Ancient Castle Walls (2nd try)

13 Oct 97 - 07:34 PM (#14661)
Subject: Ancient Castle Walls (2nd try)
From: Nonie Rider

Still trying to identify song I ran into in High School about a ruined castle.

The song talks about how these castle walls once held light and joy, but are now silent. Lovers no longer drink from these cups; knights no longer wield these rusty swords and shields; the halls are empty; the lamps no longer burn, and so on.

Three verses total, of eight lines apiece (or you could say six verses to alternating tunes.)

(DAH da DAH da DAH da DAH,
DAH da DAH da DAH"

Since I ran into at least two full sets of lyrics on the subject, to the same tune, I tended to assume it was either a translation or an instrumental piece that somebody was grafting words onto.

This can't be a TOTAL unknown, since we had it in a songbook along with "Beautiful Dreamer" and "My Darling Clementine..." But I can't find anything like it in the database, and my first query here died young. Anyone remember this?

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14 Oct 97 - 03:57 PM (#14729)
Subject: RE: Ancient Castle Walls (2nd try)
From: Susan of DT

See Tara's Harp in the database for a similar song.

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14 Oct 97 - 06:43 PM (#14735)
Subject: RE: Ancient Castle Walls (2nd try)
From: Nonie Rider

Thanks for the pointer--it's not the same one, but it's another on the same theme.

OLD theme, too! Isn't it in the AS poem "The Wanderer," as well as various parts of Beowulf? I presume Homer did some of this too, but am less well versed in the Greeks.

--Nonie

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10 Nov 97 - 03:35 PM (#16045)
Subject: RE: Ancient Castle Walls (2nd try)
From: Rob Derrick

Sounds like "Bothwell's Castle", which I heard from Gordon Bok, but for the life of me, can't even remember a single line with certainty.

rob d.

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10 Nov 97 - 06:46 PM (#16053)
Subject: RE: Ancient Castle Walls (2nd try)
From: lesblank

Hey Nonie !!!

I did not answer last month because you mentioned you had heard this song in High School, so I figured it couldn't be the same one (about Castle Walls) that I knew of. But since you haven't had any luck so far ---- a friend of mine, Bill Ward, wrote and recorded this song about 8 years ago -- it's called Castle Walls and though it doesn't mention all of the things you talked about it's mighty close to the theme. It's on Bill's latest CD, appropriately titled "Bill Ward" and he also recorded a duet of it with Allen Damron, another local legend several years ago before they had CD's !! The cassette was called "Heroes and Sheroes". I'll e-mail you the lyrics if you like -- it may be a coincidence, BUT -----

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