Posts

Si Kahn 1986

The Wilson Family: https://towerseyfestival.bandcamp.com/track/here-is-my-home

Good friends from whom we now must part, (Where are we bound?)
Your hands and voices lift my heart; (Here is my home.)

Chorus:
Come darkness, come light (Where are we bound?)
Come morning, come night (Here is my home.)

For those who work in harmony…Can learn to live in unity…

If we can join ourselves in song…Our hearts will live when we are gone…

The spirit that finds music here…Will sing forever in the air…

trad 

Kind friends and companions, come join me in rhyme
And lift up your voices in chorus with mine
Let us drink and be merry, all grief to refrain
For we may and might never all meet here again

Chorus:
Here’s a health to the company and one to my lass
Let us drink and be merry all out of one glass
Let us drink and be merry, all grief to refrain
For we may and might never all meet here again

Here’s a health to the dear lass that I love so well
Her style and her beauty, sure none can excel
She smiles on my countenance and sits on me knee
Sure there’s no one in Erin as happy as we

Our ship lies at harbor, she’s ready to dock
I hope she’s safe landed without any shock
If ever I meet you by land or by sea
I will always remember your kindness to me 

Robb Johnson 1987

193 passengers & crew (a third of those on board) died in 1987 when the cross-Channel ship went down. Many of those on board had taken advantage of a promotion in The Sun newspaper offering cheap trips to the continent. The ship left harbour with her bow door open, and the sea immediately flooded the vehicle deck; within minutes, she was lying on her side in shallow water. The immediate cause of the capsizing was found to be negligence by the assistant boatswain, who was asleep in his cabin when he should have been closing the bow door. The official inquiry, however, placed more blame on his supervisors and a company culture of poor communication.

Nancy Kerr & James Fagan: https://kerrfagan.bandcamp.com/track/the-herald-of-free-enterprise

The sun goes down now ‘cross the sea
We’re homeward bound now, and on the duty-free
The harbour’s quiet and the kids asleep
Tired out from Europe on the cheap

Chorus (x2)
The ship we sail, and the flag she flies
It is the Herald of Free Enterprise

There are no poor now, we all have cars
They’re parked down below now, we took off the stars
On television, if not the sky
The ocean moves us, we don’t ask why

We feel the ship slip out from the land
We’re pleased our trip went just like we planned
We see the lights along the shore
Not the overworked crew, not the open door

And in the cruel dark sea our lives go down
In Zeebrugge Harbour all night we drown
Now the owners grow old while we all die young
With the blue murder stuck in our lungs

And they can salvage our ship up from the bottom of the sea
Recycle pop stars to sing Let it be
Sell lorries for scrap, whitewash the company
But they can make no more money out of me

And each life lost, much loved, much missed
And all of our lives’re on some passenger list
It’s too late for ‘Mayday’, you sink too fast
When profits come first and people’s losses come last 

J.E. Carpenter & W.T. Wrighton 1864 

Jeff Warner wrote in 2001: "My parents Frank and Anne Warner got this song from Eleazar Tillett (1875-1968) in 1951. The Tilletts, a fishing family, lived in Wanchese, North Carolina, on the Outer Banks. The song was composed in circa 1864 and went into oral tradition."

Countercurrent: https://countercurrentmusic.bandcamp.com/track/her-bright-smile-skating-on-the-harborfront

It’s been a year since last we met,
We may never meet again.
I have struggled to forget
But the struggle was in vain.
For her voice lives on the breeze,
And her spirit comes at will,
In the midnight on the seas
Her bright smile haunts me still.

I have sailed ‘neath alien skies,
And I’ve trod the desert path,
I have seen the storm arise
Like a giant in his wrath.
Every danger I have known
That a reckless life can fill,
No, her presence is not flown,
Her bright smile haunts me still.

At the first sweet dawn of light,
When I gaze upon the deep,
Her form still greets my sight
While the stars their vigil keep.
When I close my aching eyes
Sweet dreams my memory fill,
And from sleep when I arise
Her bright smile haunts me still.

trad 

Last line tweaked by Molly Ellis

Where have you been all day (Henry my son?)
Where have you been all day (my beloved one?)
Away on the meadow (x2)

Chorus:
Make my bed I’ve a pain in my head, and I want to lie down.

And what did you have to eat…Poison beans

And what colour were those beans…Green and yellow

What will you leave your mother…A woolen vest

What will you leave your father…A watch and chain

What will you leave your brother…A blue suit

What will you leave your children…The sun and moon

What will you leave your sweetheart?…Poison beans

Frank Mansell 1969

Set to "Swaggering Boney" by Charley Yarwood in 1984. Second verse tweaked slightly by Alex Ellis

Melrose Quartet: https://melrosequartet.bandcamp.com/track/hedging-song

I’d sooner go hedging than build a stone wall,
All pick up and place it and hope it don’t fall;
When the east wind blows bitter and keen through the trees,
I’d sooner lay blackthorn than dry-wall and freeze.

