Can someone identify this song?
David Condon
Irish (I think) folk. About a soldier named MacBride who fell in World
War I. The narrator contemplates his grave. Only words I can remember:
"Did they beat the drum slowly,
Did they play the fife lowly,
Did they ... ... ...
When they lowered you down?"
I used to hear it quite often on a folk program here in Cleveland.
Many thanks,
David
--
"I just know that something good is gonna happen,
I don't know when,
But just saying it could even make it happen ... "
KB
to...@extro.ucc.su.oz.au
as they lowered you down,
Did the bugles sing The Last Post
in chorus?
Did the pipes play the fugue of the Fallen"
William Macbride may not be the correct name of this excellent & touching song
by
Eric Bogle. A Scot by virtue of his virtue who these days lives in &
acknowledges The Land of OZ. This is not at all a recent song of his, nor I
believe is it at all his best.
Any reasonably big handler of OZ Music would be able to steer you towards Mr
Bogle's music. Unfortunatly I cannot be more specific.
Lots of Luck & enjoyment:
TonyG.
Anders Bruce
>War I. The narrator contemplates his grave. Only words I can remember:
>
>"Did they beat the drum slowly,
>Did they play the fife lowly,
>Did they ... ... ...
>When they lowered you down?"
>
>I used to hear it quite often on a folk program here in Cleveland.
>
>Many thanks,
>
>David
The name of song is "The green fields of france", written by Eric
Bogle and recorded by himself and various Irish artist. I've got it with
The men they couldn't hang (Night of thousand candles, 1985).
If you want the word, i can recommend a book called:
Folksongs & Ballads popular in Irland, volym 3.
By John Loesberg
(Ossian Publications
ISBN volym 1 0 946005 00 1
volym 2 0 946005 01 x
volym 3 0 946005 02 8
The books also contains notes for guitars.
I don't know anything about E.Bogle, but maybe someone else could fill
me in.
/Bruce
============================================================
Anders Bruce e-mail: d8...@efd.lth.se
br...@tts.lth.se
Lund Institute of Technology
SWEDEN
============================================================
"Lend me ten pounds, and i buy you a drink!" /Shane MacGowen
The Film Fan Man
} Irish (I think) folk. About a soldier named MacBride who fell in World
} War I. The narrator contemplates his grave.
This is a song by Eric Bogle (better known as the man who penned "And the
Band Played Waltzing Matilda"). I've seen it recorded under at least three
different titles:
(1) Priscilla Herdman covered it as "No Man's Land" on either THE WATER
LILY (on Philo) or her second album (title forgotten at the moment,
on Flying Fish).
(2) Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy covered it as "Willie McBride" on THE MAKEM
AND CLANCY COLLECTION (on Shanachie).
(3) The Men They Couldn't Hang covered it as "The Green Fields of France"
on NIGHT OF A THOUSAND CANDLES (on Demon).
Undoubtedly Bogle himself has recorded it, but I don't know under what
title or on what album.
} Only words I can remember:
} "Did they beat the drum slowly, Did they play the fife lowly,
} Did they ... ... ... When they lowered you down?"
the rifles fire o'er you
Did the bugles sound the last post in chorus
Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest"
--
"Nice climate you have here. High oxygen content."
"I rarely use it myself, sir. It promotes rust."
--- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, "The Mill", Maynard, MA)
boyajian%ruby...@DECWRL.DEC.COM or ...!decwrl!ruby.enet.dec.com!boyajian
Ericka Kammerer
|> In article <1991Aug15....@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> dx...@po.CWRU.Edu (David Condon) writes:
|> >
|> >Irish (I think) folk. About a soldier named MacBride who fell in World
|> >War I. The narrator contemplates his grave. Only words I can remember:
|> >
|> >"Did they beat the drum slowly,
|> >Did they play the fife lowly,
|> >Did they ... ... ...
|> >When they lowered you down?"
|> >
|> Bogle and recorded by himself and various Irish artist. I've got it with
|> The men they couldn't hang (Night of thousand candles, 1985).
