The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #124480   Message #3423571
Posted By: GUEST
21-Oct-12 - 11:02 AM
Thread Name: Aberfan - 43 Years ago today!
Subject: RE: Aberfan - 43 Years ago today!
I remember starting this thread 3 years ago and was moved to see its revival.
A year or so after The Aberfan disaster I heard this song and it took me several uears before I could sing it through.

[1966]
Lyrics by Charles Parker & Peggy Seeger
Music by Peggy Seeger, Ewan McColl & Critics Group

Grey October in Glamorgan
High pitheaps where the houses stand
Fog in the valley, backshift ending
Children awaken in Aberfan

Warm October in Thi Binh Province
Huts of bamboo and rattan
Sun comes up - repair gangs stop
And children waken in Thuy Dan

Pithead hooter sounds from Merthyr
Load the coal in the waiting trams
Shoot the slag down the high pitheap
While children eat in Aberfan

Ox carts rattle down Thi Binh Highway
Work begins on the broken land
Night's work ended, the roadway's mended
Children eat in Thuy Dan

Dai Dan Evans grabs his satchel
Michael Jones his bread and jam
Five to nine and the school bell ringing
Time for school in Aberfan

School bell ringing, children running
Down by the river and across the dam
Hot sun burning, time for learning
Time for school in Thuy Dan

Lessons started in Pantglas Junior
Through the fog a black wave ran
Under the weight of the man-made mountain
Children die in Aberfan

Lessons start in the Thi Binh schoolhouse
And another day began
Bombers fly in the morning sky
And children die in Thuy Dan

Tears are shed for Glamorgan children
And the world mourns Aberfan
But who will weep for the murdered children
Under the rubble of Thuy Dan?

Grey October in Glamorgan
Warm October in Vietnam
Where children die while we stand by
And shake the killer by the hand.

These children would now have been in their 50s. RIP

Eddie