Lyr Req: Tommy Flinders/Cinders/school/burning

Subject: Lyr Req: Tommy Flinders/Cinders/school/burning
From: GUEST,stuart swanston
Date: 14 Mar 06 - 05:40 AM

looking for lyrics of a song sung or written by ewan mcoll or raplh mctell about :-
little tomy flinders/loved to play with cinders/loved the leaves of autumn/the red leaves of autumn/ and the golden grain??/
...hated the school and the rules and railings and the class room /had just one ambition to burn it to the ground.....oh who he laughed as the flames lept through the class room....

last heard on an album with "dirty old town" in the early seventies

a friend who works with runa away kids who sometimes set fire to their schools would like to find a recording or read the lyrics.

best wishes from stuart swanston, edinburgh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tommy Flinders/Cinders/school/burning
From: Paul Burke
Date: 14 Mar 06 - 06:09 AM

Leon Rosselson's "Little Tim McGuire"

Lyrics here

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tommy Flinders/Cinders/school/burning
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 Mar 06 - 10:15 PM

Why not have it here?

TIM MCGUIRE
(Leon Rosselson)

Little Tim McGuire loved to play with fire,
Always hated water, never used to wash,
Loved the smell of burning, of bonfires burning,
Loved to play all day with his little tinderbox.

He chased the sparks as they flew into the evening,
Hailed the flash of lightning and the burning sun.
"When I'm a man, then I'll become a fireman.
Then I can light a fire for everyone."

When he was four, they dressed him in a uniform,
Sent him to a school with iron railings all around.
Hated the school and the rules and the railings,
Took his little tinderbox and burnt it to the ground.

Oh, how he laughed and danced in the firelight!
Oh, how he laughed as the flames leapt to the sky!
"When I'm a man, I'm going to be a fireman,
Keep a bonfire burning until the day I die."

When McGuire grew older, they made him wear a bowler,
Set him to work in an office in the town.
Hated the pens and the pins and the papers;
Had just one ambition: to burn the office down.

Little Tim McGuire loved to play with fire,
Loved the blaze of roses and the golden grain,
Loved the leaves of autumn, the red leaves of autumn,
Loved a slender girl with a smile like a flame.

The judge said at his trial, "Your behaviour has been vile.
You're a menace to society though you may think you're big.
You have to go to prison—" and then, what a commotion!
For smoke and fire were pouring from the judge's wig.

Oh, how he laughed and danced in the courtroom!
We took him down. We locked him in the darkness of the cell.
Never saw the sun or heard the songbirds calling;
Saw the prison bars and heard the prison bell.

Then early one morning, just as the day was dawning,
A great wheel of fire spun skywards from the jail.
The iron bars melted. The stone walls crumbled.
No one in the prison lived to tell the tale.

No one ever found Tim McGuire's little tinderbox.
No one ever found a trace of Tim McGuire.
Perhaps he's up in heaven setting light to angels' halos.
Perhaps he's down in hell dancing round the fire.

Repeat 1

[As sung by The McCalmans on "House Full," 1976; and "The Best Of," 1979. Also recorded by Leon Rosselson on "RosselSonGs," 1990.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tommy Flinders/Cinders/school/burning
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 15 Mar 06 - 11:09 PM

Why not? Partly because it has already been posted here several times, though not always entirely accurately or with writer credits:

Lyr Add: TIM MCGUIRE

Lyr Add: TIM MACGUIRE (Leon Rosselson)

Lyr Req: The Mcalmans

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tommy Flinders/Cinders/school/burning
From: Paul Burke
Date: 16 Mar 06 - 04:26 AM

Recorded by Rosselson in 1990? IIRC I had a record with it on in 1973, might have been on "Songs for Sceptical Circles" from the 60s. I remember a young chap (name, someone?) in the Welcome Inn in Rusholme in about 1973-5 singing a parody, "Little Jimmy Dirt, loved to wear a skirt..." He also sang "the end of my old cigar", and played excellent fiddle, if that helps anyone to place him.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tommy Flinders/Cinders/school/burning
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Mar 06 - 02:53 PM

Dang! My downfall was to assume someone else had already done the search. They wouldn't post a link to an external web site when we already had it at Mudcat, would they? Well, I guess they would. Lesson learned (and re-learned, again).

As for the dates, the date 1990 probably means that particular album was released in 1990, not that the song was recorded in 1990.