Lyr Req: The Lofty Pines

Subject: Lyr Req: The Lofty Pines
From: GUEST,Newfiegirl
Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:18 AM

I am searching for the lyrics to the song "The Lofty Pines"
I don't have much on it, but I believe It's about a man who goes out searching in the lofty pines for his wife and child's killer.
                   thanks.....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Lofty Pines
From: masato sakurai
Date: 24 Nov 02 - 09:30 PM

"Lofty Pines" is sung by Gordon Downie on Coke Machine Glow (sound clip is HERE). Is this the one?
~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Lofty Pines
From: GUEST,Newfiegirl
Date: 30 Nov 02 - 05:09 PM

Hi Masato,
sorry it's not, the song I'm looking for, I believe is an old song, something about a man who spends his life out searching in the Lofty Pines for his Wife and Childs killer.
Thanks for trying...God Bless.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Lofty Pines
From: masato sakurai
Date: 01 Dec 02 - 02:08 AM

No song with that title could be found at ASCAP, BMI, Plymouth Song Index, and several other indexes.
~Masato

Subject: Lyr Add: LOFTY PINES (Gordon Downie)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Jan 12 - 12:59 PM

OK, I realize this is not the song that was requested, but I found it interesting anyway and figured I might as well post it here.

The poem appears in the book Coke Machine Glow by Gordon Downie (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2001), page 61 (but see my footnote*):


LOFTY PINES [(NYC)]
As sung by Gordon Downie on "Coke Machine Glow" (2001)

It's too hot to sleep.
Let's gather 'round the fan.
We can't do nothin' 'bout the heat.
[So] let's just do what we can.
[And] everything'll be just fine.
Just dream of the Lofty Pines.

Well, I dreamed of the Lofty Pines—
[At] least what I thought they were—
Standing in the forest after nighttime,
Swaying so cool and sure.
Sure had never been so wrong:
Sure, like the title of the perfect song.

Now for the spectacular part:
Just then a pack of matches fell,
A logo of a tree in a heart.
They're from the Lofty Pines Motel.
All the while our dreams were our own.
All the while that didn't mean all alone.

Well, I gave the editor my pitch,
A series on our cultural wealth
About the "error of catalogue[s] and list[s]."
I call it "Why We Fight Ourselves."
If only we had nothing to say.
If only we'd done nothing that day.

"Je suis née pour la chaleur,"**
She said in her Manhattan French.
"On ne peut rien faire de la chaleur."***
We'll just have to take that chance.
We've got world enough and time,
Dreaming of the Lofty Pines.

{Pine
Pine
I dream of the lofty pine
Dream of the lofty pine
Dream of the lofty pine}

----
* The parts in brackets [] appear in the printed poem but are not sung. (At least, I can't hear them.) The part in braces {} is sung, but does not appear in the printed poem.

** "I was born for the heat."

*** "You can't do anything about the heat."

There is (or was) a real Lofty Pines Motel, 400 Manitoba St. Bracebridge, Ontario P1L 1S2, Canada. It might now be called something else. I don't know whether that's what the writer had in mind.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Lofty Pines
From: GUEST,999
Date: 06 Jan 12 - 01:18 PM

The confusion arises I think because the song has a few titles. Try a google of

As I strayed beneath those lofty pines on Old England's burning shore

and

As I strayed beneath those lofty pines on India's burning shore

Memorial University has it in their archives.

#######################################


The UNB has it entitled The Old Man

It seems also to be called India's Burning Sands

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Lofty Pines
From: GUEST,999
Date: 06 Jan 12 - 01:19 PM

PS The description of it matches what Newfiegirl is seeking. Good luck.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Lofty Pines
From: GUEST,#
Date: 27 Mar 21 - 08:21 PM

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/prints.itma.ie/NewfoundlandExhibition/songsheets/IndiasBurningShore_TMurphy.pdf

India's Burning Shore lyrics at that link.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Lofty Pines
From: GUEST,#
Date: 05 Apr 21 - 05:11 PM

INDIA’S BURNING SHORE

Performed by: Tom Murphy

As I strayed beneath those lofty pines on India’s burning shore,
To listen to the tiger yowl and savage lion roar.
As I stood gazing on the sand, so lonely, bleak, and drear,
When to me advancing from the woods when that old man did appear.

The old man took me to a seat it being under that falling tree,
By his request we both sat down for he thought to talk to me.
But again the salt tears filled his eyes and he feebly grasped my hand,
Beholding me that old man cried: ‘I’m a native from Ireland.’

I lived down by the Shannon in the year of ’68,
All with my loving babe and wife on an English lord’s estate.
Until that cruel rebellion came and I was forced to go,
For to fight for home and liberty in that cruel Saxon war.

Oh again that cruel rebellion they swore they would take my life,
They then revenged their anger on my loving babe and wife.
They mangled their dead bodies with their cruel Saxon swords,
And they swore my precious blood they’d spill if I joined them rebel hordes.

At midnight out in the Rockies I was chosen for to be,
Lieutenant in that army to protect my lone body.
One night while we were hunting alone all in the wood,
I drew my shining pistol sword and before that coward I stood.

‘Come draw that cursedly sword of yours in which you have slain my wife,
Defend yourself, you murdered her and a husband seeks their life.’
And to fulfil that oath I swore, he tried all his skill on earth,
I drove my canonly rifle sword deep into that coward’s heart.

I now must take for the wildwood where I’m afraid it will end my life,
But I’d like to die in old Ireland and be buried beside my wife.
Go down to yon green cemetery in that consecrated ground,
Lies the remains of the old patriarch and the loved ones to be found.


Lyrics copied from the link at 27 Mar 21 - 08:21 PM