Lyr Req: Remembrance Day songs

Subject: Lyr Add: CHRISTMAS 1914 (2 versions)
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 18 Oct 05 - 03:28 AM

Christmas 1914 - same event and titles but different songs by Mike Harding and Cormac MacConnell.

Christmas 1914 (Mike Harding)

Christmas Eve in 1914, stars were burning, burning bright
And all along the Western front guns were lying still and quiet
Men lay dozing in the trenches, in the cold and in the dark
As far away behind the lines a village dog began to bark

Some lay thinking of their families, some sang songs, others were quiet
Rolling fags and playing brag and to pass away this Christmas night
As they watched the German trenches, something moved in no man's land
Through the dark there came a soldier carrying a white flag in his hand

Then from both sides men came running, crossing into no man's land
Through the barbed wire, mud and shell-holes, shyly stood there shaking hands
Fritz brought out cigars and brandy, Tommy brought corned beef and fags
Stood there laughing, talking, singing as the moon shone down on no man's land

Christmas Day we all played football in the mud of no man's land
Tommy brought some Christmas pudding, Fritz brought out a German band
And when they beat us at the football we shared out all the grub and drink
Then Fritz showed me a faded photo of a brown-haired girl back in
Berlin

For four days after no side fired, not one shell disturbed the night
For old Fritz and Tommy Atkins, they'd both lost the will to fight
So they withdrew us from the trenches, sent us far behind the lines
Sent fresh troops to take our places and told the guns, Prepare to
fire

The next night in 1914, flares were burning, burning bright
The message came, Prepare offensive! Over the top we're going tonight
And men stood waiting in the trenches, looked out across our football park
And all along the Western front the Christmas guns began to bark



CHRISTMAS 1914 (by Cormac MacConnell)

In the year 1914 on Christmas Day,
On the Western front the guns all died away.
And lying in the mud on bags of sand
We heard the German sing from No Man's Land.
He had a tenor voice so clear and true;
The words were strange, but every note we knew.
A-soaring o'er the living, dead and damned,
That soldier sang of peace from No Man's Land.

Chorus: Oh, Silent night, no cannons roar.
A King is born of peace for ever more,
All's calm, all's bright, all brothers hand in hand,
A Soldier's song of peace from No Man's Land.

They slowly left their trenches, we left ours.
Beneath tin hats the smiles bloomed like wild flowers.
With photos, cigarettes and flasks of wine,
We made a soldier's peace on that front line.
Their singer was a lad of twenty-one;
We begged another song before the dawn,
And sitting amid carnage, death and fear,
He sang again the song all longed to hear.

Chorus:

In the morning all the guns roared in the rain,
And they killed us and we killed them again
With bayonet, bomb and bullet, gas and flame
And neither them nor us at at all to blame.
There was heavy fighting all throughout that day.
For one night's peace we bitterly did pay.
That night they charged, we fought them hand to hand
And I shot the lad who sang from No Man's Land.
Chorus:

Oh, Silent night, no cannons roar,
A king is born of peace for ever more.
All's calm, all's bright, all brothers hand in hand,
A soldier's song of peace from No Man's Land.
O Silent night, Holy night,
And his ghostly voice still rings
As the young dead soldier sings
Where the Captains and the Kings
Built No Man's Land.


Cheers
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Remembrance Day songs
From: GUEST,aliesha carrier
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 12:48 PM

hey i liks your list of songs so it it awsome
sorry it not awsome that all those people died
i just like your songs
you can send me an email back

[e-mail]
   


so plz
plz plz plz plz plz
send me an email back plzpzlpzplzplzplzplzplz

Subject: Lyr Add: HILLS OF CAITHNESS and YEAR OF THE DRUM
From: bfdk
Date: 19 Oct 05 - 05:45 PM

How about these?

Hills of Caithness
(Matt Armour)

In the year of fifteen, with the century young
And you but sixteen with your life just begun
You answered the call, as so many before
To march far away to a foreigners' war
Down the long road from Caithness, so young and so proud
Through the blue tinted hills with the lowering cloud
With the Holy black Bible your soul to protect
And a helmet and rifle to care for the rest.

Chorus:
And John can you think of the time that is gone
How we walked in the fields, the day's work done
The far peaks of Morven stood gold in the west
And peace breathed a sigh on the hills of Caithness.

For hundreds of years when the pipes gave the call
The Sinclairs have answered to fight or to fall
It's your turn now, John, the youngest by far
To carry a gun in the war to end war
Twelve terrible months in that black Flanders mud
The screaming of shells, the bullets and blood
Thousands were slaughtered, your suffering passed
In a cold autumn dawn, the green light of gas.

Chorus

Now there's been sixty snows on those far northern hills
Your skin is as clear as that young soldiers still
But no conscious light can be seen in the eyes
Of a face that lives on with a mind that has died
Your memory is stuck in the mud of the Somme
Your body came home but your spirit stayed on
No more will you see the blue hills of Caithness
The rest gave their lives, did you, John, give less?

Chorus

Now the bugles sound out on Rememberance day
To honour the fallen who lie far away
The lone pipe laments, the hearts fill with pride
They think of their heroes who marched out and died
But who thinks of you, John? You sit in your chair
Your body unscarred, your mind swept bare
In your own November are you seeing still
The green Flanders gas on the blue Caithness hills?

