Category: songs

Andy M. Stewart 

 

Silly Wizard: The Queen of Argyll

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW52yIcf1fk

Gentlemen it is me duty To inform you of one beauty Though I’d ask of you a favour 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 movements And the morning in her smile All the roses in the garden They bow and ask her pardon For not 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 Bein’ the place of noble thinkers Of scholars and great drinkers But above them all for splendour Shone the Queen of all Argyll So my lads I needs must leave you My intentions no’ to grieve you Nor indeed would I deceive you Oh I’ll see you in a while I must find some way to gain her To court her and attain her I fear my heart’s in danger From the Queen of all Argyll

 

 

Nancy Kerr 2010

 

Swan song for her 12 years living on narrowboats on the inland waterways. Their boat community was drifting away, and she was pregnant; they soon thereafter moved to Sheffield.

Nancy Kerr & James Fagan: https://kerrfagan.bandcamp.com/track/queen-of-waters

https://kerrfagan.bandcamp.com/track/queen-of-waters

Well away my love away for we’re sailing home today, On a boat called memory (hail home, hearts that long for the land) Oh she’s like some Persian queen with her opal robes serene, In the lamplight shimmering (hail home, hearts that long for the land) Chorus: On a blue-jay morning feathering thorny memories Hail home, hearts have been too long away, On a well-worn byway travelling, magpie gathering Farewell queen of waters. Well it’s hard to roll in mirth when your feet don’t touch the earth, And the wolf comes hungering (hail home, hearts that long for the land) Folly never foots the bill and we all shall pay in full, For a life of melody (hail home, hearts that long for the land) Well I should have sowed my corn, but I danced until the dawn, Like an ant grasshoppering (hail home, hearts that long for the land) Oh there must be better ways, for to keep the debts at bay, And the whiskey trickling (hail home, hearts that long for the land) So we’ll bid our ship adieu, there’s a mooring in the blue, Where the gulls are gathering (hail home, hearts that long for the land) Oh she’s like some Persian queen and her like shall ne’er be seen, Only in our reverie (hail home, hearts that long for the land) Once there was a man, and he had no song, He felt his head was empty and his voice was wrong, And though he often tried, his songs were trapped inside He couldn’t find the place where they belong Chorus But raise your voice with mine For now’s the perfect time to join the song Once there was a woman, and her songs were loud She sang them in the shower, and she sang them proud But when her friends were near, her voice it shrank with fear And left her shaking, mute, before the crowd. Now if you want to sing but don’t know how or why Don’t listen to the ones who say you should not try There’s bound to be a way you’ve not tried before today To free your voice to soar beneath the sky Once there was a singer and he made his choice To leave his doubts behind him and to find his voice The journey that he’s on is to learn just one more song And sing it out and make his friends rejoice

 

 

Pete Seeger 1960-63

 

Pete Seeger: Quite Early Morning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztGVvQ3nlAk

Don’t you know it’s darkest before the dawn And it’s this thought keeps me moving on If we could heed these early warnings The time is now quite early morning If we could heed these early warnings The time is now quite early morning Some say that humankind won’t long endure But what makes them so doggone sure? I know that you who hear my singing Could make those freedom bells go ringing I know that you who hear my singing Could make those freedom bells go ringing And so keep on while we live Until we have no, no more to give And when these fingers can strum no longer Hand the old banjo to young ones stronger And when these fingers can strum no longer Hand the old banjo to young ones stronger So though it’s darkest before the dawn These thoughts keep us moving on Through all this world of joy and sorrow We still can have singing tomorrows Through all this world of joy and sorrow We still can have singing tomorrows

 

 

Sean Cooney 2025

 

Part of Peter’s Field folk opera about the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. 60,000 people walked peacefully many miles from across Lancashire and further afield to attend a mass meeting in the centre of Manchester to advocate for parliamentary reform at a time when only a tiny proportion of people had the vote. They were to be addressed by the famous radical speaker Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt. Local magistrates sent in soldiers to disperse the unarmed crowd and aid the arrest of the speakers. At least 18 people were killed and hundreds injured and assaulted. The magistrates and military were completely exonerated and only recently have the victims of Peterloo been properly commemorated.

