

After you've kissed this dead zombie!"

"Now I've never seen such a horror in my life

Can you imagine me with a zombie wife?"

Source: Clam Chowder, Stewed