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Tune/Chords Req: Hills of Isle Au Haut

27 Aug 99 - 01:48 PM (#109061)
Subject: Hills of Isle Au Haut - chords
From: Will Bakker

Who knows the chords of The Hills of Isle Au Haut. The lyrics I found already.

28 Aug 99 - 01:14 AM (#109227)
Subject: RE: Hills of Isle Au Haut - chords
From: alison

here you go

A(D)way and to the (A)westward
there's a (G)place a (A)man should (D)go
Where the (D)fishing's always (A)easy
And they've (G)got no (A)ice or (D)snow

But I'll (G)haul (A)down the (D)sail
Where the (G)bays come to(D)gether
(G)Bide a(A)way the (D)days
On the (G)hills of Isle au (D)Haut

Chords in front of the syllable they fall on....

Slainte

alison

28 Aug 99 - 03:11 AM (#109239)
Subject: RE: Hills of Isle Au Haut - chords
From: Will Bakker

Thank you Allison, it is simpler than I thought!

28 Aug 99 - 07:26 PM (#109359)
Subject: RE: Hills of Isle Au Haut - chords
From: Mark Cohen

Will, you should try to find a copy of Gordon's book, published by Folk-Legacy lo these many years ago. The title has gone completely out of my head at the moment, but I'm sure Sandy Paton can provide it, as well as tell you how to get it. It has lyrics, music, chords, TAB, and commentary to a large number of his early songs. (It might be "Time and the Flying Snow"). Aloha.

28 Aug 99 - 11:43 PM (#109408)
Subject: RE: Hills of Isle Au Haut - chords
From: Sandy Paton

That's what it is. Probably listed in the Mudcat shop. It's also graced with a number of his drawings and photographs of his woodcarvings. Creative fellow!

Thanks for the plug, Mark. Every little bit helps.

Sandy?
Threads combined. Messages below are from a new thread.
-Joe Offer-

17 Apr 00 - 09:38 PM (#213407)
Subject: Hills of Isle au Haute
From: murray@mpce.mq.edu.au

Does anyone know in which album the Gordon Bok sond "Hills of Isle au Haute" appears?

Thanks

Murray

17 Apr 00 - 09:58 PM (#213414)
Subject: RE: Hills of Isle au Haute
From: Sandy Paton

His first: A Tune for November. (C-40) It's spelled without the final "e" on Haut, by the way.

18 Apr 00 - 04:35 AM (#213532)
Subject: RE: Hills of Isle au Haute
From: GUEST,murray@mpce.mq.edu.au

Thanks Sandy. I was making out an order for his songbook and I thought I might as well get the album with that song in it too.

I don't know what made me put the "e" on the end. I know better!

Murray

11 Nov 06 - 12:50 PM (#1883187)
Subject: Tune Req: Hills of Isle Au Haut
From: terrier

This song has been discussed a number of times on Mudcat over the years but can anyone supply a tune for the words. I remember hearing it years ago and thought it a good song but I can only remember the tune for the chorus.( Haul down the sails, etc...)

11 Nov 06 - 02:35 PM (#1883259)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Hills of Isle Au Haut
From: SINSULL

MP3 here:
http://www.isleauhaut.net/IsleAuHaut.mp3

11 Nov 06 - 03:32 PM (#1883298)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Hills of Isle Au Haut
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)

That mp3 is the Isle Au Haut Lullaby not the Hills of Isle Au Haut!

Mick

11 Nov 06 - 03:45 PM (#1883311)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Hills of Isle Au Haut
From: terrier

Thanks Sinsull, I'd seen the words for that song in the DT and just glossed over it, but after hearing the MP3 I think I'll learn that one as well.

11 Nov 06 - 06:55 PM (#1883468)
Subject: DT Corr/Tune: Hills of Isle Au Haut
From: Joe Offer

THE HILLS OF ISLE AU HAUT
(Gordon Bok)

It's away and to the westward
Is the place a man should go,
Where the fishing's always easy,
They've got no ice or snow.
    But I'll haul down the sail
    Where the bays come together,
    Bide away the days
    On the hills of Isle au Haut.
Now the Plymouth girls are fine,
They put their hearts in your hand;
And the Plymouth boys are able,
First-class sailors, every man.
[CHORUS]

Now, the trouble with old Martir,
You don't try her in a trawler,
For those Bay of Biscay swells,
They roll your head from off your shoulder.
[CHORUS]

The girls of Cascais,
They are strong across the shoulder,
They don't give a man advice,
They don't want to cook his supper.
[CHORUS]

Now the winters drive you crazy,
And the fishing's hard and slow;
You're a damned fool if you stay,
But there's no better place to go.
[CHORUS]


Click to play

The songbook has an entire measure of rests between each line, so that's how I transcribed it. I just take a quick breath, and skip the rests.

Source: Time and the Flying Snow: Songs of Gordon Bok, a songbook published by Folk-Legacy Records, 1977.

The songbook has "the trouble with old Martir" - but I think hear "Martin" when I hear it sung - I don't have a recording of it. Rise Up Singing has "Martier," a suitably French-Canadian name for that part of Maine. Neither "Martin" or "Martir" makes much sense to me. Any explanations? Note that these lyrics are a bit different from those in the DT.
-Joe-

As long as I had the book open to that page, I transcribed a tune for Isle au Haut Lullabye (Hay Ledge Song) - but I think I prefer the tune that's already in the DT. The DT lyrics for "Lullabye" are exactly what's in the book.

Click to play

12 Nov 06 - 04:57 AM (#1883724)
Subject: RE: Tune/Chords Req: Hills of Isle Au Haut
From: terrier

Thanks for the input and the extra verse.
'old Martin' in the 3rd verse made no sense to me with the next line being 'You don't try HER in a trawler', maybe if MARTIER refers to a female?

13 Nov 06 - 02:30 AM (#1884439)
Subject: RE: Tune/Chords Req: Hills of Isle Au Haut
From: Joe Offer

I suppose I could have read and transcribed the songbook's introduction to "Hills of Isle au Haut":
    I realized a while after I'd written this song that it was confusing some people. That wasn't what I had in mind, so I looked at it again and realized that the key word in the song is also the shortest and least significant—sounding. The word is "but."
    As one fellow told me: "I know I should get out of it here, and go
    away. But I'm a fisherman, and if I'm going to starve as a fisherman, I might as well do it here where I can enjoy it."
    That may be an odd way to put it, but...
    Isle au Haut is a tall island in the Gulf of Maine. The place name Plymouth, Pedro Martir (a landfall in Portugal), and Cascais were memories from a rather wet offshore trip. I enjoyed the boat, and the people were fine, and if I had grown gills I'd have been perfectly comfortable, but.
    Guitar in D; recording sounds D flat.
    Isle au Haut = i'll oh hoe
    westward =westard
    Martir = marteer
    Cascais = kass-keish

13 Nov 06 - 02:54 PM (#1884882)
Subject: RE: Tune/Chords Req: Hills of Isle Au Haut
From: terrier

NOW it makes sense.
Thanks for the help.
T