Songs of Bill Gallaher

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 May 16 - 12:09 AM

In doing cleanup, I'm coming across Bill Gallaher songs scattered all over the forum. 'Twould be a shame for them to be lost, so I'm going to post copies here. Feel free to post other Bill Gallaher songs here, too.
Thanks.
-Joe-

Subject: ADD: Male Bonding Song (Bill Gallaher)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 May 16 - 12:12 AM

This seems like an appropriate song to start with.

Thread #126747   Message #2819584
Posted By: Big Mick
23-Jan-10 - 12:15 PM
Thread Name: BS: Mudcat MEN joint bonding session!
Subject: ADD: Male Bonding Song (Bill Gallaher)

A few years back I did Bill Gallaher's wonderful song at The Getaway, entitled The Male Bonding Song, the lyrics to which I proudly reproduce below. This is now a music thread, ***chuckle***:

MALE BONDING SONG
(Words & Music by Bill Gallaher © 1995 From The Last Battle CD BGM 1002)

When we learned, it was a shocking re-ve-lation      
That somehow as men we simply hadn't grown So we looked at all you women, and your pride in feminism,         
And we started up a movement of our own.
Now we are men, and proud to be men;
We meet every Sa-tur-day at three;
And we ex-plore with great per-sis-tence,
Our mas-cu-line existence,            
Beat our drums, and run off naked through the trees.

Chorus:
Oh we all go running naked through the trees,
As naked as a jaybird, if you please.
Oh we throw off all our wrappings, and with private parts a flapping,
We all go running naked through the trees!

Yes, every weekend we all meet deep in the forest,
Where we beat our drums and fashion spears from trees;
And with our faces painted, we all get re-acquainted
With our atavistic masculinity.
For we are men and proud to be men,
We meet every Saturday at three;
And we flaunt with great pretension
Those long penile extensions,
As we all go running naked through the trees... Chorus

I guess we spent too long pretending we were something we were not,
While we hid our inner turmoil and our strife;
You thought we had a bed of roses though we stood with runny noses,
Pressed up hard against the window pane of life.
Now we are men and damn proud to be men,
We meet every Saturday at three;
And if you think it's just depravity,
You don't know what it's like to be,
A man gone running naked through the trees (It hurts!)...Chorus

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 May 16 - 12:14 AM

Not wanting to be outdone by Big Mick, Charley Noble posted his transcription of the same song, with chords.

Thread #33310   Message #443430
Posted By: Charley Noble
18-Apr-01 - 11:33 AM
Thread Name: Bawdy songs for women to sing
Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: MALE BONDING SONG

I's really like to see the words posted for The Feminist Sea Shanty - Hurrah For Toy Boys!

As for my contribution there's The Male Bonding Song, lost somewhere admist recent threads which runs:

MALE BONDING SONG
(Words & Music by Bill Gallaher © 1995 From The Last Battle CD BGM 1002)

 
 G                                      C 
 When we learned, it was a shocking re-ve-lation 
       D                                         G 
 That somehow as men we simply hadn't grown;
                              G7                 C 
 So we looked at all you women, and your pride in feminism,
           D7                               G 
 And we started up a movement of our own.
        C  D  G         C            D 
 Now we are men, and proud to be men;
      G           C              D 
 We meet every Sa-tur-day at three;
               G                         G7 
 And we ex-plore with great per-sis-tence,
       C 
 Our mas-cu-line existence,
            D                                           G 
 Beat our drums, and run off naked through the trees.
 
 Chorus:
 G                                                C 
 Oh, we all go running naked through the trees,
     D                             G 
 As naked as a jaybird, if you please,
                                G7 
 Oh, we throw off all our wrappings,
              C 
 And with private parts a-flapping,
       D                                     G 
 We all go running naked through the trees!
 

Yes, every weekend we all meet deep in the forest,
Where we beat our drums and fashion spears from trees;
And with our faces painted, we all get re-acquainted
With our atavistic masculinity.
For we are men and proud to be men,
We meet every Saturday at three;
And we flaunt with great pretension
Those long penile extensions,
As we all go running naked through the trees...

