To Thread - Forum Home

The Mudcat Café TM
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=26416
30 messages

Lyr Add: Ashes on the Sea (Utah Phillips)

13 Oct 00 - 08:49 AM (#317983)
Subject: Ashes on the sea^^^
From: kendall

ASHES ON THE SEA by Utah Phillips

What is this tune I hear repeating
Sprung from the careless seed you've sown
Our songs will come and go like seasons
And bloom or fade all on their own.
refrain
Now, I know I will not find you
You'r gone from all but memory
For I am told that one who loves you
Has strewn your ashes on the sea.

I stepped outside for just a moment
To turn around and look on my own face
Who was that shadow just behind me
That old man I reach out to embrace

repeat refrain

It's one thing to look upon a picture
Another still to read the pages through
Perhaps to search along the wayside
Hoping I might find a trace of you.

re. ref.

Your dust cloud still drifts across the foot prints
Your best friend still standing there alone
You boxcars still keep the lovers parted
Your little boys still run away from home.

rep. ref.

What is this tune you hear repeating
Sprung from the careless seed I've sown
Our songs will come and go like seasons
And bloom or fade all on their own

repeat refrain ^^^


13 Oct 00 - 12:43 PM (#318122)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the sea
From: kendall

did you get this Dick? It's slip sliding away...


13 Oct 00 - 01:20 PM (#318155)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the sea
From: GUEST

kendall - I'm sure Joe will see it sooner or later....


13 Oct 00 - 01:38 PM (#318164)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the sea
From: kendall

I posted it for Dick Greenhaus, anyway, I hope he gets it before it slides off the edge of the world.


13 Oct 00 - 01:48 PM (#318168)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the sea
From: GUEST,MMario

Kendall - since it has "lyr Add" Joe offer should spot it in his routine searches and send it on to Dick.


14 Oct 00 - 05:04 AM (#318625)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the sea
From: Joe Offer

Already posted and harvested in this thread (click), Kendall. I sure like your recording of the song. I had a good singing buddy who died in December, 1997; and I helped spread his ashes in the sea the following Easter. Your recording made me think of him.
Gee, he was a good guy. Rest in peace, Bob Kirkpatrick.
-Joe-


14 Oct 00 - 08:14 AM (#318656)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the sea
From: kendall

It was shortly after we lost Marshall Dodge that I heard this song for the first time. I always sing it for him. Thank you for your kind words. I wish more people had your good taste in songs!


25 Jun 05 - 01:20 PM (#1509562)
Subject: "i get the blues when it rains"-lyrics
From: GUEST


18 Aug 06 - 11:54 AM (#1813023)
Subject: Lyr Req: 'strewed' his ashes on the sea
From: open mike

and chords request..
i think this is about
Woody Guthrie..or Joe Hill
i have heard Utah Phillips sing it.


18 Aug 06 - 12:02 PM (#1813029)
Subject: Lyr Add: ASHES ON THE SEA (Utah Phillips)
From: Stewart

Here it is...a beautiful song and one of my favorites.

ASHES ON THE SEA ? Bruce Phillips
A song in remembrance of Woody Guthrie. He was cremated and his ashes scattered on the sea off Coney Island. Tune similar to Lorena (recorded by Rosalie Sorrels "Miscellaneous Abstract Record No. 1")

What is this song I hear repeating
Sprung from the careless seeds you've sown
Our songs will come and go like seasons
To bloom and fade all on their own.

And now I know I cannot find you
You're gone from all but memories
And I am told that one who loves you
Has strewed your ashes on the sea

I stepped outside for just a moment
To turn and look on my own face
What is that shadow just behind me
Why it's the old one I reach out to embrace

It's one thing to look upon a picture
It's another thing to read the pages through
Or perhaps to linger by the wayside
Hoping I might find a trace of you

Your dust clouds still blow across your footprints
Your best friend still stands there all alone
Your box cars still keep the lovers parted
Your little boys still run away from home

Cheers, S. in Seattle


18 Aug 06 - 12:30 PM (#1813042)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'strewed' his ashes on the sea
From: Stewart

Laurel, come to Sunny Camp again and I'll sing it for you.

Cheers, S. in Seattle


18 Aug 06 - 12:36 PM (#1813047)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the Sea (Utah Phillips)
From: Joe Offer

There's a great recording of this song on Starlight on the Rails, the 4-CD Utah Phillips songbook. The singer on the CD is none other than [drum roll] Kendall Morse!
Good recording, too.
-Joe Offer-

Can anybody help with open mike's request for chords?


