New Song: British Belle

Subject: New Song:British Belle
From: JamesLogan
Date: 28 Feb 04 - 11:33 PM

Hey everybody! I'm glad to be a new member of the community. I hope you will recieve me well.
    I have been interested I folk music for a while now and I am a fan of various folk traditions. Most of these are American, Scottish, English etc. Writing music has always been a passion of mine and folk music is no exception. I was hoping that you all could give some advice for bettering my writing and perhaps help build my experience.
   Now here's a song I wrote recently about a fictional ship. It's a ghost story as well;a ghost ship story. Please go easy on your criticism.


Brittish Belle
All lyrics by James Logan

Have you ever seen the wind? Have you ever heard the rain?
While riggin' up the portside on the black Spanish Main?
For twenty long years I've smelled it all too well.
On many a dark hour on the prized British Belle.

Workin' is the pastime when you stranded on the deck.
And there aint no use in longing for something you can't get.
Singing keeps the men. It keeps 'em quite well.
Tellin' ol' sailor's tails of the prized British Belle.

One night the breeze was blowin' and the moon was rockin' too.
The hull it was a-moaning and the sea was Prussian blue.
I knew what was a-comin'. I knowed it all too well.
A hurricane was blowin' towards the prized British Belle.

While I was a-starin' there, I thought I heard a noise.
The hull had burst, a leak had sprung cried the cabin boy.
Another tremor shook the ship like a hundred shot gun shells.
The leaks was sprung, we couldn't run on the prized British Belle.

The lifeboat was a-missin' as the captain stole away.
He shouted back "Don't worry now. You know I'll be okay."
A curse was cast upon us then so fitting and so fell.
All the men drowned inside the prized British Belle.

Well the captain was a-rowin' when his oar just broke away.
The water was a-hurlin' him into his foggy grave.
What were the final words of the captain I can't tell.
But he'd never see the shore again, nor the prized British Belle.

Many deaths I've taken and many deaths I've paid.
My card have all been stolen but my coins have not been weighed.
But when I was a-goin' down to wat'ry hell
I knew that I'd never rest nor the prized British Belle.

What do you think?

Subject: RE: New Song: British Belle
From: Ernest
Date: 29 Feb 04 - 04:12 PM

First of all, welcome James Logan.
Sounds like a interesting story.
What else are your musical tastes /songs
All the best
Ernest

Subject: RE: New Song: British Belle
From: JamesLogan
Date: 29 Feb 04 - 06:08 PM

Well my intrests are classic stuff like Woody Guthrie's dust bowl ballads and 1913 massacre stories. Stuff that gives historical accounts. I also appreciate people like Elizabeth Cotton and Merle Travis, who developed distinct picking styles.

My intrests also span blues musicians like Blind Willy McTell, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Mississippi John Hurt.

Subject: RE: New Song: British Belle
From: JamesLogan
Date: 01 Mar 04 - 12:55 AM

Here's one of my other compositions.

Kentuky Coal Miner's Blues
All lyrics by James Logan

Well I aint gonna work in the mines no more.
No I aint gonna work in the mines no more.
I aint gonna make no 'hundred rounds a day no more

Well I'd rather up above the ground
Then die in the hellfire down below.
Where the rocks tumble and the timbers moan. No more.

Well I aint gonna be makin' no wages no more.
I'd rather drink and gamble with my time
Even if I won't make scarce a dime. No more.

Why ya leavin' me babe?
Why ya leavin' me babe?
Is it because of the diamonds I never gave?
Which I dug in the mines all day.

Well I guess I'll just fade away.
Where I'll be headin' I cannot say
But even when you walked out that door.
I knew I woudn't be working' in those damn mines no more.