Origins: Grey Funnel Line (Cyril Tawney)

Subject: GREY FUNNEL LINE
From: KD
Date: 08 Nov 99 - 07:13 PM

Hi can you help me I have the Lyrics for this song got them from the Digitrad but can anyone give me the Chords please.

many thanks

KD

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: GREY FUNNEL LINE
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 08 Nov 99 - 10:07 PM

If you can't work out an accompaniment for yourself, your best bet would be to get hold of a recording of the song by the man who wrote it. So far as I know, it was last issued by Cyril Tawney on cassette in 1990: "Sally Free And Easy", Neptune Tapes NEP002. It should still be available from Rosemary Tawney in the U.K. Telephone [phone], last I heard.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: GREY FUNNEL LINE
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 08 Nov 99 - 10:29 PM

It's best a capella, to my taste, but worth doing any way you can. There was a beautiful recording on the "Silly Sisters" LP in the 70's by Cilla Fisher and whatshername (ah, memory!), with fantastic two-part harmony and a kind of drone accompaniment. Haunting. The "Grey Funnel Line" refers to the Royal Navy, with a play on the names of steamship lines of an earlier day.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: GREY FUNNEL LINE
From: Barry Finn
Date: 08 Nov 99 - 10:42 PM

That fantastic what'shername Silly Sister was June Tabor & the other what'shername sister was Maddy Prior. It doesn't get much better than that. Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: GREY FUNNEL LINE
From: Stewie
Date: 09 Nov 99 - 01:10 AM

The most recent version I have seen on CD is Barry Dransfield 'Be Your Own Man' Rhiannon RHYD5003. It's great. Dransfield has the gift of making familiar songs sound new.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: GREY FUNNEL LINE
From: John Wood
Date: 09 Nov 99 - 08:04 AM

Another great version is the one with Delores Keane,Mary Black and Emmy Lou Harris!
I heard it featured on a Delores Keane documentary.
John.

Subject: Chords Add: GREY FUNNEL LINE (Cyril Tawney)
From: alison
Date: 09 Nov 99 - 08:14 AM

You usually hear this done unaccompanied but here's my guess at the chords, pick any key, and use ( I, IV, and V... in this case G, D & C)... chords in front of the words they fall on.....

(G)Don't mind the wind nor the rolling sea
The weary night never worries (D)me
But the hardest (G)time in a sailor's (C)day
Is to watch the (G)sun as it (C)fades a(G)way

(G)It's one more day on the (D)grey funnel (G)line

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: GREY FUNNEL LINE
From: paddymac
Date: 09 Nov 99 - 12:50 PM

Our own beloved harpgirl does an absolutely beautiful rendition of this tune. Send her a personal and I'm sure she'd be happy to share chords with you.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: GREY FUNNEL LINE
From: KD
Date: 09 Nov 99 - 03:13 PM

Many thanks to you all Alison thanks for the starter for ten but paddymac I am a new boy how do I send a Personal and is Harpgirl her on line name????

KD

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Add: GREY FUNNEL LINE
From: alison
Date: 10 Nov 99 - 12:22 AM

KD.... go to the top of this page to "quick links" and scroll down to "send a personal message" and yes harpgirl is her name.

I think the reason you hear this unaccompanied so often is because it is such a great song to harmonise along with...

slainte

alison

Subject: Lyr Add: GREY FUNNEL LINE (Cyril Tawney)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Mar 17 - 04:03 AM

For the record, these are the lyrics we have for this song. Any corrections?

GREY FUNNEL LINE
(Cyril Tawney)

Don't mind the wind nor the rolling sea
The weary night never worries me
But the hardest time in a sailor's day
Is to watch the sun as it fades away

It's one more day on the grey funnel line

The finest ship that sails the sea
Is still a prison for the likes of me
But give me wings like Noah's dove
I'll fly up harbor to the one I love

There was a time my heart was free
Like a floating spar on the open sea
But now that spar is washed ashore
It comes to rest at my real love's door.