I guess we spent too long pretending we were something we were not,
While we hid our inner turmoil and our strife;
You thought we had a bed of roses though we stood with runny noses,
Pressed up hard against the window pane of life.
Now we are men and damn proud to be men,
We meet every Saturday at three;
And if you think it's just depravity,
You don't know what it's like to be,
A man gone running naked through the trees (It hurts!)...

Subject: ADD: The Last Battle (Bill Gallaher)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 May 16 - 12:17 AM

We put this one in the Rise Again Songbook. Great song.

Thread #42509   Message #618373
Posted By: Mark Cohen
29-Dec-01 - 10:36 PM
Thread Name: Folklore: Wounded Knee Anniversary
Subject: Lyr Add: THE LAST BATTLE (Bill Gallaher)

Bill Gallaher's song "The Last Battle" was recorded by Gordon on In the Kind Land, as well as by Bill and Jake Galbraith on "The Grand Illusion". Here are the words, as transcribed from Bill and Jake's tape; I don't think they're in the DT.

Aloha,
Mark


THE LAST BATTLE
(Bill Gallaher)

An east wind blew in the storms of time
Where the Métis lived by the winding river
For on a steel rail the settlers came
To the south Saskatchewan and the land they claimed

[CHORUS]
Oh come, Riel, we'll make a stand
Here at Batoche beside the river
Oh never mind their Gatling guns
If we lose this time, we've lost forever

Then three Métis and Gabriel
Rode like the wind to wild Montana
And on the sweet grass in a church of stone
They found their savior and they took him home

[CHORUS] Saying, "Come, Riel..."

Then the bullets flew and the cannons roared
And the Métis blood flowed like a river
Into the coulis where they ran to hide
It washed their dreams away and their spirits died

[CHORUS]

Then a silence stole across the land
The drums of war were gone forever
But in the starlight on the barren plains
The cry of Gabriel flies on the wind

[CHORUS x2]

---

Thread #86895   Message #1620442
Posted By: Big Mick
05-Dec-05 - 11:09 AM
Thread Name: Tune Req: Baptiste's Lament (Metis music)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Baptiste's Lament (Metis music)

First off, the Metis were much more than "Scots Indians". The origins of the nation were that they mixed with many of European blood. For a brief primer on these folks, go HERE. Also, a google search using "Metis Nation" will turn up many links to organizations that likely can help you, including the Canadian National organization as well as Provincial organizations. My guess is that by using these sites as a stepping off point for inquiries, you will find your answers very quickly.

As an aside, Jeri turned me on to a singer by the name of Bill Gallaher who did a splendid song about the Metis called "The Last Battle". It has become one that I am often asked to sing.

Good luck and all the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 May 16 - 12:31 AM

GEST has a number of Bill Gallaher songs:

http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/agallaher.htm

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 May 16 - 12:33 AM

Thread #73684   Message #1280126
Posted By: Big Mick
24-Sep-04 - 01:35 PM
Thread Name: BS: Hitler's normal voice
Subject: RE: BS: Hitler's normal voice

From The Ballad of Ginger Goodwin by Bill Gallaher:

There are those that say that evil was Ginger Goodwin's middle name...
I know there's villains and there's heroes, sometimes they are just the same.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: GUEST,Bill Gallaher
Date: 19 Oct 16 - 06:30 PM

Pleased to see some of you folks are singing my songs. It's very much appreciated and if anybody wants chords and lyrics to any of them, just email me at [e-mail] and I will happily send you whatever you like, no charge.

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: GUEST,Mg
Date: 20 Oct 16 - 02:46 PM

I think the ones I likelike the best are about the dust storms...I think there was more than one.