Small quibble, I believe the actual title is "No Man's Land"
I seem to remember a Tommy Makem/Clancy Brothers recording of
it. I might have the lyrics stashed somewhere. Send email if you're
interested.
Ericka
e...@caen.engin.umich.edu
D A Fay
>Irish (I think) folk. About a soldier named MacBride who fell in World
>War I. The narrator contemplates his grave. Only words I can remember:
>"Did they beat the drum slowly,
>Did they play the fife lowly,
>Did they ... ... ...
>When they lowered you down?"
...did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
Titled variously Willie Mc Bride, The Green Fields of France; I think it
might have been by Eric Bogle originally. It's one of those songs which
every man with a guitar in a pub seems to know. I'd be surprised if you
couldn't find a version of it by Christy Moore.
Hope this helps
Derick Fay
Uni of Edinburgh
Tim Walters
|> This is a song by Eric Bogle (better known as the man who penned "And the
|> Band Played Waltzing Matilda"). I've seen it recorded under at least three
|> different titles:
|>
|> (1) Priscilla Herdman covered it as "No Man's Land" on either THE WATER
|> LILY (on Philo) or her second album (title forgotten at the moment,
|> on Flying Fish).
|>
|> (2) Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy covered it as "Willie McBride" on THE MAKEM
|> AND CLANCY COLLECTION (on Shanachie).
|>
|> (3) The Men They Couldn't Hang covered it as "The Green Fields of France"
|> on NIGHT OF A THOUSAND CANDLES (on Demon).
(4) June Tabor did it as "No Man's Land" on _Ashes and Diamonds_. It's
done as a medley with "The Flowers of the Forest" and is very effective.
Steve Savitzky
Irish (I think) folk. About a soldier named MacBride who fell in World
War I. The narrator contemplates his grave. Only words I can remember:
"No Man's Land" by Eric Bogle (a Scot living in Australia).
Frequently mis-titled "The Green Fields of France".
Well how do you do, Private Willy McBride;
Do you mind if I sit here down by your grave side?
...
Did they beat the drum slowly,
Did they play the fife lowly,
Did the rifles fire o'er ye
As they lowered you down?
Did the band play "The Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest"?
(I can't answer for spelling, punctuation, or other details, since I
don't have my copy of the songbook here.)
--
\ --Steve Savitzky-- \ ADVANsoft Research Corp \ FREE CYBERIA! \
\ st...@advansoft.COM \ 4301 Great America Pkwy \ Committee for a Free and \
\ arc!st...@apple.COM \ Santa Clara, CA 95954 \ Independent Cyberspace \
\__ st...@arc.UUCP _________408-727-3357___________________________________
Angus Macintyre
>
> Irish (I think) folk. About a soldier named MacBride who fell in World
> War I. The narrator contemplates his grave. Only words I can remember:
>
> "Did they beat the drum slowly,
> Did they play the fife lowly,
> Did they ... ... ...
> When they lowered you down?"
>
album, Scraps of Paper, FF311, and probably on at least one other album.
Bogle is originally from Scotland, but has lived in Australia for quite some
time. You may have the impression it was Irish because Tommy Makem, or one
of the Clancy Brothers (I don't recall exactly) also recorded it. The
lyrics appear in Rise Up Singing.
Rise Up Singing also lists it as being on Bogle's Live in Person, June
Tabor's Ashes & Diamonds, Bok, Muir & Trickett's Ways of Man, and Priscilla
Herdman's Forgotten Dreams.
The missing line is "Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down?"
That is followed by "Did the bugles sound the last post in chorus? Did the
pipes play the "Flowers o' the Forest"?"
Gary Martin
G1Ma...@UMassD.edu
Mike B. Jewell
originally an old Irish song.
