Lyr Req: Homeward Once More

Subject: Lyr req: Homeward Once More
From: GUEST,eoin o'budhaigh
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 10:53 AM

Can anyone help me, I am looking for the lyrics of 'Homeward once more'. I have part of it taped (old recording - ran out of audio tape before end of song) DAMN!!!
many thanks
            eoin

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Homeward Once More
From: GUEST,Peace
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 11:05 AM

What's the first line?

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Homeward Once More
From: Peace
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 11:11 AM

(Hope this is it. I have to go.)


PS -- got it from an Al Stewart place.



Prince Louis Battenberg is burning the Admiralty lights down low
Silently sifting through papers sealed with a crown
Admiral Lord Fisher is writing to Churchill, calling for more Dreadnoughts
The houses in Hackney are all falling down
And my grandmother sits on the beach in the days before the war
Young girl writing her diary, while time seems to pause
Watching the waves as they come one by one to die on the shore
Kissing the feet of England

Oh the lights of Saint Petersburg come on as usual
Although the air seems charged with a strangeness of late, yet there's nothing to touch
And the Tsar in his great Winter Palace has called for the foreign news
An archduke was shot down in Bosnia, but nothing much
And my grandmother sits before the mirror in the days before the war
Smiling a secret smile as she goes to the door
And the young man rides off in his carriage, homeward once more
And the sun sets gently on England

Ah the day we decided to drive down to Worthing, it rained and rained
Giving us only a minute to stand by the sea
And crunching my way through the shingles, it seemed there was nothing changed
Though the jetty was maybe more scarred that I'd known it to be
And Mandi and I stood and stared at the overcast sky
Where ten years ago we had stood, my Grandfather and I
And the waves still rushed in as they had the year that he died
And it seemed that my lifetime was shrunken and lost in the tide
As it rose and fell on the side of England

Prince Louis Battenberg is burning the Admiralty lights

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Homeward Once More
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 11:37 AM

Interesting song. Evidently composed in memory of those dark days of World War 1.

I've always been haunted by Stewart's "Road to Moscow."

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Homeward Once More
From: GUEST,mrsmac
Date: 22 Feb 08 - 04:13 PM

is the song your after this one?? From memory its the best i can do for now but if this is the one your after i will transcribe all for you no problem.


Bright shone the light from the heavens on high
Not a cloud masked the light of from the brilliant blue sky
There stood on the beach of a far distant shore
An exile from Erin that land we adore

He vacantly gazed far o'er the blue sea
as he longed for that land that he wants to see free
And as he's there thinking the time's drawing nigh
when the the good ship will bring him back home for to die

refrain
Homewards once more, Homewards once more
and the good ship is speeding to Erin's green shore
An exile returning no longer to roam
He will end his career in his dear native home

For freedom he fought and for Ireland he bled
And for this he was sentenced to hang until dead
but the sentence was not carried out if you please
But instead he was banished for years o'er the seas

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Homeward Once More
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 24 Feb 08 - 10:49 PM

The song posted by Peace above is called MANUSCRIPT. It's on Al Stewart's album "Zero She Flies," 1970, and on several later compilations.


I found the following lines quoted in Sean O'Casey's "Pictures in the Hallway," 1942, the second of his 6-volume autobiography:

Homeward once more, homeward once more,
The good ship is speeding for old Erin's shore;
The exile's returning, no longer to roam,
But to end his career in his own native home.

Mrsmac already posted a more complete version in this thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Homeward Once More
From: GUEST,mrsmac
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 07:35 AM

so i did! thanks Jim