Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator

Subject: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: ballpienhammer
Date: 14 Jan 03 - 12:13 PM

friend's Dad passed yesterday...he was a retired aviator...thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: Wolfgang
Date: 14 Jan 03 - 01:03 PM

Sorry for the loss. My response is probably no help, but it is the best song I know about the death of an aviator: Lilienthal's Traum

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: BuckMulligan
Date: 14 Jan 03 - 01:10 PM

Might not be terribly appropriate, but it's the first one that came to mind.

Amelia Earhart's Last Flight

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: Jacob B
Date: 14 Jan 03 - 05:51 PM

There's a song that was recorded in the last few years about someone named Bill Hosey, who built a reconstruction of an S5 Supermarine amphibious plane, only to have it come apart underneath him when he took it up for a test flight. The singer may have been Garnet Rogers. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jan 03 - 06:29 PM

"The Ballad of Bill Hosey" was written by Bill Staines. I think someone Garnet rogers sings with, maybe Archie Fisher, recorded it. Yes, sorry for the loss.

Subject: Lyr Add: BILL HOSIE (Archie Fisher)
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jan 03 - 08:18 PM

Seems to have been written by Archie Fisher and recorded by Bill Staines. ^^

BILL HOSIE

Bill Hosie built a plane,
A survivor from the Schneider Trophy Reign.
He seemed like a nice old guy,
With his baseball cap and his sunlit eyes.
He took the airframe, motor, and wings,
And restored all the fabric, the floats, the struts and things,
And "The Shark on Banana Skis"
Was set to roar once more over Cornwall seas.

In the "27" Schneider race,
It was a Supermarine that took first place.
The year Bill Hosie was born,
There were still tall ships sailing 'round Cape Horn,
But the S5 Supermarine
Was the fastest seaplane the world had ever seen,
Nearly 300 miles an hour,
With a Napier Lion engine to give her power.

And her daughters flew in World War Two.
Their pilots were known as the first of the few.
When the Battle of Britain raged,
The Spitfire blazed across a history page,
But Bill Hosie had a dream
To haunt the skies with the ghost of a Supermarine,
And she rose on the steppe again
With the spirit of a Schneider Trophy-winning seaplane.

She took to the cool spring air
With Bill Hosie sitting in the pilot's chair.
She banked along the Cornwall shore,
But her tail broke away and she flew no more.
She flew from her flight of grace
The year they revived the Schneider Trophy Race,
And the Supermarine S5
Was the plane that Bill Hosie made feel alive.

Words and music by Archie Fisher,
© Archie Fisher/MCPS

Lineation changed to emphasize the rhyme. --JoeClone, 11-Feb-03.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: mg
Date: 14 Jan 03 - 08:26 PM

there's one similar to wrap me up in my taurpaulin jacket. WWII vintage I believe.

mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: GUEST,Les B.
Date: 14 Jan 03 - 10:26 PM

One that was done at a family friend's funeral a few years ago was
"Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer" from WWII.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: Jacob B
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 01:16 PM

There was a World War One song called "A Hymn For Aviators". I wasn't able to find the words for it, but here is a link
to information about a recording with the song on it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 10:59 PM

There's also "Princes of the Skies" as sung by James Keelaghan on SMALL REBELLIONS, composed by Tong Kaduck © 1989, which describes the romance of barnstorming in the 1920's and the break-up of flying old buddies.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: Cluin
Date: 15 Jan 03 - 11:14 PM

A great song and long favourite of mine, Charlie. Sorry for the loss, balpien.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: mg
Date: 16 Jan 03 - 02:06 AM

how about off we go into the wild blue yonder..

mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 16 Jan 03 - 04:31 AM

I have heard an aviation verse added to For Those in Peril.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Jan 03 - 08:18 AM

Sorry, that should have been "Princes of the Skies" composed by TONY Kaduck...

