Lyr ADD: Rosemary's Sister (Huw Williams)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rosemary's Sister (Huw Williams)
From: DaveRo
Date: 10 Nov 21 - 09:36 AM

I think 'Rosemary' and 'Bethnal' cleverly evoke the period and place in just two words. Rosemary sounds old-fashioned; I just looked it up and it was at its most popular in the 40s.

Bethnal St conjures up the East End (to anyone who has a passing knowledge of London, anyway) so you can picture the kind of house Rosemary and her sister would have been sleeping in, and have seen the contemporary newsreels of bomb damage in the East End.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rosemary's Sister (Huw Williams)
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 10 Nov 21 - 08:42 AM

According to my mother, - if you could hear the V-1, you knew you were safe. When the engine stopped, ie fell silent, then it would fall. So that also might have the point Huw Williams was trying to put across.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rosemary's Sister (Huw Williams)
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 10 Nov 21 - 08:20 AM

Well spotted, SPB-C! The V-1 Doodle-Bug’s engines were very noisy, and thus announced their arrival, whereas the V-2s travelled much faster and higher, and were virtually inaudible.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rosemary's Sister (Huw Williams)
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 10 Nov 21 - 08:01 AM

The first verse refers to 'No-one heard the one that hit' V-2s. The first site was in Stavely Road. Not trying to detract from a superb, moving song, but adding some historical context and an interesting coincidence.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rosemary's Sister (Huw Williams)
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 10 Nov 21 - 07:56 AM

”It’s fairly common knowledge that the line, “The Doodle-Bugs were flying, the Blitz was at its height” is chronologically incorrect.”

Chronologically impossible!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rosemary's Sister (Huw Williams)
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 10 Nov 21 - 07:54 AM

It’s fairly common knowledge that the line, “The Doodle-Bugs were flying, the Blitz was at its height” is chronologically incorrect. The Blitz began in September 1940 and ended in May 1941. The first V1 (‘Doodle-Bug’) attack took place in June 1944.

I’m sure I’ve read where Huw Williams acknowledged this inaccuracy, which was a piece of ‘poetic licence’ in order to suit the flow of the lyrics.

https://www.eastlondonhistory.co.uk/v1-v2-rocket-attacks-east-london/

https://www.britannica.com/event/the-Blitz

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rosemary's Sister (Huw Williams)
From: DaveRo
Date: 10 Nov 21 - 07:14 AM

But not in Bethnal Street. And the song mention the V-1 "doodle bug".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rosemary's Sister (Huw Williams)
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 10 Nov 21 - 05:48 AM

The first V2 rocket hit London on 8th September 1944. Nineteen people were injured and 3 killed, including 3 year-old Rosemary Clarke.

First V2 Info

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rosemary's Sister (Huw Williams)
From: GUEST,#
Date: 07 Jun 21 - 06:01 PM

https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/fairport-convention/rosemarys-sister-chords-281021

Fairport's chords at that link.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rosemary's Sister (Huw Williams)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Jun 21 - 05:44 PM

Joe - do some cleanup

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rosemary's Sister
From: GUEST,Grandad9
Date: 13 Dec 15 - 07:57 AM

Simon Nicoll from Fairport does a fine rendition of the song on his solo album.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rosemary's Sister
From: GUEST,#
Date: 12 Dec 15 - 11:23 AM

If you google

Mother of disaster and sister of our fate, chords

and you'll have many to choose from.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rosemary's Sister
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 12 Dec 15 - 10:27 AM

Does anyone ou there have chords for Rosemary's Sister?

Thx,

PAul

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rosemary's Sister
From: GUEST,Tam
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 09:26 PM

Dear bill/sables,

THANK-YOU!

Tam

Subject: Lyr Add: ROSEMARY'S SISTER (Huw Williams)
From: bill\sables
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 07:38 PM

ROSEMARY'S SISTER
Huw Williams
As recorded by Fairport Convention on “Journeyman's Grace” (2005)

Mother of disaster and sister of our fate,
Do you count the tragedies we see?
Father of confusion and brother of debate,
Do you recall the sister of Rosemary?
The doodle bugs were flying; the blitz was at its high.
Rosemary lay sleeping with her sister only five,
And no one heard the one that hit, the one that blew the lid.
But Rosemary came out crying and her sister never did.

CHORUS: And you fly high, and your dreams are all in vain.
One moment you are singing, and the next you cry in pain.
But high above the heavens on a host of angels' wings
Rosemary's sister will be dancing.

Her mother cried all that year as many others did.
She'd pull through for a moment now and then,
And the people down in Bethnal Street in the rubble and the stones
Swept up their lives and started off again.
When tyranny is biting, you do your best to try
To stifle all your heartaches till it's safe again to cry,
And when at last the darkness clears and the sun comes shining through,
You dust it off and start in all anew. CHORUS

There's a teacher in the classroom; there's a mother in the hall.
The children sit and wait for the bell for home.
And Rosemary is waiting; she's a child now of her own.
She's waiting to collect and take her home.
But sometimes in the firelight in the silence where she sits,
Her mind goes back to Bethnal Street to the darkness and the blitz.
She knows if there's another one then the end will be complete.
I wonder what they'd say in Bethnal Street. CHORUS

Subject: Rosemary's Sister
From: GUEST,Tam
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 07:30 PM

Dear Mudcatters,

I am looking for the lyrics to a song by Welshman Huw Williams, entitled "Rosemary's Sister" (about the tragedies during World War II). It was on the Connie Dover album "Somebody". Thanks so much!

Tam