Lyr Req: Standing on the Shore

Subject: Help! 'Standing on the Shore'
From: Peter T.
Date: 27 Jun 04 - 05:06 PM

Can anyone tell me anything about "Standing on the Shore", sung by Sweeney's Men (and I gather originally sung by Anne Briggs)? The reference is to "Trad." -- lyrics, history, further references? I have come up cold, doesn't appear in the Digital Trad.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Help! 'Standing on the Shore'
From: Megan L
Date: 27 Jun 04 - 05:46 PM

Don't know the recording you refer to but is it the song
" we were standing on the shore
standing on the shore
I said goodbye my love
I'm of to baltimore
so i kissed her on the cheek and the crew began to roar."

Subject: RE: Help! 'Standing on the Shore'
From: Peter T.
Date: 28 Jun 04 - 05:35 PM

No, it is a quite different song.

Anyone?


yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Help! 'Standing on the Shore'
From: EBarnacle
Date: 28 Jun 04 - 07:49 PM

Megan, the song you quoted is by Sir Harry Lauder and is titled, "We Parted on the Shore." It is quite well known among his fans and was one of his most requested pieces while he was alive. If you would like the rest of the words, please PM me.

Subject: RE: Help! 'Standing on the Shore'
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 28 Jun 04 - 08:39 PM

Standing on the Shore was written by Johnny Moynihan and Terry Woods, so far as I know. I don't remember how it goes. I gather that Cara Dillon recorded an arrangement of it not so very long ago.

Subject: Lyr Add: STANDING ON THE SHORE (from Sweeney's Men
From: Wolfgang
Date: 01 Jul 04 - 06:12 AM

On the LP it is marked as "Trad., arr. Woods". The lyrics sound very contemporary to me, perhaps the "arr." is a bit too modest.

Anne Briggs at that time was travelling around with Sweeney's Men so she would have had access to all their material.

I now post my own transcription of the lyrics. It is one of my earlier attempts when I was worse at that than I am now, but I don't have the time to listen again before next week. So be careful, all below will still be full of errors. The most unclear bits are in parentheses.

Wolfgang

STANDING ON THE SHORE

Through the mist my ship has sailed
leaving me behind
all the things left unsaid
that were in my mind.

When I stood on its deck
strangely things I saw
strangely they have vanished now
standing on the shore.

Memories of the seas I sailed
lands I gazed upon
when I turned to (draw the chart)
all (a land) were gone.

(Sundry) hills lying round
nothing standing clear
softly light is falling through
(brought) time was never here.

Headland fading out of sight
(rise ends) disappear
hazy shores and (silency)
nothing I do hear.

Hail and water, grass and sand
merging into one
in the silence of all this
I am still alone.

The logbook (closed too) the (ship has gone)
as it has done before
where it sails no tongue can tell
no one was aboard.

Subject: RE: Help! 'Standing on the Shore'
From: Megan L
Date: 01 Jul 04 - 02:54 PM

thanks barnacle i have it somewhere probably packed away with the photo signed by sir harrys sister or niece Greta? cant remember which

Subject: RE: Help! 'Standing on the Shore'
From: Peter T.
Date: 02 Jul 04 - 11:04 AM

That's the one, Wolfgang, thanks. Who are Johnny Moynihan and Terry Woods? (excuse the translatlantic ignorance). The mists are beginning to clear a bit. yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Help! 'Standing on the Shore'
From: Wolfgang
Date: 02 Jul 04 - 03:12 PM

They were two third of Sweeneys men (on the first recording Andy Irvine being the last third) and Moynihan at that time was Anne Briggs boyfriend.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Help! 'Standing on the Shore'
From: Wolfgang
Date: 02 Jul 04 - 03:17 PM

Terry Woods later played with the Pogues.
Johnny Moynihan played with Planxty and De Dannan.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Help! 'Standing on the Shore'
From: Peter T.
Date: 02 Jul 04 - 03:26 PM

Thanxty.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Help! 'Standing on the Shore'
From: Les from Hull
Date: 02 Jul 04 - 05:06 PM

Terry Woods was also a stalwart of the Folk Clubs with his missus Gay (as in Gay and Terry Woods), later forming Steeleye Span (Mk1) then leaving to form the Woods Band, who also did some fine stuff.