Lyr Req: Northern Lights (Don Lange)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northern Lights (Don Lange)
From: Stewie
Date: 03 Oct 20 - 10:02 PM

Can a Mudcat elf remove my previous post. It was meant for different thread. Thanks.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northern Lights (Don Lange)
From: Stewie
Date: 03 Oct 20 - 09:54 PM

OUR JACK

Our Jack's come out of jail today
To Pentridge he has been
For many a day he's been away
His face we ne'er have seen
MacMannamy arrested Jack
And with a gentle jerk
Pounced down upon our old friend Jack
With jemmy hard at work

Chorus:
Our Jack's come home today
Our Jack's come home today
Quite wan and pale from out of jail
Our Jack's come home today

Our Jack came out of jail today
And ain’t his Polly glad
She had to pawn the things he'd shook
And found that she’d been had
The price she got it weren't enough
To keep her for a day
But all is past, she's right at last
Our Jack's come home today

When Jack came out of quad today
We had a glorious spree
And did a tour of Melbourne pubs
As jovial as could be
With wine and beer and brandy punch
We started out ad lib
When Jack proposed a partnership
To crack another crib

With jemmies and with skeleton keys
Of cribs we went in search
But seeing Dave O'Donnell there
We left Jack in the lurch
Undaunted Jack he set to work
Another crib to crack
O'Donnell like a ton of bricks
Came down to lumber Jack

Final chorus
Our Jack's gone back today
Our Jack's gone back today
White wan and pale back into gaol
Our Jack's gone back today

Recorded on Danny Spooner 'Brave Bold Boys'.

It was collected by Joy Durst and Ron Edwards in August 1956 from a Mr R. Ure of Gembrook, Victoria.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northern Lights (Don Lange)
From: Stewie
Date: 03 Oct 20 - 09:09 PM

It is still available on Youtube. Lovely song.

Freeman & Lange

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northern Lights (Don Lange)
From: GUEST,catr
Date: 03 Oct 20 - 03:59 PM

I wish I could hear that song again. The YouTube link above is broken. I used to listen to it on WCAS in Cambridge, Mass. in the mid-'70s. Always loved it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northern Lights (Don Lange)
From: GUEST,guest guest
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 11:56 PM

Northern Lights was written for a lovely lady named Wendy Murray , She was edited out of the original "wendy moves.." line on some of Don's re-recordings of the song

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northern Lights (Don Lange)
From: GUEST,Guest: Bob Brimm, Cedar Falls, IA
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 08:12 PM

Knowing that the artists check in to the Mudcat site from time to time, I just have to post to thank Freeman and Lange for sending me down the road as an amateur folkie. Fresh out of high school in the early 70's a group of us aspiring young hippies would head across town to the University of Northern Iowa campus in Cedar Falls to listen to Freeman and Lange when they appeared on the "Live From Studio One" radio program at the university-run Public Radio station. They would also put on a show at the student union when they came up from Iowa City to do Studio One. The "Freeman and Lange" album has long been one of my "desert island" choices- probably among my top 5 favorite recordings of all time. It was the first LP I transferred to CD when I got a CD burner (I think the other LP copied on that disc is the Dillards "Roots and Branches"). Northern Lights and Old Wooley still get played pretty regularly in my basement or at open mics around the area. Thank you both from the bottom of my heart for producing such a fine recording.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northern Lights (Don Lange)
From: GUEST,Michael Biggs
Date: 08 Sep 14 - 05:58 PM

Doug,
Thank you for your posting. I loved one of those albums of yours. My older brother must have had one of your albums - long gone - and I played it alot through the mid-70s. Along with Here's to Your Rounders, I learned to play a song that I think was from your duo - I never knew the title, but I call it Aunt Nora. The chours includes the lines 'She was 80 and I was 13' and 'Oh darkies how my heart grows weary for Aunt Nora and the old folks at home.' I guess I am just wondering whether that was indeed from Freeman and Lange or elsewhere. If its yours, know that it has been loved to death for 4o years now. I play it at campfires and for the kids and when I get lonely for the Aunt Noras of my own life. Since I figured it out when I was about 14, I doubt my chord progression is right :)
All the best -