Mike J.
ro...@ccvax.ucd.ie
> War I. The narrator contemplates his grave. Only words I can remember:
>
> "Did they beat the drum slowly,
> Did they play the fife lowly,
> Did they ... ... ...
> When they lowered you down?"
>
The soldier is Willie McBride, the song is The Green Fields of France and you
have caused a major singing session here in my open-plan office!!!! :-)))
> David
Rotan Hanrahan, Dublin, Ireland.
Ian Watson
The song is the "Green Fields of France" written by Eric Bogle, a Scot now resident in Australia.
Eric Bogle has written many a fine song ( The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, All the Fine Young Men to name but 2)
Nur Iskandar Taib
}}War I. The narrator contemplates his grave. Only words I can remember:
}}"Did they beat the drum slowly,
}}Did they play the fife lowly,
}}Did they ... ... ...
}}When they lowered you down?"
}}I used to hear it quite often on a folk program here in Cleveland.
}}Many thanks,
}}David
}}"I just know that something good is gonna happen,
}}I don't know when,
}}But just saying it could even make it happen ... "
}} KB
}}
} "Did the rifles fire o'ye
} as they lowered you down,
} Did the bugles sing The Last Post
} in chorus?
} Did the pipes play the fugue of the Fallen"
}
}William Macbride may not be the correct name of this excellent & touching song
}by
} Eric Bogle. A Scot by virtue of his virtue who these days lives in &
}acknowledges The Land of OZ. This is not at all a recent song of his, nor I
}believe is it at all his best.
}
I think the song is called Willie McBride, and I think the song
is Scottish. The last line should have been:
Did the pipes play The Flowers of the Forest
(Or: And the pipes played....)
(The Flowers of the Forest is a traditional pipe lament).
The arrangement I heard on the radio had a piper playing
a tune (presumably Flowers of the Forest) at the close.
There was another song of Australian origin, and I often
get the two mixed up. It too was about a soldier of the
First World War, except that he was wounded at Gallipoli.
There is a line that goes:
And the band played Waltzing Matilda
(Which I think is the title)
The reason both seem similar is that at the end of _this_
song you can indeed hear a band playing Waltzing Matilda.
I have both stashed away somewhere on tapes off the air..
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iskandar Taib | The only thing worse than Peach ala
Internet: NT...@AQUA.UCS.INDIANA.EDU | Frog is Frog ala Peach
Bitnet: NTAIB@IUBACS !
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lois Lew
> }}Irish (I think) folk. About a soldier named MacBride who fell in World
> }}War I. The narrator contemplates his grave. Only words I can remember:
>
> }
> }by
> } Eric Bogle. A Scot by virtue of his virtue who these days lives in &
> }acknowledges The Land of OZ. This is not at all a recent song of his, nor I
> }believe is it at all his best.
> }
>
> get the two mixed up. It too was about a soldier of the
> First World War, except that he was wounded at Gallipoli.
> There is a line that goes:
>
> And the band played Waltzing Matilda
>
> (Which I think is the title)
>
> The reason both seem similar is that at the end of _this_
> song you can indeed hear a band playing Waltzing Matilda.
>
both of them. The titles are No Man's Land (at least that's what Eric
Bogle seems to call it) and (you were correct) And The Band Played Waltzing
Matilda. I am surprized that none of the Australians on this list have
responded to this to defend (in some sense) one of there own. Eric
Bogle, while Scots by birth, is generally considered an Australian folk
artist.
-Lois
--
Lois A. Lew,
Phone#: (617) 784-0979
(ARPA): l...@lucid.com
(UUCP): ...!sun!edsel!lew
Thomas Leathrum
In article <Aug.15.15.40....@math.rutgers.edu>,
an...@math.rutgers.edu (Angus Macintyre) wrote:
Eric Bogle's "No Man's Land". Bogle recorded it on his 1983 Flying Fish
album, Scraps of Paper, FF311, and probably on at least one other album.
