Discuss: Unicorns song (Caddiick)

Subject: Lyr Req: Unicorns song
From: GUEST,cujimmy
Date: 01 Jul 14 - 08:01 PM

Anyone got a link to the lyrics or even better a youtube link to John Wilson singing a song about Unicorns, such a lovely song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unicorns song
From: Susan of DT
Date: 01 Jul 14 - 08:15 PM

There are several songs about unicorns in the Digital Tradition. Here are some:
(Green Alligators) Unicorns
dreamed there were Unicorns
Last Unicorn
Seeing/Believing Unicorn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unicorns song
From: GUEST,#
Date: 01 Jul 14 - 09:24 PM

I betcha Roy Harris will know the song title.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unicorns song
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 01 Jul 14 - 11:27 PM

Are you referring to the Bill Caddick song?

Subject: ADD: Unicorns Song (Bill Caddick)
From: JHW
Date: 02 Jul 14 - 07:29 AM

Yes it comes from Bill Caddick. I heard him sing it at the Bacca Pipes FC a year or two ago.
The original text is I guess as noted above (here) where the title is given as 'I Dreamed There Were Unicorns' but I've always known it as plain 'Unicorns'.
I learned it subconsciously from Viv Bjerregaard having heard her sing it many times. Some words may have changed in her singing and again as I sang it from what I remembered. That's the way songs go. I sing 'I dreamed I saw a unicorn' an individual.
It is a magical song I'm very fond of but am afraid I haven't recorded. The change from Am up to A (as I do it) for the chorus is shivery.
I can only record analogue but maybe I could youtube it when I meet up with friends with the right gear.

I have tapestry of a unicorn from Loches, France on my bedside table.

UNICORNS SONG
(Bill Caddick)

We were travelling North to sing and play
And be with friends we'd never met
Been working hard and couldn't sleep
The sky was grey and threatened wet
I dreamed I saw a Unicorn, dreamed I saw him wild and white
His restles beauty filled the world
Like the star that lights the winter's night

He danced and pranced around
Soft as a rainbow round a star
His eyes were soft and sad
And cried

So I wept for the wild and dirty world
To which such beauty now was lost
Cursed the hungry hand of man
That robbed the future at such cost
My head was bowed, my eyes were closed
But in my ears the voices rang
These few words ran deep inside
To my very soul it cried

We never went away
You always knew that we were near,
Remember where to look for us,
You know we were always here

So I raised my eyes to sek them out
But the world was empty all around
Rain cme tumbling from the clouds
To was all dreams into the ground
But when they asked me Why I wept
Like one who for a dead love mourns
The only answer I could give
I dreamed that there were Unicorns

We never went away
You always knew that we were near,
Remember where to look for us,
You know we were always here

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unicorns song
From: GUEST,Cujimmy
Date: 03 Jul 14 - 02:25 AM

yes thats the one JHW thankyou

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unicorns song
From: Howard Jones
Date: 03 Jul 14 - 03:51 AM

I believe the second line is "For friends that we had never met" (as given in the lyric database). The song was written by Bill about a dream he had while travelling to a gig, and I think the original words give a slightly clearer sense of that, and also convey very concisely the nature of the folk scene and the intimate relationship between performer and audience

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unicorns song
From: JHW
Date: 03 Jul 14 - 07:06 AM

Thanks for the Bill dream story. In a way I'm sorry as I thought it was sheer invention. Rather than existing friends that we had never met physically (song well before social media) I'd always taken this as heading to meet up with completely unknown folks who would become freinds.
Reading words as a poem gives time to consider and interpret the finer detail. When sung the audience has to take the overall song on board as fast as it is sung so I'm always careful with phrasing and timing and I do alter songs to try and help assimilation though that can only go as far as I understand the song myself. I haven't consciously altered this one but I'll have another look at the original.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unicorns song
From: GUEST,#
Date: 03 Jul 14 - 08:12 AM

http://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=2818

It is also in the DT.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unicorns song
From: Howard Jones
Date: 03 Jul 14 - 08:49 AM

JHW, I understand Bill's original line in exactly the same way - they were on their way to play to an audience of people they had never met but whom they already thought of as friends. To me that sums up very neatly and concisely the special intimacy of folk clubs.

Singers alter songs, both consciously and unconsciously. It's important to make a song personal to you. Some changes don't really matter and may even help if it makes it easier for you to deliver the song. However when the writer has come up with a carefully worded and apposite phrase (as I think this one is) I think a change should be avoided if possible, and only be made after very careful consideration.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unicorns song
From: GUEST,wassail
Date: 03 Jul 14 - 07:19 PM

I passed this thread onto Bill last night, and he thought he'd replied with the lyrics. He seems to be having problems posting though. I'll let him know....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unicorns song
From: JHW
Date: 11 Aug 14 - 06:28 AM

John Wilson singing Unicorns

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unicorns song
From: JHW
Date: 25 Aug 14 - 06:32 AM

Refreshed for the benefit of Guest cujimmy if he's still around

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unicorns song
From: GUEST,Guest Betsy
Date: 25 Aug 14 - 07:30 AM

June Tabor (recording ?). sings an absolutely wonderful version of this beautiful song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unicorns song
From: GUEST,cujimmy
Date: 25 Aug 14 - 07:12 PM

Yes Im still here John (just back from Whitby), thanks for the lyrics and other information about the song, best regards - cuj