Lyr Req: Company Policy (Martin Carthy)

Subject: Lyr Add: COMPANY POLICY (Martin Carthy)
From: rumanci
Date: 03 Oct 04 - 07:19 AM

RIGHT OF PASSAGE VERSION

I saw her by the showroom window,
Standing alone on a market quay.
As I passed her by I heard her sigh
As the military parade came on TV.
There were twenty screens in the showroom window,
Victors marching large and small.
As they wheeled on by I heard her sigh,
Oh, and oh for my darling boy.

They called him Jack, they called him John,
He was there sat tight off shore.
They caught him cold in the heat of a battle
For a South Atlantic company store.
Mama told me, don't you wed a soldier
Don't ever marry your heart's delight
He will be gone when the fighting's done
And you will be left for to mourn in the light.

Every night I dreamed that I saw him,
Dreamed I never would see him more.
In my dream his body came floating
Away where the ocean rise and fall.
But it was not death that bawled in the alley
Came skittering up to my love's door.
It was not death that cried and howled
In the teeth of a South Atlantic roar.

But the bomb bounding down on the alley,
The bomb wrapped in a silver shell,
The bomb that plucked the face from my love,
Spread it wide on the face of the swell.
Oh sweet and soothing showers,
Breathe upon his burning head,
Ease among his waking dreams
Whose tears nightly drench my bed.

For it was all a case of saving face
When they sent my love to the war
For eighteen hundred landless tenants
Of a South Atlantic company store.
Eighteen hundred landless tenants,
Eighteen hundred landless poor,
Eighteen hundred waking dreams
Of Empire long gone before.

In my dream I stand at Bluff,
I've an empty shell up to my ear,
The only sound the sound of cash
Being wrung from the snows of Antarctica.
Ring-a-ring-a city roses,
Victors march, and markets bloom.
The flame that melted my love's cheek
Come a-dancing the Iron Lady too.


The KERSHAW SESSIONS Version only varies from this by the odd word, some repetition, and a change in the order of some lines.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Martin Carthy - 'Company Policy'
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 03 Oct 04 - 06:01 AM

I have two versions of Martin singing this song, on the LP ' Rights of Passage ' he sings the words given above but on the Carthy Chronicles version he sings,
Mourners all do you pass by,
For the living don't need your tears ........yet

eric

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Martin Carthy - 'Company Policy'
From: English Jon
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 10:03 AM

Presumably this song is about Simon Weston?

Jon

Subject: Lyr Add: COMPANY POLICY (Martin Carthy)
From: GUEST,www.geocities.com/carthy_online
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 10:24 AM

Suzanne was almost right - just a few minor adjustments here. The main one comes in the first line of the penultimate verse: "In my dream I stand at Bluff". Those of us old enough to remember the Falklands conflict will probably still recall those constant references to Bluff Cove made during the nightly news reports. The only bit I'm not 100% sure of is the last line of the last verse (Ring-a... etc) but two studio recordings and a couple of live recordings seem to confirm what's written here. (ps. The version on Carthy's 'Kershaw Sessions' cd is an early version with somewhat different lyrics)

I saw her by the showroom window
Standing alone on a market day
As I passed her by I heard her sighs
The military parade came on TV

There were twenty screens in the showroom window
Victors marching large and small
As they wheeled 'em by I heard her sigh
Oh, and oh for my darling boy

They called him Jack, they called him John
He was there sat tight offshore
They caught him cold in the heat of the battle
For the South Atlantic company store

Mama told me, Don't you wed a soldier
Don't ever marry your heart's delight
He will be gone when the fighting's done
And you will be left for to mourn in the night

Every night I dreamed that I saw him
Dreamed I never would see him more
In my dream his body come floating
Away where the ocean rise and fall

But it was not death that bold in the alley
Came skittering up to my love's door
It was not death that cried and howled
In the teeth of the South Atlantic roar

But a bomb pounding down on the alley
The bomb wrapped in a silver shell
The bomb that plucked the face from my love
Spread it wide on the face of the swell

