Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die

Subject: Here's To The Last One to Die
From:
Date: 04 Jan 01 - 03:59 PM

This may be an army song, possibly Scots, possibly WWI in origin. It may be the inspiration for Robert Heinlein's "The Green Hills of Earth". If anyone can point me to the lyrics and/or some kind of recording I'd appreciate it.

Guy

Subject: Lyr Add: HERE'S TO THE LAST TO DIE^^^
From: Edmund Flynn (inactive)
Date: 04 Jan 01 - 04:50 PM

I found this in the Digi-Trad. I have always thought of this song as British Army in India at time of plague.

HERE'S TO THE LAST TO DIE

words: Captain Darling
music: Trad. (RG Note. Variant on tune used for The Horn of the Hunter) source: Scottish Students Song Book c. 1892

We meet 'neath the sounding rafters,
And the walls around are bare;
As they echo to our laughter
'Twould not seem that the dead were there.

So stand to your glasses steady,
'Tis all we have left to prize.
Quaff a cup to the dead already
And one to the next who dies.

Who dreads to the dead returning,
Who shrinks from that sable shore
Where the high and haughty yearning
Of the souls will be no more?

cho:

Cut off from the land that bore us,
Betrayed by the land we find,
When the brightest have gone before us
And the dullest remain behind.

cho:

There's a mist on the glass congealing,

'Tis the hurricane's fiery breath
And 'tis thus that the warmth of feeling
Turns ice in the grasp of death.

cho:

There is many a head that is aching,
There is many a cheek that is sunk,
There is many a heart that is breaking,
Must burn with the drinks we have drunk.

cho:
There is not time for repentance,
'Tis folly to yield to despair,
When a shudder may finish a sentence,
Or death put an end to a prayer.

cho:
Time was when we frowned on others,
We thought we were wiser then;
But now let us all be brothers,
For we never may meet again.

cho:
But a truce to this mournful story,
For death is a distant friend.
So here's to a life of glory,
And a laurel to crown each end.

cho:
^^^

---

(e-mail sent - JRO)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: MMario
Date: 04 Jan 01 - 05:15 PM

Edmund - do you actually have the dots? Are you capable of scanning and or posting them?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 04 Jan 01 - 09:40 PM

The Scottish version used the same tune as "The Horn of the Hunter"; there's also a WWI US Army Air Corps version "We Loop in the Purple Twilight"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: Anglo
Date: 04 Jan 01 - 10:31 PM

I seem to remember there's a recording of this on "Songs & Music of the Redcoats, " a long out of print LP on Argo, I think, which was a companion to Lewis Winstock's book of the same title. It might have been sung by Martin Wyndham-Read. I'd love to get my hands on a copy…(the recording, that is)…

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: Amergin
Date: 04 Jan 01 - 10:46 PM

Utah Phillips did a version of this on his I've Got To Know.....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 10:36 AM

Thanks! I've got the Utah Phillips CD on order (the song is called "Stand to Your Glasses Steady", BTW).

Guy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: mg
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 11:29 AM

it was sung in many wars but I think the original referred to a cholera? epidemic among troops stationed maybe in India. I know it was sung in Vietnam..I have a tape of a nurse and a pilot singing it at a gathering many years later...mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: Edmund Flynn (inactive)
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 03:09 PM

Sorry, MMario ... I don't even know that it means to "have the dots" .... I'm just an old gaffer who whacks away a bit on my guitar and wishes he were better at it.

Edmund

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 01:17 PM

Refresh!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: The Walrus at work
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 01:23 PM

MMario,

My scanner is out of order at present, but if you PM me with a snail address, I can send you a copy of the tune in "Songs and Music of the Redcoats".

Tegards

Walrus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 08:34 PM

Martyn Wyndham-Read is indeed the singer on 'Songs and Music of the Redcoats' Argo ZDA 147, under the title 'Here's to the Last to Die'. The short note on the sleeve, by Lewis Winstock, is: 'A typical example of Victorian sentimentality. It is said to have been written during a cholera epidemic in India, and to have been sung during the Mutiny'.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Songs and Music of the Redcoats
From: GUEST,RobAnderson
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 10:02 AM

Dear All,
I too am trying to track a copy of "Songs and Nusic of the Redcoats" and the search engine picked up your discussion.

If anyone can help me would be very grateful.
We are particularly after the track on the Connaught Rangers and if you see our website you'll see why.

www.88thFoot.co.uk

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: Santa
Date: 22 Mar 04 - 02:26 PM

More recently, it was recorded on Jane and Amanda Threlfall's Morning Tempest CD.

Which if you haven't got already you should have, anyway.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From:
Date: 28 Mar 06 - 04:18 PM

I have a copy of the book "Songs and Music . . " etc.It's by Lewis Winstock, published by Leo Cooper 1970, ISBN 0 85052-003-7

I would have thought that it should be easy enough to get a copy from a specialist second-hand bookseller.

The Connaught Rangers song is set, of course, to "Killaloe", the Regimental March.

I have the record on a worn out cassette too. Would love a CD copyif anyone can help.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From:
Date: 28 Mar 06 - 04:22 PM

A propos my last - I think it was sung - frequently - in a 1930's Hollywood movie about the RFC, starring Errol Flynn and David Niven amongst others, but I'm blowed if I can recall the name of the film

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Mar 06 - 04:49 PM

I this this song as "Revelry of the Dying" and you can get a good idea of the tune I sing from this MP3 sample, and some folk-processed words: click here and search for lyrics!
Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: stallion
Date: 28 Mar 06 - 05:54 PM

I have the Album!!!!!!!! and I sing the song!!!!!!!
no needles to play it!

Tune is also used for "The dying Airman"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Mar 06 - 06:19 PM

And of course it features in Dawn Patrol, with Erroll Flynn and David Niven sporting stiff upper lips as they sing along in the mess.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 29 Mar 06 - 08:43 AM

Today's discovery (for me anyway) is that the tune of "The Horn of the Hunter" is nearly identical to that of "The Eton Boating Song."
Which came first ?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: Fidjit
Date: 30 Mar 06 - 04:03 AM

That's the, "Jolly old boating weather" one isn't it?
"And we'll all pull together" etc.

chas

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: Fidjit
Date: 30 Mar 06 - 04:04 AM

Liked yours Charley. Go ta bit of "On the road to Mandalay" in it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Mar 06 - 05:29 PM

Thanks, Fidjit.

I really don't get many opportunities for singing this one unless we're doing an evening of drinking songs, and it's a real classic.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 30 Mar 06 - 06:59 PM

Good for a Gloom and Despondency Workshop.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: stallion
Date: 30 Mar 06 - 07:03 PM

Charley, we know about drinking songs, we will have to have an evening dedicated to drinking songs when we come "over t' pond" again!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 30 Mar 06 - 08:03 PM

Yes. That's it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Mar 06 - 08:27 PM

Stallion-

I know you fellers can SING drinking songs, and I certainly know better than to challenge you to a pub crawl. However, I'd be happy to raise a glass with you again in any part of this wide, wide, world.

"Revelry for the Dying" is one of the classic gloom and doom songs. I'd also add John Warner's "Anderson's Coast" and if I were really interested in finishing off a lovely brooding evening I'd add in a Gordon Bok song or two, i.e., "The Sea Wife."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 31 Mar 06 - 05:10 PM

Then, read Chekhov's story, "In Exile" (1892).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here's To The Last One to Die
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 31 Mar 06 - 05:48 PM

I don't see it as doom and gloom at all but incredible stoicism and respect for those gone before... mg