The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #171436   Message #4146027
Posted By: Joe Offer
01-Jul-22 - 01:16 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Alan Bell: The Definitive Collection
Subject: Lyr Add: Song for Mardale (Alan Bell)
Hi, Harry - That would be very helpful. I think I have only two songs left to do - "Song For Mardale" and "In My Homeland." I don't think I'll get to them tonight. It would be very helpful if you could check the lyrics I've posted and suggest any corrections that might be needed.
Here's "Song for Mardale, a work in progress.

SONG FOR MARDALE
(Alan Bell)

In the gold of the summer, when the sky was so blue,
I heard a few whispers, and I knew they were true;
Of waters receding, of rivers run dry,
Of an old dog returning to halt passers-by.
So, I walked into Mardale, that sad, lonely place,
As the wind from the mountain blew dust in my face.
After years in the dark and deep fathoms below,
The sun dried you out, oh, then put you on show.

CHORUS
Oh, Mardale, oh Mardale, you lie quiet and still,
Close in the shadows of high Lakeland hills;
You're lost in Haweswater, you're drowned in that dale,
You're only a ghost in a North Country tale.
Well, I stood on the bridge and I looked all around,
The dry walls still guarding the fields, bare and brown;
And close by the lane winding unto the bream (??)
The bones of the old club (?) could clearly be seen.

Was this the place that Joe (Baldwin???) once stood
And called to his hounds away in Meadow wood (??)
And was this the door where he'd sounded his horn,
To summon the hunt on a fine winter's morn? CHORUS

Well, the church was a ruin, a jungle of stone,
A jumble of timber and rock marked the homes;
The people once lived and worked all of their days,
The time long since past, and now washed clean away.

Well, I know all your stories, and I feel your shame,
And I look to the dark clouds and the soft (Boreton ??) rain;
And as the lake rises to a silvery sheen,
You'll disappear like you never have been. CHORUS


< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF4EVlmKF6Y

Mardale is a glacial valley in the Lake District, in northern England. The valley used to have a hamlet at its head, called Mardale Green, but this village was submerged in the late 1930s when the water level of the valley's lake, Haweswater, was raised to form Haweswater Reservoir by Manchester Corporation.

Need some help on this one. Post corrections below, I'll incorporate them into my transcription and then delete the message.