The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #149609 Message #3481273
Posted By: Joe Offer
18-Feb-13 - 09:47 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Abiezer Coppe (Leon Rosselson)
Subject: ADD: Abiezer Coppe (Leon Rosselson)
Here are the complete lyrics, from the link Mick Pearce provided, http://rabble.ca/babble/culture/songs-about-historical-events:
If you like that, you should also listen to the song Rosselson wrote about Gerard Winstanley's(the leader of the Diggers) archrival, Abiezer Coppe, who led a more urban, free-love based 17th century radical group, The Ranters(and whose personal manifesto was called "A Flying Fiery Rolle")
ABIEZER COPPE
(Leon Rosselson)
1)Abiezer Coppe, did away with sin
"my body is my church" he said, "God's dwelling is within."
"All I do is holy" Abiezer cried,
Gave his loving freely, a Ranter 'til he died
Chorus:
So drink a loving cup, to Abiezer, Abiezer,
He's a drinking dancing roaring Ranter,
Abiezer Coppe, Abiezer Coppe.
2)"A pox upon the pious, and on what the Scriptures teach,
I'd rather hear a Tinker curse than hear a vicar preach
Shameless in his pleasures, drank and smoke and swore,
Embracing as his fellow creatures beggar, thief and whore
CHORUS
3)The righteous said "The Devil will take Coppe and his kind".
"The Devil is God's backside", said Coppe "and Hell is a state of mind"
"Women are the only heaven, marriage is the only Hell"
Abiezer Coppe knew it very well.
CHORUS
4)Through the streets of London, Abiezer came,
heard the hungry cries for bread, he was a soul in pain.
When the nobles in their coaches passed, he charged with wild eyes
And gnashed his teeth in anger and then roared up to the skies
5)"Hark, ye rich, ye nobles, ye shall reap soon what ye sow
For the day of doom is coming that will lay the mighty low.
And your property will canker, and your houses will decay
And the rust upon your silver will burn your flesh away
CHORUS
6)"Community in all things, Abiezer said,
The naked shall have clothing, the hungry must have bread
The great man jails the cutpurse, the rich man starves the poor"
"Without property", said Abiezer "theft would be no more"
7)Condemned by Church and Parliament, attacked on every side
They banned his books and burned them, and he was seized and tried
The magistrates condemned him, for vile Blasphemy
He pelted them with nutshells, cried "will you my judges be?"
8)To Newgate jail they took him, the Ranters' dream was dead.
He had no taste for martyrdom "I will recant", he said
"I banished sin, but I have erred, it cannot be denied
that THESE are sins...greed, tyranny, hypocrisy and PRIDE!"
CHORUS
*
9)Abiezer Coppe did away with sin
"My body is my church," he said, "God's dwelling is within"
History disowned him, but his ghost it cannot kill
Haunts the rich and the righteous, drunk and dancing still.
CHORUS