A Song That Moved You?

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: steve t
Date: 18 Mar 98 - 04:00 AM

Gosh...songs that moved me. I guess that means they put me in a mood, but not necessarily a teary-eyed mood.

When I sing 'em: Mr. Tanner. Singing just made him whole. So great. Planxty's Musgrave. Runs the gammut of emotions. Mary Ellen Carter. Didn't grow on me till repeat 200. Shenandoah. I'm bound to leave you... Deep Blue Sea. Can't explain this one. It just works. Fair Flower of Northumberland. Incredible ending. Jenny Bryce and Kilkelly. Both so tough to sing. Night Rider's Lament. And They've never seen the Northern Lights.

When others have sang 'em: Ferron's Testimony sung by four women once. Incredible. Bogle's Leaving Nancy. About leaving his mom at the train station when he heads off for Austrailia. Please post the lyrics someone. White Sport's Coat. I'm always idiotically happy after hearing this one sung by a few friends who ham it up.

When heard on recordings: The Furey's Night Ferry. Heard 1st while away from home. Lover's Lullaby by Janis Ian = automatic night mood Three Babies by Sinead O'Connor. No real idea what it's about but it still pulls me into its mood every time.

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Eric
Date: 18 Mar 98 - 03:12 AM

Two that still get to me are "Home From The Forest" by Gordon Lightfoot and "Bobbie Jean & Billie Lee" by Seals & Crofts. The first I relate to my father and the second is just a beautiful song they wrote to their wives. When I first heard these songs years ago, I was a long haired heavy rocker. Funny how they stuck.

I appreciate the Eric Bogle tunes too. I perform them in the pubs occasionally and people get pretty choked up.

This (site) is a very nice exchange of meaningful thoughts. How refreshing! Take care, all.

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Grubby
Date: 18 Mar 98 - 01:17 AM

Have a listen to There Were Roses wrtitten by Tommy Sands & sung by Kathy Matea.

There is a lovely song written by Brian Bedford called Wings & performed by Vin Garbutt

I'm sure these songs will have a lasting effect on you emotions

regards

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Richard
Date: 17 Mar 98 - 05:04 PM

Peter T.

Go Out and Plough is on Fred J. Eaglesmith and the Flying Squirrels, There Ain't No Easy Road, Sweetwater Records General Delivery Alberton, Ontario, Canada. I don't know who is distributing while Fred is on the road. Festival Records have some of his later recordings: email [e-mail] Toll free 1-800-633-8282 Web: http://www.festival.bc.ca

If that fails let me know at: [e-mail]

It's great stuff.

Richard

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Slant
Date: 17 Mar 98 - 10:17 AM

Riding home late one night (or very early in the a.m. I should say) I caught Lotte Lenya on the radio singing 'Mack the Knife' in German, the language of its author. This was not the Bobby Darin glitzy, jazzy version but was done at a much slower tempo. The combination of the tempo and glutteral German lent an air of quiet but immediate impending danger and threat to the tune while actually raised the hair on my arms and neck...

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Mar 98 - 01:54 AM

I really like Where've You Been, as recorded by Kathy Mattea; and Love at the Five and Dime, by Nanci Griffith.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 16 Mar 98 - 11:31 PM

"I'll Love You Forever" by Al Powers, sung by Priscilla Herdman.

It's hard to listen to without a tear in my eye. One of these years I may even get to the point of trying to be able to sing it myself.

-Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Pete M
Date: 16 Mar 98 - 07:22 PM

"joy of living" definitely comes top of my list. Another not so far mentioned is "The Ladies go dancing at Easter" I havent heard it recently, perhaps you need to know someone of that age (born around 1900 -1920) to really appreciate it.

Just a small point Dick, when you have a spare moment, would you update the first verse of "Joy of living" as follows (changes enclosed in asterisks):

Farewell you northern hills, you mountains all goodbye Moorland and stony ridges, **crags** and peaks goodbye **Glyder Fach** farewell, **Cul Beag, Scafell**, cloud bearing **Suilven** Sun warmed rock and the cold **of Bleaklow's frozen sea** The snow and the wind and the rain of hills and mountains Days in the sun and the tempered winds and the air like **wine** And you drink and you drink till you're drunk On the joy of living

sorry to be pedantic, but these names on their own have much thesame effect on me as the song! One of the problems of capturing lyrics phonetically! Incidentally if you have access to a copy of "The Classic walks" ed Ken Wilson and Richard Griffiths, the picture on page 173 shows Bleaklow as Ewan was describing it here.

