Lyr Req/Add: Come, Love, Caroling (Sydney Carter)

Subject: Lyr Req: Caroling
From: GUEST,Cindy
Date: 22 Dec 07 - 12:39 PM

Please can anyone provide the lyrics of a song called "Caroling" (I think) - Possibly by Sydney Carter. I can remember the tune but not the lyrics and can't find it on the Internet. I seem to remember that each verse or perhaps just the chorus finishes "...come caroling along with me"

Subject: Lyr Add: COME, LOVE, CAROLLING (Sydney Carter)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 22 Dec 07 - 07:02 PM

G'day Cindy,

Here they are (from Songs of SYDNEY CARTER, In the present tense, Galliard Limited, Norfolk, England, 1969 (with Sydney's introduction - on style and accompaniment:


COME, LOVE, CAROLLING

A song about Mary, the mother of Jesus; but the chorus can apply to anybody. Flute, drum guitar, tambourine or anything you like can be used in the chorus. This should be lively, with a strong rhythm, but the verse part cm be freer and with a very simple accompaniment - rhythm instruments alone if you like -or none at all. You can dance or walk along while singing this. If you feel like it, sing the word "Oh!" at the end of lines 1 and 2 in the chorus, and between the verses and choruses.

Come, love, carolling along in me !
Come, love, carolling along in me!
All the while, wherever I may be.
I carry the maker of the world in me.

Lifting and loving you that I am not,
Though your body is my bone and blood,
I wonder at the maker who can be
Before I am and yet a child of me.

Come, love, carolling along in me !
Come, love, carolling along in me!
All the while, wherever I may be.
I carry the maker of the world in me.

I lift and I carry you to Bethlehem,
I lift and I carry you to Galilee.
I'll carry you wherever I may be,
I carry the maker of the world in me.

Come, love, carolling along in me !
Come, love, carolling along in me!
All the while, wherever I may be.
I carry the maker of the world in me.

In the begging you were there, I know,
And you will carry me wherever I go.
I'll carry you wherever I may be,
I carry the maker of the world in me.

Come, love, carolling along in me !
Come, love, carolling along in me!
All the while, wherever I may be.
I carry the maker of the world in me.

As well, I should say: copy these down straight away ... the ungenerous and shortsighted mob who bought out Galliard ("Stainer & Bell" ... although there is neither a Mr Stainer nor a Mr Bell - it's just a name they thought sounded right for their merchandising target!) in contradistinction to Sydney Carter's open and generous attitude in life, forbid anyone to publish a word of his lyrics ... thus contributing to the tendency of groups to record them as "trad" ... and not pay royalties.

I believe the lyrics should be openly available, clearly ascribed, recorded and performed widely ... and then I would not begrudge S & B their shekels!

Regard(les)s,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Caroling (Sydney Carter?)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Dec 07 - 07:35 PM

Which is of course the way Sydney Carter always saw it. He wanted his songs be be sung freely, and for people singing and playing them to feel free to allow them to change along the way:

"There is nothing final in the songs I wrote, not even the words, the rhythm and the melody. This is not an oversight; I would like them to keep on growing, like a tree. They have a form, I hope; so does a tree. But it is not fixed and final. It must develop according to the time and place, it must adapt itself to soil and weather." (From the introduction to his Green Print for Song, in which this song was included - with a slight variation, as you might expect. He had "carolling along with me". And he'd have said, sing it whichever way you feel happier with.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Caroling (Sydney Carter?)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 22 Dec 07 - 10:36 PM

G'day McGrath,

Thanks for your insights into Sydney Carter's generous nature in regard his songs.

I met him in Canberra, and then Sydney, in 1972 and also briefly corresponded with him about some photographs he requested of his concerts. On stage he said much the same as your quotation ... and I feel that the anal attitude of the publishers who now administer the rights to his material does not reflect his own attitude ... and does no service to his body of work and his memory.

BTW: My heartfelt thanks to whoever (yourself ... or some elf of the blessed Saint Joseph ...) made just the changes (neatly combining the good points of my mucked-up first posting and my second, with extra material) that I was going to request ... as soon as I got back in from last minute Christmas shopping!

Regards ... and a Very merry Christmas to all!

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Caroling (Sydney Carter?)
From: Cindy
Date: 23 Dec 07 - 07:27 PM

Thank you very much Bob. That's a great help. Now I know why extensive searching on the internet produced no results. I shall be giving this song an airing around the folk clubs of Chester UK.