Lyr Req: The Time of Man (Travis Edmonson)

Subject: Once was the time of man
From: GUEST,Brummie Texan
Date: 11 Nov 00 - 07:08 PM

I long to find the lyrics for a 60s folk song, which I heard in Texas about 1963. The refrain was something like 'Once was the time of man', and I think it started with "Once there were trees but now there are none". Please can anyone help? I note that mudcat lists a song "Once there were greenfields ...", which sounds about right, but I could not bring up the text for that song. If you know anything, please say. Thanks ver

Subject: Lyr Add: ONCE WAS THE TIME OF MAN
From: Allan C.
Date: 11 Nov 00 - 07:33 PM

The Limeliters had it on an early album. It has always been a favorite of mine. I am not 100% sure of the lyrics and I keep feeling that there is another verse. But here is as much as I recall.

CHORUS: Once there were trees and a river
Once there was grass where you stand
Once there were songs about rights instead of wrongs
Once was the time of man

Grass doesn't grow on the hillside
Trees shrink and die in the sun
No place to hide my little baby's eyes
From the damage the dead have done

CHORUS

They didn't know in the old times
The earth and the seas were to share
They didn't know in the old times
For there...

Once were trees and a river
Once there was grass where you stand
Once there were songs about rights instead of wrongs
Once was the time of man
Once was the time of man

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 3-Aug-02.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once was the time of man
From: John Hindsill
Date: 11 Nov 00 - 07:51 PM

Guest, BT:

The song you are looking for was written by Travis Edmonson (of Bud & T fame), but the lyrics are not published on the B&T web page. I guess they never recorded it together.

"Once..." was recorded by The Limeliters. It is not to be confused with "Greenfields".

Good luck---John

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once was the time of man
From: John Hindsill
Date: 11 Nov 00 - 07:57 PM

Whoops, I started a reply, but got sidetracked by the UCLA football game; by the time I got back to finish it, Allan C. had beat me. Those lyrics seem substantially right as I recall the song.---John

Subject: Chords Add: ONCE WAS THE TIME OF MAN
From: Allan C.
Date: 11 Nov 00 - 07:59 PM

The chords are repetitive. I haven't learned how to post them so that they land in the right places; but maybe you can figure them out. I will post them line by line for the chorus and the first verse:

A, C#m, Bm, E

A, C#m, Bm, E

A, C#m, Bm, E

A, G, A

Am, Em

Am, Em, Am

Am, Em

Am, Em, Am

On the transition into the last chorus, use an A on the second word of: for there...

Hope this helps.

Allan C.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once was the time of man
From: GUEST,Brummie Texian
Date: 12 Nov 00 - 05:07 PM

THANK YOU VERY, VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP !!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once was the time of man
From:
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 09:54 PM

This is a cool forum. Thanks for the leads.

I remember hearing it at camp as a kid something like this:

Once there were trees and a river
Once there was grass where you stand
Once there were songs of his rights instead of wrongs
Once was the time of Man

We heard them coming like thunder
They roared through the heavens above
Then suddenly it was over
If only man had learned to love

CHORUS

then my memory fades to something like

The wolves, they howl the city streets at night now
........cries
from this and more, i hide my baby's eyes...

CHORUS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once was the time of man
From: Allan C.
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 10:09 PM

Thanks, Douglas! I had quite forgotten the "thunder" lines. I have never heard the bit about the wolves. But then, I have only ever heard the Limelighters' version.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once was the time of man
From: GUEST,Ian G
Date: 26 Dec 05 - 08:35 PM

Not too sure about the verse described by DouglasStrauss above:

We heard them coming like thunder
They roared through the heavens above
Then suddenly it was over
If only man had learned to love

My recollection of that verse is:

We heard them coming like thunder
We saw the cloud rise at dawn
Then came the rain as we watched and prayed in vain
Then all was still, all was done

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once was the time of man
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 31 Dec 05 - 03:08 PM

Mac Davis wrote a song called ONCE WAS THE TIME OF MAN. It's on two of his albums, "Losers" (1984), and "A Man Don't Cry" (1995). "Losers has been reissued as "Vol XC/Losers."

However, I'm not sure this is the same song. I was unable to find any lyrics or sound samples.

Subject: ADD: Once Was the Time of Man
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jan 06 - 07:42 AM

I transcribed this by ear from The Slightly Fabulous Limeliters CD, with help from Allan's transcription above. As you can see, I had some problems.

The Time of Man
(Travis Edmonson)

CHORUS:
Once there were trees and a river
Once there was grass where you stand
Once there were songs about rights instead of wrongs
Once was the time of man

We heard the humming like thunder,
We saw the cloud rise at dawn.
Then came the rain as we watched and prayed in vain,
Then all was still, all was gone


CHORUS:
Once there were trees and a river
Once there was grass where you stand
Once there were songs about rights instead of wrongs
Once was the time of man

Grass doesn't grow on the hillside,
Trees shrink and die in the sun.
No place to hide my little baby's eyes
From the damage the dead have done.


