Fron Mick's link, af:

Subject: Lyr Add: PENNY FOR THE PLOUGHBOYS (Colin Cater)
From: My guru always said
Date: 06 Sep 02 - 01:10 PM

The words to this were passed to me from Colin Cater (who wrote it) after a search on a thread which has now disappeared.

PENNY FOR THE PLOUGHBOYS
(Colin Cater)

At the end of the year all the fields were brown in the days when I was young
With corn in the barns, frost in the ground and never a green shoot sprung
Then the ploughmen came with hobnailed boots and the Molly dance rich and slow
And with magical plays and songs of the land they bade the corn to grow

CHORUS
Only once a year, Penny for the Ploughboys
To keep us in good cheer and multiply the grain
Only once a year, Penny for the Ploughboys
Speed the plough until the year turns round again

Then they ploughed and sowed and harrowed him in and the rain from heaven did fall
The wind did blow and the sun did shine and he soon grew amazing tall
When the corn was ripened the harvesters came and the barns and the breweries rang
And when all was safely gathered in they raised their voice and sang.

But now the seasons are all changed round, a slave to the great machines.
The fields are ploughed in the high summer time, by the turn of the year they're green
Gone are the trades, the horses, the families that followed the seasons along
And the old pubs close because they can't resound to the fiddle or a country song

But there's strength in the plays, the dances and songs that have lasted a thousand years
There's strength in barley malt and hops brewed into a country beer
It puts a spring in the step of an old straw bear, makes the dancer leap for the skies
And when the Molly gangs come to speed the plough they'll raise their glass and cry.

© Colin Cater, 2000