Lyr Req: Rafting Down The Rio (Percy French)

Subject: Lyr Req: Percy French Rafting Down The Rio
From: GUEST,Jim Mc
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 07:06 AM

I borrowed a book about Percy French from the library years ago - found the lyrics to above and wrote a tune to go with it as apparently there was no known tune. I'm wanting to record song but can't find the lyrics now.. does anyone have them??

Starts

Those old Jamaica days......

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Percy French Rafting Down The Rio
From: GUEST,999
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 08:16 AM

It is on p 19 of the book below. I cannot find lyrics but will search further.

Title        Prose, poems and parodies of Percy French
Author        Percy French
Publisher        The Talbot Press, 1929
Original from        Oxford University
Digitized        Jan 22, 2008
Length        204 pages

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Percy French Rafting Down The Rio
From: GUEST,999
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 08:35 AM

Finding no lyrics, but the book should be available through a public library or university library.

University libraries--at least in Canada--are public also, but here they will restrict your right to borrow the book but allow you to park it and either photocopy of hand copy the poem. Best of luck.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Percy French Rafting Down The Rio
From: GUEST,999
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 09:38 AM

That s/r 'photocopy OR hand copy'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rafting Down The Rio (Percy French)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 06:59 PM

Try also:

Percy French and His Songs, edited by James N. Healy (Cork: The Mercier Press, 1966)

Chronicles and Poems of Percy French, edited by Emily Lucy (French) Daly [his sister Mrs. de Burgh Daly] (Dublin, The Talbot Press Limited, 1922)


I tried to piece this together from several snippets. I'm not sure it will be right; lines or verses may be out of order; it may be incomplete, etc.

RAFTING DOWN THE RIO

COME sit beside the fire, old friend,
And dream that bamboo stems
Have risen up around us
'Mid flowers that shine like gems.
And we are back in fairyland,
And thro' the golden haze
We're rafting down the Rio —
In the old Jamaica days.

Oh ! the old Jamaica days !
Faintly through that leafy maze
Comes the croon of Creole melodies
As down the stream one strays;
Till the fireflies sparkle round us
In those darkened water ways,
And we're rafting down the Rio —
In the old Jamaica days.

In those mighty mountain ranges
What memories lie hid,
Through the stricken streets of Kingston
Stalks the ghost of Captain Kidd.
While a phantom Henry Morgan
Sets Port Royal in a blaze,
As we're rafting down the Rio —
In the old Jamaica days.

Oh ! the old Jamaica days !
Faintly through that leafy maze
Comes the croon of Creole melodies
As down the stream one strays;...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rafting Down The Rio (Percy French)
From: MartinRyan
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 07:33 PM

Jim

You have the first three of six verses there (and a stray repeat?). Here's the rest as given in "Songs and Poems by Percy French":

------------------

Oh ! the old Jamaica days !
How we used to lie and laze
And think of people working
As a curious kind of craze
Wear and tear of brain and muscle
How we wondered if it pays
As we rafted down the Rio
In the old Jamaica days

There's a terror in the treetops
And where the shadows brood
For the wild cat and the scorpion
And the snakes are seeking food
The alligators blink at us
From fever-haunted bays
And the woods knew Devil worship -
In those old Jamaica days

Oh! The old Jamaica days!
When the sun's mid-winter rays
Have failed to pierce the fogs that fill
Our murky alley ways
We'll sit beside the fire, old friend,
And as the embers blaze
Go rafting down the Rio-
In the old Jamaica days.


Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rafting Down The Rio (Percy French)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 08:53 PM

Well, this is an interesting find. I love this kind of song, and the world long gone that it attempts to capture.

Thanks!

Love to know what tune you came up with? Is it based on a traditional tune?

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rafting Down The Rio (Percy French)
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Sep 11 - 04:47 PM

Thanks Jim & Martin- that's brilliant...Charley it's an original tune that just seemed to fit those lyrics perfectly- once recorded I'll put up a link - jim

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rafting Down The Rio (Percy French)
From: GUEST,Ciaran
Date: 30 Jun 13 - 08:25 AM

hey

how about that melody line for this song ?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rafting Down The Rio (Percy French)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Jul 13 - 10:21 AM

I went to YouTube and searched for "rafting on the rio" hoping to find the song, and what I actually found were videos of people rafting on the Rio Grande river in Jamaica (among other rivers of the world; there are lots of them whose names start with "Rio—"). I'm guessing the local people have been entertaining tourists this way for generations. The rafts are made of bamboo, and are only about 3 feet wide at the front where the raft-poler stands, wider at the back where the passengers sit. It looks as if it might not have changed much since Percy French's day.

If you want to see what inspired Percy French, watch this or any of these.

There is even a song in this video called "Rafting on de Rio Grande" but I don't think it's Percy French's song; it sounds like it's in Creole.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rafting Down The Rio (Percy French)
From: MartinRyan
Date: 04 Jul 13 - 04:44 PM

I've put out an enquiry on this one to some Percy French enthusiasts. I've never heard it sung - nor even mentioned as song rather than poem.

Regards