Lyr Req: What Was Gained (McKendree Spring)

Subject: Lyr Req: McKendree Spring's 'What Was Lost'
From: GUEST,Guest, Gern
Date: 03 Feb 19 - 07:12 PM

Anybody remember these guys? Folk-rock of the late 60s, with oboe and cello. And a touching song about Vietnam. I think this was on their second album. Would love to sing these words again. Thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McKendree Spring's 'What Was Lost'
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 03 Feb 19 - 10:15 PM

They sang their arrangement of Eric Andersen's song "For What Was Gained" on the second album. Last song on side two, as I recall. There was a thread about this song a few years back here.

Subject: Lyr Add: FOR WHAT WAS GAINED (Eric Andersen)
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 03 Feb 19 - 10:17 PM

Here's the words from the other thread.

Date: 08 Dec 03 - 10:17 PM

From the back of my Avalanche album.... I'm also an Eric Andersen fan. Have you seen him lately?

FOR WHAT WAS GAINED
(Eric Andersen)

In my own city, where I come from,
I had a friend; we grew up as one.
The best of our lives; we made a vow
To stick it out some way somehow.

How many times, we talked the night away.
How many plans we made to hit the road someday.
How many things there was to see, there was to be.
How many things when you're young and free.

Though he never had much family,
Little brother and him and mama made three.
There was a time, there once was four,
But he can't talk about that no more.

And then one day a letter came,
And on that day I knew right there, our roads had changed.
It called for him to fight for us.
He said "I ain't scared" but I knew he was.

He looked so young in his uniform,
And mama packed the trunk so old and worn.
"It's a sad design, the Lord he weaves.
If it was His will, it was meant to be."

But a tear was hid as he stood and waved,
And mama said: "We love you, son; try to be brave."
Little brother he watched so proudly then,
Said: "When I grow up, I'm gonna be like him."

It was a Sunday morning little brother ran
Up the front porch cryin' with a telegram.
The contents read: "It was on a hill.
It was in action, a boy was killed."

Mama shrunk and fell, said: "God help me understand."
And on her shoulder was little brothers hand.
"I'll be alright; go on to your room,"
Thinkin' to herself: "He'll be eighteen soon."

To die so young in an unknown land,
Where the shame of blood is on no one's hands,
And on whose heart will the guilt be bound?
The one who sent him out? The one who shot him down?

He was eighteen and he had to die,
And to this day, God knows, I don't know why.
To be so young, paid such a cost,
For what was gained, for what was lost.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: McKendree Spring's 'What Was Lost'
From: GUEST,Roderick A Warner
Date: 04 Feb 19 - 04:02 AM

I saw McKendree Spring supporting probably the last incarnation of the Velvet Underground with Doug Yule as sole surviving member at Acton Town Hall in November 1972. McKendree Spring were drummerless but had a spacey electric sound due to the electric violin of Michael Dreyfuss. They were very good, as I remember, folk rockish with an American edge and drive and a loose, improvisatory feel, not like the majority of their lumpy U.K. equivalents. As a hard core Velvets fan, I remember that this late version were pretty good, considering. A long time ago, of course... I do recall the climax of the evening when the call for encores was cut short by the archetypal jobsworth in uniform who said the show had to stop and power would be cut off as they were about to overrun. No rock and roll riot ensued as the audience submitted to the powers that be and politely filed out... Still, I was living in Stamford Brook, just down the road, so no great trek home...