Lyr Req: Fiddlers Hill (Peter Bellamy) 'A dark way

Subject: Lyr Req: A Dark Way
From: Ar Wysg
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 04:49 PM

I would appreciate (any of the other) lyrics to the song with the words:
A dark way, a deep way, a way beneath the ground.
Thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dark Way
From: ClaireBear
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 05:27 PM

It looks as though it might be listenable to online as part of a podcast available by clicking the "Foxy Digitalis" link from this page -- if, that is, the song in question is titled "Sweet William's Ghost" -- but I don't have the time to download 45 MB of audio file to find out. Good luck with your search!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dark Way
From: RTim
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 05:33 PM

This is a Great Recording - George Deacon & Marian Ross, they were heroes of mine when I first started singing in Folk Clubs. I only have an old faded copy on Cassette tape - would love to see the recording re-issued. Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dark Way
From: Anglo
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 09:56 PM

It is presumably Peter Bellamy's song, Fiddler's Hill. I vaguely remember only the chorus, something like:

On the dark way, the deep way, [misremembered but taken from the first post]
The way beneath the town
And on that way there went one day
A fiddler and his hound.

Peter said of it: "Poaching in Peter Coe's territory; this song is based on an old legend… tune is closely based on that of the Irish song When A Man's In Love."

Hope this tickles someone's melody. If no-one comes forward, I could transcribe it over the weekend. I do know of one mudcatter who knows it already, though.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dark Way
From: Anglo
Date: 31 Jul 08 - 10:04 PM

And now I've checked it out, it is the same song, and there is indeed more interesting information on the link provided by ClaireBear above. And with a little effort you could listen to, and even record the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dark Way
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 01 Aug 08 - 03:43 AM

Wow,
this is a song I have loved for years. I sang it at our Club (Llantrisant) only this Wednesday. Just off to Lechlade so no time now but if no words have been posted by Monday I'll try and find a 'lectric version.

Andy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dark Way
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Aug 08 - 09:00 PM

First, I doubt very much that the song that Ar Wysg wanted was SWEET WILLIAM'S GHOST. There are several versions of SWEET WILLIAM'S GHOST already posted at Mudcat, and none of them have anything like the lyrics that Ar Wysg quoted.

Furthermore, the "podcast" that ClaireBear's link points to does NOT contain SWEET WILLIAM'S GHOST (or FIDDLER'S HILL either). The only "folk" song in it is HOLSWORTHY PETER'S FAIR, which comes from the album "Sweet William's Ghost"—and it clearly isn't the requested song.

FIDDLER'S HILL seems more likely to be the song that is wanted, although I can't find any lyrics or sound samples online.

FIDDLER'S HILL (Words, Peter Bellamy; tune, trad.) is on the following albums:

Peter Bellamy, "Tell It Like It Was," 1975.

George Deacon & Marion Ross, "Sweet Williams Ghost," 1972.

Loscoe State Opera, "Dawn Bird" and "Live at Stainsby"

Subject: Lyr Add: FIDDLERS HILL (Peter Bellamy)
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 06 Aug 08 - 05:15 AM

As promised, here are the words.
I transcribed them years ago from the above mentioned classic L.P. Sweet Williams Ghost. George Deacon and Marion Ross.
Apologies if anything has been changed to suit my way of singing it!

Andy

FIDDLERS HILL

From Binham down to Walsingham is not so far to walk,
The lanes wind through the gentle land trod smooth with Norfolk chalk.
But once there was another way, a dark road 'neath the ground.
And down that way there went one day a fiddler and his hound.

CHORUS: On the dark way, the deep way, a way beneath the ground,
And down that way there went one day a fiddler and his hound.

