The Irish Rovers lead song on their album 'Tall Ships and Salty Dogs' is called "The Day the Tall Ships Came." I don't have the album, just a cassette tape copy. Does anone know it's background? Who wrote it? When? etc. I have a feeling that it's a fairly "young" song and an American song. This thread brought it to mind. It's a lovely, rousing number and captures well, I think, the spirit and excitement of a tall Ships festival.

THE DAY THE TALL SHIPS CAME

1] Out of the mists of time they came, tops'ls flying high.
   Like phantoms of the past they flew on billowed wings of white.
   Fresh as the winds of morning, bright as the ocean spray,
   A wonder to behold they were, as the sailed along their way.

CHO: Windjammer, sloop and ketch, brigantine and yawl,
    From far off corners of the world they left their ports of call.
    Great and noble ladies, true sovereigns of the sea,
    They brought their nation's blessings to the land of liberty.

2] Those of us who lined the shore that morning in July,
   And watched in silent wonder as the ships passed slowly by,
   Could hear them calling to us from beyond the winds of time,
   And feel the rolling of the decks and taste the salty brine,

CHO:

3] One day they'll tell the story of a day then long gone by,
   When the tall ships came a-sailing with their masts up to the sky;
   And the lives of we who saw them will never be the same,
   And the world will long remember the day the tall ships came.

CHO: [twa times]

Any information about the song would be welcome.

Am G Am
C   G
Am   Em
Am G Em

Cho:
C   G
C   G   D
C   G    C
    G D G


Reiver 2