Category: songs

Bill Harley 1984

 

“This started out as a kid’s song, ended up being for adults and now is on a kid’s recording. It’s for the adults that are going to hear it.”

Bill Harley: That’s What Friends Are For

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVM5D5EkFGg

Chorus: If you’ve got potatoes and I got tomatoes We could have dinner together If you got a raincoat and I got a tugboat We’ll sail no matter the weather If I had money and the sky was sunny We could spend the day by the shore You know I’d be glad to share what I had That’s what friends are for If you’re down on your luck, you don’t have a buck There’s holes in the toes of your shoes You’re scrounging for pennies, You can’t find any, you’ve got nothing left to lose Don’t you worry about dollars, Just give me a holler a whistle and yodel-ay-ee-ooo If I got a nickel we’ll go buy a pickle I’d be happy to share it with you If the job that you’ve got just makes your mind rot Everybody takes you for granted You’re frying your mind to five from nine And you feel like you’re on the wrong planet Don’t mess with those blues; you’ve got nothing to lose In walking from a place like that Why we can sing in the streets and be light on our feet We’ll split what goes into the hat When you get older, people get colder Don’t give you the time of day They just ignore you, they don’t care for you Just cause your hair’s gone grey Don’t feel alone, get on the phone Dial my number give me a ring I’ll be that way too, wearing corrective shoes We can get together and sing

 

 

Cathal McConnell? 

 

Cathal McConnell: There’s the Day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w71lGqj2nqo

A fitful sleep the landlord had ‘Mid din and chattin’, not of his choosin’ His daughter ’til the morning light Abused all those who sit there boozin’ Chorus: And there’s the day, it’s not the day Oh it is the day, the night is over It’s not the day, whate’er you say And it’s only the moon to guide the rover Come landlord join us in the snug All drowsy thoughts of slumber scornin’ There’s not one drop of jar nor jug That we’ll not ‘ave drained before the dawning I’ll stay in bed the landlord said For if I get up, you’ll go quicker So drink your fill of swipes and swill Oh, but not one drop of my good liquor Oh this landlord has my socks and shoes This tavern has my coat and britches By morning I’ve no more to lose And I’ll go and sleep among the ditches But I’ve money left to treat a friend Here’s my last guinea upon the table So let’s tilt the barrels upon their ends And lets be drinking whilest we’re able

 

 

Ian Robb 1990

 

“They’re Taking it Away was first penned in protest at a Canadian federal budget brought down in February 1990, which showed the way for many subsequent attacks on social programs by our various levels of government of all political stripes. It’s the same the ‘ole world over.”

Ian Robb: https://ianrobb1.bandcamp.com/track/theyre-taking-it-away

https://ianrobb1.bandcamp.com/track/theyre-taking-it-away

Chorus: Oh, they’re taking it away, yes they’re taking it away They are taking all the good things you can hear the people say And they’ll take it all tomorrow if they don’t take it today From the poor and sick and helpless, they are taking it away. Oh our government’s elected in the democratic way A-whining at the cost of all the things they have to pay And the bully-boys on Wall Street, you can hear the bastards say, “To hell with paying taxes, pull the safety-net away!” If you’re down upon your luck and need to keep the wolf at bay Just don’t rely on welfare or the dole to pay your way For the rich, they have decided not another cent to pay You can whistle for your supper for they’ve taken it away If you’re native, black, or Asian, if you’re feminist or gay If you’re just a little different from the most of us today If you want to make your point or if you want to have your way You can spit into the wind for they have taken it away If you’re battered by your husband and you need a place to stay You’d best get down upon your knees and quickly learn to pray For the women’s centre’s phone was disconnected yesterday And there’s no-one left to talk to, now they’ve taken it away If it’s ever your misfortune in a hospital to stay You’d best not be impatient for a bed on which to lay For your health ain’t worth the taxes that the healthy have to pay And the beds were too expensive, so they’ve taken them away Oh there’s those that have and those that don’t and those that are okay And there’s those who understand that fairness is the only way But there’s those that are so comfortable they look the other way And they vote for all the villains who would take it all away

 

 

Dougie MacLean 1999

 

Dougie MacLean: “The Things We Love…” from ‘Perthshire Amber,’ by Dougie MacLean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hCl34Pndwk

Scattered like gold from Dunkeld to Aberfeldy the seasons unfold – that’s the things we love. Walk through the field in the frost of a winter morning; nature revealed, that’s the things we love No, don’t ask us to take what we can give her, she lives inside us and we know her well. There’s no right reason to fear or to forgive her; it’s so easy, it’s just the things we love. Standing alone on top of the Ben A Caly; Great rocking stone, that’s the things we love. Catching the eye of the owl in the early morning, great buzzards cry ‘that’s the things we love’.

 

 

Woody Guthrie 1940

 

Chorus: This land is your land, this land is my land From California to the New York island, From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters; This land was made for you and me. As I was walking that ribbon of highway I saw above me that endless skyway; I saw below me that golden valley; This land was made for you and me. I’ve roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts; And all around me a voice was sounding; This land was made for you and me. When the sun came shining, and I was strolling, And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling, As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting: This land was made for you and me. As I went walking I saw a sign there, And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.” But on the other side it didn’t say nothing. That side was made for you and me. In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, By the relief office I seen my people; As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking Is this land made for you and me? Nobody living can ever stop me, As I go walking that freedom highway; Nobody living can ever make me turn back This land was made for you and me.

 

 

 

 

The Amidons

http://ellisnasqc.quickconnect.to/as/sharing/w8B3S30x/L011c2ljL1RoZSBBbWlkb25zL1RoaXMgTG9uZ2VzdCBOaWdodC9UaGlzIExvbmdlc3QgTmlnaHQubXAz

This longest night your candle’s lightÿ Keep watch over all the earth Welcome hope and cheer as dawn draws near And rejoice rejoice in the sun’s rebirth

 

 

Dougie MacLean 1985

 

Dougie MacLean: This Love Will Carry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5ZTxN0MO00

It’s a thin line that leads us and keeps a man from shame And dark clouds quickly gather along the way he came There’s fear out on the mountain and death out on the plain There’s heartbreak and heart-ache in the shadow of the flame Chorus: This love will carry This love will carry me I know this love will carry me The strongest web will tangle, the sweetest bloom will fall And somewhere in the distance we try and catch it all Success lasts for a moment and failure’s always near And you look down at your blistered hands as turns another year These days are golden, they must not waste away Our time is like that flower and soon it will decay And though by storms we’re weakened, uncertainty is sure And like the coming of the dawn it’s ours for evermore

 

 

Tom Chapin 1988

 

Tom Chapin: This Pretty Planet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G1qPuAGoJ0

Part 1: This pretty planet, spinning through space: your garden, your harbor, your holy place Part 2: Golden sun going down, gentle blue giant spin us around Part 3: All through the night, safe ’til the morning light.

 

 

trad 

 

Copper Family recorded in 1952; A.L. Lloyd wrote in 1971 that it was written by a Samuel Arnold around 1800 Copper Family: FBB Archive:The Copper Family 1, Youth Trad Song Committee 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58TVb_nPUXo

The time passes over most cheerful and gay Since we’ve learned a new act to drive sorrows away Chorus Sorrows away (3x) Since we’ve learned a new act to drive sorrows away Bright Phoebe awakes so high up in the sky With her red rosy cheeks and sparkling eye If you ask for my credit you’ll find I have none With my bottle and friends you will find me at home Although I’m not rich and although I’m not poor I’m as happy as those that’s got thousands or more

 

 

trad 

 

George ‘Pop’ Maynard recorded in 1956 and that recording says the song is probably a stage remake of a song which appeared in Ravenscroft’s Deuteromelia of 1609. The Watersons recorded in 1965 for which Bert Lloyd wrote “Versions of this old nursery song are spread from Scotland to Sussex, and it has even cropped up as a ritual piece in one or two sword-dance plays. It’s hard to say how old it is, but it seems to have first appeared in print in Gammer Gurton’s Garland at the end of the eighteenth century, though doubtless it has been on the go long before then.”

In good King Arthur’s day when we lived under the King, Three roguish chaps fell into mishaps because they could not singÿ Because they could not sing, because they could not sing, Three roguish chaps fell into mishaps because they could not sing. The first one was a miller, the second one was a weaver, And the third he was a little tailor, three roguish chaps together. Three roguish chaps together, three roguish chaps together. And the third he was a little tailor, three roguish chaps together. The miller he stole corn. The weaver he stole yarn. And the little tailor he stole broadcloth, to keep the three rogues warm. The miller he drowned in his dam, and the weaver got hung in his yarn, And the devil put his claw on the little tailor with the broadcloth under his arm. The miller still drowns in his dam, and the weaver still hangs in his yarn, And the little tailor he skips through hell with the broadcloth under his arm.