CHORUS:
Once there were trees and a river
Once there was grass where you stand
Once there were songs about rights instead of wrongs
Once was the time of man


They didn't know in the old times
The earth and the seas were to share.
They didn't know in the old times
For there...

Once were trees and a river
Once there was grass where you stand
Once there were songs about rights instead of wrongs
Once was the time of man
Once was the time of man

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once Was the Time of Man
From: GUEST,saulgoldie
Date: 11 Jan 06 - 12:15 PM

Fantastic! This song was out of my consciousness, since it is (safely) stored on vinyl, which I have not pled any of for years. Think ahmonna add it to the old repertoire. Mudcat is the BEST!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once Was the Time of Man
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jan 06 - 03:03 PM

I found a very nice Travis Edmonson recording of the song here (click). Apparently, Bud & Travis sang this song on the floor of the U.S. Congress, and it was entered into the Congressional Record.
The Edmonson recording isn't the same as the Limeliters, but it helped me understand a couple of parts that were unclear in the Limeliters recording - most notably, the phrase must be:

all was still, all was gone

I made corrections in the lyrics I posted above.
-Joe-

Subject: Lyr Add: THE TIME OF MAN (Travis Edmonson)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jan 06 - 07:14 PM

The Time of Man
(Travis Edmonson)

The grass doesn't grow on the hillside,
Trees shrink and die in the sun.
No place to hide my little baby's eyes
From the damage the dead have done.

Once there were trees and a river,
Once there was grass where you stand,
Once there were songs about rights instead of wrongs,
Once was the time of man.

We heard the humming like thunder,
We saw the cloud rise at dawn.
Then came the rain, and we watched and prayed in vain,
Then all was still, all was gone.

They didn't know in the old time
The earth and the seas were to share.
They didn't know in the old time
Or care.

Transcribed from the Reprise recording Travis on his Own, Travis Edmonson (click), available online. I think this is the entire song, but maybe there's a very good job of editing on the sound clip.

Subject: Lyr Req: THE TIME OF MAN (Travis Edmonson)
From: GUEST,Chantal
Date: 31 Jan 06 - 11:12 AM

Hi Everyone!

Joe's link was to Travis Edmonson's website at www.travisedmonson.com, where you'll not only hear the song sung, but also a recitation by Travis of the poem which he always did when performing it. The words (below) are great, but just LISTEN to him speak it. It was originally written about nuclear matters, but sounds even more appropriate today with not only a myriad of environmental threats, but the old nuclear issues still hanging around. (Iraq? Iran?)

Hear the recitation at
http://www.travisedmonson.com/time.htm

And both are available on CD from his album "Travis On His Own." All proceeds go directly to Travis, who's been paralysed since a stroke in 1982, and who is now also coping with advanced Parkinson's Disease. Info about all the Bud & Travis CDs at above website.

Warm regards

Chantal

THE TIME OF MAN

It's not nice to speak of troubles that happen in our time,
Or to mention the contention that we're slipping as we climb.

But I'd like to take this moment here and now to share a thought
That might not mean much now, but later on, might mean a lot.

Think of the house you grew up in, and the block and the town and the state.
Think of the people you knew there, and the taste of the food that you ate.
Think of the places you've travelled and the things that you've seen that were great.
Think of those things that you love right now, because memory always comes late.

The things that we take for granted like the sky and our friends and the sea;
Everything that you know that's clean and everything that's free.
Because all of these things have been frozen in time and cheated in history.
We're dooming these things to die, and pretending not to see.
We're ringing down the curtain on life By ignoring catastrophe.

The sabre tooth tiger, the mastodon and man. All extinct.
And now, you and I will be known as the link that missed. Not the missing link.

And what will be left if it comes to that of the things that we have known?
A molten earth? A shoreless sea? A powdery dust to be blown
Out beyond the planets where the other dead stars are blown?

Now, think back to those things we were trying to recall.
And think of those same places and things without any life at all.

A little rag doll, lying still in the dust.
A guitar in the corner, muted with rust.

A rattling rose bush dead by the door,
A half-broken comb grinning up from the floor.

A paper-strewn floor, shifting round in the wind,
Half covered with glass where the windows blew in.

A ghost town where there was once money and mirth?
No, this is what's come to be called a ghost earth.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Once was the time of man
From: GUEST,Susan
Date: 07 Apr 10 - 03:09 PM

These are the lyrics I learned from my mom...

~
Once there were trees and a river
Once there was grass where you stand
Once there were songs about rights instead of wrongs
Once was the time of man.

We didn't know in the old times
The Earth and the sea were to share
We didn't know in the old times...
Or care.

We heard the humming like thunder
We saw the clouds rise at dawn
Then came the rain and watched and prayed in vain
And then all was still, all was gone.

-chorus-

Grass doesn't grow on the hillside
Trees shrink and die in the sun
Nowhere to hide my sweet little baby's eyes
From the damage the dead have done.

-chorus-
~

I noticed that none of you had the first bit about 'not knowing in the old days', aka before the war...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Time of Man (Travis Edmonson)
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Nov 17 - 05:44 AM

Thanks everyone. I too had vague memories of this song, and now that I'm finally learning to play the guitar, it is good to know the author and the lyrics