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Alice
Date: 16 Mar 98 - 03:54 PM

BAZ and all, the web page for Peggy Seeger is

http://www.pegseeger.com/html/ewan.html

alice in mt

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Jack (who is calle jack)
Date: 16 Mar 98 - 03:30 PM

I could list dozens, but here's a few of the top of my head.

Schoolday's Over - Ewan Macoll

A Better Voice - Joel Mabus

The Great Storm is Over - Bob Franke

Bob Dylans's dream - (This ones on PPM album 1700, does anyone know the author? Was it Dylan? It used to knock me out me when I was a kid with its longing for lost times.)

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Peter T.
Date: 16 Mar 98 - 01:33 PM

Dear Richard, Lyrics or album reference for "Go Out and Plough"? I have some farmer friends who might like to hear it. Yours, Peter

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Bert
Date: 16 Mar 98 - 12:14 PM

My Dad used to sing While London Sleeps to us when we were kids. The last verse still gets to me.

I wrote Goodbye when my second wife was dying of cancer, never could get to write any more verses.

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Wolfgang Hell
Date: 16 Mar 98 - 05:57 AM

When I saw the thread title and fourty odd responses already I stopped before opening the thread and made up a short list. Then I thought if I had to name but one of them for this thread which it would be and came up with "Joy of living". Yes, BAZ, this song did the same to me as it did to you. I first heard it sung live in London by an old man with a nearly failing voice and I started crying at once. The old man was Ewan McColl. I'll never forget that.
It is on a Ewan McColl LP called Items of News.
All other songs of my list have been mentioned except Scraps of Paper by E. Bogle.
Wolfgang

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Mar 98 - 07:00 PM

.....memories....sitting, in 1964, in a crowded room of the McComb, Mississippi office of SNCC (the Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee), listening to the 'staff' sing the civil rights protest songs 'from the heart'. "Wade in the Water" ,"Go Tell it on the Mountain", "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round", "Oh, Freedom" etc...and one little thing called "In the Mississippi River", which is a sort of chant/song which recites a list of martyrs
"In the Mississippi River (x3)
"You can count them one by one
....'Medgar Evers'
"You can count them two by two
....'Michael Schwerner'br> "You can count them three by three
....'Andy Goodman'

etc..(One of the few times I actually had the hair on the back of my neck stand up.......)

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: BAZ
Date: 15 Mar 98 - 06:34 PM

What a brilliant response!.
I shared this list with some folks I play with this afternoon, but they can't figure out how we can manage to communicate with each other yet let alone swap this sort of information. Now to compile a list of the songs mentioned and go looking for the words.
regards Baz

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 15 Mar 98 - 04:02 PM

Re Ewan MacColl-- I'm told that Peggy Seeger, his widow, has a web page now. She'd be a good one to ask.

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Richard
Date: 15 Mar 98 - 02:02 PM

So often it is the singer and their heart, not the song, that moves us. I remember years ago hearing Salome Bey(sp?) sing her version of Mr. Bojangles, from his wife's point of view. Never heard it again but it moved me. And "Circle be Unbroken". Often doesn't do much for me, but when a friend sang it as his brother's memorial service, with his sister standing behind for strength, everyone wepte. Years alter I asked why he had done that, it must have been so hard. "Richard, I knew everyone needed a reason to cry and I decided I was going to give it to them." He did. And it still brings back strong memories. So when Eaglesmith sings "Go Out and Plough I weep because he sings it from his old farmer's heart. Others try but just don't get it.

It the signer, not the song.

Richard

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 15 Mar 98 - 01:58 PM

Charlie Poole"s "It's MOVIN' DAY"

Art

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Alice
Date: 15 Mar 98 - 12:31 PM

"We shall, we shall, we shall not be moved...." ;-)

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 15 Mar 98 - 11:42 AM

A while ago I was recovering from hospital time and was bored so I went through my entire recorded music collection to make a 90 min. tape of my favorite songs---songs that moved me ! When I'd finished making the tape I had TWENTY-FOUR of them. THIRTY-SIX HOURS! One of those songs lately is Michael Smith's "Elizabeth Dark". The coffeehouse he's talking about I've sung at for 37 years! (Brian and Sue--the 4th owners----just put it up for sale again.) The "L" he mentions---our "elevated train" in Chicago----I rode thousands of times. For me, there was a real life Elizabeth Dark. That wasn't her name, but she was real. Yes, as Michael said, "I'm a beatnik lost in the future." Also, "Had spaghetti with Ferlinghetti and wine with Jack Kerouac." Still very into Kerouac. (Our cat is "Jack Kerouac"----Wacky for short.) Art

