Lyr Req: Last Carol (Nancy Nicholson)

Subject: Lyr Add: LAST CAROL (Nancy Nicholson)
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 13 - 08:03 AM

From Nancy Nicolson in Edinburgh, 8 Jan 2013.
Happy New Year 2013.
This is my first ever foray into Mudcat and I'm astonished to find references dating back 12 years to a number of my songs.
You may have ceased to look for a response, but here it is.
I am pleased to have a gig tonight at Leith Folk Club as support to Dick Gaughan. What a way to start the year!

Here's the gen on the song:
Last Carol

Britain's first experimental fast nuclear reactor was built just 30 miles from our croft in Caithness when I was a teenager. The huge, famous dome on Scotland's North Coast was familiarly known as FRED (Fast Reactor Establishment, Dounreay).                     With the demise of our former world-class herring-fishing industry hundreds of local people found work there. That did not mean that they swallowed wholesale the assurances that it was safe. Their choice was Dounreay or the Dole, so they worked there .
Much later, the officials started to say that its purpose was directed towards the supply of electricity. They were foolin nobody.

In 'Last Carol' I wrote the refrain as a stern old Scottish Psalm, the verses as a bright, brittle carol.
This was to reflect the black truth of what was happening as set against the cynical spin, lies and assurances of Government and UKAEA in selling us the Nuclear Industry
UKAEA: United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.

When you sing the song, sing "merry" but think and mean "bloody"
                              
                         LAST CAROL

refrain
                Mushroom cloud and heavy water                
                My last son and your last daughter
                White and sere the blasted ground
                Husha-Husha all fall down

verses                
                Merrily, merrily Nuc-e-lear Power
                Merrily, merrily Kilowatt Hour
                Merry little factory for nuclear fuel
                It will cook your merry goose and not your merry gruel

                Merrily, merrily scattering plutonium
                Al-ways on my patch, never on your own one
                Set in merry glass and merry sunk in merry granite
                Can you, merry, say it's merry, safe? You merry cannot

                Merrily, merrily critical condition
                Merrily, merrily nuclear fission
                Merry, merry, merry, merry four-minute warning
                Never, merry, not a- merry -nother merry morning


Nancy Nicolson, written   early 1980s

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Last Carol by Nancy Nicolson
From: Bearheart
Date: 20 Oct 02 - 07:19 PM

Do you know of a site such as you mentioned? If so PM me or post to this thread please?

By the way, apologies to Christine Kydd and to the author of the song. As someone kindly pointed out to me by PM, I was in such a hurry I misspelled BOTH last names in my initial post!

Bekki

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Last Carol by Nancy Nicholson
From: sharyn
Date: 20 Oct 02 - 05:17 PM

Bekki, I used to sing the missing line as

Set in merry Glastonbury sunk in airy granite

I have no idea if this is correct -- that's what I got from listening. I'd give it another listen, but, as I said, I lent the CD out.

Maybe you could find it by trolling for anti-nuke songs somewhere, especially at a British site

Good Luck!

Sharyn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Last Carol by Nancy Nicholson
From: Bearheart
Date: 20 Oct 02 - 03:22 PM

Hi Sharyn,
I have a tape cassette and it includes liner notes but no lyrics.

Verse 1
Merrily, merrily nu-ca-lear power
(You had the rest of that one)

Verse 2
Merrily, merrily, scattering Plutonium
Always on my patch, never on your own one
(This is the line I can't remember)
Can you, merry, say it's merry, safe, you merry can not.

Verse 3
Merrily, merrily, critical conditions
Merrily, merrily, nu-ca-lear fission
Merry, merry, merry, merry four-minute warning
Never merry, not a merry, 'nother merry morning.

I've never sung it in public because I didn't have all the words, but I'm thinking it's time to dust it off and polish it up. With Bush in the White House and the world in general turmoil we need to get people thinking again.

Thanks a bunch,

Bekki

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 22-Oct-02.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Last Carol by Nancy Nicholson
From: sharyn
Date: 19 Oct 02 - 05:21 PM

Hi Bekki,

I used to sing this, but I've lent the CD to someone else. If you start typing the verse you want I can probably fill in the blanks, but I can't remember the order of the verses.

For instance, one starts

Merrily, merrily, scattering plutonium

Another starts

Merrily, merrily, nuclear power,
Merrily, merrily, kilowatt hour,
Merry little factory for nuclear fuel:
It will cook your merry goose but not your merry gruel.

Let me know if I can be of any help.

Also, if you have the CD, you might look up the publisher and contact them for the lyrics.

Cheers! Sharyn

Subject: Lyr Req: Last Carol by Nancy Nicholson
From: Bearheart
Date: 19 Oct 02 - 05:08 PM

Hey Folks,

Looking to fill out the words to this song recorded by Janet Russell and Christine Kidd. I can make out most of them but a few elude me.

Chorus goes:

Mushroom cloud and heavy water
My last son and your last daughter
White and sere the blasted ground
Husha, husha all fall down.

It's the second verse I'm having some trouble with.

Thanks

Bekki