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Even More People Have Songs

by Various artists

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1.
We are well met my friends in this place tonight Though most of us are strangers to each other The many paths that led us here, will mingle and unite As we walk down this same road together So when the music starts, open up your hearts Let it soar like a lark in early morning Sorrow, care and fear, have no dominion here They shall all soon disappear in the sound of singing This crowded age we live in gives us little time or choice, Small simple dreams are often derided, But tonight we shall sing in a common human voice, Tonight we shall be not divided. So for these few hours at least, let your spirit be released May you find peace if peace is what you're seeking The frantic ceaseless roar of the world outside our door Shall this night fade before the sound of singing And so when the music starts, open up your hearts Let it soar like a lark in early morning Sorrow, care and fear, have no dominion here They shall all soon disappear in the sound of singing
2.
Come all me bold heroes pay an ear to my song I’ll sing in the praise of good brandy and rum There’s a clear crystal fountain near England doth roll Bring me the punch ladle, I’ll fathom the bowl I’ll fathom the bowl I’ll fathom the bowl Bring me the punch ladle I’ll fathom the bowl From France we do get brandy from Jamaica comes run Sweet oranges and lemons from Portugal come But beer and strong cider are England’s control Bring me the punch ladle, I’ll fathom the bowl My wife she do come in while I sits at my ease She scolds and she grumbles and does as she please My wife she’s a devil as black as the coal Bring me the punch ladle, I’ll fathom the bowl Oh my father he do lay in the depths of the sea With no stone at his head but what matter to he? There’s a clear crystal fountain near him it doth roll Bring me the punch ladle, I’ll fathom the bowl
3.
Young Roger the miller came courting of late To a farmer’s fine daughter called beautiful Kate She had for her fortune many fine things Beautiful silks and gold, diamonds and rings Her father, he gave her a neat plot of ground She had also the fortune of five hundred pound Then the money and supper, they both were laid down Well, it was a great sight to see five hundred pounds The sight of that money and beauty likewise Made Roger’s heart greedy and dazzled his eyes “Now that your daughter and money is here ‘Tis I will not have her without that gray mare” Then the money and supper were taken from sight And likewise young Kathy, his own heart’s delight Roger was taken and shown to the door And ordered not for to come there anymore ‘Twas then he did tear at his long yellow hair Saying, “I wish I had never spoke of that gray mare” Now it was when six months, they were over and past And Roger the miller, he met with his lass “I think I do know you then, madam,” said he “I am the same way with you, sir,” said she “A man with your features with fine yellow hair Oh he once came a-courting my father’s gray mare” “Well, it was not a-courting the gray mare I came But you, my own jewel, my Kathy by name I thought that your father would never dispute To give me the gray mare with you to boot And not to risk losing such a dutiful son Oh it’s now I am sorry for what I have done” “For your sorrow, young Roger, I have little regard For there’s plenty of men in this town to be had If you forgot the gray mare, you’d be married, you see But now you have neither the gray mare nor me The price of that mare, it was never so great So fare you well, Roger, you’re a sorrowful state” Now Roger’s away to his desolate home And he sighs as he sits there and sups all alone Kathy, she sings, she is happy and gay She has wed a young miller who works the long day Lads, when you’re courting, be always aware To court with a young maid and not the gray mare
4.
This love I have for you, I hope you like it ‘Though it’s mostly second hand But I cleaned it up like new And I wrapped it with a lovely rubber band And it’s from so many places So you may detect some traces Of the way that it’s been passed from hand to hand I hope you’ll understand When we quietly sit together That’s a love my brother gave me long ago ‘Though I’m floating like a feather It’s a love that doesn’t have to be on show And when I treat you like a team-mate And tell you every dream I have I got that from my sister first you know Such a gift she did bestow Some simple praise to save me That’s a love I got once from a high-school friend Or the love my Grandma gave me That I’m giving back to her now ‘til the end I could name so many others All my family, friends and lovers Who gave me all this love I’ve got to spend And to share with you, my friend So when you’re struck with sadness And you’re sulking like we all can sometimes do And I know it would be madness If I start being cross and grumpy too Then if sometimes I remember Not to rise up in a temper But to speak the love that underneath is true That’s a love I learnt from you
5.
And so once again my dear Johnny, my dear friend And so once again, you are fighting us all And when I ask you why, you raise your sticks and cry, and I fall Oh, my friend, how did you come To trade the fiddle for the drum? You say I have turned like the enemies you’ve earned But I can remember all the good things you are And so I ask you, please, can I help you find the peace and the star Oh, my friend, what time is this To trade the handshake for the fist? And so once again, oh, America my friend And so once again you are fighting us all And when we ask you why, you raise your sticks and cry and we fall Oh, my friend, how did you come To trade the fiddle for the drum? You say we have turned like the enemies you’ve earned But we can remember all the good things you are And so we ask you, please, can we help you find the peace and the star Oh, my friend, we have all come To fear the beating of your drum
6.
Somewhere along the road, someone waits for me Beyond these present storms that blow. Waiting patiently No secrets held in an open heart A spirit that soars over mountains Somewhere along the road, someone waits for me Somehow a guiding light always shows the way To those who lose their way by night, searching for the day A day away from happiness Tomorrow will bring a new sunrise Somewhere along the road, someone waits for me Sometime, when winds are still, unexpectedly Perhaps beyond this silent hill a voice will call to me “Raise your eyes to see my world Raise your voice and sing out!” Somewhere along the road, someone waits for me
7.
Lay me down gently, lay me down low I fear I am broken and won’t mend, I know One thing I ask when the stars light the skies Who now will sing me lullabies? Oh who now will sing me lullabies? In this big world I’m lonely, for I am but small Oh angels in heaven, don’t you care for me at all? You heard my heart breaking for it rang through the skies So why don’t you sing me lullabies? Oh why don’t you sing me lullabies? I lay here; I’m weeping for the stars they have come I lay here not sleeping; now the long night has begun The man in the moon, oh he can’t help but cry For there’s no one to sing me lullabies Oh there’s no one to sing me lullabies So lay me down gently, oh lay me down low I fear I am broken and won’t mend, I know One thing I ask when the stars light the skies Who now will sing me lullabies? Oh who now will sing me lullabies? Who will sing me to sleep? Who will sing me to sleep? Who will sing me to sleep? Oh lullabies
8.
