Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)

Subject: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Hera
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 01:41 AM

Can anyone help me with these lyrics please - chorus goes something like

"in the morning you are gone
like the swallow our fairweather friend..."

info too, about who wrote it etc would also be appreciated
Cheers Hera

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Joybell
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 02:28 AM

Sounds like "La Golondrina" in an English translation. It's about 100 years old. A well known and popular Mexican popular song. There have been many English translations but I sing it in Spanish and have not heard the words you give. Try seeking it under the Mexican title.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Joybell
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 02:41 AM

It's here in the Mudcat database, with links. Someone smarter will be able to us link up. There is an English translation at the University of Colorado by a Thos. W. Westrup 1883, but he is only one of many who've claimed it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Hillheader
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 03:27 AM

Does this help?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Hera
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 04:04 AM

Thanks (!), but don't think that's the right one.

The song has references to emigration from UK. First verse began "Morning dawns on the stubbled field"

Please keep trying :-)
Hera

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 05:45 AM

I don't know the song, but Sylvia Barnes is a Scot who has returned to Scotland after years living in the south of England, so hopefully someone this side of the pond will be able to help. Sylvia's a great singer too!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Joybell
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 04:55 PM

Davebhoy, Thanks. It's another version again from the Spanish words I know.
Good luck Hera. Come to think of it La Golondrina doesn't have a chorus, rather it's in 2 parts. Some of the words do have similar sentiments to the one you're after.
I'll ask my Scottish friend.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 06:33 PM

Joybell

I'm pretty sure Murray McLeod knows Sylvia and Jim Barnes from way back....

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 06:40 PM

And the group was called Scotch Measure.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SWALLOW (Sylvia Barnes)
From:
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 08:24 PM

THE SWALLOW

Morning dawns on the stubbled fields
And the fires have all died away
And like a migrant bird you took
Your leave and went away
And if some yearning brings you back
Then we might meet again
And in the summer days we'll fly
And thoughts will be in vain

    In the morning you've gone
    And you cover the miles like a swallow,
    Our fair-weather friend
    Leave us to our winter life, the robin and the wren

Long before or so they say
When brief lives we held grow (?)
She said the world had many riches
Let us take them for our own
These isles we love they are too small
And my people too many by far
Go find for me some other land
Show what a brave nation we are

There's Englishmen in Amerikay
There's Scotsmen in Van Dieman's Land
There's Irish and Welshmen all round the world
All scattered like grains of sand
But what becomes of the ones who stay
While the sons and the daughters roam
What becomes of the sons they bear
Who never see their home


Grand song, great singer.

Jack

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Hera
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 12:00 AM

Aah you little ripper Jacko!! (and the answer was at "home" all along)

I had worked out quite a few of the words, but needed confirmation - see you also have uncertainties over the "brief lives" line - I had something like "green lies the hallowed" something or other,,,

Does anyone know who wrote it?
Cheers
Hera

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Cluin
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 11:39 AM

Album credits on Scotch Measure (12TS436, Topic Records 1985)has the name Rothero in brackets after "The Swallow". No first name given.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 07:36 PM

OK, I tried a Google search on Rothero. There's Gordon, who's an expert on plants, Christopher, who's an expert on mediaeval European battles like Crecy and Agincourt, and Steve, who runs acoustic folk sessions in Market Harborough, and is listed in Pete Burnham's Leicestershire Folk Diary. I guess it would be worth asking Steve about the Swallow, so I will.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Hera
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 12:41 AM

Cheers Kitty - I did a quick check (between getting out of bed and rushing off to work), and came up with the same info - which I thought quite interesting - but didn't have time then & there to follow through further.

Given the apparent interest in past "daze", I wondered if two (Christopher/Steve) were connected, and what other songs /poems may have been penned by the same writer. The Swallow is quite lyrical.

Still can't figure the words to the middle verse - neither Jacko's or mine seem to fit...any ideas...anyone...?
Hera

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Cluin
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 11:02 AM

Long ago, or so they say
When we'd lives ahead to go...


???

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Hera
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 01:20 PM

Long ago or so they say
When greed lined the hallowed road (?!)
She said the world has many riches
Let us take them for our own

????

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 02:05 PM

I've had an e-mail reply from Steve Rothero, which hopefully answers Hera's original query (although it might mean starting another thread on La Golondrina....)

"Yes, I know this song very well - I wrote it in 1979. Jim and Sylvia Barnes heard me singing it at Maidenhead Folk Club and asked me to teach it to them. They recorded it on the Scotch Measure album on Topic.

The missing line is:

Long ago, or so they say, when Queen Liza held the throne

By the way, I sing America the normal way. Sylvia decided to change it to Americay, like in so many Irish emigration songs.

I'd love to hear La Golondrina - who has recorded it?"

Thanks Cluin for supplying the missing link to identify the song writer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Cluin
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 03:14 PM

I love the way stuff works out here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Joybell
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 05:10 PM

Everybody recorded "La Golandrina" back about 50 years ago and School music books had it along with "Celito Lindo". Now they still sing it for tourists in Mexico.
There are several sets of Spanish words as well as several English ones. A Google search will come up with quite a few.
Of course the tune was used for "She Wears My Ring" in the 1960s.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From:
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 05:37 PM

Isn't it strange how clear it is when you know what it is.

Many thanks to all contributors

Jack

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Hera
Date: 04 Dec 03 - 12:40 AM

Gosh - what can I say - even the world is a village!
Thanks fellow folks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: GUEST,Lala
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 07:25 PM

See this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkp6sURSzZ4

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 28 Sep 11 - 10:47 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkp6sURSzZ4

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: GUEST,Evan Khler-Camp
Date: 01 Apr 13 - 09:30 PM

That one line:

Long ago or so they say
When greed lined the hallowed road (?!)
She said the world has many riches
Let us take them for our own

When greed lined the hallowed road (?!)
Is :
When Queen Liza held the throne

I joined this a wee bit late in searching for some info, but have the old Album. It's been one of my favourites.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Swallow (Sylvia Barnes)
From: GUEST,kirby
Date: 21 Sep 13 - 11:08 PM

My parents used to sing this version.

In rapid flight perhaps towards Granada
the little swallow from its nest departs
somewhere beyond the mountains it will find Granada
land of romance, of love and tender hearts.

Chorus:

If I could make dreams come true
I would be like the swallow
searching the magic skies where its happiness lies
dwelling in heavens blue, always ready to follow
the one he loves where ever she may be.

If anyone knows this version, I would like to know. [e-mail]