Oh sweet and soothing showers
Breathe upon his burning head
He's among his waking dreams
Whose tears nightly drench my bed

For it was all a case of saving face
When they sent my love to the war
For eighteen hundred landless tenants
Of the South Atlantic company store

Eighteen hundred landless tenants
Eighteen hundred landless poor
Eighteen hundred waking dreams
Of Empire long gone before

In my dream I stand at Bluff
I've an empty shell up to my ear
The only sound the sound of cash
Being wrung from the snows of Antarctica

Ring-a, ring-a city roses
Victors marching, markets bloom
The flame that melted my love's cheek
Come a-dancing the Iron Lady too

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Martin Carthy - 'Company Policy'
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 06 Jun 04 - 08:00 PM

Thanks, Marina, but I'd say no. The point is, I think, that the Falklanders were landless, that the far-off islands the British soldiers fought for did not belong to them but to a faceless company back home.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Martin Carthy - 'Company Policy'
From: GUEST,Marina
Date: 06 Jun 04 - 08:26 AM

Good job on the lyrics, people. I just have one thing I thought was different ... I thought it was "ladless" rather than "landless", in the sense that they've lost their sons in the war. Would that make sense?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Martin Carthy - 'Company Policy'
From: GUEST
Date: 22 May 04 - 03:21 PM

In fact, I think 'Come a-dancing the Iron Lady to" is a slightly unusual word-order inversion that turns up now and then in folk songs. I think 'come' is a past tense here (have heard this several times in Carthy folk songs, can't think of examples offhand). The sense is 'came dancing to the Iron Lady' as in 'dancing to her tune'; he's saying 'lay the blame at Thatcher's door', *she* set the whole thing in motion. This follows the sense of the verse slightly better IMO: it's a final summation and condemnation of the City and Thatcher.

May be wrong, as have no connection with either Carthy or the contents of Carthy's head, but this makes sense to me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Martin Carthy - 'Company Policy'
From: GUEST
Date: 05 May 03 - 01:59 PM

Alt recording of CP. I also have a version of that lyric too. mine came from an Andy Kershaw program some 14 years ago, i believe was released a few years later on the Kershaw Sessians cd. Well worth a hunt down.

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 18 Jan 03 - 06:41 PM

Okay, my database has kindly granted me access again, so: My version of CP comes from 'Right of Passage' (1988). Which album does yours come from, banjomad?

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: banjomad (inactive)
Date: 17 Jan 03 - 09:44 PM

Susanne{skw} you could be right, Martin has been known to change the lyrics of his own songs.
Dave

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 17 Jan 03 - 07:09 PM

Banjomad, I don't think he does in the recording I have. Can't check just now, but it's too far out for a mistake. I bet he changed the lyrics at some point to something that seemed more appropriate at the time.

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: banjomad (inactive)
Date: 16 Jan 03 - 10:07 AM

I have this song by Martin and in verse eight he sings
Oh sweet and soothing showers,
Breathe upon these burning heads,
Mourners all do you pass by,
For the living don't need your tears......yet

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Garry Gillard
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 12:41 AM

Thanks all. I've made the change.

Garry

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: GUEST,Glade
Date: 24 Jun 02 - 06:10 PM

Thanks for posting the lyric! I love this song. I heard the last lyric as "come dancing the Iron Lady to" - 'to' rather than 'too' - as in 'let the bomb's flame come dancing to melt Thatcher's face,' essesntially the same as herrhare's "invitation." BTW, that IS a good wordplay on face! Let the bastards who benefit from war be the ones who fight and there'd be a lot more serious negotiations, says I - and maybe even a real chance for peace and justice.

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 23 Jun 02 - 06:45 PM

These are the times when I know why I love the Mudcat! Guest, what you say makes perfect sense!

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 22 Jun 02 - 08:32 PM

Exactly as you say.

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From:
Date: 22 Jun 02 - 06:01 PM

hey, the years roll by, but still people stumble on these sites.

