Subject: Lyr Add: FAREWEEL YOU SILVER DARLINS (Roy Gullane
From:
Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Feb 03 - 05:32 PM
The above song, SILVER DARLINGS by Bob Halfin and Jim McLean, was previously posted here.
There seems to be yet another song called THE SILVER DARLIN'S (click), written by Brian McNeill and Dougie Pincock, and sung by The Battlefield Band (with Alison Kinnaird) on their album "Music in Trust, Volume 1", 1986.
Then there is this song called "Fareweel You Silver Darlins", recorded by The Tannahill Weavers on their album "Leaving St. Kilda", 1996:
(The following lyrics and notes are from The Official Tannahill Weavers Website)
FAREWEEL YOU SILVER DARLINS
(Roy Gullane)
When this world was younger, I fished the ocean sae deep and wide,
But noo these days are flotsam and washed up wi' the tide.
I sit hame starin' at the fire,
Too young tae gledly be retired,
And mind on a' they guid days before we had tae say:
CHORUS: Fareweel, ye silver darlin's.
Nae mair we'll trawl those North Sea shoals.
We left the auld girl in the harbour,
Nae mair tae feel the ocean's roll.
My faither worked the trawlers. his auld man did the very same.
For a' the fowk in this toon the fishin' was their game.
A way of life grew auld and grey.
The young move oot or waste away.
They've never kenned the guid days before we had tae say: CHORUS
When this world was younger, the hale toon worked on this empty quay.
The fleet streetched oot afore me as faur as I could see.
Noo at the harbour I maun staun,
And count the ships on baith my hauns,
And mind on a' they guid days before we had tae say: CHORUS
Aye noo the harbour's empty, like a' the poackets in this auld toon.
The government will help ye. Aye, we'll a' flee tae the moon!
And noo the streets in front o' me
are deid just like the very sea.
What happened tae the guid days before we had tae say: CHORUS
There's rules and regulations and laws that naebody understands.
They're fishing here frae a'place but we must bide on land.
Some o' us still earn a crust
While other boats just turn tae rust
And mind on a' they guid days before we had tae say: CHORUS
[On a recent holiday to northern Scotland, the author found himself in conversation with a retired trawlerman. He was told that when the fisherman was a youngster, the children would cross the bay by walking over the decks of the trawlers. It was hard to imagine this given the dearth of boats in the bay at the time. The size of the fleet in the 90's is but a mere fraction of what it used to be, and is ever shrinking.
[This song is based on that conversation. The expletives, however, have been removed from the fisherman's references to the government.]
|
sj
