Subject: RE: harvey andrews msic
From:
harvey andrews
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 07:05 PM
Hi Willa..that's fascinating. Below are the original lyrics. I've had to make something like 20 corrections, one or two of which are important to the meaning of the songs. I shall use this example in a songwriting workshop I'm doing in France in the summer. It's a perfect illustration of the folk process in action as you're posting the lyrics as the first remove from the original and already there are many changes. However, if you took them from the cd you'd have the original lyrics in the booklet so is this an example of a transcript taken from a tape, or a cd copy that has no booklet? I'm not trying to catch you out here, I'm genuinely curious as to how the process begins.
Anon
Harvey Andrews 'The Gift'
There's no name on the stone I sleep under today, there's no book that can tell of my time.
But you know me so well when you sing roundelay, for you're singing my tune and my rhyme.
I am "Anon", you know me that way, I had something to say about life in my day.
So I made a song, and somewhere the sound of it goes round and round, to be lost and then found.
And that is the way that life is, that is the way it is, with songs.
It was in the alehouse, I would sing with the rest, then I made up a tune of my own.
And a full harvest moon put the words in my head as I trudged 'cross the fields to my home.
When I sang it next day, my friends asked me how did I find my own song in the blade of my plough.
So I asked in return how the stonemason saw a sweet face in the stone on the old quarry floor.
They asked 'Is that the way that it is?' I said 'That is the way it is for me.'
So they learned every word, and they sang every note, till my song was a work of renown.
And within a six-month I heard boys from the school whistling my tune in the town.
And I smiled when I heard what came out of the sky, coming now from a child as he quickly ran by.
Would it pass from that child when as father he'd sing to a child of his own? Who'd believe such a thing?
But that is the way that life is. That is the way it is , with time.
It was twenty years gone when our parson came home from a journey he'd made far away.
He shook my hand hard, said the inn where he'd stayed had some men who sang there every day.
And he'd listened with joy as one, with a bow, sang the song that I'd found in the blade of my plough.
So he told them my name, but they said that my song was as old as the hills, and our parson was wrong.
I asked 'Is that the way that it is?' He said 'That is the way it is, my son.'
So I worked and I ploughed till my bones bowed and bent, I made up no more verses to sing.
And it seemed that my life had been wasted and spent on the curses my hard day would bring.
Soon death came to call, with a voice that cried 'Now!' And the song that I'd found in the blade of my plough
Leaped from my heart, as I journeyed on, and I knew it would live, even though I was gone.
And that is the way that it is, that is the way it is, for us all.
There's no names on the stones we sleep under today, there's no books that can tell of our time.
But you know us so well when you sing roundelay, for you're singing our tunes and our rhymes.
We are "Anon", you know us that way, we had something to say about life in our day.
So we made out songs and somewhere the sound of them
Goes round and round to be lost and then found.
And that is the way that it is, that is the way it is, with songs.
The Song Harvey Andrews (CD The Gift)
I was raised like most on Rock and Roll, and Elvis was The King
Then washboards and those thrashed guitars made skiffle seem the thing.
But deep inside I always felt that I did not belong,
And my life would not have been complete if it wasn't for the song.
Then one night on the radio came ballads good and fine.
They told me of the herring shoals, the Old Grey Funnel line.
I vowed I'd learn their every word, and sing them loud and strong.
And my life would not have been so sweet if it wasn't for the song.
I found a club, and every week I'd take the bus up West.
I'd sing out with the Spinners, and McColl and all the rest.
And there I met the girl who's been a partner my life long.
But our lives would not have been so sweet, if it wasn't for the song.
And with the kids we took our tent to Cherry Hinton Hall.
And we saw the best the world had sent to entertain us all.
To festivals we went each year and joined the happy throng,
And our lives would not have been so sweet if it wasn't for the song.
For forty years, our folk club's been a place where all could come.
We started with no instruments, but now there's bass and drum.
There's some who say our day is past, they may be right or wrong,
But their lives will never be complete , if they don't have the song.
Chorus
Songs to make you dance and sing
Songs to make you sigh,
Songs to make you laugh, or bring
A tear to your eye.
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sj