I guess the question may have been resolved years ago, but as a brit there is no doubt about the final line and its reference - an invitation to the flame to

"come dance on the Iron Lady too"

this is an anti-war song. The bitterness over the reasons for fighting is plain, starting with "for it was all a case of saving face" (neat play on face) and the ultimate responsibility of the not universally admired ex prime minister

any explanation involving mythical dances is purely tongue in cheek.

this is sheer brilliance and rates alongside any anti-war song of the sixties or seventies and a tribute to the carthy genius.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Martin Carthy's 'Company Policy'
From: Calach
Date: 28 Feb 00 - 04:13 PM

Ed
You are the man!
Thank you VERY much.
YOU'VE MADE AN OLD FOLKIE HAPPY.....IT GOES STRAIGHT INTO MY SONGBOOK.
Calach

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Martin Carthy's 'Company Policy'
From: Ed Pellow
Date: 28 Feb 00 - 03:56 PM

Try this thread

Ed

Subject: Martin Carthy's 'Company Policy'
From: Calach
Date: 28 Feb 00 - 12:39 PM

Hi there.
This is a really poignant and political song regarding the falklands conflict and I really can't make out the lyrics from my old recording.
I'd be glad of anyone who has the lyrics already, or who knows any site where they can be found.
Thanking you in advance; Calach.

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From:
Date: 23 Jun 99 - 09:16 AM

a thank you from me too

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Wally Macnow
Date: 22 Jun 99 - 10:16 PM

Martin's notes said it was an imaginary dance. I know little else about the song. Come to think of it, I haven't heard the CD and I haven't heard him sing it.

Wally

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 22 Jun 99 - 06:28 PM

Great, Wally!
One thought: Could it be that the last line is meant to mean 'Come a-dancing WITH the Iron Lady too'. 'Cause we all know who she was (is), and I could understand any girl in that situation wishing her to burn in hell.
If you doubt it - could you enlarge on the dance? I was living in Britain at the time of the Falklands War but I don't remember any such reference. - Thanks, Susanne

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Wally Macnow
Date: 22 Jun 99 - 02:20 PM

Hey, you're a grown up. You can look like anything you want to.

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 Jun 99 - 02:05 PM

I guess that saves me looking like an autograph hunter, yes?

Subject: Lyr Add: COMPANY POLICY^^
From: Wally Macnow
Date: 22 Jun 99 - 02:03 PM

With somewhat better parsing and a correction to the last line in the first verse.

        COMPANY POLICY

I saw her by the showroom window
Standing alone on a market day
As I passed her by I heard her sigh
As the military parade came on TV

There were twenty screens in the showroom window
Victors marching large and small
As they wheeled on by I heard her sigh
O and O for my darling boy

They called him Jack they called him John
He was there sat tight off shore
They caught him cold in the heat of a battle
For a South Atlantic company store

Mama told me don't you wed a soldier
Don't ever marry your heart's delight
He will be gone when the morning comes
And you will be left for to mourn in the light

Every night I dreamed that I saw him
Dreamed I never would see him more
In my dream his body come floating
Away where the ocean rise and fall

But it was not death that bawled in the alley
Came skittering up to my love's door
It was not death that cried and howled
In the teeth of a South Atlantic roar

But the bomb bounding down in the alley
The bomb wrapped in a silver shell
The bomb that plucked the face from my love
Spread it wide on the face of the swell

O sweet and soothing showers
Breathe upon his burning head
Ease among his waking dreams
Whose tears drench my silent bed

For it was all a case of saving face
When they sent my love to the war
For eighteen hundred landless tenants
Of a South Atlantic company store

Eighteen hundred landless tenants
Eighteen hundred landless poor
Eighteen hundred waking dreams
Of Empire long gone before

In my dream I stand at Bluff
I've an emmpty shell up to my ear
The only sound, the sound of cash
Being wrung from the snows of Antarctica

Ring-a-ring-a city roses
Victors march, markets bloom
The flame that melted my love's cheek
Come a-dancing the Iron Lady too

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Wally Macnow
Date: 17 Jun 99 - 07:18 PM

I'll see what I can do about getting the lyrics.

