Lyr Req: The Deserter (Jon Richards)

Subject: RE: Jon Richards?
From: Edi
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 11:59 AM

Thanks for your efforts and excuse me for my delayed answer but I'm not with my PC every day. My email-address is: [e-mail] When you meet John (?) Richards next time you can tell him that me and my folkband called "Molwert" – what means mole – have covered his song on our first CD. You can read more about this on our homepage: http://www.molwert.de If you meet him you can tell him that he can get one of our CDs by mailing me his address. I hope he will not get angry because we were using his song. And now I beg pardon for my bad English – I'm German. Thanks a lot Edgar

Subject: Lyr Add: THE DESERTER (Jon Richards)
From: Wolfgang
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 01:42 PM

with Ian's spelling help I could locate it (http://x28.deja.com/[ST_rn=ps]/getdoc.xp?AN=448257153&CONTEXT=933356001.599261198&hitnum=0). I have copied it from that page.

Wolfgang

THE DESERTER
(Jon Richards)

Here I stand in a land that isn't my own
Far from the country that I know as home
I was sent here by government and armed by a King
And I'm told I must kill men in order to bring
Peace to a foreign land

There he lies in a land that isn't is own
In the grey of a country that he called his own
He was sent there by government and might not agree
And if someone must kill him God why is it me to bring
Peace to a foreign land

Don't despise the deserter, don't despise the deserter
Don't despise the deserter, who ran from the war
Don't despise the deserter, don't despise the deserter
Don't despise the deserter, who ran from the war

I went down to drag him away from the wire
The rifles to the left of me started to fire
He was riddled with bullets, I was smothered in blood
And I can't see how murdering somebody could bring
Peace to a foreign land

Chorus

So I ran from the fighting and threw down my gun
I ran with the moon and slept with the sun
Arrested by government and charged by the King
To be shot 'cos I can't kill in order to bring
Peace to a foreign land

Chorus

Subject: RE: Jon Richards?
From: Ian HP
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 01:22 PM

I know of four songs called The Deserter - 2 are trad., one is by John Richards (who I see on the local folk scene in the West Midlands of England) and the other one is by, er, I forget. Edi, the last time I saw John he said he was getting on the internet. If you email me at [e-mail] I'll carry your email address in my guitar case and give it to John next time I see him (it may be a few months, though), and ask him to send you some info. He used to be (a few years ago) in a band called Maurice and the Minors. For a good few years now he has fronted his own band called Desperate Men, who used to be fairly acoustic and folky, and now tend to be electric and loud!

Subject: RE: Jon Richards?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 09:56 AM

Edi, your question puzzles me. You get the Fairport lyrics by entering the word deserter in the upper right search window on this page. But I always thought it was traditional and have never read anything else.

Wolfgang

Subject: Jon Richards?
From: Edi
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 09:33 AM

Does anybody know something about the singer/songwriter (?) Jon Richards? And does anybody know the lyrics of his song "The Deserter"? I only know the version of "Fairport Convention" but there are no informations about the composer on the CD-cover. And I havn't found anything about the man and his song till know.