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: northfolk
Date: 15 Mar 98 - 10:34 AM

All of you singers, musicians, performers, can make the same claim, that all of your songs move you, from club to club, bar to bar, or festival to festival. I have been moved by this music also. While I have shared the same emotional experience that most of the messages have described, (particularly the lyrics of Bogle, Moore, Phillips....) I recall with clarity the day that I first heard Pete Seeger sing "Talkin' Union". I have moved. Most recently from bucolic northern Michigan, to industrial Southeast Michigan. Best life I ever had!!! and now I am within walking distance of the ARK. Go Workers, Beat the Boss.

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Alice
Date: 15 Mar 98 - 09:24 AM

"Kilkelly". definitely. alice

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: hanrahan
Date: 15 Mar 98 - 07:55 AM

Michael Smith-"I Took My Father With Me"

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: alison
Date: 15 Mar 98 - 05:12 AM

hi,

I cried the first time I heard "Kilkelly". Henry Lawson's "Do you think that I do not know", can have the same effect too, if it's done well.

Slainte

Alison

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: nobbler
Date: 15 Mar 98 - 03:35 AM

Nice to hear that they made you feel comfortable Barry. Obviously I don't know your character, but I do know from experience that those situations can become awkward when the person famous for his trade doesn't particularly want to chat to a complete stranger, no matter how strong that strangers personality or character may be.

Let me tell you something neat now, I hope you shook his hand! My reason for saying this may well be remote but here goes. I met Steve Lillywhite and his wife Kirsty in Leicester, England a few years ago whilst playing at the local university. Mrs. Lillywhite is, as you may well know, Kirsty MacColl, daughter of Ewan. I briefly chatted with the couple for a while and obviously I shook their hands. So, we could say that you've shaken the hand that's held the hand of a persons hand that I myself has shaken!

Please to meet you Barry. :-)

Back to the "Green Island" song. I still can't say for sure that Ewan wrote the song. The version I heard was by Christy Moore (I hope you've heard some of Christy's performances, nice guy/great performer), but Christy has covered many Ewan songs and as I've said above, I have a nagging feeling that I heard Christy say that Ewan had written the song.

I'm actually becoming frustrated, because I've spent over two hours on the net today trying to pin this down. I'm unable to get conformation of the writer, despite finding the lyrics to the song in a few different locations.

Can anybody direct me to either a good Ewan bio OR a precise Christy Moore bio on the web anywhere???

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 15 Mar 98 - 01:15 AM

Nobbler, I don't know of the "Green Island" song that you asked about, never heard it, but Ewan wrote over 300 songs (which should be out soon, if not already). The song I was refering to above, which I neglected to give the title of after I found it in the DT was the "Shellback Song". And yes I am a great fan of both Ewan & Peggy's. I met them at a house concert in L.A. about 20yrs ago. I had just finished crossing the Pacific from Hawaii, headed home to Boston & the sign in sheet showed I had come the farthest so people make a small deal of it & I guess it got to Peggy & Ewan talking to me. What a nice pair, warm, friendly & very accessible & approchable. We talked at length of his working as a stone mason & me as a roofer, & the passing of different trades, I felt like I was in their kitchen, not at a concert. Barry

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Sheye
Date: 15 Mar 98 - 12:21 AM

Fell in love with Kris Kristopherson when I was but a babe (yesterday?!?). Just about anything off the Silver Tongued Devil album. I call The Epitaph my theme song, and am quite partial to Breakdown.

Of the new, up, and coming, take a listen to Amanda Marshall's "Trust Me, This is Love". Very insightful for such a young soul. As always, comments change with the mood and in two days I'd have a different choice.

I was sitting in a beach-side bar in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, last week with what seemed to be the United Nations. The bar musician played and sang the latino rendering of "My Way". Talk about music being the Universal Language!! Swiss, Austrians, French, Ticos, Argentinians... Everyone but everyone knew the song word for word in their own language as recorded by however their country's version of Frank Sinatra is. This is a classic world-wide and after much debate, consensus was reached that it was an American, Sinatra song (not sure whether this is right or not, but we all decided it was). Interesting to me, I was the only person at the table, which included two young Americans, who remembered Elvis Presley doing the piece!

