Lyr Req: Highland Light (Norman Blake)

Subject: Lyr Req: Old Norman Blake song
From: pokesalad
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 12:56 PM

What are the lyrics and title to the old (I think) Norman Blake song that starts out:

"Up and down the Blue Ridge Mountain range they're stripping coal ..."

What album and year?

Best to all,
Pokesalad

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Norman Blake song
From: pdq
Date: 10 Dec 08 - 10:04 PM

It's called "The Highland Light" and can be found on the 1977 LP "Blackberry Blossom".

This record shows Norman Blake at the peak of his picking skills. A "must have" for Blake fans.

CD came out in 2000: Flying Fish 18964-0047-2.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Norman Blake song
From: pokesalad
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 05:49 PM

Dear PDQ,

Many thanks for your response.

Best,
Poke

Subject: Lyr Add: HIGHLAND LIGHT (Norman Blake)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 07:15 PM

Copied from another forum:


HIGHLAND LIGHT
Norman Blake

1. All up and down the Blue Ridge Mountain chain they're strippin' coal,
Sellin' it across the sea to Japan, so I'm told.
See the mighty wheels of progress turn and the lanes of commerce run.
A cornucopia of junk it flows from the land of the rising sun.

2. All across this mighty country, friend, the oak trees turn to gold,
But we can't afford our timber; we cannot buy our coal,
'Cause the foreigners want houses, lifestyles like ours they see,
So we trade our own resources for transistorized TV's

3. So get on board the Highland Light, train of my fantasy,
And ride to hell or glory makes no never mind to me.
This train she's not crowded and the ticket there is free,
But it's a long hot dusty ride backwards to 1933.

4. And way down in Alabama, on the old Brown's Ferry shore,
The TVA nuclear reactor sits like a child of war,
Just sending out the kilowatts down the girdered peak-flow lines,
A detriment to society and a threat to all mankind.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Highland Light (Norman Blake)
From: cnd
Date: 28 Jun 16 - 09:29 PM

This is missing a stanza. Between 3 and 4 should be the following:

Some say that the great invention of all time, it was the wheel
Is progress really the automobile?
In materialistic slavery, kind friends now we must toil
As we bow down to the idealistic god of Arab oil

Also, see how to play it here: https://books.google.com/books?id=R3bMdT77o18C&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76#v=onepage&q&f=false

Scroll up 1 page to see the full lyrics

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Highland Light (Norman Blake)
From: cnd
Date: 28 Jun 16 - 09:45 PM

Also, pretty minor but no 3 comes up again as the new no 6