The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #62773   Message #2967871
Posted By: The Borchester Echo
18-Aug-10 - 11:05 AM
Thread Name: Elixir ? strings
Subject: RE: Elixier ? strings
I see no-one's answered the original question about the reworked Manchester Rambler:

I've camped out on Crowden, rambled on Snowdon
Slept by the Wainstones as well.
I've sunbathed on Kinder, been burnt to a cinder
And many's the tale I can tell.
Me rucksack has oft been my pillow
Heather has oft been my bed.
But sooner than part from these mountains I love,
Well I think I would rather be dead.

There's pleasure in dragging the peat bogs, and bragging,
Of all the fine walks that you know.
There's even a measure of some kind of pleasure,
In wading through ten feet of snow.
Well I've seen the white hare on the heather,
The curlew fly high overhead.
But, sooner than part from these mountains I love,
Well I think I would rather be dead.

Nothing changes, it all stays the same,
They're selling the moorland for profit and gain.
They've sold all the rivers, bought all the rain,
And you can't go up there, you're disturbing the game

Cod's roe, caviar, milk stout and champagne,
Gold cards and dole cards but never the twain,
That's the game, that's their game
Nothing changes, it all stays the same.

So, I'll go where I will over mountain and hill,
And I'll lie where the bracken lies deep.
I belong to these mountains, these clear crystal fountains,
Where the rocks they stand rugged and steep.
Well, I've stood on the edge of the Downfall,
Seen all the valleys outspread.
No man has the right to own these mountains I love,
Anymore than the wide ocean bed.

This is now jointly credited to John Tams as well as Ewan MacColl. It has been recorded by Patterson Jordan Dipper on Flat Earth which is no doubt what you heard on Mike Harding. This CD is, however, sadly no longer available.