The chorus of Amelia Earhart always works well:

There's a beautiful, beautiful field,
Far away in a land that is fair;
Happy landings to you, Amelia Earhart,
Farewell, first lady of the air.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: GUEST,Greycap
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 03:20 AM

Emmy Lou harris sings one called 'Beat the drum slowly' for her Dad who was a flyer in Korea.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 05:51 AM

"there's one similar to wrap me up in my taurpaulin jacket. WWII vintage I believe."

This one?

A poor avaiator lay dying
At the end of a bright summer's day
And to all his sorrowing comrades
His last parting words he did say.

The prop was piled up on his wishbone;
The cylinder wrapped round his head;
He wore a spark plug in each elbow;
It was clear he would shortly be dead.

He spat out a valve and a gasket
As he stirred in the sump where he lay.
And to all those assembled around him
His final farewell he did say:

"Take the manifold out of my larynx;
Take the piston rod out of my brain;
Take the cylinder out of my kidneys
And assemble the engine again.

I'll be flying a cloud in the morning
With no Merlin before me to curse.
So hurry up boys and get ready;
There's a bloody long queue for the hearse.

Forgotten by the country that bore us;
Betrayed by the ones we hold dear;
The brave they have all gone before us
And only the dull are still here.

So stand to your glasses ready;
This world is a world full of lies.
Have a drink to the ones dead already
And one one more for the next man that dies."

Mention of the Merlin I think dates this to the Korean War, but it certainly existed in WW2 and I think WW1. There is in fact a SOLDIER'S song called Stand To Your Glasses which predate's aircraft entirely - mid C19 I think.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE REVEL (Bartholomew Dowling)
From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 07:19 AM

This looks like the original:


THE REVEL
by Bartholemew Dowling b1823 d1863

WE meet 'neath the sounding rafter,
  And the walls around are bare;
As they shout back our peals of laughter
  It seems that the dead are there.
Then stand to your glasses, steady!
  We drink in our comrades' eyes:
One cup to the dead already—
  Hurrah for the next that dies!

Not here are the goblets glowing,
  Not here is the vintage sweet;
'Tis cold, as our hearts are growing,
  And dark as the doom we meet.
But stand to your glasses, steady!
  And soon shall our pulses rise:
A cup to the dead already—
  Hurrah for the next that dies!

There's many a hand that's shaking,
  And many a cheek that's sunk;
But soon, though our hearts are breaking,
  They'll burn with the wine we've drunk.
Then stand to your glasses, steady!
  'Tis here the revival lies:
Quaff a cup to the dead already—
  Hurrah for the next that dies!

Time was when we laugh'd at others;
  We thought we were wiser then;
Ha! ha! let them think of their mothers,
  Who hope to see them again.
No! stand to your glasses, steady!
  The thoughtless is here the wise:
One cup to the dead already—
  Hurrah for the next that dies!

Not a sigh for the lot that darkles,
  Not a tear for the friends that sink;
We'll fall, 'midst the wine-cup's sparkles,
  As mute as the wine we drink.
Come stand to your glasses, steady!
  'Tis this that the respite buys:
A cup to the dead already—
  Hurrah for the next that dies!

There's a mist on the glass congealing,
  'Tis the hurricane's sultry breath;
And thus does the warmth of feeling
  Turn ice in the grasp of Death.
But stand to your glasses, steady!
  For a moment the vapor flies:
Quaff a cup to the dead already—
  Hurrah for the next that dies!

Who dreads to the dust returning?
  Who shrinks from the sable shore,
Where the high and haughty yearning
  Of the soul can sting no more?
No, stand to your glasses, steady!
  The world is a world of lies:
A cup to the dead already—
  And hurrah for the next that dies!

Cut off from the land that bore us,
  Betray'd by the land we find,
When the brightest have gone before us,
  And the dullest are most behind—
Stand, stand to your glasses, steady!
  'Tis all we have left to prize:
One cup to the dead already—
  Hurrah for the next that dies!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: death of a hero or aviator
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 03:06 PM

The way my mam sings it 'Comin in on a Wing and a Prayer' more or less utilises the tune of 'Over there' making it pretty easy to sing.
aka 'Dahn Below', 'The Praties they grow small'. I also have the original sheet music and could dig it out if helpful.