The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #71227   Message #1060383
Posted By: Joe Offer
25-Nov-03 - 01:43 AM
Thread Name: DT Attribution & Minor Corrections - recorded msgs
Subject: RE: Attribution added: DT authors PermaThread
Bells of Rhymney - tune from Pete Seeger. Lyrics by Welsh poet Idris Davies, who lived in Tonypandy in the Rhondda Valley the heart of the coalfields of South Wales. I see the lyrics are goofed up a bit. Here's a complete, corrected transcription:

BELLS OF RHYMNEY
(Idris Davies & Pete Seeger)

Oh what will you give me?
Say the sad bells of Rhymney
Is there hope for the future?
Cry the brown bells of Merthyr.
Who made the mine owner?
Say the black bells of Rhondda.
And who robbed the miner?
Cry the grim bells of Blaina.

They will plunder willy-nilly,
Cry the bells of Caerphilly.
They have fangs, they have teeth,
Say the loud bells of Neath.
Even God is uneasy,
Say the moist bells of Swansea.
And what will you give me?
Say the sad bells of Rhymney


Put the vandals in court
Say the bells of Newport.
All would be well if, if, if,
Cry the green bells of Cardiff.
Why so worried, sisters, why?
Sang the silver bells of Wye.
And what will you give me?
Say the sad bells of Rhymney.


Lyrics from "Gwalia Deserta" by Welsh poet Idris Davies, who lived in Tonypandy in the Rhondda Valley the heart of the coalfields of South Wales. The poem was written in about 1927, and published in 1938. Tune by Pete Seeger, 1959.
Copyright Ludlow Music, 1959.

Source: "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" - a book by Pete Seeger.

@Welsh
recorded by Ian Campbell Folk Group
filename[ BELLRHYM
TUNE FILE: BELLRHYM
CLICK TO PLAY
SOF