Bogle is originally from Scotland, but has lived in Australia for quite some
time. You may have the impression it was Irish because Tommy Makem, or one
of the Clancy Brothers (I don't recall exactly) also recorded it. The
lyrics appear in Rise Up Singing.
Rise Up Singing also lists it as being on Bogle's Live in Person, June
Tabor's Ashes & Diamonds, Bok, Muir & Trickett's Ways of Man, and Priscilla
Herdman's Forgotten Dreams.
--End of quoted material
Now that I know it's in Rise Up Singing, I have the chords for it, but
can someone out there hum the melody for me?
Actually, I mean this seriously -- I want to re-stimulate a question
that was posed a couple of weeks ago and pretty much fell dead: Is
there a standard way of conveying melody in ASCII? If so, can someone
A) post it, and B) send me the melody of "No Man's Land" in that format?
If not, is there any interest in inventing such a format specifically
for this use in this group?
Regards,
Tom Leathrum
mo...@dartmouth.edu
David Condon
In a previous article, leat...@kinsman.dartmouth.edu (Thomas Leathrum) says:
[on "No man's land"]
>Now that I know it's in Rise Up Singing, I have the chords for it, but
>can someone out there hum the melody for me?
>
>Actually, I mean this seriously -- I want to re-stimulate a question
>that was posed a couple of weeks ago and pretty much fell dead: Is
>there a standard way of conveying melody in ASCII? If so, can someone
>A) post it, and B) send me the melody of "No Man's Land" in that format?
> If not, is there any interest in inventing such a format specifically
>for this use in this group?
>
>Regards,
>Tom Leathrum
>mo...@dartmouth.edu
>
The Finale program is able to save things in MIDI seqencer file format,
which for a short single line melody without any velocity levels or
other articulation info would be very reasonable in size, probably
about 10K at most. The manual implies that this format is used for
importation among different programs; once you had it you could either
play it back on a MIDI instrument or read it into a notation format
(Finale; I think it would work with Professional Composer as well) --
now whether the same format would be usable for machines other than
Macintosh I have no idea. Anyway, the file could be binhexed or
uuencoded for posting or mailing. Has anybody ever tried this?
David
--
Ian Watson
|>
|> Did the pipes play The Flowers of the Forest
|>
|> (Or: And the pipes played....)
|>
|> (The Flowers of the Forest is a traditional pipe lament).
The Flowers of the Forest (or Floo'rs o' the Forest to give it something of its original sound) is in fact a lament:
The Floo'rs in question were the flower of Scotland's youth who were killed in great numbers at the Battle of Flodden at which the English dished out one of their many gubbings to the Scots. The Scots could have won but for some mismangement of the stragegy by King James IV (snatching defeat from the jaws of victory has since become something of a national characteristic).
This defeat was a national disaster, hence the playing of this Pipe lament at times of mourning.
Eric Bogle's own version of this song is, I believe, one of the best. I heard it reported that he was none too chuffed that the Furey's mucked about with it, changing or adding verses to alter the sentiments of the song.
He is making one his rare visits to the UK at the moment (in Edinburgh now I think). He is worth hearing.
Also: try listening to "All the fine Young Men" as sung by Dolores Keane with De Dannan on the "Ballroom" album. Its another anti-war song of some quality.
June Tabor does a great a cappella vesion of the "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda"
De Dannan do another of his songs, "Glasgow Lullaby", on their latest album
"Half Set in Harlem". It features Eleanor Shanley with a backing group of gospel singers: "interesting" describes it.
Ian Watson
email i...@turing.ac.uk
James McGowan
> "Did the rifles fire o'ye
> as they lowered you down,
> Did the bugles sing The Last Post
> in chorus?
> Did the pipes play the fugue of the Fallen"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
alt: flowers of the forest
When I heard Makem and Clancy do this one a few years back, they called
the song "The Flowers of the Forest". Liam introduced it by way of
a story about Eric Bogle's inspiration for the song. Apparently Bogle
was wandering around one of the gigantic WW1 graveyards in France
(Ardennes?) and just happened to spot the headstone of Pvt. William
McBride.
