ADD: The Tower (Chris de Burgh?)-a great lord went

Subject: need song, a great lord went walking in the forest
From: reta fain
Date: 13 Dec 98 - 06:33 PM

This is a song that I heard in Ireland in the early '70s and I have never been able to track it down. The first line.----------

A great lord went walking in the forest one morning with a weapon in his hand.

The artist singing it sounded much like Cat Stevens. I believe it was a British singer judging by the rest of the music. I was out and had no way of writing any information down at the time. Would like to have the words and know who the artist was that recorded it. Thank you.

Subject: RE: need song,
From: Mr Happy
Date: 27 Sep 13 - 09:11 AM

It's called 'The Tower'

Subject: Lyr ADD "The Tower"
From: maeve
Date: 27 Sep 13 - 09:18 AM

Thanks to Mr. Happy's link, here are the words, found here. I have not checked them for accuracy.


The Tower   
Songwriters ANTHONY KRIZAN / PETE DAVISON / STEPHEN PASCH

A great lord came walking through the forest
One morning with a weapon in his hand;
Rich was his castle, he lacked for nothing,
But killing was his plan;
When a white bird flew by she fell from the sky,
Nothing was found, only blood on the ground, she was gone;

Cursing his fortune,
He turned to the forest to kill once again,
And standing before him was a lovely young woman
With her hand hung in pain,
When he saw her his eyes were filled with desire,
He said "I must have her, she must be mine,
She will be mine..."

He offered her silver, he offered her gold,
But she threw it on the ground,
He fell to his knees and he begged her,
"Oh please come with me,
What you wish will be found;"
She said, "Sire, I'll go if you put up your bow,
And spare these creatures, leave them in peace,
You have no need..."

But her words were lost in the wind
His eyes were fixed on a queen
And all he saw was a woman
And all she was, was a dream...
Oh oh...And all he saw was a woman, and all she was,
Was a dream...

He took her and bound her with ropes tied around her
To his castle he did ride;
In the wood was a bower where stood an an old tower
And he threw her deep inside;
Then the birds left the sky and a terrible cry,
Brought thunder and lightning, and rain falling down,
Tears on the ground...

All through the days on her face he would gaze,
For she was lovely as the spring;
No words would she speak but "Leave them in peace",
And some sad lament she would sing,
Oh one day by the door, at the window he saw
A single white feather lying on the floor.
She was there no more...

Now that great lord is dying,
His cold heart is crying for the love of the girl;
For many an hour he has wept on the tower
For she meant more than the world;
And once in the sky, a white bird flew by,
He lifted his hands, he cried out in pain
"Come back again..."

But his words were lost in the wind,
His castle was built upon sand,
And all he has is a memory,
And all he yearns is her hand...
Ah ah ... all he has is the memory,
And all he yearns is her hand.

Subject: RE: need song,
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Sep 13 - 09:55 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc5uwvW1EJc

You can hear it there, although I do wonder if the OP will see this given it's a 15-year-old request.

Subject: RE: need song, great lord went walking [The Tower]
From: Mr Happy
Date: 27 Sep 13 - 10:24 AM

Why have you posted the same link again?

Do you think the OP will notice more if its put up twice?

Subject: RE: need song, great lord went walking [The Tower]
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Sep 13 - 12:43 PM

One of our current missions at Mudcat is to answer the backlog of unanswered requests. We've made great strides, and Mr. Happy's link adds to that effort. Others will likely have the same question, so no productive research is wasted.

Subject: RE: need song, great lord went walking [The Tower]
From: maeve
Date: 27 Sep 13 - 12:52 PM

One of our current missions at Mudcat is to answer the backlog of unanswered requests. We've made great strides, and Mr. Happy's link adds to that effort. Others will likely have the same question, so no productive research is wasted.

Subject: RE: need song, great lord went walking [The Tower]
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Sep 13 - 01:18 PM

My apologies. I hadn't realized you had posted that song from YouTube.

Subject: ADD: The Tower (Krizan, Davison, Pasch)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Sep 13 - 01:47 PM

Maeve found a very good transcription of the lyrics at this URL: http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-tower-lyrics-chris-de-burgh.html

Mr Happy found the YouTube recording by Chris de Burgh at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc5uwvW1EJc.

Here's a working copy for corrections (with the few I made in italics), using the metrolyrics post as a base. If you have other corrections, post them below and I'll incorporate them. I think it's her "head" that was hung in pain, but metrolyrics says "hand" - what do you think?

THE TOWER
(Anthony Krizan, Pete Davison, Stephen Pasch)
[I question this - the Harry Fox Agency says the song was written by Chris De Burgh - anybody have a De Burgh recording with CD notes?]

A great lord came walking through the forest one morning
With a weapon in his hand;
Rich was his castle, he lacked for nothing,
But killing was his plan;
When a white bird flew by she fell from the sky,
Nothing was found, only blood on the ground,
She was gone.

Cursing his fortune,
He turned to the forest to kill once again,
And standing before him was a lovely young woman
With her head hung in pain.
When he saw her his eyes were filled with desire,
He said "I must have her, she must be mine,
She will be mine..."

He offered her silver, he offered her gold,
But she threw it on the ground,
He fell to his knees and he begged her,
"Oh please come with me,
What you wish will be found;"
She said, "Sire, I'll go if you put up your bow,
And spare these creatures, leave them in peace,
You have no need..."

But her words were lost in the wind,
His eyes were fixed on a queen;
And all he saw was a woman,
And all she was, was a dream...
Oh oh...And all he saw was a woman, and all she was,
Was a dream...

He took her and bound her with ropes tied around her
To his castle he did ride;
In a wood was a bower where stood an an old tower
And he threw her deep inside;
Then the birds left the sky and a terrible cry,
Brought thunder and lightning, and rain falling down,
Tears on the ground...

All through the days on her face he would gaze,
For she was lovely as the spring;
No word would she speak but "Leave them in peace",
And some sad lament she would sing,
Oh, one day by the door, at the window he saw
A single white feather was lying on the floor.
She was there no more...

Now that great lord is dying, His cold heart is crying
For the love of the girl;
For many an hour he has wept on the tower
For she meant more than the world;
And once in the sky, a white bird flew by,
He lifted his hand, he cried out in pain
"Come back again..."

But his words were lost in the wind,
His castle was built upon sand,
And all he has is a memory,
And all he yearns is her hand...
Ah ah ... all he has is the memory,
And all he yearns is her hand.