Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna (Wyndham-Read)

Subject: Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna
From: Raggytash
Date: 30 Jun 07 - 06:43 AM

I have recording of this song but cannot decifer all the words

Of late as I did travel, my heart filled with despair
I came upon a wonderous sight, that drove away my care
where glittering waters glide, and magic filled the air
down by the Susquehanna and along the Delaware

could anyone please help .............

Ta

Raggy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna
From: Banjo-Flower
Date: 30 Jun 07 - 09:03 AM

Try a P.M to goldengob

Gerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Jun 07 - 10:22 AM

The Susq is a river and so is the Delaware, if that's what you're asking. The former has an upper branch in our area.

If you want to email me an MP3 of it I could try to help; maybe part of the problem here is US words/accent? If so, PM for an email addy that will take a large attachment in email and I'll take a whack at it.

~Susan

Subject: Lyr Add: DOWN BY THE SUSQUEHANNA (M Wyndham-Read)
From: The Doctor
Date: 30 Jun 07 - 11:31 AM

I have two recordings, by Martyn Wyndham-Read, who wrote it, and by Whaley and Fletcher, who got it from him. Their versions are almost identical, but this is Whaley and Fletcher's:

DOWN BY THE SUSQUEHANNA
(Martyn Wyndham-Read)
[as sung by Whaley & Fletcher]

Of late as I did travel, my heart filled with despair,
I came upon a wondrous sight that drove away my care.
Where glittering waters glide, and magic filled the air,
Down by the Susquehanna and along the Delaware.

Of where and how I do not know, and why I do not care.
From now until forevermore my soul shall wander there.
By flood and field and sunlit hill, by wood and meadow fair,
Down by the Susquehanna and along the Delaware.

I think and hope and dream no more the dreams of other where.
The things that were and might have been this man has ceased to care.
For I have breathed too long, too deep, the lotus in the air,
Down by the Susquehanna and along the Delaware.

Martyn's only major difference is to sing 'Beside' instead of 'Down by'. The end of the first line of the third verse is odd, but that's what they sing, and it's repeated on W&F's sleeve notes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 30 Jun 07 - 11:55 AM

Thanks for posting. It's a good song.

I don't think "other where" is wrong. It's just new. Also, it's spelled wrong. Martin has coined a new word by analogy, as people have often done.

nowhere
somewhere
elsewhere
tupperwhere
otherwhere.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Jun 07 - 02:14 PM

tupperwho?

Current usage is to print as one word, but printed as two words or hyphenated is common in past usage for many of the '-where words.
Other where is correct.

Tupperware is a trademarked name, first appearing in 1946, thus still under protection and must be spelled with an upper case 'T'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna
From: Stewie
Date: 30 Jun 07 - 10:31 PM

Martyn noted in the booklet for 'Sunlit Plains' that his writing of the song was based around some verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna
From: Raggytash
Date: 01 Jul 07 - 02:39 AM

Thanks doctor, it is the Whaley/Fletcher version I have just couldn't quite make out all the words

Ta

raggy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna
From: Banjo-Flower
Date: 01 Jul 07 - 05:49 AM

In that case have you tried P M ing goldengob as I suggested above

Gerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna
From: The Doctor
Date: 01 Jul 07 - 05:32 PM

I see my words have acquired a nice title and credits. I would just point out, though, that both Martyn's version on 'Sunlit Plains' and Whaley & Fletcher's on 'Less Sprightly' are just listed as 'Susquehanna', which might make a difference if you're searching for the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna
From: GUEST,Neil Adam
Date: 14 May 11 - 10:05 PM

Martyn didn't write it, I'd be surprised if he claimed to. It's a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, written 1879, with the words severely adapted.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna
From: Stewie
Date: 14 May 11 - 11:01 PM

My use of the word 'writing' in my 07 post above was a bit strong and misleading.

Martin's actual note reads: 'He [Stevenson] was at a low ebb of his life and even contemplating suicide at this time. I like sad songs and it seems a perfect combination: suicide and the name Susquehannah. So I gathered some verses he had written about it, changed the words round a bit, but still used most of the same letters he did (but I did it my way). The tune just seemed to appear as if it was intended for it'.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 15 May 11 - 12:39 AM

One version.. after nearly two minutes chat!!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 May 11 - 07:09 PM

Here's the original poem, in context, from Works, Volume 23: Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1899), page 167:

To Sidney Colvin

[In The Emigrant Train
from New York To San Francisco,
August, 1879.]

Dear Colvin,— I am in the cars between Pittsburgh and Chicago, just now bowling through Ohio. I am taking charge of a kid, whose mother is asleep, with one eye, while I write you this with the other. I reached N. Y. Sunday night; and by five o'clock Monday was under way for the West. It is now about ten on Wednesday morning, so I have already been about forty hours in the cars. It is impossible to lie down in them, which must end by being very wearying.

I had no idea how easy it was to commit suicide. There seems nothing left of me; I died a while ago; I do not know who it is that is travelling.

Of where or how, I nothing know;
      And why, I do not care;
      Enough if, even so,
My travelling eyes, my travelling mind can go
By flood and field and hill, by wood and meadow fair,
Beside the Susquehanna and along the Delaware.

I think, I hope, I dream no more
      The dreams of otherwhere,
The cherished thoughts of yore;
I have been changed from what I was before;
And drunk too deep perchance the lotus of the air
Beside the Susquehanna and along the Delaware.

Unweary God me yet shall bring
      To lands of brighter air,
      Where I, now half a king,
Shall with enfranchised spirit loudlier sing,
And wear a bolder front than that which now I wear
Beside the Susquehanna and along the Delaware.

Exit Muse, hurried by child's games. . . .

Have at you again, being now well through Indiana. In America you eat better than anywhere else: fact. The food is heavenly.

No man is any use until he has dared everything; I feel just now as if I had, and so might become a man. "If ye have faith like a grain of mustard-seed." That is so true! Just now I have faith as big as a cigar-case; I will not say die, and do not fear man nor fortune.

R. L. S.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Down by the Susquehanna
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 May 11 - 07:20 PM

Thanks, Jim. That's interesting.