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: Fred Maslan
Date: 30 Oct 16 - 01:37 PM

I recently learned Bills' song "Three dollar Dreams" about coal mining on Vancouver Island. Coal was also a major industry in Washington state around Seattle. We have Coal Creek, Newport, Black Diamoond and Ravensdale. There was a mining disaster in Ravensdale in 1915 when 35 miners were lost. Mining continued as late as 1975. Ravensdale is the new location of Rainy Camp the Seattle Song Circle Camp held this year January 27-29.

Fred

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: GUEST,Bill Sykes
Date: 25 May 18 - 05:39 PM

Can anyone help with the rest of the words for 'Three Dollar Dreams'

I remember the chorus but I can only remember snippets of lines from the verses.

Chorus:

Three dollar dreams kept them down in the mines
Down underground where the sun never shines
Down underground drilling dirty black seams
Of diamond hard coal just for three dollar dreams

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 May 18 - 12:16 PM

Here's another Bill Gallaher song, in tribute to the Pacific Northwest rumrunners in the 1920s:

Words and Music by Bill Gallaher ©SOCAN, 1991
With a few word changes by Charlie Ipcar, 2017
Key: D (2/C)
Shadow Boats
A G D D
------D---------------A7-----------D-----D------------G-------------A7------------D----D
I remember, just south of the line,       when the law up and closed all the bars,

---------G-------------A7-------------D-------------G---------------------D---------------G--------------A---A
Them government people made some folks so thirsty, they were drinking their whiskey from jars;

--------D---------A7-------D-----D-------G--------------A7-----------D----D
Just another American Plan,       so down from the Island we'd run

---G-------------A7-----------------D------------G--------------D-----------G-----------------A----A
Dodging the driftwood, the police and the bullets, when out of the nighttime we'd come,

-----------G-------------A-------------D----D
With a boat-load of whiskey and rum!


Chorus:

-------G-------------G------------D------------D------------A---------A---------D----D7
We flew on the night sea so fast that we outran those blazing American guns,

----------G--------------G---------------D------------D----------------A---------------G--------------D—D-A-G-D-D
And it wasn't for the money or the rum or the whiskey, it was making those shadow boats run!

--------D-------------A7---------D-----D---------G-------------A7---------D----D
Like shadows we ran in the night,       with no moon to speak of at all,

-----------G-------------A7----------------D---------------G------------D------------G----------------A----A
And respect was the first thing you learned, for the sea has its own way to make you feel small;

-------D--------------A7-------D----D-------G--------A7-----------D-----D
It'll grab you and never let go,          as fast as a dog grabs a bone,

---------------G-------------A7------------D--------------G-----------------D----------G----------------A----A
With her rip tides and currents and waves just like mountains, that tear into white sheets of foam;

--------G-----------A----------D----D
It's a wonder we ever made home.               (CHO)

----------------D-------------------A7------------D-----D-----------------G---------------A7-------------D----D
They were good times those times that we had,         though we knew we were breaking the rules,

--------G-----------A7--------------D-----------G-----------D-----------G--------------A----A
But some rules, you know, are made to be broken, by rebels and rum-running fools;

----------D------------A7--------------D----D-------------G-------A7-----------D-----D
Now I often look back on those years,          there's little ahead that remains,

----------G---------------A7-------D------------G---------D-------G------A------A
And if time weren't a river and I had the chance, I'd do it all over again,

--------G-------------A-----------D----D
The same way we did it back then!                (CHO x2)

Inspired by the book Rumrunner – The Life and Times of Johnny Schnarr by Marion Parker and Robert Tyrell, Orca Book Pub, 1988.

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: mg
Date: 10 Jul 18 - 05:15 PM

does anyone know the one about the Mexican/Central American woman? I do not see it on his cd song list..I have heard it sung in music camps.

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: GUEST,Fred Maslan
Date: 12 Jul 18 - 11:19 PM

I remember one year at Singtime Frolics, one woman was writing down the names of the songwriters as we sang in a circle and some of the songs were "the Last Battle","Fishing With John" Lunenburg Town" "the Gift of the Sea" "Augustus and Katherine".And this flabergasted woman just sat there with her mouth open blown away by the realization that every other song seemed to be by Bill Gallaher.