>William Macbride may not be the correct name of this excellent & touching song
>by Eric Bogle. A Scot by virtue of his virtue who these days lives in &
>acknowledges The Land of OZ. This is not at all a recent song of his, nor I
>believe is it at all his best.
Yep...
- Jim
--
James McGowan Internet: ja...@nrc.com
Network Research Corporation Phone: (805) 485-2700
2380 North Rose Avenue FAX: (805) 485-8204
Oxnard CA 93030
Rob Derrick
>|>
>Also: try listening to "All the fine Young Men" as sung by Dolores Keane
>with De Dannan on the "Ballroom" album. Its another anti-war song of some
>quality.
Which reminds me of another fine WWI anti-war song called "The Rose of York"
which I heard from a fellow named Bill Price.
My name it is Macbrennan, I am a Yorkshire man
I earn my living by my pen, tell tales if I can
But the tale I'm telling now boys, was writ by foolish men
And petals fell from the rose of York
Never to bloom again.
Does anyone know if there are any Bill Price recordings available out
there?
dr. bob
Jon Berger
It's called "No Man's Land." Really. It's been recorded under a lot of
other names, but that's what the author calls it, so I guess that's the
name.
Anyway, now that we've established that everyone and his uncle knows the
song, I have a question about it. I gather that the chorus basically
describes a full-bore, all-stops-out military funeral of the WWI period,
and the narrator is wryly asking "Did you have a lovely funeral, and does
it make you feel any better?" I know that "The Flowers of the Forest" is a
pipe tune; it's on a Fairport Convention record, for one thing, and the
June Tabor arrangement actually segues into it. The question: what the
heck is "The Last Post" or "The Last Posting Chorus" or whatever the
bugles might or might not have played? Is it a military fanfare of some
sort? What is the actual name of the tune? Inquiring minds want to know.
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jon Berger jo...@ingres.com {mtxinu,sun,amdahl,pyramid}!ingres!jonb
"Gentlemen, I regret to inform you that we're all drawings." -- B. Kliban
Jan
I've read the follow ups to this and it's apparent that everyone else knows the
origin of this song, but I, too, know it as a "cowboy" song and here are
the lyrics:
"The Streets of Laredo"
As I was a-walking the streets of Laredo,
As I walked out in Laredo one day,
I spied a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen,
All wrapped in white linen and cold as the clay.
I seen by his outfit that he was a cowboy,
And as I walked near him these words he did sigh,
"Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story,
"I am shot in the breast and I know I must die."
"It was once in the saddle I used to go dashing,
"Once in the saddle I used to go gay,
"First down to Rosie's and then to the card house,
"Shot in the breast and am dying today.
"Get 16 gamblers to carry my coffin,
"6 purty maidens to sing me a song,
"Take me to the valley and lay the sod o'er me,
"I am a young cowboy and know I done wrong."
"O BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY AND PLAY THE FIFE LOWLY,
"Play the dead march as they carry me on,
"Put bunches of roses all over my coffin,
"Roses to deaden the clods as they fall."
I remember the Smothers Brothers doing this song. I got the lyrics from
the book "Bang the Drum Slowly," by Mark Harris. It was written in 1956,
and it's about major league baseball players. Maybe the baseball newsgroup
would have known these lyrics. Anyway, I recommend the book.
David H. West
>and the narrator is wryly asking "Did you have a lovely funeral, and does
>it make you feel any better?" I know that "The Flowers of the Forest" is a
>pipe tune;
It's also a "traditional" song, a lament for the men killed in a
Scottish battle (probably Culloden, but I'm not sure); the author
is known, and the words appear as a poem in The Oxford Book of
Scottish Verse and The Oxford Book of English Verse (neither of
which I happen to have with me at present :-). The "usual" tune of
may not be the pipe tune of the same name; I remember thinking that
the pipe tune on the June Tabor album didn't seem to be the usual
tune to which one sang "I've heard them lilting / at yowe-milking",
but again, I haven't checked that recently.
