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Lyr Req: Fable of the Wings (from Brass Monkey)

23 Oct 97 - 10:21 AM (#15111)
Subject: REQ.: Fable of the wings
From: Wolfgang Hell

Brass Monkey, a folk group with Martin Carthy singing, has the song "Fable of the wings" by K. Christmas on their record. I understand only part of it. Any help?

Wolfgang

21 Oct 99 - 05:49 AM (#126277)
Subject: RE: REQ.: Fable of the wings
From: Wolfgang

I think I refresh this after two years with new hopes.

Wolfgang

21 Oct 99 - 11:58 AM (#126395)
Subject: RE: REQ.: Fable of the wings
From: lamarca

Wolfgang, I have the album at home, and will try to transcribe the song this weekend (if someone doesn't beat me to it)

24 Oct 99 - 03:28 AM (#127416)
Subject: Lyr Add: FABLE OF THE WINGS (Keith Christmas)
From: Stewie

Wolfgang,

Here is my transcription of the song. It's not one that I had taken much notice of before. It is interesting, isn't it? One of the rewards of helping people out here is discovering overlooked good'uns in one's own collection. The only line that I am not completely happy with is 'She roams from over there', but that is what it sounds like to me. I do not know what Christmas's original line structure was, so I put the song into 4-line stanzas.

All good things, Stewie.

FABLE OF THE WINGS

He wore a suit of morning grey
No thought did he betray
As he moved inside with the evening tide
At the end of his working day

Off the train and down the road
Stepping through the door
Sees his wife standing
Staring across the floor

She said: 'A stranger came today
He opened a silver tray
He had all sorts of pills that could cure all ills
Said I'd see things a different way'

Oh what a heart that pounds
And oh what limbs that are weak
Voices come from so far away
I hardly hear you when you speak

At night she dreamed strange things
Her thoughts ran round in rings
'Til to the dawn sky she gave a cry
To find that she had grown wings

See her gaze into the mirror
See her gazing through the gloom
As she stretched and she watched this great wonder
Filling her tiny room

She roams from over there
Stretched her wings above her head
And then with the shame, she cried out in vain
'Oh I wish that I was dead'

Whatever will the neighbours say
Whatever gossip will they all preach
Whatever will my children all think of me
When they see that I'm a freak

And now there comes the day
For the last act of the play
You can see the surprise in the surgeon's eyes
At the task that before him lay

From deep behind the mask he stared
And from deep down there came a sigh
As he wondered what it must be like
To have the power to fly

He wore a suit of morning grey
No thought did he betray
As he moved inside with the morning tide
At the end of his working day

But those of us who are like to trip
Those who are like to fall
Find however high are the walls we build
We find no shelter at all

Author: Keith Christmas. Transcribed from Brass Monkey 'Same' Topic 12 TS431

28 Oct 99 - 03:57 AM (#128899)
Subject: RE: REQ.: Fable of the wings
From: Wolfgang

Thanks a lot, Stewie. This song from this band was just too difficult for me. I'd have had about one missing line per verse. Im looking forward to relistening tonight.

Wolfgang

10 Jun 08 - 04:40 AM (#2362112)
Subject: RE: REQ.: Fable of the wings
From: GUEST,D.Lindley

I know it's been a few years but I think that line is, "She bounds from off the bed."

14 Oct 12 - 08:17 PM (#3419924)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fable of the Wings (from Brass Monkey)
From: GUEST,andy copeman

I think it's "She rose from off her bed", which makes a bit more sense!

Blessings

Andy

15 Oct 12 - 01:22 AM (#3420008)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fable of the Wings (from Brass Monkey)
From: MGM·Lion

Perhaps based on Angela Carter's 1984 novel Nights At The Circus? ~~

Wiki synopsis: Nights at the Circus begins with American journalist Jack Walser interviewing Sophie Fevvers in her London dressing room following a performance for the circus which employs her. Fevvers claims to have been left as a baby in a basket on the doorstep of a brothel. Until she reached puberty she appeared to be an ordinary child, with the exception of a raised lump on each shoulder; as she begins menstruating, however, she also sprouted complete wings...

~Michael~

15 Oct 12 - 06:03 AM (#3420085)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fable of the Wings (from Brass Monkey)
From: GUEST

Perhaps based on Angela Carter's 1984 novel Nights At The Circus?

Unlikely, as Keith Christmas wrote and first recorded it in 1970 on his album of the same name. In those days he was a resident performer at the Bristol Troubadour club and Angela & Paul Carter lived in the next street - they ran a traditional folk club for a while in Clifton according to the "Bristol Folk" book by Mark Jones - so it's actually possible the influence was the other way round.

15 Oct 12 - 06:18 AM (#3420091)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fable of the Wings (from Brass Monkey)
From: MGM·Lion

Ah ~~ that is interesting. Thanks Guest. Is that the same Paul Carter that I knew in London in the 50s, and used to meet at the Eel Pie Island and Troubadour Fulham Road folk clubs? [he sang an excellent Canadian version of Musgrave/MattyGroves called The Young Leboux, I recall] ~~ I have often wondered if the novelist's husband was one & the same man. I think it probable ∴ that it might indeed have been the other way round, and she got her inspiration for Fevvers from that somewhat mystic song.

Thanks again

~Michael~