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 17 Jun 99 - 06:27 PM

Wally - actually, no, we were looking forward to a few corrections from the man himself, as the words are hard to make out on the album. Can you help, perhaps? - Thanks, Susanne

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Wally Macnow - Camsco Music
Date: 17 Jun 99 - 02:49 PM

It's on Martin's "The Collection" CD if you're looking for a recording of it.

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 17 Jun 99 - 02:34 PM

Dang. Sorry, I forgot what with compere-ing and it being a busy evening. I'm hoping he'll be back in touch about something else and I'll try to remember to ask him then. I think it would look a bit pushy to call him.

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Wolfgang
Date: 11 Jun 99 - 03:18 AM

as I thought I can't help with any of Susanne's ?? (I hope, Richard, you come through to him with your question). But I might (?) have a correction for one line. Verse 2 (or chorus), line 3 could be: "they caught him cold in the heat of a battle".

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Garry Gillard
Date: 10 Jun 99 - 10:32 PM

I've put Susanne's transcription on my Watersons/Carthy site at hum2mac1.murdoch.edu.au/watersons/ and will watch this thread for any further suggestions ...

Thanks, Susanne and Wolfgang!

Garry

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Jun 99 - 01:44 PM

I'll try to remember to ask him on Monday. He's playing our club, Hazlitt Folk at the Style and Winch, Union Street, Maidstone, Kent. England. She who must be obeyed says we should not toad-eat him, but I don't think checking lyrics counts.

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Wolfgang
Date: 10 Jun 99 - 07:35 AM

thanks a lot, Susanne, I'll listen once more, but I doubt I'll be able to improve on your work.

Wolfgang

Subject: Lyr Add: COMPANY POLICY^^
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 09 Jun 99 - 07:19 PM

Eventually:

I saw her by the showroom window
Standing alone on a market peg(?)
As I passed her by I heard her sighs
The military parade came on TV
There were twenty screens in the showroom window
Victors marching large and small
As they wheeled on by I heard her sigh
Oh, and oh for my darling boy

They called him Jack, they called him John
He was there sat tight offshore
They caught him cold that night of a battle
For the South Atlantic company store

Mama told me, Don't you wed a soldier
Don't ever marry your heart's delight
He will be gone when the fighting's done
And you will be left for to mourn in the night
Every night I dreamed that I saw him
Dreamed I never would see him more
In my dream his body come floating
Away where the ocean rise and fall

But it was not death that bold in the alley
Came skittering out to my love's (?)
It was not death that cried and howled
In the teeth of the South Atlantic roar
But a bomb bounding down on the alley
The bomb wrapped in a silver shell
The bomb that plucked the face from my love
Spread it wide on the face of the swell

Oh sweet and soothing showers
(?) upon his burning head
He's among his waking dreams
Whose tears nightly drench my bed

For it was all a case of saving face
When they sent my love to the war
For eighteen hundred landless tenants
Of the South Atlantic company store
Eighteen hundred landless tenants
Eighteen hundred landless poor
Eighteen hundred waking dreams
Of Empire long gone before

In that dream I stand and laugh
With(?) an empty shell up to my ear
The only sound the sound of cash
Being wrung from the snows of Antarctica
Ring the ring of city roses
Victors marching markets bloom
The flame that melted my love's cheek
Come a-dancing the Iron Lady too

I put a few question marks. If you got any improvements on those I'd be very grateful. - Susanne

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From:
Date: 08 Apr 99 - 01:43 PM

I've copied the song onto a tape and am trying to work out the lyrics, but it's a very clipped delivery and very hard to understand. Have patience, all MCMBE fans! - Susanne

Subject: RE: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Wolfgang
Date: 07 Apr 99 - 03:29 PM

I'd love to find the lyrics to this song too.

Wolfgang

Subject: Martin Carthy - Company Policy
From: Derek
Date: 02 Apr 99 - 06:39 PM

Can anyone tell me where I can find the lyrics to this song? Derek