I was no slouch at Uni, I finished my degree With first class honours and then a PhD They’re just like a poem those beautiful numbers That can describe the world and all of its wonders Now the Government pays me for advice they won’t use So sometimes I sit with a bottle of booze And I stare at the late night news And sometimes I just shout to the air Is there anyone at all that can hear me out there? Is there anyone that can hear this atheist’s prayer? I sat at my computer and watched the picture come together Of the rising sea and the changing weather While the CO2 wraps us in its blanket of death I argue and I reason until I run out of breath While they sit on their hands and they stop up their ears They threaten our funding, threaten our careers The frustration just drives me to tears I believed in the scientific method I was taught I believed in the enlightenment and the revolution of thought But now I see the world like I never have before With its structures of power and the rich over the poor Well Darwin and Galileo, they copped it too So I don’t know why I expected anything new Still there’s got to be more I can do
9.
Were I laid on Greenland’s coast And in my arms embraced my lass Warm amidst eternal frost Too soon the half year’s night would pass Were I sold on Indian soil Soon as the burning day was closed I could mock the sultry toil When on my charmer’s breast reposed And I would love you all the day Every night would kiss and play If with me you’d fondly stray O’er the hills and far away
10.
And am I born to die? To lay this body down And must my trembling spirit fly Into a world unknown A land of deepest shade Unpierced by human thought The dreary regions of the dead Where all things are forgot Soon as from earth I go What will become of me? Eternal happiness or woe Must then my portion be Waked by the trumpet sound I from my grave shall rise And see the Judge with glory crowned And see the flaming skies
11.
Once when I was little I had a friend called Paul He was rather quiet and compared to me quite tall Paul rarely looked me in the eye and he rarely smiled But my mother liked him very much and he seemed a clever child Paul would stay with us when his parents took the family out I knew that Paul was youngest, but why was he left out? And when he’d come to stay my mum was so impressed We’d get up in the morning, he’d be waiting clean and dressed He’d have neatly stripped his bed and folded all the sheets And my mum would smile so warmly and look so very pleased For my mum he was a pleasure, he was no trouble at all But I wondered how his parents saw remote and quiet Paul My mum would turn the telly on and offer him a chair He’d watch the screen intently as if I wasn’t there I would stand in front of him and show him all my toys I’d call his name again and again, he ignoring all my noise “Mummy, Paul won’t answer me!” Mum considered this and plainly said “Glenys he can’t hear you. Glenys, Paul is deaf!” Once we played together in a car abandoned in the street We somehow locked ourselves inside, engrossed in hide and seek We called out to our parents and to anyone who’d hear Paul had lost his calmness and looked about in fear In the midst of all our shouting, I turned to look at Paul And I remember thinking, “He can’t even hear our call” Although his face has faded other memories are still strong I hope he has a family to which he can belong And I often pause to wonder why Paul was left behind When his parents on an outing left him with us to mind It fills me with disquiet to think of that sweet boy As a problem to his parents and not a source of joy
12.
Monica Moon-Face lies by his side Stroking his face in the soft candlelight Steady and still, quiet, assured Far from the fields where her sisters still work Monica Moon-Face, sad ‘neath the smile Labours the ghost-land far from her soil Gentle and kind, wise beyond years She holds him a moment as her warmth draws the tears And she dreams of home when moonlight floods the paddy fields at night And she labours patient as a nun in the gentle flickering light Cradling the cold body of a man she cannot love As the moon glides on the water by the shores of Sydney Cove Monica Moon-Face stands by the door Gestures farewell to a man who can’t stir He walks out to nowhere back to his world Of darkness and greed sorrow and cold Monica Moon-Face greets her next man Gives of herself a sweet silent balm Clutching the money she’s sending back home For a father who’s dying and a brother just born Monica Moon-Face, working day done Rides the late train back to her room Sits by her bed, lonely and scared No one to talk to nothing is shared
13.
Its waiting for us all on down the line The amusement park of your slow decline Before they put you in the box and wrap you in foam You got to do your time in the nursing home You might be young and pretty, you might be rich But when you’re all washed up it don’t count one stitch Cos just like the roads that all lead to Rome Everybody lands in the Nursing Home They give you lots of pills Keep you amused while you make your will You got lots of crazy friends All clawing on to life until the bitter end Well they all talk sweetly and they call you dear But don’t count for much coz you can’t hear You got aches in your joints and pains in your bones And that’s the gig in the Nursing Home Crazy people running ‘round in night gowns Swinging from the ceiling, as their toast gets cold Well they wheel you in about half past nine You put the beads in the basket til it’s lunch time Stare into space and dribble in your food You can crap in your pants if you’re in the mood Well you might go graceful when its time to quit But my friend, I wouldn’t count on it Cos on your way to the twilight zone You got to do your time in the Nursing Home
14.
I’ll sing you one, (two, three, four and five) oh! Green grows me bogling fork What is your one, (two, three, four and five) oh? Five little wogglers up my spong Four’s me wurders bend oh Three are the times I’ve lunged my groats Two are me loomin’ thrums See how they gangle One is the grunge upon my splod It’s masking my cordwangle
15.
Oh, you may moan with plaintive tone your gormless modern tune But I will roar along the shore beneath a blood red moon And songs that Nelson’s sailors sang shall ring across the wave And fifty thousand sailor men will join the chorus brave A chorus brave and tarry that savours of the sea And fifty thousand sailor men will rise to sing with me The old songs, yes, the old songs, that gave our fathers joy The songs they sang till the welkin rang when Nelson was a boy Or in the dusty, sunlit barn a farmer’s song I’ll sing A country rhyme to a rhythmic time of flails that thump and swing All up and down the threshing floor to win the golden grain And fifty thousand threshermen will join the bold refrain A bold refrain and fearless that springs from English soil And fifty thousand threshermen will join my song of toil Or in the depths of cellar cool reclining on a bench When I’ve dispersed an honest thirst that ale alone can quench I will wake the vaulted echoes wide in praise of barley-brew And fifty thousand drinking men will join the chorus true A chorus true and hearty of hops and barley-malt And fifty thousand drinking men will prove they’re worth their salt The old songs, yes, the old songs, that gave our fathers joy The songs they sang till the welkin rang when Nelson was a boy They will echo onward down the years & never, never fade For fifty thousand singing men will never be afraid To raise their lusty voices, their spirits to revive And sing to all eternity, “We’re glad that we’re alive.”