Chorus:
I’d sooner lay blackthorn, (x3) all the rest of my days.

I’d sooner go hedging-the best thing I know
For anger and anguish and sorrow and woe.
No matter how hurt or insulted I feel,
A tussle with blackthorn will help it to heal.

I’d sooner go hedging than read in a book,
For the more you get thinking the darker things look;
Since study and weeping are hard on the eyes,
I’d sooner lay blackthorn than learn to be wise.

I’d sooner go hedging than seek all my days
For wealth or position or other men’s praise;
Plain bill-hook and axe are the tools of my trade,
Six shillings a chain is the rate I am paid.

I’d sooner go hedging, but come the next spring,
I’ll be up and be gone like a bird on the wing,
And all I shall miss when I reach my new home
Will be hedges to slash at and blackthorn in bloom. 

John S. McConnell 1920s

Oh, one of these days around twelve o’clock
The whole wide world will reel and rock
The sinner will tremble and cry for pain
And the Lord will come in his aeroplane

Chorus:
Oh, you thirsty of every tribe
Get your ticket for an aeroplane ride
Jesus our Saviour is coming to reign
And take you to glory in his aeroplane

Oh, talk of rides in automobiles
Talk of fast times in motor wheels
We’ll break all records as we upwards fly
For an aeroplane joy ride in the sky

You must get ready if you take this ride
Leave all your sins and humble your pride
Furnish a lamp both bright and clean
And a vessel of oil to run the machine

When our journey’s over and we all sit down
At the marriage supper with a robe and crown
We’ll blend our voices with a heavenly throng
And praise our Saviour as the years roll on 

Alastair Hulett 1991

From 1947-1966, asbestos was mined in Wittenoom in Western Australia. In 2006 the process to close the town and declare a contamination zone began, but the last residents remained until 2022. As of 2024, 10% of the 20,000 mine workers and town residents had died of asbestos-related illness. The first lawsuit by a worker related to Mesothelioma against the companies operating asbestos mines was brought in 1977, the first successful claim in 1985, and during the late 1980s and early 1990s there were numerous court cases. Real regulations prohibiting asbestos were only enacted in the 1990s and a nationwide ban in 2003.

There’s a man in my bed I used to love him
His kisses used to take my breath away
There’s a man in my bed I hardly know him
I wipe his face and hold his hand
And watch him as he slowly fades away

Chorus:
And he fades away
Not like leaves that fall in autumn Turning gold against the grey
He fades away
Like the bloodstains on the pillow case That I wash every day
He fades away

There’s a man in my bed, he’s on a pension
Although he’s only fifty years of age
The lawyer says we might get compensation
In the course of due procedure
But he couldn’t say for certain at this stage

Bridge:
And he’s not the only one Who made that trip so many years ago
To work the Wittenoom mines So many young men old before their time And dying slow
They fade away
A wheezing bag of bones his Lungs half clogged and full of clay
They fade away

There’s a man in my bed they never told him
The cost of bringing home his weekly pay
And when the courts decide how much they owe him
How will he spend his money
When he lies in bed and coughs his life away? 

Nancy Kerr 2010

Inspired by the account in Jaws by Quint of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis on a secret mission carrying atomic bomb components during WWII, which really happened, albeit with more drowning and starvation and only a few shark attacks.

Nancy Kerr & James Fagan: https://kerrfagan.bandcamp.com/track/hauling-on

Chorus:
Keep hauling on
Mighty the jaws of morning
War has made the billows roar
As we keep hauling on

We set sail like bold Phoenicians For the gold on the horizon
Every soul lost to salvation Every song adieu adieu

Our captain is our lord and jailer For his wealth is our starvation
Every face a mask of hunger Every song adieu adieu

When adrift between two harbors Night falls black upon the water
Terror swims in every slumber Bidding dreams adieu adieu

With the morning wrapped in silver Rides a shadow on the water
Eye as black as any cinder Bidding life adieu adieu

Still our souls are on that water Like white gulls caught by the weather
Every siren singing danger Every song adieu adieu 

trad 

When I was just a little thing, my mama often told me (away, haul away, we’ll haul away Joe)
That if I were to kiss them all, I better kiss them boldly (away, haul away, we’ll haul away Joe)

Chorus:
Away, haul away, we’ll haul away together (away, haul away, we’ll haul away Joe)
Away, haul away, we’ll haul for better weather (away, haul away, we’ll haul away Joe)

I used to have an Irish gal, but she goes for the ladies
And now I’ve got a Bristol man and he calls me his baby

Old Louis was the King of France before the revolution
But then he got his head chopped off, which spoiled his constitution

You call yourself a second mate, but you can’t tie a bowline
You can’t even stand up straight when the packet she’s a-rollin’

Well now can’t you the black clouds a-gatherin
And now can’t you say the storm clouds a-risin’