Lyr Req: Reunion (Cyril Tawney) 'Sorrow is my ...'

Subject: Lyr Req: Cyril Tawney: Sorrow ... stock in trade?
From: GUEST,Ian cookeless
Date: 17 Jun 07 - 03:17 PM

I heard Martyn Wyndham-Read sing a wonderful Cyril Tawney song at Celebrating Cyril that I haven't come across before. It seems to be called either Sorrow Is My Stock In Trade or Reunion. More than that I don't know. I assume CT wrote it, though it apparently appears in The Oxford Book of English Traditional Verse. Anyone else with a source fora recording or with lyrics or info?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cyril Tawney: Sorrow ... stock in trade?
From: The Sandman
Date: 17 Jun 07 - 03:33 PM

I am sure Cyril wrote this,it was one of the last songs he wrote,if not the last,If it is the song I am thinking about,Im fairly sure I heard him introduce it as self composed,why not contactRosemary Tawney through his website,or his publishers gwynneth publications.Dick Miles

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cyril Tawney: Sorrow ... stock in trade?
From: Effsee
Date: 17 Jun 07 - 03:39 PM

It's on his "Navy Cuts" album.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cyril Tawney: Sorrow ... stock in trade?
From: concertina ceol
Date: 17 Jun 07 - 06:07 PM

Track 16 on Navy Cuts correct title is "Reunion"

Lovely :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cyril Tawney: Sorrow ... stock in tra
From: gnomad
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 03:50 AM

Only 14 tracks LISTED on my copy of Navy Cuts, but 16 tracks present on the disc, including this song at nr 16. I have a note calling it "Old Sobersides", but have no recollection of where I got that title from.

I'm pretty sure that at the CD launch Cyril said this was his own composition, also that he had had a bit of a problem with people assuming that he was saying he had gone teatotal, which was not the case.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cyril Tawney: Sorrow ... stock in trade?
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 06:55 AM

I have the words to this but haven't got time to post them at the mo. Will post tomorrow if that is any help.

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cyril Tawney: Sorrow ... stock in trade?
From: Effsee
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 07:43 AM

I seem to remember Cyril saying (on radio) that he wrote this song when he heard that Alex Campbell had been warned off the drink, on pain of death!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cyril Tawney: Sorrow ... stock in trade?
From: GUEST,Ian cookieless
Date: 18 Jun 07 - 09:09 AM

Zany Mouse, the words would be fantastic.

Ian c.

Subject: Lyr Add: REUNION (Cyril Tawney)
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 01:29 PM

OK, here you go. It's a bloody long song! lol
Rhiannon

SORROW by Cyril Tawney

Sorrow is my stock in trade
And sadness is my style
And if you're looking for a smile from me
You'll need to wait a long long while

Because I'm not the man you used to see
In smoky taverns long ago
When heads were reeling in the easy days
And youth knew all there was to know

You knew a lady then and so did I
Did I say Lady, that's a laugh
But I tried to tame her off and on for years
She proved too smart for me by half

How comes she always stays so young my friend
While we grow older by the day
It brings to mind the way that people smile
To see December chasing May

There's more to drinking than a glass of wine
There's more to dying than goodbye
I know it's hard to toss the glass away
But comes the time you have to try

And that means goodbye Jack and goodbye Joe
Farewell companions everywhere
If I could draw the line at one or two
Next time they gathered I'd be there

And what price revelry without the ale
The bonhomie becomes a bore
The roaring laughter rings so hollow then
The jokes aren't funny anymore

So spare a thought for this old sobersides
Next time you're standing jar in hand
If I don't celebrate our meeting here
I'm sure by now you'll understand

Yes, that's why sorry is my stock in trade
And sadness is my style
And if you're looking for a smile from me
Wait on, wait on old pal of mine
You'll need to wait a long, long while.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cyril Tawney: Sorrow ... stock in trade?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 02:03 PM

According to Google Book Search, the following lines appear in "The Oxford Book of English Traditional Verse" by Frederick Woods, 1983, Page 366:

Yes, that's why sorrow is my stock in trade
And sadness is my style,
And if you're looking for a smile from me,
Wait on, wait on, wait on, old pal of mine.

But since this book is still in copyright, only the above "snippet" is visible online.

The title does seem to be REUNION, and it's by Cyril Tawney. (Then why is it in a book of "traditional verse"?)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cyril Tawney: Sorrow ... stock in trade?
From: greg stephens
Date: 19 Jun 07 - 02:34 PM

Simple explanation, surely. Cyril built up a new song round a fragment of an old one? It's a very common thing to do.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cyril Tawney: Sorrow ... stock in trade?
From: GUEST,Ian cookieless
Date: 20 Jun 07 - 08:36 AM

Thanks muchly for these lyrics. Great sad song.