Every time I gaze behind the screws
Makes me long for St Peter's shoes
I'd walk on down that silver lane
And take my love in my arms again

Oh Lord, if dreams were only real
I'd have my hands on that wooden wheel
And with all my heart I would turn her 'round
And tell the boys that we're homeward bound

I'll pass the time like some machine
Until blue water turns to green
Then I'll dance down that walk on shore
And sail the Grey Funnel Line no more.
And sail the Grey Funnel Line no more.

Note: The Grey Funnel Line---the British Navy---went out to sea and
    stayed out for a long, long time. DE

Copyright Dick James Music, Ltd.
@sailor @home @love
by Cyril Tawney
recorded by Sara Grey, Lou Killen
filename[ GREYFUNL
TUNE FILE: GREYFUNL
CLICK TO PLAY
SOF, IP, JB

Subject: RE: Origins: Grey Funnel Line (Cyril Tawney)
From: Reinhard
Date: 30 Mar 17 - 12:07 PM

These are the verses printed in Cyril's own book "Grey Tunnel Line" and sung on his CD "Navy Cuts":

Don't mind the rain or the rolling sea,
The weary night never worries me.
But the hardest time in sailor's day
Is to watch the sun as it dies away.
    It's one more day on the Grey Funnel Line.

The finest ship that sailed the sea
Is still a prison for the likes of me.
But give me wings like Noah's dove,
I'd fly up harbour to the girl I love.
    It's one more day on the Grey Funnel Line.

There was a time my heart was free
Like a floating spar on the open sea.
But now the spar is washed ashore,
It comes to rest at my real love's door.
    It's one more day on the Grey Funnel Line.

Every time I gaze behind the screws
Makes me long for old Peter's shoes.
I'd walk right down that silver lane
And take my love in my arms again.
    It's one more day on the Grey Funnel Line.

Oh Lord, if dreams were only real
I'd have my hands on that wooden wheel.
And with all my heart I'd turn her round
And tell the boys that we're homeward bound.
    It's one more day on the Grey Funnel Line.

I'll pass the time like some machine
Until blue water turns to green.
Then I'll dance on down that walk ashore
And sail the Grey Funnel Line no more.
    And sail the Grey Funnel Line no more.

Subject: RE: Origins: Grey Funnel Line (Cyril Tawney)
From: Gurney
Date: 30 Mar 17 - 04:22 PM

I've always heard Cyril sing it 'as it DIVES away' and the gangplank as the walk-ashore.
Cyril wasn't a bigot about his words in that he didn't sing his songs word-for-word every time, though. He sometimes 'danced on down that silver lane.' In ST peter's shoes.
I suppose every-one knows about the 'spar' verse, how a club-member took it to America, and Cyril forgot it until someone brought it back many years later?

Subject: RE: Origins: Grey Funnel Line (Cyril Tawney)
From: Cool Beans
Date: 30 Mar 17 - 05:16 PM

I never heard, or heard of, the song until two nights ago when a couple sang it at an open mic. Now I read this. Freud said there are no coincidences but I'm hard-pressed to explain this one.

Subject: RE: Origins: Grey Funnel Line (Cyril Tawney)
From: RTim
Date: 30 Mar 17 - 05:53 PM

When he first recorded the song it didn't include the "Spar" Verse. It was Lou Killen that knew it and sang it to Tawney, who had forgotten he had written it!!!

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Origins: Grey Funnel Line (Cyril Tawney)
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 31 Mar 17 - 01:43 PM

That would explain why someone in whose presence I sang asked "where the F did you get that crap?" Not crap, good verse IMHO!
I agree that it's great unaccompanied but if I do sing it with guitar, I use dropped D which gives it a nice sonorous bass.

Subject: RE: Origins: Grey Funnel Line (Cyril Tawney)
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Apr 24 - 04:32 AM

I was just Googling to get the words, then remembered Mudcat. Fascinating the differences between how I hear it, how others hear it, how it's written here. Some parts make more sense now.
So now I know it is "up harbour" instead of "on over". "spar" not "spark".
Other versions I found just now, "Summer's sheen" (some machine), Walker shore (walk ashore), "Never would read" (never worried),

--Longest Johns; Mary Black. What June Tabor has is pretty much the same as what is here.