>question: what the
>heck is "The Last Post" or "The Last Posting Chorus" or whatever the
>bugles might or might not have played? Is it a military fanfare of some
>sort? What is the actual name of the tune? Inquiring minds want to know.
It's called The Last Post in Britain (the line of the song is "Did
the bugles play 'The Last Post' in chorus?") and Taps in the US.
Just as Reveille is played in a British Army camp to mark the start of
the day, The Last Post is played to mark the end of the day, and by
metaphorical extension the end of a soldier's life at his funeral. The
tune is slow and very simple, using only four notes of a major chord
(bugles have no valves), and the first couple of phrases fit and are
associated in my mind with the words "Lights out, lights out"; I
probably got this from my father, who was in the British Army in WWII.
-David West d...@iti.org
The Film Fan Man
} (1) Priscilla Herdman covered it as "No Man's Land" on either THE WATER
} LILY (on Philo) or her second album (title forgotten at the moment,
} on Flying Fish).
Confirmation: It was her second album, FORGOTTEN DREAMS.
} (3) The Men They Couldn't Hang covered it as "The Green Fields of France"
} on NIGHT OF A THOUSAND CANDLES (on Demon).
The actual title as listed is "The Green Fields of France (No Man's Land)"
In article <1991Aug16.0...@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>, nt...@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib) writes...
} There was another song of Australian origin, and I often get the two
} mixed up. It too was about a soldier of the First World War, except
} that he was wounded at Gallipoli. There is a line that goes:
} And the band played Waltzing Matilda
} (Which I think is the title)
} The reason both seem similar is that at the end of _this_ song you can
} indeed hear a band playing Waltzing Matilda.
The song is indeed called "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" and
the similarity doesn't end with what you mentioned. Both it and "No
Man's Land"/"Willie McBride"/"The Green Fields of France" are by the
same composer, Eric Bogle. The reason you think that the latter is
Scottish and the former Australian is because Bogle was born in
Scotland and later moved to Australia, where he currently lives.
Tim Walters
|> The question: what the
|> heck is "The Last Post" or "The Last Posting Chorus" or whatever the
|> bugles might or might not have played? Is it a military fanfare of some
|> sort? What is the actual name of the tune? Inquiring minds want to know.
I always assumed it was the British equivalent of "Taps", the bugle call
played at American military funerals.
Jack Campin
> I know that "The Flowers of the Forest" is a pipe tune; it's on a Fairport
> Convention record, for one thing, and the June Tabor arrangement actually
> segues into it. The question: what the heck is "The Last Post" or "The
> Last Posting Chorus" or whatever the bugles might or might not have played?
> Is it a military fanfare of some sort? What is the actual name of the tune?
"The Flowers of the Forest" isn't a pipe tune, it's a nineteenth-century
imitation Highland lament. "The Last Post" is a bugle fanfare which I
think was originally used in the British Army to signal exactly what its
name suggests: last chance to get your letter in the departing courier's
satchel. But it was later (since WW1?) used throughout the British Empire
for commemorations of soldiers killed in war - e.g. at Remembrance Day
gatherings in Britain and Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand. I
believe the US military uses something called "Taps" for the same purpose;
I can't remember if it's the same tune.
--
-- Jack Campin Computing Science Department, Glasgow University, 17 Lilybank
Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland 041 339 8855 x6854 work 041 556 1878 home
JANET: ja...@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk BANG!net: via mcsun and ukc FAX: 041 330 4913
INTERNET: via nsfnet-relay.ac.uk BITNET: via UKACRL UUCP: ja...@glasgow.uucp
Don Nichols (DoN.)
