Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: Flash Company
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 11:40 AM

Wow, the Houghton Weavers recorded it?
That is getting close to home, I knew them when they had nowt like the rest of us.

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: r.padgett
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 11:27 AM

Three score years and Ten is our span upon the earth filling our lives with both sadness and mirth

When we pass over we leave all our friends but there'll be new buds on branches when winter ends

written one year at Barnsley Easter singaround with a Spiritualist feel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: Scrump
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 07:50 AM

Oops, I clicked too quick!

I meant to add that The Houghton Weavers also recorded the song with that title (The Leaf).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: Scrump
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 07:48 AM

In case it helps (e.g. if you are looking for recordings of the song), it is sometimes given the title "The Leaf" (e.g. on the Yetties' first album Fifty Stone Of Loveliness).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 08:21 PM

I remember taking my Aunty Eileen to the old Beggars Bush Folk Club in Sutton Coldfield. Must have been about 1975/6 - Bob Lines was running it.

There was a guy who used to sing who was a lecturer at the local tech, and he was giving us all the usual spiel - you know the sort of thing - tugging forelocks and genulflect in the direction of Rottingdean, etc.

And he starts singing this song, What's the Life of Man in the most lugubrious voice you have have EVER heard.

Now Eileen had been ill for years, clinging onto life by a thread and only just making it. Like weeks before, she had escaped from the jaws of death by a hairbreadth yet again, and as the song rumbled on, I was beginning to worry if she would take it to heart.

I needn't have worried, she reached for my hand and when I looked there were tears of laughter streaming down her face. She was absolutely 'in tucks'.

Thanks for mentioning this song, it has suddenly brought me closer to someone, I wish I'd held closer while she was alive.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 06:32 PM

Thanks IanC for the link - I just had the verse written in manuscript by Johnny.

Thanks Barbara for the alternative.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: BB
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 06:45 AM

We were asked to sing this at a friend's funeral some years ago. She was only forty-six, and an atheist, so we changed the last verse to this:

When age or affliction upon us do call,
Like a leaf we must wither and down we must fall;
Some taken early, so soon to depart,
But as we remember, they live in our hearts.

We don't make a habit of re-writing traditional songs, but it seemed more appropriate.

Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: IanC
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 05:24 PM

You mean this verse ...

Now the season is over and the leaves are all gone,
Back again to trees never more to return;
But it is not so with man for the Scriptures tell us plain,
Out of the bed of dust we must all rise again.

... one of the original verses from the broadside IN THIS THREAD

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: Flash Company
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 09:40 AM

Thanks for the extra verse, Kitty, I will include it with the others.

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: Captain Ginger
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 08:52 AM

I like it as song, as it seems to encapsulate rather nicely the thoughts of that marvellous old anarchist and atheist Herbert Read:
The death of each of us is in the order of things: it follows life as surely as night follows day.
We can take The Tree of Life as a symbol. The human race is the trunk and branches of this tree, and individual men and women are the leaves, which appear one season, flourish for a summer, and then die.
I too am a leaf of this tree and one day I shall be torn off by a storm, or simply decay and fall - and become part of the earth about its roots.
But, while I live, I am conscious of the tree's flowing sap and steadfast strength. Deep down in my consciousness is the consciousness of a collective life, a life of which I am a part, and to which I make a minute - but unique - contribution.
When I die and fall the tree remains, nourished to some small degree by my manifestation of life. Millions of leaves have preceded me and millions will follow me: but the tree itself grows and endures."
Keith Kendrick does an interesting version of the song with a completey different tune to the Coppers' - but unfortunately I'm musically illiterate so can't provide the dots or abc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 05:08 PM

I learnt this from the singing of the Yetties, more years ago than I care to remember, more or less as given above by Lady Nancy.

More recently, Johnny Collins gave me another verse - I don't know the provenance, but it goes:

The season is over, the leaves are all gone
Back to the trees they can never return
Tis not so with Man, the Scriptures say plain
Out of the dust we shall all rise again.

Reduces the morbidity rating, depending how much you care about leaves!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: Flash Company
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 10:22 AM

Thanks for that Ladies, I was looking as 'The Life of a Man' and nothing came up.
All I have to do now is file it with my Will!

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: Lady Nancy
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 10:04 AM

WHAT'S THE LIFE OF A MAN
^^^
As I was a walking one morning at ease
A viewing the leaves as they fell from the trees
All in slow motion appearing to be
And those that had withered, they fell from the trees

What's the life of a man anymore than the leaves
A man has his season, so why should we grieve
Though all thru this life, we appear fine and gay
Like the leaves we will wither and soon fade away

If you'd seen the leaves just a few days ago
So beautiful and bright they all seemed to grow
A frost came upon them and withered them all
A storm came upon them and down they did fall

If you look in the churchyard, there you will see
Those that have passed like the leaves from the trees
When age and affliction upon us do fall
Like the leaves we must wither and down we must fall

_____
sung for Bob Beers at Fox Hollow
@plant @religion
filename[ LIFEMAN
TUNE FILE: LIFEMAN
CLICK TO PLAY
SOF


It is in Digitrad! Just search for it and there'll be a midi of it too...... LN

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: Susan of DT
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 10:04 AM

It is in the Digital Tradition as "What's the Life of a Man".

Subject: Lyr Req: Bob Copper song The Life of a Man
From: Flash Company
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 09:57 AM

Looking for the rest of the words to this:-

Oh the life of a man is the life of a leaf,
A man has his season so why should we grieve,
He walks just a little while under the sky,
Like a leaf he must wither, like a leaf he must die.

Seem to remember hearing Bob Copper sing it. Know this is morbid, but want to suggest it is sung at my funeral(hopefully a long time hence!)

FC