I'm rambling again... does it show that I'm bored on a Saturday night??

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Mar 98 - 09:19 PM

Just finished listening to my wife playing the zither and singing "Faded Coat of Blue" *snffff*....(she also does "The Vacant Chair"...*sssnnnnnffff*) ...some of the civil war songs really are among the most moving I know.

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Sir
Date: 14 Mar 98 - 06:20 PM

I always get choked when I hear the "She's Too Fat For Me Polka"...(no, just kidding!)

A lot of songs put me in a melancholy mood and the latest was not folk...Is there a father of a little girl out there who doesn't wax sentimental when listening to Bob Carlisle's "Butterfly Kisses"?

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Claire K.
Date: 14 Mar 98 - 01:51 PM

Kilkelly, by the Jones brothers, sung by Moloney, O'Connell and Keane.

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Mar 98 - 01:44 PM

5 or 6 of Utah Phillips songs can do it to me...."Enola Gay"..."Yuba" "Larimer Square"...etc...I guess it depends on my mood...being 'moved' does not always mean 'to tears'...some of Utah's move me to anger or depression.(just as I assume he wanted them too!)

and yes, the Eric Bogle songs mentioned are among the best crafted songs of their type ever written...

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Mar 98 - 01:42 PM

Here's a link to The Joy of Living and No Man's Land. At about this point in a thread with lots of good songs listed, Dick usually breaks in with a gentle request that people post lyrics if the songs aren't in the database. Ain't that right, Dick?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: S.P. Buck Mulligan
Date: 14 Mar 98 - 01:30 PM

Helen - the "Willie McBride" song of Bogle's is called "No Man's Land." It (and "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" have the same effect on me.

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: nobbler
Date: 14 Mar 98 - 07:19 AM

Barry, are you a Ewan fan?? There's a question about Ewan MacColl I'd like to ask that might make me look a little daft, but hey here goes anyway.

I've seen Christy Moore perform many times, and I know he's never been reluctant to play the odd Ewan MacColl song here and there. He's also never been reluctant to use the odd member of the MacColl family on one or two of his recordings. Here's the question;

Whilst watching Christy play, he picked up a bass guitar, and soley on bass and vocal he performed a song called "Green Island". To this day I could swear that he announced prior to performing this song that he stated that it was a song that Ewan had written, but I've never been able to verify it. Through the internet I've been able to verify that Christy performed the song and also that Ewan had perfomed the song prior, but I've never been able to pin who actually wrote the song. Anyone offer any input??

Sorry if this a dumb question that I really should know the answer to, but I would like to know.

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Timb
Date: 14 Mar 98 - 06:29 AM

A song that can give one chills is Del McCourey singing "High on the Mountain". That high tenor and lyrics to that song is one that i never get tired of.

Tim

(old rock and roller turned bluegrass)

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: leprechaun
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 10:31 PM

I once stood in a funeral with a two lines of macho cops in uniforms all standing in a semiicircle around the outer edge of the chapel while a fine Irish tenor sang Danny Boy. There were some soaking wet uniforms that day.

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Alice
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 10:10 PM

"SOMETHING IN THE RAIN" ©1992 by Tish Hinojosa, one of the best, (in my opinion) American singer songwriters around today.

1.Mom and Dad have worked the fields,
I don't know how many years,
I'm just a boy, but I know how,
And go to school when work is slow.
We have seen our country's roads,
From Bakersfield to Illinois,
And when trouble comes our way,
Oh, yeah, I've seen my Daddy pray.

2.There's something wrong with little sister.
I hear her crying by my side.
Mama's shaking as she holds her.
We try to hold her through the night.
Mom says, "Close your eyes, mijito (mee-hee-to, my son)
Dream of some place far from here.
Like the pictures in your school books,
Someday you can take us there.

chorus 1: There must be something in the rain,
I'm not sure just what that means.
Abuelita (grandma) talks of sins of man,
Of dust that's in our hands.
There must be something in the rain,
Well, what else could cause this pain?
Those airplanes cure the plants so things can grow,
Oh, no, it must be something in the rain.

3. Little sister's gone away.
Mama's working long again.
And me, I think I understand,
About our life about our land.
Well, talkers talk and dreamers dream.
I will find a place between.
I'm afraid, but I believe,
That we can change these hurting fields.

chorus 2: 'Cause there's something in the rain.
But there's more here in our hands.
Abuelita's right about the sins of man,
Whose profits rape the land.
And the rains are pourin' down,
From the growers to the towns.
And until we break the killing chains,
There's something in the rain.

makes me cry every time. alice in montana

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Will
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 08:50 PM

Patti Smith's "Gone Again".