18 Aug 06 - 12:52 PM (#1813072)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the Sea (Utah Phillips)
From: Amos

It is a straight forward triad song--C, F, and G with a second-seventh (D7) on the "gone from all but memory", I believe.

A


18 Aug 06 - 02:27 PM (#1813168)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the Sea (Utah Phillips)
From: open mike

thanks y'all the search engine did not bring it up for me..
when is sunny camp? october? i may take you up on that...


18 Aug 06 - 02:34 PM (#1813175)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the Sea (Utah Phillips)
From: open mike

i have a friend whose brother is in hospice now
and the family is making plans for his ashes
when the time comes...thank you..


18 Aug 06 - 02:42 PM (#1813178)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the Sea (Utah Phillips)
From: Stewart

Sunny Camp - Sept. 29-Oct.1
Long Beach, Washington


18 Aug 06 - 08:05 PM (#1813397)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the Sea (Utah Phillips)
From: GUEST,Art Thieme

I am reminded of Steve Goodman who wrote "The Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" -- a song that many of us from Chicago love. A portion of Steve's ashes are now well worked into the soil at the base of the center-left field wall at Wrigley Field. A songwriter from town knew a fellow to talk to on the grounds crew, and he was "allowed" entrance one day/night to put some of Stevie into the field there where the ivy that covers the walls is rooted. The Cubs don't take much notice of that good old song, but it, like the dismal record of the team through the many years, combined with the Chicago White Sox winning the World Series in '05, remains as an excruciating thorn in the various sides of the Chicago Cubs. Is this thread creep? No, not really I don't think!

Art


19 Aug 06 - 03:31 AM (#1813619)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the Sea (Utah Phillips)
From: jacqui.c

Utah tells the story of this song on 'Starlight On The Rails'.

He and Kate Wolfe were touring and, during one concert, she sang a song about the burial of Woodie Guthrie. Someone came up to her afterwards and told her the song was wrong, Guthrie was cremated and 'his ashes were strewn on the sea'.

Kate and Utah both agreed that there was a song waiting to be written and the next day, as they were setting off for another gig, Kate handed Utah a pad of paper and a pencil, sat him in the back of the car, and gave him instructions that he was to write the song and perform it that night at their next gig.He did as he was told and the song was born.


19 Aug 06 - 10:36 AM (#1813761)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the Sea (Utah Phillips)
From: Mark Ross

Jacqui, it was Logan English who told the story to Bruce and Kate.

Mark Ross


06 Sep 09 - 10:19 PM (#2717768)
Subject: Kendall - Ashes on the Sea
From: olddude

For me probably one of the best songs of the sea ever done

ashes on the sea


06 Sep 09 - 10:38 PM (#2717774)
Subject: RE: Kendall - Ashes on the Sea
From: Deckman

Damned fine! Bob(deckman)Nelson


07 Sep 09 - 04:07 AM (#2717868)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the sea
From: open mike

who was that on dobro or pedal steel guitar on that recording, kendall?
i hope to include this in my woody guthrie radio special on saturday!


07 Sep 09 - 07:47 PM (#2718463)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the sea
From: kendall

That was my friend, Evens Fitch who passed away a few years ago. It was a Dobro.


07 Sep 09 - 07:52 PM (#2718466)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the sea
From: kendall

Dan, thanks for the review. One cant go wrong with a Utah song.


08 Sep 09 - 12:17 PM (#2718988)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the sea
From: kendall


08 Sep 09 - 01:08 PM (#2719026)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the sea
From: olddude

Well Kendall my friend, Utah has to be smiling from ear to ear because no one ever did this song better. It is one of your masterpieces for sure.


08 Sep 09 - 03:01 PM (#2719135)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the sea
From: kendall

You have excellent taste in music my friend. LOL


30 Jul 16 - 06:14 PM (#3802793)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the Sea (Utah Phillips)
From: GUEST,iancarterb

Had virtual keyboard troubles with first try at thanks for the maintenance of the archive in many years.
Thanks. :)
Carter


30 Jul 16 - 07:27 PM (#3802797)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the Sea (Utah Phillips)
From: Tiger

What a wonderful song, with a brilliant rendition by Kendall. Check YouTube - search on Kendall, Utah and Ashes for the whole story and the song.

I first heard this song five years ago, and said at the time that I'd never be able to play it through without breaking down.

Time has proven me correct.


31 Jul 16 - 06:46 AM (#3802833)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ashes on the Sea (Utah Phillips)
From: GUEST,Hootenanny

A great song beautifully performed and a nice story plus Bruce chose to use a beautiful old melody making just a slight change. One that is destined to last.