Lyr Req: Bessie Quinn

Subject: Lyr Req: Bessie Quinn
From: JenBurdoo
Date: 25 Feb 15 - 08:58 PM

Recently heard a song at a RenFest that I can't parse all the words of. It's somewhere between romantic and sea song:

Hoist up the sails on our bold Bessie Quinn,
And bid ye farewell to our bonnie green shore,
We'll sail away on the idiot (?) wind,
And leave our hearts here as we go off to war

Anybody heard it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bessie Quinn
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 12:18 AM

Hi, Jen -
I found a YouTube medley (click) that has one verse of the song. It begins at 1:39.

This is what I hear:

Hoist up the sails of our bold Bessie Quinn
And bid you farewell to our bonny green shore
We'll sail away on the - - - wind
And leave all our fear (?) as we go off to war.

-Joe-

Subject: ADD: Bold Bessie Quinn (Susan Hickey Csikos)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Feb 15 - 12:27 AM

Hi, Jen -
I found it here:

http://dianelinn.bandcamp.com/track/bold-bessie-quinn

I don't have time to transcribe it tonight. Do you think maybe you could transcribe it and post it in this thread?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bessie Quinn
From: JenBurdoo
Date: 08 Mar 16 - 12:57 PM

I spoke to the authors (Susan and Gregg Csikos) a couple weeks ago at this year's RenFest. The term is indeed "idiot wind," after a Bob Dylan song. I am still working out the chords (they kindly consented to let me record it on Youtube, and I'll post a link eventually) but it is mostly C and D.

In the mist settled over the town
In the grayness where daylight begins
Come stumbling men, with their clothes in their bags,
The crew of the ship Bessie Quinn
And some of them come from their wives
Up early to see the men gone
And some come from alleys, and some from their parents,
But each man goes on board alone

Chorus:
Hoist up the sail of our bold Bessie Quinn
And bid ye farewell to our bonnie green shore
We'll sail away on the idiot wind,
And leave our hearts here, as we go off to war

I met a man while on the quay
With a wife and three daughters in town
And he carries the wallets of four men he's killed
And buried where they can't be found
And a man climbing up on the mast
Sees the crew as they start to arrive
And he can't help but wonder, who'll come home in boxes
And how many will make it alive

Chorus

There is a midshipman on board
Who will not live the trip, it is said
For he's known the love of our second mate's daughter
And some night we know he'll be dead
And the cook's mate is grizzled and hard
They say the sea's 'bittered his life
But I've been on watch when I've heard the man singing
Of the sunny green eyes of his wife

Chorus

Our captain is the best man on board
His fearlessness carries his fame
And he wears the ring of the lady he loves,
But no one as yet knows her name
But once when I cleaned in his room
I remember a letter I've seen
Saying "Thank you for naming your ship after me,
"Your heart's safe and well with the Queen."

Chorus

A mariner once said to me
"Son, you must leave your heart on the shore
"If there's no one you love, give your heart to the sea,
"For you can't take it with you to war."
Now the mist rolls away from the coast,
And the hour of parting is nigh,
And the wind fills the place where my heart used to be
And our sails as we sing our goodbye

Chorus x2