ADD: 1999 Nineteen Ninety-Nine (Tommy Sands)

Subject: Lyr Req: 1999 by Tommy sands
From: Tom Hamilton frae Saltcoats Scotland
Date: 21 Dec 06 - 12:41 PM

Hello,

I'm looking for the words to a song by Tommy Sands called 1999, it is about the republicans and the loyalist sit down and realize that what they did was really stupid.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 1999 by Tommy sands
From: Shaneo
Date: 22 Dec 06 - 12:29 PM

Tom if you go to Tommy Sand's site and send an email I'm sure he will help you , at least the people there were very kind and gave me permission to put his songs on my site , but alas I don't have the one you wanted.


go here for Tommy's site

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 1999 by Tommy sands
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Dec 06 - 01:42 PM

is it Colum Sands perchance?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 1999 by Tommy sands
From: Peace
Date: 22 Dec 06 - 03:58 PM

The title of the song is

"Nineteen Ninety-Nine"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 1999 by Tommy sands
From: Peace
Date: 22 Dec 06 - 03:59 PM

and it is by Tommy Sands, and I can't locate the lyrics.

Subject: Lyr Add: NINETEEN NINETY NINE (Tommy Sands)
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 22 Dec 06 - 08:21 PM

NINETEEN NINETY NINE
(Tommy Sands)

Oh IRA and UVF this song is just for you
As you sit down at the table now to see what you can do
At last you've come together after all the tears and time
It's sad you didn't do it back in 1969

History calls you savages but I know that isn't true
For we grew up together and I am part of you
We all had dreams and hopes and fears and someone else to blame
It took so long to realise our dreams were all the same

You know our dreams were all the same
But who would dare proclaim
In the anger and the pain
Our dreams were all the same

We felt the taste of hunger when the factory went away
And then they closed the hospital they said it didn't pay
And as the rich got richer and they promised us the sky
All we got were promises and coloured flags to fly

I remember well your little girl she had ribbons in her hair
When she came to play that summer's day with the children in the square
To think they could be here today still laughing and alive
If strong men had been wise men in 1979

You know our dreams were all the same
But who would dare proclaim
In the anger and the pain
Our dreams were all the same

It was always all or nothing there was nothing in between
Compromise was treachery that's the way it seemed
Well now we're left with nothing but a future we must find
And count the cost of the chances lost in 1989

Oh IRA and UVF this song is just for you
As you sit down at the table now to see what you can do
At last you've come together after all the tears and time
It's sad you didn't do it back in 1999

You know our dreams were all the same
But who would dare proclaim
In the anger and the pain
Our dreams were all the same

[1989:] During the course of the same week recently, I found myself in the headquarters of representatives of the two opposing lines in the Northern troubles. But when I looked out of the window of each place I saw the same picture. The houses were the same, the people wore the same and the problems were the same. At that moment I knew that eventually both sides would sit down and find a solution. The song asks the question ... When? (Notes Tommy Sands, 'Beyond the Shadows')

[1996:] At around the same time as the events in "There were Roses" were occurring [in 1974], the Protestant-backed Ulster Defense Association invited Tommy to tour an installation, and he was surprised by what he found. "I saw a book on Gandhi, and I saw Celtic pictures on the wall...I felt part of them," he says. Later the same week, he found himself the headquarters of Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing, and the similarities were plain to him. "Going through the door, the locks were the same. The chains were the same.

Looking through the windows and seeing the same pictures was the thing that really impressed me. Same houses, same unemployment, the same people wearing the same clothes, the same sense of depression. At that moment, I knew the people are together. It's a matter of recognizing it. And the question I ask is when we will recognize it." (Sing Out! Magazine, vol 36 #3, Nov/Dec 1991, updated Jan 1996)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 1999 by Tommy sands
From: Wolfgang
Date: 24 Dec 06 - 05:56 AM

A very good song asking necessary questions.

Wolfgang

Subject: 1999-Tommy Sands
From: Amergin
Date: 07 Jul 22 - 04:06 PM

I tried looking to see if this has been discussed before, but Mudcat wasn't cooperating with the search.

The song 1999 by Tommy Sands is about how the people in power kept the troubles going.

There is a segment in one of the verses that has my curiosity:

"I remember well your little girl she had ribbons in her hair
When she came to play that summer’s day with the children in the square
To think they could be here today still laughing and alive
If strong men had been wise men in 1979"

It has the feel of something that really happened, much like his beautifully sad "There Were Roses".

I know that fragment is obscure, but I am curious as to what occurred, if anything...and I thought if anyone knew it would be some one here.

Subject: RE: ADD: 1999 Nineteen Ninety-Nine (Tommy Sands)
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 11 Jul 22 - 08:41 PM

1979 was a year of many deaths, including British Conservative MP, Airey Neave, 18 British Army soldiers in the Warrenpoint ambush, Lord Mountbatten and others of his family, and a number of Royal Ulster Constabulary officers. The Pope visited the Republic of Ireland that year and prayed for peace.
Where the little girl fits into this is unclear, but there may well have been other civilian casualties less widely known about.
Other than that, it seems that Tommy has looked at how things developed every 10 years, as he mentions 1969, 1979, 1989 and 1999.