Sean Cooney: Radical Rags

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

Jesus was a working man he threw the merchants out and he said there’ll be a banquet, boys, for all those who have doubt ‘Cause no camel can through a needle get, quicker than any rich man But if any camel heard just what we’ve [et], then [I] might say it can Help the poor, big Jesus swore, and all your mates may wag He said share your homes and all you own, and dance in your radical rags Big John Ball he spoke to all from hedge and field and lane When he said “God made us equal”, boys, then he got sent to jail Well the men of Kent to London went in 1381 And when the king agreed to concede they must’ve thought it won ‘Til Big John Ball got hung and drawn and fifteen hundred [stag] But now’s the time to sing his rhyme and dance in your radical rags Winstanley he said to me, property’s a rig. So he took his spade to St. George Hill and he began to dig Well the year was 1649 the earth was theirs to share But the thugs they came and beat him there and squashed him like a prayer But in the room of reason where there’s none that can get [scrag] Winstanley’s spade got up and played, dance in your radical rags So Old Tom Paine he took the reins and he began to sing My own mind is my own church [and then he be more king] Well an outlaw in his native land he fired like a [tench] When he went to France and won the vote even though he never spoke French And when he died, his bones got dug and carried in [covered sbag] And from inside his old bones cried, dance in your radical rags ‘Cause it’s plain we were and plain we are and plain we will remain Until this Norman yoke gets broke and we are freed from chains Where e’er they march for liberty, we’ll be at the front So now we’re off to Manchester to hear big Henry Hunt And when he takes off his white hat and waves it like a flag With ball and [pain] we’ll rise again and dance in our radical rags

 

 

 

 

Nowell Sing We Clear: “Harnett Kane’s Southern Christmas Book describes La Guignolee, a New Year visiting custom from French communities in Missouri. We learned this English version, The Rag Dance Song, from George and Gerry Armstrong of Chicago.”

Nowell Sing We Clear: The Rag Dance Song (La Guignol‚e) / Pays d’Haut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR0pt1yDC6Q

Chorus: Good evening, master and good mistress And all the good folk who live here. (x2) We’ve come to ask for mistletoe On this last day of the old year. (x2) If you really want to please us, just say so Please feed and wine us, We only want a pig’s ear, then we’ll go, And we’ll wish you a Happy New Year. If you really want to please us, just say so Go fetch your daughter, We only want a kiss and then we’ll go, And we’ll wish you a Happy New Year. If you really want to please us, just say so Go grab your rag bag, We only want a rag dance, then we’ll go, And we’ll wish you a Happy New Year.

 

 

Paul Williams 1978

Kenneth Ascher 

Jim Henson told them that the opening scene should feature Kermit the Frog by himself, singing and playing the banjo. Williams and Ascher wrote most of the song fairly quickly at Williams’s house but got stuck trying to think of appropriate words for the part in the chorus that eventually became the phrase “the rainbow connection”; they were looking for a way to tie in the chorus to the song’s theme of rainbows.

Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog from The Muppet Movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS3Lkc6Gzlk

Why are there so many songs about rainbows And what’s on the other side? Rainbows are visions, but only illusions And rainbows have nothing to hide So we’ve been told, and some choose to believe it I know they’re wrong, wait and see Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection The lovers, the dreamers, and me Who said that every wish Would be heard and answered When wished on the morning star? Somebody thought of that And someone believed it Look what it’s done so far What’s so amazing that keeps us stargazing? And what do we think we might see? Someday we’ll find it the rainbow connection The lovers, the dreamers, and me All of us under its spell We know that it’s probably magic Have you been half asleep And have you heard voices? I’ve heard them calling my name Is this the sweet sound That calls the young sailors? The voice might be one and the same I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it It’s something that I’m s’posed to be Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection The lovers, the dreamers and me

 

 

Shelley Posen 2001

 

