Lyr Add: The Violin (Tom Bliss)

Subject: Lyr Add: The Violin (Tom Bliss)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 May 21 - 03:47 PM

Sung beautifully by Shlomo Caine

THE VIOLIN

I was built in a back street in Salzburg,
In a dusty and candle-lit room,
By hands that understood music,
And timber and varnish and glue.
With a lifetime of skill in his fingers,
He stroked the first notes from my strings,
And my voice sallied out in the darkness,
And my soul first unfolded its wings.

And I was dancing, I was singing,
But my story is locked in my soul.
I can laugh to your tune, cry for the moon,
But my silence sings loudest of all,
My silence sings loudest of all.

The star on the door told the story,
And he knew that the blackshirts would call.
When they dragged him away to the station
They snaffled me down off the wall.
Yes I played for their parties in Paris,
Where the jackboots kept time to the beat.
It was polkas and waltzes and mazurkas,
As all Europe lay bruised at their feet.

When the Allies rolled down into Paris,
The band made a run for the east.
But with a gun in the hands that had loved me,
My trooper fired back till the last.
Then a lad from the Kentucky mountains
Nicked his wallet, his watch and then me,
And the bluegrass was burning for Danville
In the barracks and down the NAAFI.

And with the peace I was back on the market,
Well, he’d a perfectly good fiddle at home.
I changed hands for two crates of Marlboro
And all over Europe did roam.
Then one rainy November in London,
With three silver balls,
A man noticed the price on my label
‘You’ll do for my lad’ he said.

http://pnwfolklore.org/wp-nwhoot/index.php/2019/07/26/fiddle-musings-by-stewart-hendrickson/

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Violin (Tom Bliss)
From: Stewart
Date: 19 May 21 - 11:04 AM

Tom Bliss Videos
http://tombliss.co.uk/

Thanks, Joe for posting this

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Violin (Tom Bliss)
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 21 - 11:50 AM

" With three silver balls overhead"

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Violin (Tom Bliss)
From: leeneia
Date: 22 May 21 - 12:05 AM

What do you mean, Guest? The three balls are a sign for a pawn shop.
==========
Thanks for this deeply moving song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Violin (Tom Bliss)
From: GUEST,JoeG
Date: 22 May 21 - 05:21 AM

Tom is a superb songwriter and performer. Do checkout his other songs

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Violin (Tom Bliss)
From: GUEST
Date: 24 May 21 - 06:21 AM

"With three silver balls overhead" is the complete 6th line in the last verse. The violin was found in a London pawn shop.