Chorus

The Year of the Drum
(Wendy Joseph)

My name is Jack Gresham, I was brought up in Mannum
That river boat town I loved well
I married Meg Davis we had us two children
One day our family bliss turned to hell
'Twas in 1915 and the year of the drum
The guns and the government called me to come
Past melaleuca and tall shining gums
I'm drifting away down the Murray

My name is Meg Davis and I work at Shearers
With saddles and waggons and hames
The men are all fighting, the war it is raging
The women toil here making fuel for the flames
For it's 1916 and the men are all gone
They're fighting in Europe, so we carry on
We're keeping the candles lit bright here at home
To light their way back up the Murray

Now my name is Mary and I am an orphan
My father was killed in the war
My ma was Meg Davis, an upstanding lady
She drowned in the Murray the year I turned four
'Twas in 1918 that the telegram came
The death of a soldier its news did proclaim
My ma lost her footing to the tears and the rain
She slipped on the banks of the Murray

Now my name is Billy and I am a soldier
I just got my orders today
My wife's name is Mary, she's fair as the sunset
I hate to be leaving her lonely this way
But the year's forty two, and the year of the drum
The guns and the government call me to come
Past melaleuca and tall shining gums
I'm drifting away down the Murray

But the year doesn't matter, there's always the drum
The guns and the government call men to come
But the town still grows strong in her tall shining sons
While her daughters light lamps by the Murray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Remembrance Day songs
From: Juan P-B
Date: 20 Oct 05 - 01:30 PM

Barry Wake's 'Tomorrow's Sun'
Ian Walker's 'Flying High'
Paul Openshaw's 'Nightingale'
Ron Trueman-Border's 'Raging Sea' & 'Death Of A Soldier'

and a wee bitty poem from a time when heroes weren't measured by how much they earned for kicking a ball, how many records they got in the charts or how many 'Jordans' they bedded......

Go and pin your medals on! Be proud! They're yours to wear
Pull your shoulders back a bit! Let the youngsters stare!
They're yours to wear by right of war; by service to the crown
They are symbols that you never let your country down
Wear them proudly on your chest and let who will deride
They are yours by right of war so carry them with pride
(Desmond Burgess)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Remembrance Day songs
From: Cats at Work
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 09:24 AM

There is always Jon Heslop's 'Poor Murdered Men'. The first time I sang this was sitting, on my own, in the corner of Pere La Chaise cemetry in Paris where all the boy soldiers are buried, ver quietly and for them. By the time I had finished I had an audience and alot of them were tearful. A stunning song that was written as the poppies fell from the ceiling of the Albert Hall for the Rememberance Day commemmoration. It's about how many of those who died were conscripted, on both sides, and they didn't give their lives, they were murdered by the politicians..... and, again it is, like Hawker's, a song that is now sung in Unsung Heroes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Remembrance Day songs
From: Cats
Date: 21 Oct 05 - 02:37 PM

And there's the song about the World War II deserter that there was a thread about a year ago. It is a true story and I did go and find his grave in Callington cemetry, and sang his song for him there...(I don't really make a habit of singing in cemetries) Check out the thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Remembrance Day songs
From: GUEST,C
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 06:01 AM

Does anyone have the lyrics to
lest we by judy small?
thanks :)

Subject: Lyr Add: TENDER COMRADE (Billy Bragg)
From: GUEST,Lady Nancy
Date: 26 Feb 10 - 03:46 AM

Try Tender Comrade, written by Billy Bragg:

What will you do when the war is over, tender comrade
When we lay down our weary guns
When we return home to our wives and families
And look into the eyes of our sons

What will you say of the bond we had, tender comrade
Will you say that we were brave
As the shells fell all around us
Or that we wept and cried for our mothers
And cursed our fathers
For forgetting that all men are brothers

Will you say that we were heroes
Or that fear of dying among strangers
Tore our innocence and false shame away
And from that moment on deep in my heart I new
That I would only give my life for love.

Brothers in arms, in each others arms
Was the only time that I was not afraid.
What will you do when the war is over, tender comrade
When we cast off these khaki clothes
And go our separate ways
What will you say of the bond we had,
Tender Comrade?

Totally cracking song. LN

Subject: Lyr Add: ENGLAND 1914 (Ralph McTell)
From: Commander Crabbe
Date: 26 Feb 10 - 06:20 PM

There's also England 1914 by Ralph McTell

ENGLAND 1914
Ralph McTell

Night stirs her inky finger in the water of the day,
The tired sun drops slowly in the sky.
And everywhere the gentle air hangs heavy with the day song
Evening calls the lamplight out to come

Children's wooden hoops go clattering down the street
Soon they're called inside, it's getting late.

The grand canal
Now splashed with red
Reflects on swallows wings.
The lamplighter knows the song the evening sings.

But the gas-lamps stand like soldiers
Hiss warnings to the wind
Their evening vespers prophecy a war.

The world divides
And men take sides
The spark bursts into flame
Nothing can be quite the same again.

Dog barks in the distance
Child cries in her sleep
Night waits for the dawn with baited breath.

The old school, the old rule
Rung out on a muffin man's bell
The lamplighter has made his nightly call.

Dreams of hope and peace
Sent clattering down the streets
Empty like the promises they made.
The wars rage on, and different wrongs
Will someone please explain
That peace is not the lamplighter
'Cos he's not coming back again

CC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Remembrance Day songs
From: Commander Crabbe
Date: 26 Feb 10 - 06:26 PM

England 1914

Tune on You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff4DdZfxxfA

CC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Remembrance Day songs
From: Commander Crabbe
Date: 26 Feb 10 - 06:30 PM

Correction to lyrics of ENGLAND 1914

In the last verse the fourth line should read:

"The wars rage on, and if I'm wrong"

CC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Remembrance Day songs
From: GUEST,????????????????????????????????????/
Date: 20 Nov 10 - 11:10 AM

Abide with me song

Subject: Lyr Add: ABIDE WITH ME
From: GUEST,????????????????????????????????????/
Date: 20 Nov 10 - 11:16 AM

ABIDE WITH ME

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O thou who changest not, abide with me.

I need thy presence every passing hour.
What but thy grace can foil the tempter's power?
Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears not bitterness.
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.