Becky Wright & Nicole Singer: https://beckyandnicole.bandcamp.com/track/ram-in-the-thicket

https://beckyandnicole.bandcamp.com/track/ram-in-the-thicket

Now in the Bible, so I’ve read, God spoke to Abraham and thus He said, “Before three days are past and gone, You must sacrifice Isaac, your beloved son.” [chorus] Don’t despair, there’s a ram in the thicket, God is there, there’s a ram in the thicket, He hears your prayer, there’s a ram in the thicket, There’s a ram in the thicket by the grace of God Next morning Abraham did depart With a grieving soul and an aching heart He took young Isaac by the hand But he didn’t tell his son about his God’s command “Father, for this sacrifice I see the fire and I see the knife But where’s the ram?” young Isaac cried, “Oh, my son, God will provide” Abraham, he bound his son, And laid him down upon the altar stone He raised the knife to do God’s command But God called, “Abraham, stay thy hand” Abraham freed the son he loved He proved his faith in his God above And if your faith is strong and true There’s a ram in the thicket will be waiting for you

 

 

Andy M. Stewart 

 

Silly Wizard: The Ramblin’ Rover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owfD5LIXb0I

Chorus: Oh, there’re sober men aplenty And drunkards barely twenty There are men of over ninety That have never yet kissed a girl But give me a ramblin’ rover Frae Orkney down to Dover We will roam the country over And together we’ll face the world I’ve roamed through all the nations In delight of all creations And enjoyed a wee sensation Where the company, it was kind And when partin’ was no pleasure I’ve drunk another measure To the good friends that we treasure For they always are in our mind There’s many that feign enjoyment From merciless employment Their ambition was this deployment From the minute they left the school And they save and scrape and ponder While the rest go out and squander See the world and rove and wander And are happier as a rule If you’re bent wi’ arthiritis Your bowels have got Colitis You’ve gallopin’ bollockitis And you’re thinkin’ it’s time you died If you been a man o’ action Though you’re lying there in traction You will get some satisfaction Thinkin’, “Jesus, at least I tried.”

 

 

Nancy Kerr 2010

 

James says this one’s fun, has a bit of an Americana feel. Nancy always thinks of Emily Smith because of her recording of it.

Nancy Kerr & James Fagan: https://kerrfagan.bandcamp.com/track/rammed-earth

https://kerrfagan.bandcamp.com/track/rammed-earth

We could walk in the woods where we all are still children In the darkness where folly is free But the shadows must flea And like lizards they scatter when you throw your bright light upon me Chorus For rammed earth and cool walls Shelter our hearts and counter our faults And your wedgewood eyes strip me down And teach me the hardest craft of all You can show me a bird with the wings of an angel And it shares in my summer and spring For when heads they hang heavy with thoughts’ gravitation We can switch on our nature and sing So build me a house from the bones of the dragon and set it with blood and with lye For I hear by the songs that you teach to your children we are made of the same you and I

 

 

 

 

In Stan Hugill’s 1961 ‘Songs of the Seven Seas’ described as a capstan shanty.

The Young Tradition: Randy Dandy-o (Live)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMJtFjS-310

Now we are ready to head for the Horn Way hey, roll and go! Our boots and our clothes, boys, are all in the pawn Timme rollickin’ randy dandy-o! Chorus (repeated after each verse): Heave a pawl, o heave away Way hey, roll and go! The anchor’s on board and the cable’s all stored Timme rollickin’ randy dandy-o! Man the stout capst’n and heave with a will But soon we’ll be driving her ‘way down the hill Heave away, bullies, you parish-rigged bums Take your hands from your pockets and don’t suck your thumbs I thought I heard the old man say Just one more pull, lads, and then we’ll belay Roust ‘er up, bullies, the wind’s drawing free Let’s get the gladrags on and drive ‘er to sea We’re outward bound for Vallipo Bay Get crackin’ my lads, it’s a hell of a way. But it’s goodbye to Sally and goodbye to Sue Aye we are the lads that can kick her through And heave and pull and heave away The anchor’s aboard and the cables are stored In Blackwall Dock we’re safe and sound We’ll load up on booze till we’re outward bound And heave and pull and heave away The anchor’s aboard and the cables are stored