ADD: Grey October(C.Parker/Critics Group/P.Seeger)

Subject: Lyr Req: Grey October
From: paulo
Date: 04 Mar 03 - 06:57 AM

Following on from the recent thread about the best anti-war songs this song came to mind.

The first verse is:
Grey October in Glamorgan
High pit heaps were the houses stand
Fog in the valley, the back shift ending
Children awaken in Aberfan

It might not sound like an anti-war song but the verses alternate between what happend in Aberfan that morning in the early '60s and what was happening in a village in Vietnam at the same time.

Great song though it is I can't remember all the words and I can't find it in any data base.

Help please

Paulo

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grey October
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 04 Mar 03 - 07:02 AM

This Ewan MacColl Site mentions the song
"The 1986 Peace Calendar - Still Singing for our Lives produced by Better Days includes the Critics Groups' song Grey October.
"The same day that a coalmine slid down and engulfed Pantglas Junior School in Aberfan, Glamorgan, South Wales, a similar school in Thuy Dan, Thi Binh Province, North Vietnam, was hit by American bombs."

Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grey October
From: JohnnyBeezer
Date: 04 Mar 03 - 07:10 AM

Hi Paulo

Yes I've got the lyrics to this song somewhere. I first heard it about 1968 sung by Barrie Roberts at The Fitters Arms in Walsall UK.
I'll try and find them out for you.
A brilliant and sad song!
Best Regards
Johnny N

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grey October
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 04 Mar 03 - 07:12 AM

Also in the inventory of The Broadside collection
FT-9375: Peggy Seeger. Ewan MacColl. Terry Yarnell. John Faulkner. Jack Warshaw. Daniel Kennedy. Sandra Kerr. Aldwyn Cooper. Frankie Armstrong. Jim O'Connor. Dick Snell. Phil Colelough. Dennis Turner. SC 76.
Side 1.1. "The Companeros," Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl.
Side 1.2. "Ballad of the Big Cigars," Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl.
Side 1.3. "Che Guevara," Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl.
Side 1.4. "The Fields of Vietnam," Terry Yarnell and John Faulkner.
Side 1.5. "Hitler Ain't Dead," Peggy Seeger.
Side 1.6. "Grey October," Peggy Seeger.


Nigel

Subject: Lyr Add: GREY OCTOBER
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Mar 03 - 07:37 AM

I was surprised not to find this in the DT or forum. Powerful stuff!

GREY OCTOBER (1966)
(C.Parker/Critics Group/P.Seeger)

Grey October in Glamorgan
High pitheaps where the houses stand
Fog in the valley, backshift ending
Children awaken in Aberfan

Warm October in Thi Binh Province
Huts of bamboo and rattan
Sun comes up - repair gangs stop
And children waken in Thuy Dan

Pithead hooter sounds from Merthyr
Load the coal in the waiting trams
Shoot the slag down the high pitheap
While children eat in Aberfan

Ox carts rattle down Thi Binh Highway
Work begins on the broken land
Night's work ended, the roadway's mended
Children eat in Thuy Dan

Dai Dan Evans grabs his satchel
Michael Jones his bread and jam
Five to nine and the school bell ringing
Time for school in Aberfan

School bell ringing, children running
Down by the river and across the dam
Hot sun burning, time for learning
Time for school in Thuy Dan

Lessons started in Pantglas Junior
Through the fog a black wave ran
Under the weight of the man-made mountain
Children die in Aberfan

Lessons start in the Thi Binh schoolhouse
And another day began
Bombers fly in the morning sky
And children die in Thuy Dan

Tears are shed for Glamorgan children
And the world mourns Aberfan
But who will weep for the murdered children
Under the rubble of Thuy Dan?

Grey October in Glamorgan
Warm October in Vietnam
Where children die while we stand by
And shake the killer by the hand

Source: lyric sheet accompanying Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger 'The Angry Muse' Argo LP ZDA 83 [1968].

Note to song: 'This song was created by 16 people. The idea for it was conceived by Charles Parker, a BBC producer. Over a period of 6 weeks the song was shaped and re-shaped by members of the Critics Group and the tune was set to it by Peggy Seeger'.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grey October
From: paulo
Date: 04 Mar 03 - 07:48 AM

Thanks Stewie.   This songs been in my head for the last ten years and more.

Paulo

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grey October
From: breezy
Date: 04 Mar 03 - 08:16 AM

Thank you Stewie, I too used to perform it and when I visit the Valleys I'm reminded and I remember and thank my late father for emigrating to London and I thank the wisdom and foresight of his father too who worked as a carpenter in the mines but found himself making more coffins.He enabled my father to 'moveaway'
But we never forget.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Grey October
From: GUEST,Stuart Reed
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 07:05 AM

May I immodestly post a link to a version of this song on Nigel Spencer's excellent new project?

http://www.lostfolktapes.com

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http://web.archive.org/web/20110303141151/http://www.lostfolktapes.com/