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northern Lights (Don Lange)
From: GUEST,Doug Freeman
Date: 10 May 14 - 03:37 PM

I'd like to thank Chris Winter for the kind words about the work Don and I did so many years ago. Don and I performed all over the mid-west in the early 70's and circumstances fit for
a 'who-done-it' or 'what-the-heck-was-that' type paperback book, sent us different directions just as the album was released. At the time, Bruce had cartons of albums sitting in his Chicago apartment, and they may be there still because, seriously, "what do I do now?"
would have been the question of the day.
    After 40 years, Don and I have been in touch. There have been numerous requests for the album and a re-release with selected additional tracks from a catalog of 100's of songs we both have written since 1975 may actually happen. It's, at least, a serious rumor.
    Don has 3 albums easily obtainable, but the 3 Flying Fish albums (1 by F & L, and 2 by Don)
remain hard to find. The albums that are out there seem to be the original release vinyl records.   I'd like to say - the original release of Northern Lights - is the definitive version of the song.   Thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northern Lights (Don Lange)
From: GUEST,Chris Winter
Date: 14 Mar 13 - 05:22 PM

Freeman & Lange was one of those short-lived musical duos whose work is eternally memorable. (Some others are Loggins & Messina, Seals & Crofts, Brewer & Shipley, Chad & Jeremy, Simon & Garfunkel. It's a long list.)

"Northern Lights" dates from 1975. I heard it in Iowa in the late 1970s. In my memory it's right up there with "Four Strong Winds" (Ian & Sylvia) and "Please Come To Boston" (Dave Loggins). I like an up-beat song as well as anybody; but a song doesn't have to be up-beat to be good.

Incidentally, it can be found on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeT2HKRS88s

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northern Lights (Don Lange)
From: GUEST,Hannah Wiseheart, Somerset UK
Date: 19 May 12 - 06:11 PM

And yes, it was in the Boston area in the 70s. At the time, Rosalie Sorrels and Utah Phillips were at Passims regularly.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Northern Lights (Don Lange)
From: GUEST,Hannah Wiseheart
Date: 19 May 12 - 03:38 PM

I heard Utah Philips sing this. Here is what I remember:

Windy moons and silent hours at the close of day
Pirate schemes and baseball dreams have all been tucked away
And solitude wings through your window like a bird on a summer breeze
And though I'm a thousand miles away, I hear your melodies

I don't wanna say...etc chorus

I've got a long, long road ahead, I've got a lot of things to learn
When good men lie, the fire flies and everyone gets burned
And when that heartache passed through me and doubled back on you
The jester threw away his mask, because his heart was true

Chorus

Hope this helps... I would like to know more, and guitar chords as well. Hannah

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for 'Northern Lights' song
From: Art Thieme
Date: 27 May 09 - 07:47 PM

refish

Subject: Lyr Add: NORTHERN LIGHTS (Don Lange)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 26 May 09 - 09:09 PM

Here is Northern Lights by Mr. Don Lange.(Art)

NORTHERN LIGHTS
(Don Lange)

Wendy moves in silent hours
at the close of day,
Pirate schemes and baseball dreams
Have all been thrown away,
Solitude wings through her window
like a bird on a summer breeze,
And though I'm 1000 miles away I hear her melody.

She has seen her share of sorrow--
she's got the scars to show,
But she always keeps them hidden
so no one ever knows,
The paring knife, the second wife,
the 16 hour day,
When a woman draws on a woman's strength,
a man gets in the way.

(chorus)
I don't want to say I love you--
I saw a sign that said dead end,
I just want to hold you close to me
when loneliness closes in,
I don't want to say I love you,
I don't think I can take that pain,
You were the Northern Lights on a July night
and I was a southbound train,
You were the Northern Lights on that July night,
And I was a southbound train.

