Lyr Req: If We Did to Their Daughters (C Tawney)

Subject: Lyr Req: If We Did To Their Daughters - Tawney
From: Hrothgar
Date: 14 Feb 06 - 06:26 AM

Can't find the lyrics anywhere, and we've been trying to transcribe it from Cyril's tape, but there is a flaw in the tape on the first line of the second verse.

We think it is "Some men catch you with a line and some men with a snare." Can anybody help?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: If We Did To Their Daughters - Tawney
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Feb 06 - 07:00 PM

Can you post what you have, Hrothgar?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: ADD: If We Did To Their Daughters - Tawney
From: GUEST,Hrothgar at work
Date: 15 Feb 06 - 03:28 AM

If We Did To Their Daughters
(Cyril Tawney)

They're gnawin' at the moorland and they're nibblin' at the shore
There's scarce a week goes by without they've cornered something more
It seems they've heard the proverb and they're taking its advice
If a loaf's already cut who's going to miss another slice

Chorus:
If we did to their daughters what they're doing to our land
Every barricade in Bumbledom would bloomin' soon be manned
And every dad in Whitehall would come marching gun in hand
If we did to their daughters what they're doing to our land

Some men catch (????????) you with a line and some men with a snare
But others do their poaching from a leather covered chair
The gamekeeper is on their side likewise the legal men
And the squire he shrugs his shoulders in the halls of Number 10

Make a mark upon that map, we mustn't be delayed
And pass across that rubber stamp there's progress to be made
To hell with those petitions, we've no time to read 'em all
Just pack 'em up and stack 'em in the toilet down the hall

There's twenty miles of shoreline in the town where I was born
But I won't walk around it 'til the willow bears a thorn
They've left us scarce a quarter where a man can wander free
Yes, there's water, water everywhere but not for you and me

The wealth of Britain seems to need a smoke infested sky
You can't have gold without the grime has always been the cry
But I once met a country chap who opened up my eyes
The piggery's just as clean, he said, as him who tends the sty

When our children come to curse us won't we all deserve our share
If we leave them with a legacy of diesel laden air
Don't pass your rucksacks on to them, they'll have nowhere to hike
And they'll put on our old videos just to see what trees were like

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: If We Did To Their Daughters - Tawney
From: Flash Company
Date: 15 Feb 06 - 11:10 AM

Hrothgar... I'd not seen this before, but I love it, reminiscent of Betjemen's 'The Town Clerk's Views', which is unfortunately too long to set to music.

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: If We Did To Their Daughters - Tawney
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Feb 06 - 06:57 PM

IF WE DID TO THEIR DAUGHTERS is on Cyril Tawney's cassette called "Man of Honour: The Non-Maritime Songs." There's an advertisement on this page (and several other places on the 'net).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: If We Did To Their Daughters - Tawney
From: Hrothgar
Date: 17 Feb 06 - 05:36 AM

Refresh - if somebody doesn't come up with something, we'll have to use it as we've interpreted it.

It's for a presentation of "Songs of Cyril tawney" at the National Folk Festival in Canberra at Easter.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: If We Did to Their Daughters (C Tawney)
From: Folkie Frank
Date: 10 Jan 20 - 01:29 PM

Verse 2, Line 1:

Some men poach with rotted line and some men with a snare