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Apr 20 - 01:22 AM

Anybody have full lyrics to "Three Dollar Dreams"? Fred Maslan sang it tonight.

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: cnd
Date: 26 Apr 20 - 11:45 AM

Doesn't appear to be available online, Joe, but you can find the text lyrics in Canadian Folk Music, Vol. 26 Issue 4 (Winter 1992), or audio on Bill's CD The Last Battle or a compilation CD of the same name with Bill and Jake Galbrath.

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: GUEST,Fred Maslan
Date: 26 Apr 20 - 04:15 PM

Three Dollar Dreams
by Bill Gallaher

Oh they came from the lowland those hungry young men
And England's black country they'd not see again
They were traveling light, some traveled lean
With nothing but three dollar dreams

And they sailed the great oceans through gales of the horn
Wwhere some of the men wished they'd never been born
And all that they hoped for, and all of their schemes
were nothing but three dollar dreams

chorus:
Three dollar dreams kept them down in the mines
Down underground where the sun never shines
Down underground digging dirty black seams
Of diamond hard coal just for three dollar dreams

And those men went down in the mines every day
But old men came up as their dreams slipped away
Only a working man knows what it means
To be living on three dollar dreams

But dreams are for young men, they're still dreaming yet
While old men juust take anything they can get
And often a glass or two eases the pain
Remembering three dollar dreams

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 May 20 - 11:55 PM

Anybody have lyrics to "Lunenburg Town"

Bill Gallaher
Fare you well, Old Lunenburg Town,
You’re a sight to behold with your ships of renown
No Friendlier people, have ever I’ve found,
and its fare you well Lunenburg town

There were times when your merchant men sailed the world’s oceans
From Maine to the South Seas and ports in between
And tall ships at anchor, way down in the harbor
A forest of masts would be seen

You built the best of the best Grand Banks Schooners
One so damn fast, she left others behind
There was no ship could catch her, though they tried their best
Now she sails down the years on a dime

Men still recall when the fish were so plenty
When the dorymen hauled in the long liners trawl
Boats got so big, they went further to sea
And left too many men on the dole


The day came too soon, when the nets hauled up empty
like the pockets of dorymen left on the shore
Now your merchantmen sell souvenirs in the harbor
To those who have come to explore

Now your heart and your soul is a warm summer evening
When you gather like old friends upon the high ground
Songs fill the night and reach over the water
With a fare you well Lunenburg town

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Jul 20 - 03:21 PM

Fred Maslan sang "Gift of the Sea" at the singaround today. Anybody got the lyrics?

Subject: RE: Songs of Bill Gallaher
From: GUEST,Jack Cole
Date: 16 Jul 20 - 06:07 PM

GIFT OF THE SEA       Bill Gallaher © SOCAN 1994

Old Jim was a dreamer, a deep-water sailor
Slim as a buntline, spare as a breeze
He filled my head up with songs about whalers
And tales of the South China Seas
We’d walk down the quay, old Jim and me
While the moon sailed a quicksilver sea
With me just an aimless and foolish young man
And Jim all the things I could be

The sea was his life; he knew all of its vices
Lost count of the times that he sailed round the Horn
To ports in the Far East for tea and for spices –
And all this before I was born
He chased down the whales through the ice and the gales
When he sailed the cold Kamchatka Sea
Though I was an aimless and foolish young man
I remember what Jim said to me

“You can worry like some
That your ship might go down
But there’s more ways than one
That a man has to drown
He can drown in his troubles and fears
Drown in his sorrow and tears”

Old Jim is long gone now, he’s hauled up his anchor
Sails by the wind out on some starry sea
But I still hear him say as he nods his head seaward
“Out there even poor men are free”
Now sometimes at night when the moon’s on the rise
And I’m anchored in some island’s lee
I think of old Jim and the times that we shared
When he gave me the gift of the sea

(From the Bill Gallaher Songbook. Chords given are in G.)