I've got a long, long road ahead,
I've got a lot of things to learn,
When good men lie, the fireflies,
Everyone gets burned,
And when the heartache passed through me
and doubled back on you,
The jester put away his mask
because his heart was true.

(chorus)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for 'Northern Lights' song
From: Art Thieme
Date: 26 May 09 - 08:25 PM

Don recorded the song himself on Flying Fish Records I think.

I always liked this song a lot. Don was from Iowa but now lives in Oregon where he grows grapes and makes some pretty fine wine. I did record his fine song "Heres To You Rounders" on my very first LP album called Art Thieme-Outright Boldfaced Lies--Live At The Old Town School Of Folk Music. That was about 1975 or '76. (Kicking Mule Records--KM-150--then out of Berkeley, California)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for 'Northern Lights' song
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 May 09 - 03:55 PM

Allmusic.com says Randy Spencer recorded Don Lange's song NORTHERN LIGHTS on his album "Solid Ground", 2008. That album is available through CD Baby. I transcribed this from a sound sample:

...but she always keeps them hidden so no one ever knows.
The paring knife, the second wife, the sixteen-hour day:
When a woman draws on a woman's strength, a man gets in the way.

I don't want to say...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for 'Northern Lights' song
From: GUEST,EWH
Date: 22 May 09 - 09:03 AM

Thank you, thank you, oldhippie! That sounds totally familiar now.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for 'Northern Lights' song
From: oldhippie
Date: 21 May 09 - 07:16 AM

The song is "Northern Lights"
Artist: Freeman & Lange
Flying Fish #011
1975

The Lange is Don Lange, probably best known for "Take The Children and Run" and "Cargo of Dread".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for 'Northern Lights' song
From: GUEST,EWH
Date: 19 May 09 - 06:38 PM

Jacob --

I would have heard it in the Philadelphia area, and I was quite young, 11 or 12, which would make it 1971 or 72. I THINK the station may have been one of the original "Magic" stations, WMGK or WMGQ, which later morphed into "soft rock" but at the time played a lot of folk.

Yeah, it's been itching at me, too, wmk. I heard it once on a Princeton, NJ folk program as well. thanks for the verse.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for 'Northern Lights' song
From: GUEST,Guest_wmk
Date: 16 May 09 - 09:26 AM

I heard this song on WAMC out of Albany in the late 70's early 80's. I e-mailed the host of the show a couple of years ago but she ignored me. I know a few more lyrics:

"Windy moves and silent hours
At the close of day.
When pirate schemes and baseball dreams
Have all been tucked away.
Then solitude wings through her window
Like a bird on a summer breeze
And though I'm a thousand miles away
I hear her melody"

Chorus as above

I hope someone can find out something about this song, it has been annoying me for years.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for 'Northern Lights' song
From: Jacob B
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 08:56 AM

I remember the song well (but not as well as you.) I'm surprised no one else here seems to know it. Perhaps it was only played in one region. I'm in the Boston area, and would have heard the song played either on WUMB, WERS, or perhaps the old WCAS. Did you hear it on one of those stations?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for 'Northern Lights' song
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Apr 09 - 01:50 PM

All I can do is guess what the title of that song might be. I would go for the most striking images. I would try either NORTHERN LIGHTS or SOUTHBOUND TRAIN. That's not much, I know. The lyrics you have quoted are rather short on striking images or striking figures of speech.

Allmusic.com lists 124 recordings called SOUTHBOUND TRAIN and 377 called NORTHERN LIGHTS. You might try listening to sound samples at Allmusic.com until you hear something that sounds familiar.

Subject: Lyr Req: Looking for 'Northern Lights' song
From: GUEST,EWH
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 08:43 AM

I am looking for a song that probably came out somewhere in the early to mid-seventies. The chorus goes something like this:

"I don't want to say I love you
I saw a sign that said 'dead end;'
I just want to hold you close to me
When loneliness comes again.

I don't want to say I love you
I don't think I can take that pain;
You were the northern lights on a July night,
And I was a southbound train."

Anyone?