And Simpson's "Hard Love" is wonderful.

I snuffle a bit to Stan Roger's "Lies", too.

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 07:26 PM

Sorry, it's been in the DT. Ewan wrote it for the film 'Before the Mast'. I searched Ewan MacColl & got 71 hits, unbelievable what he (& Peggy) accomplished. Barry

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 07:10 PM

Ewan MacColl wrote, I think for his 'radio ballads program', a song lamenting the passing of the age of sail & the last of the tall ships. I don't know exactly when he did this but since the 1976 tall ships parade the passing never came to be. I don't even know the song's title, but here's the last verse.

Goodbye ya square riggers your voyage has ended
Farewell to the days of sail
Goodbye ya Cape Horners & every tall ship
That ever did fight a gale
Goodbye to the shellbacks that romed the winds
In a world of sea & sky
Your voyage is over, your journey has ended
You mariners all goodbye.

I quess the sea is my soft spot. Barry

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: BAZ
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 06:49 PM

Geordie
It is there somewhere. Ewann recorded it on 'Black and White' in 1986 according to the info. The Ralph Mctell programme is here in Cornwall. Radio 2.

There seems to be great response regarding these songs and I.m going to have to come back and ask for some words ror some of them.
I don't think there is any need to worry about groans at Wiilie McBride, We always get asked to sing it on remembrance day in our village.
Regards baz

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Helen
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 06:03 PM

I know that this song can get groans of "oh no, not *that* song again" but I think that the Eric Bogle song about the aftermath of war really says it for me about the stupidity and futility of killing people to solve problems on a national, international or global scale.

....sorry, lost the title, is it Green Fields of France?

It starts, Well how are you doing, Private Willie McBride, Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside, etc

His other one called The Band Played Waltzing Matilda also tells of the effects of war on individual lives. Kind of an updated version of When Johnny Comes Marching Home, I guess.

Helen, in Oz

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Ireland O'Reilly
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 03:34 PM

A song that greatly moves me is "Christmas in the Trenches". I heard John Mcdermott sing it, and it left me crying for the utter beauty of the Christmas ceasefire, and the utter cruelty of the war. This is a wonderful song, and I'm moved every time I hear it.

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 03:17 PM

"The Master Of The Sheepfold", a song collected in Maine by Bill Bonyan, taken to New York Pinewoods Camp in Mass. and sung there for me by Jerry Epstein. Jerry has recorded it with Jeff Warner and Jeff Davis and David Jones (see Camsco Music for that recording). I included the song on my _On The Wilderness Road_ LP, now only a cassette on Folk Legacy. (But it will be on a new CD am putting together from old, but good, tapes from early concerts when I could still pick.

The reason I love the song is that, to me, it says emphatically, that there is ROOM FOR EVERYONE--- from atheist to devout whatever in the scheme of things. Grand to see that in our overly judgmental world of "them" vs. "us" !!

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: lesblank
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 12:56 PM

In reference to Allen Damron above, there are two more of his that that really punch a hole for me :

Corey Snow and If I can't get it with a broomstick ...

Allen is a Texas treasure and a mainstay at Kerrville each year. He and his wife, Connie, are two of the finest people I ever met !!

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 12:39 PM

We were never able to perform Old Shep on stage because my daughter couldn't get through it (nor could I, sometimes). At the Memorial service for Alex Haley at Museum of Appalachia, I had trouble making it through "Meeting in the Air." We tend to choose for our performances songs which touch us deeply in some way, so I could go on and on; but I won't.

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Jon W.
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 12:05 PM

"The Death of Queen Jane" from the Bothy Band's live "After Hours" album (also on their "best of" album). But I'm a hard-hearted cuss so I think I'll eventually be able to perform it (especially if I can figure out the chords).

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Whippoorwill
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 11:41 AM

It's not folk (whatever that is), but -
Bill Gaither's "We Have This Moment Today."

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: Bert
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 10:38 AM

Listen to Allen Damron singing "The Heart of the Appaloosa"

Subject: RE: A Song That Moved You?
From: therapon
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 01:37 AM

Go Down Old Hannah, as sung by Leadbelly. There's no point in trying to put the feeling into words, but there it is.