about

This album brings the number of folk singers in and around Sydney whose voices have built up the People Have Songs collection to over seventy.

So rich is our tradition that, even limited to one song each, my friends and I are, as I guess, only about two thirds of the way to completing the project. There is so much more to come!

Each volume in the series opens and closes with a song of singing - one that celebrates the combination of word, melody and chorus that makes us glad that we’re alive. Bracketed in between are the joy, joking, tenderness, longing, and grief that have moved people throughout centuries of tradition to make songs. Songs worth carrying with us and sharing with others. The songs we have.

credits

released December 2, 2021

Produced by Miguel Heatwole
Mastered by Robin Gist of Tonemaster Productions: robingist@tonemasterproductions.com

Sung by:

Chris Clarke
Kathy Clarke
Matthew Clarke
Di Clifford
Deanne Dale
Dallas De Brabander
Glenys Eddy
Ruby Foster
Halcyon Foster
Nick Fury
Sue Gee
Michael Handy
Patrick Harte
Miguel Heatwole
Peter Jenner
Brian Jonathon
Rosie MacDonald
Tom Macdonald
Chris Maltby
Caitlin McHugh
Cliona Molins
Sophie Moore
Kath Morgan
Suze Pratten
Tanya Ritchie
Lisa Stewart
Claire Stoneman
Darren Whitaker
Anthony Woolcott

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about

Miguel Heatwole Sydney, Australia

Miguel’s a versatile singer, choral director & composer. His interests include folk & world music, political satire, the environment, trade unionism & the responsible enjoyment of alcohol. His songwriting embraces themes like peace & justice, the family cat, & visceral passionate attraction. His enthusiasm for recording community singing has let many people share the power of their songs. ... more

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