In Binham stood a Priory tall, built in a far off age,
It prospered long before it stood to bluff King Harry's rage.
The Abbey up in Walsingham was likewise tumbled down.
But Henry's men could not find out the way beneath the ground. CHORUS

No man knew why those monks of old had tunnelled 'neath the sand,
Perhaps to hide their shining gold, 'neath Mother Churches land.
Men dug, men delved, men knocked and tapped, they listened for the sound,
Of echoes booming from that crypt that lay beneath the ground. CHORUS

So years passed by and men forgot except in fancy's train,
Until one day upon that spot there fell a shower of rain.
It loosened sand and flint and chalk revealing by a mound,
The proof and truth of old wives talk, the way beneath the ground. CHORUS

But no man would enter into that dark maw, as black as any well.
They stood and they trembled at the door as at the gates of hell.
Until up spoke a blind fiddler who roamed from town to town,
Saying "I am blind, dark holds no fear", he swore he would go down. CHORUS

So he put his fiddle up to his chin, his dog led on before,
And at that dark gate they entered in to be never seen no more.
Into black night he bravely strayed and still they could hear the sound,
Of the merry fiddle tune he played, beneath the cold, cold ground. CHORUS

They followed where his tune would go, across the meadows gay.
And they above heard him below, for as long as he did play.
But when they reached a certain hill, there could be heard no sound.
Beneath that hill his bow fell still, on the road beneath the ground. CHORUS

Three hundred years have rolled away since the fiddle it fell still,
And yet this place until this day is known as Fiddlers Hill.
And when they widened of the way, to their surprise they found,
White bones revealed to the light of day, white bones of a man and hound. CHORUS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dark Way
From: Ar Wysg
Date: 06 Aug 08 - 09:02 AM

Thanks Jim, for clearing that up; it was a strange experience listening to as much of the podcast as I could take.

Andy, I was there. I heard you last Wednesday and bits of the song kept running through my mind on the way home all mixed up with bits of The Wizard's Inn:
From Macclesfield to Mobberley
If you have wares to sell
Don't take a path to the Wizard Inn
Or drink at the wizard's well.

And then I couldn't remember with any certainty who had sung what or when I would next see you to check. Thanks for the lyrics.

Richard.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dark Way
From: ClaireBear
Date: 06 Aug 08 - 10:32 AM

I do apologize for any misdirection. The page I linked to discusses a recording that does in fact have "Fiddler's Hill" on it -- that's just not the song in the podcast. Sorry! I did say "might."

C

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fiddlers Hill (Peter Bellamy) 'A dark
From: GUEST,George Deacon
Date: 03 Oct 08 - 08:09 AM

Peter Bellamy taught me the song one evening after he had sung at a club I ran (Islip, Northamptonshire). Marion and I recorded it (on Sweet William's Ghost) and performed it at various clubs. Peter saw us perform it at Cambridge Festival via a TV broadcast and complained that I had rewritten his tune.

Nice to know people are still interested.

George Deacon
www.johnclare.strategic-services.co.uk

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fiddlers Hill (Peter Bellamy) 'A dark way
From: GUEST,George Deacon
Date: 03 Oct 08 - 08:19 AM

Sorry website link doesn't work properly - my error.

The address is:

www.johnclare.strategic-services.co.uk

George

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fiddlers Hill (Peter Bellamy) 'A dark
From: maeve
Date: 03 Oct 08 - 08:35 AM

http://www.johnclare.strategic-services.co.uk/


This link works

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fiddlers Hill (Peter Bellamy) 'A dark way
From: BenDaglish
Date: 30 May 11 - 10:20 AM

"and bits of the song kept running through my mind on the way home all mixed up with bits of The Wizard's Inn"

Haha - we now do both in our set, and I had to ask one of the band onstage the other night "Am I going from Bynham or from Macclesfield?"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fiddlers Hill (Peter Bellamy) 'A dark way
From: Artful Codger
Date: 30 May 11 - 02:26 PM

Any chance of an ABC or MIDI of the tune? Or, as it's listed as being a trad tune, even a name?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fiddlers Hill (Peter Bellamy) 'A dark way
From: GUEST,Sylvia
Date: 11 Aug 13 - 05:26 AM

Of course people are still interested, George! Sweet William's ghost was a favourite album of ours but I'm afraid our vinyl collection is not very accessible. I even bought a harmonium because of Marion. I was searching Mudcat because my husband wanted chords or tablature for this song. Does anyone know where I might find them? I suppose if not on Mudcat, they aren't likely to be anywhere else. Everything is here!