>In article <472...@hpspkla.spk.hp.com>, jew...@hpspkla.spk.hp.com (Mike B.
>Jewell) says:
>>
>>I know it is an old Cowboy song which might have been, like many cowboy songs,
>>originally an old Irish song.
>> Mike J.
>
>I've read the follow ups to this and it's apparent that everyone else knows the
>origin of this song, but I, too, know it as a "cowboy" song and here are
>the lyrics:
>
>"The Streets of Laredo"
>
>As I was a-walking the streets of Laredo,
[ ... ]
>
>"O BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY AND PLAY THE FIFE LOWLY,
>"Play the dead march as they carry me on,
>"Put bunches of roses all over my coffin,
>"Roses to deaden the clods as they fall."
This is a traditional song, descended from an earlier variant about
a soldier who falls victim to Syphillis (sp?). Since he is a soldier, he
gets a millitary funeral. There are other variants in which the corpse is a
whore (or a "girl led astray") and died from the same cause. (Sometimes,
SHE even seems to get a milltary funeral :-). "St. James Infirmary" is
another variant, which made it to the blues tradition. In some cases, the
flowers are requested to cover the odor which is supposedly quite strong
from one who dies of syphillis.
In all these variants, the song takes the form of a last request
from the soon-to-be corpse. "No man's land" takes place LONG after Willie
McBride became a corpse.
--
Donald Nichols (DoN.) | Voice (Days): (703) 664-1585 (Eves): (703) 938-4564
D&D Data | Email: <dnic...@ceilidh.beartrack.com>
I said it - no one else | <dnic...@ceilidh.aes.com>
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---
Ian Watson
> The Flowers of the Forest...
>It's also a "traditional" song, a lament for the men killed in a
>Scottish battle (probably Culloden, but I'm not sure);
In fact it was Flodden, about 200 years before Culloden, for those that are interested.
The French had invoked the "Auld Alliance" treaty to get James IV to attack England. James made a mess of it and got himself killed as well as a lot of earls, lords and ordinary punters. The tragedy is still comemorated in several Scottish border towns to this day.
--------------------------------------
Ian Watson
Tel +44 41 552 6400
Fax +44 41 552 2985
email i...@uk.ac.turing
--------------------------------------
Greg Dolkas
Stones album.
Greg.
Jon Berger
>In article <91231.232...@uicvm.uic.edu> U16...@uicvm.uic.edu (Jan) writes:
>>In article <472...@hpspkla.spk.hp.com>, jew...@hpspkla.spk.hp.com (Mike B.
>>Jewell) says:
>>>
>>>I know it is an old Cowboy song which might have been, like many cowboy songs,
>>>originally an old Irish song.
>>> Mike J.
>>
>>I've read the follow ups to this and it's apparent that everyone else knows the
>>origin of this song, but I, too, know it as a "cowboy" song and here are
>>the lyrics:
>>
>>"The Streets of Laredo"
>>
>>As I was a-walking the streets of Laredo,
>
> [ ... ]
>>
>>"O BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY AND PLAY THE FIFE LOWLY,
>>"Play the dead march as they carry me on,
>>"Put bunches of roses all over my coffin,
>>"Roses to deaden the clods as they fall."
>
> This is a traditional song, descended from an earlier variant about
>a soldier who falls victim to Syphillis (sp?). Since he is a soldier, he
>gets a millitary funeral. There are other variants in which the corpse is a
>whore (or a "girl led astray") and died from the same cause. (Sometimes,
The most common female version is usually called "The Young Maiden Cut
Down in Her Prime". Frankie Armstrong does a nice version. The almost
invariable reference to roses, or other flowers, is supposed to be related
to a particularly bad smell associated with dying of syphilis; modern
medicine certainly has its advantages.
johnston...@gmail.com
Chris Adams
Eric Bogle wrote(I think, not sure about that) a song called Green Fields of France about a young fallen and buried soldier called William McBride that uses a similar refrain.