Lyr Add: Long Road Home (C. Fox Smith)

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: LONG ROAD HOME (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Jul 06 - 07:22 PM

This is one of my new favorite Cicely Folk Smith poems, as ably adapted for singing by Peter Massey (UK). I've done some additional tweaking of the lyrics, dropping one verse and altered a work or two. I really like Peter's driving tune. Here's the original poem:

Original poem by Cicely Fox Smith, 1914, from SONGS & CHANTIES: 1914-1916,
edited by Cicely Fox Smith, published by Elkin Mathews, London, © 1919, pp. 31-32.

The Long Road Home

There's a wind up and a sighing along the waterside,
And we're homeward bound at last on to-night's full tide;
Round the world and back again is very far to roam …
And San Juan Strait to England, it's a long road home!

We'll tow out to Flattery before the sun is high;
We'll shake the harbour dust away and give the land good-bye;
And singing in her topsails, O, the deep-sea wind'll come,
And lift us through it lively on the long road home.

The Old Man he goes smiling, for he's gathered in a crew:
We've various Turks and infidels, we've most things but a Jew;
He's got the pick of all the stiffs from Panama to Nome,
And we'll make them into sailors on the long road home.

The leaves that just are open now, they'll have to fade and fall,
They'll be reaping time and threshing time and ploughing time and all;
But we'll not see the harvest fields nor smell the fresh cut loam;
We'll be rolling gun'le under on the long road home.

We've waited for a cargo and we've waited for a crew,
And last we've waited for a tide, and now the waiting's through;
O don't you hear the deep-sea wind and smell the deep-sea foam,
Out beyond the harbour on the long road home?

And it's "home, dearie, home" when the anchor rattles down,
In the reek of good old Mersey fog a-rolling rich and brown:
Round the world and back again is very far to roam…
And all the way to England it's a long way home!

Here's how I'm singing it now (copy and paste into WORD/TIMES/12 to line up chords):

THE LONG ROAD HOME

(Poem by Cicely Fox Smith, 1914, from SONGS & CHANTIES: 1914-1916,
Edited by Cicely Fox Smith, published by Elkin Mathews, London, © 1919, pp. 31-32
Adapted for singing by Peter Massey and recorded on THE LONG ROAD HOME, © 2005
Words further adapted by Charlie Ipcar 3/19/06)

Dm------Em--------------G----------D
There's a wind and it's a-sighing, a-long the waterside,
-------Em-----------------G------Am
We're homeward bound at last, on tonight's full tide;
-------------------------------------------Em--------C
Around the world and back again is very far to roam –
------G--------------------D----------------Em-------C
From San Juan Strait to England, it's a long road home!
------G---------------------D----------------Em-------C-------Dm
From San Juan Strait to England, it's a long road home!


We'll tow out to Flattery before the sun is high;
Shake the harbour dust away, bid the land good-bye;
Singing in her tops'ls, the deep-sea wind will moan –
And lift us through it lively on the long road home.
And lift us through it lively on the long road home.

The Old Man he goes smiling, he's gathered in a crew:
We've various Turks and infidels, we've even got a Jew;
We've got the pick of all the stiffs from Panama to Nome,
And we'll make them into sailors on the long road home.
And we'll make them into sailors on the long road home.

We've waited for the cargo, we've waited for the crew,
We've waited for the tide, and now the waiting's through;
Oh don't you hear the deep-sea wind, smell the deep-sea foam?
We'll be rolling gun'le-under on the long road home.
We'll be rolling gun'le-under on the long road home.

And it's "Home, boys, home" when the anchor rattles down,
In the reek of good old Mersey fog, rolling rich and brown:
Around the world and back again is very far to roam –
From San Juan Strait to England, it's a long road home!
From San Juan Strait to England, it's a long road home!
From San Juan Strait to England, it's a long road home!

Here's a link to my personal website for a MP3 sample: click here and search for lyrics!

I'd like to think that C. Fox Smith composed this poem as she was returning via sail from Victoria, British Columbia, to her native England in the spring of 1913 after an absence of almost 10 years.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Long Road Home (C. Fox Smith)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 04 Jul 06 - 07:37 PM

G'day Charley,

I take it that San Juan Strait is in Washington State ... so C. Fox Smith's journey home would be the same long trip down the Pacific ... but with the Panama Canal to halve the journey (and avoid the need to round the Horn!). I guess that she is setting this back before the Canal, so it really was a "long road home"!

I hope we get to hear you sing this - some day.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Long Road Home (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Jul 06 - 08:03 PM

Bob-

And the best to you as well! And our best to the rest of the Sydney crowd!

Yes, I think Cicely would have taken passage only on a sailing ship that rounded the horn. However, we don't have any confirmation of that from newspaper interviews from when she arrived home.

JudyB and myself are currently planning a run back to Australia in November of 2007. This year we're heading for the UK for about 3 weeks in October. We'll be sure to keep you up to date on our plans and coordinate schedules. We don't want to miss any chance to sing!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Long Road Home (C. Fox Smith)
From: GUEST,guest Rufus
Date: 05 Jul 06 - 11:20 AM

Thankyou Charley, a lovely song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Long Road Home (C. Fox Smith)
From: JudyB
Date: 05 Jul 06 - 05:03 PM

Hi Bob -

I think of San Juan Strait (actually the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but try to put that in a song!) as being in British Columbia, as that's where I was when we saw it while on the trail of C. Fox Smith - but it's as much in Washington state as it is the body of water that separates the city of Victoria on Vancouver Island from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

One of the first things we did on arriving in Victoria was hike to the western shore to watch the sun set over the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula beyond - and it did look a lot like Smith had described it in Pacific Coast. It was a good thing we went when we did - it was cloudy at sunset for the rest of our stay!

All the best,
JudyB

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Long Road Home (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jul 06 - 05:14 PM

The original 4th verse runs:

The leaves that just are open now, they'll have to fade and fall,
They'll be reaping time and threshing time and ploughing time and all;
But we'll not see the harvest fields nor smell the fresh cut loam;
We'll be rolling gun'le under on the long road home.

I personally like this verse but felt that it wasn't easily picked up by listeners as they imagined a tall ship setting out to sea. However, it does provide a sense of the time it took, 3 months of more, to run from British Columbia round Cape Horn to England.

I did borrow the last line of the verse as more vivid than "Out beyond the harbour on the long road home?"

Every singer has to figure out what to do when adapting poems for singing. Some do not change a single word. I tend to rework things until I'm more satisified with the result.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Long Road Home (C. Fox Smith)
From: JedMarum
Date: 07 Jul 06 - 04:14 PM

agreed - sometimes you have to rework things to make the songs work. Sometimes it's just that the lyric is so out of the experience of the audinece, they wouldn't understand without a long explanation - and sometime ya might just have to change a word to phrase the verse more gracefully.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Long Road Home (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Jul 06 - 04:56 PM

Jed-

And it's a fine sounding song. I do wish I could drive a 12-string guitar on it as does Peter Massey on his recording. But one of the members of Roll & Go plans to lead it anyway and he plays a mean guitar; I'll do the high harmony.

Here's a link to the C. Fox Smith page on the Oldpoetry website where you may find this poem and some 400 others that she composed: Click here for website

The poems were lovingly posted there by Jim Saville and myself.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Long Road Home (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Jul 06 - 12:56 PM

refresh!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Long Road Home (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Nov 07 - 11:08 AM

I've just done a new recording of this song and replaced the old MP3 sample on my website: Click and go to MP3 sample

Peter Massey (UK) certainly did a great job of setting this poem to music.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble