The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #95112   Message #4201765
Posted By: Jim Dixon
29-Apr-24 - 11:23 AM
Thread Name: Lyr/Chords: The Rock and the Tide (Brian McNeill)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE ROCK AND THE TIDE (Brian McNeill)
You can hear this on Spotify. Here are the words to this grand song, found online and checked by me against the recording:


THE ROCK AND THE TIDE
As recorded by Brian McNeill on “The Back o' the North Wind,” 1991.

Come all of you who lie in the prisons of the mighty,
Who refuse to deny what you believe,
And know your greatest foe is the servant o' the night
Who tries to sell the bargain of reprieve;
And when the captains o' the cruel come to whisper their lies,
Let their temptations fall by your side.
Listen tae the ocean and remember
How the rock stands firm against the tide.

And you who would be jailers, take this warning:
For every man you break upon your wheel
There's another whose courage will pierce you like a thorn.
When you see you can never make him kneel,
And when the thorn digs deep into the canker of your heart,
And the prisoner sees the shame you cannot hide,
It's then you'll fear the sound o' the ocean
Where the rock stands firm against the tide.

No matter the freedom, no matter the cause,
No matter the truth that lies beyond,
No evil can triumph, though it cloak itself in law,
Against a man whose word is his bond.
No cage can hold the spirit of a true man's heart,
And injustice can never fetter pride.
No tyrant can ever chain the ocean
While the rock stands firm against the tide.