Songs That Tell Stories

Another one!

Great one, hinge.

This is an old English ballad based on Walter de la Mare's The Listeners.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWdV3d014S8&feature=related

Only read Silver by the poet.

Thanks for reminding us of de la Mare's poem. I have to say I enjoy quietly reading the man's work to a song.

Another poem that tells a story, edgar.

First, the poem:

Percy Shelly

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

a funny note. one of my students thought "trunkless" meant without swimming trunks.

You know this one, of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eIOD0-fEko&feature=related

This one seems very familiar, letty.

Bacharach & David. They could write them...huh

lol... Didja notice they stopped at six shots in the song, the capacity of the
hogleg revolver in the time of the story's setting.

another poem that tells a story.


Sing me a Song of a Lad that is Gone
By Robert Louis Stevenson
Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,
Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye.

Mull was astern, Rum on the port,
Eigg on the starboard bow;
Glory of youth glowed in his soul;
Where is that glory now?

Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,
Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye.

Give me again all that was there,
Give me the sun that shone!
Give me the eyes, give me the soul,
Give me the lad that's gone!

Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,
Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye.

Billow and breeze, islands and seas,
Mountains of rain and sun,
All that was good, all that was fair,
All that was me is gone.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD9OhqK4bA4

That was one by RLS I did not remember, letty. It makes a nice song.

This just came up on random. Still gives me shivers.

Darrell Scott is one of the best songwriters you've never heard of.
This bitter tune from 1999 sounds like an old Child ballad but recounts the long term costs of bringing coal up to the surface.



In the deep dark hills of eastern Kentucky
That's the place where I trace my bloodline
And it's there I read on a hillside gravestone
You will never leave Harlan alive

Oh, my granddad's dad walked down
Katahrins Mountain
And he asked Tillie Helton to be his bride
Said, won't you walk with me out of the mouth
Of this holler
Or we'll never leave Harlan alive

Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning
And the sun goes down about three in the day
And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinking
And you spend your life just thinkin' of how to get away

No one ever knew there was coal in them mountains
'Til a man from the Northeast arrived
Waving hundred dollar bills he said I'll pay ya for your minerals
But he never left Harlan alive

Granny sold out cheap and they moved out west
Of Pineville
To a farm where big Richland River winds
I bet they danced them a jig, laughed and sang a new song
Who said we'd never leave Harlan alive

But the times got hard and tobacco wasn't selling
And ole granddad knew what he'd do to survive
He went and dug for Harlan coal
And sent the money back to granny
But he never left Harlan alive


In the deep dark hills of eastern Kentucky
That's the place where I trace my bloodline
And it's there I read on a hillside gravestone
You will never leave Harlan alive

..me too.
God only knows why the Aussies bought into that foul war.

Because politically we felt we still owed the yanks for saving our butts in wwII. Sadly, we probably did. All the way with LBJ. I have an uncle who served. My dad escaped the draft thanks to a broken femur. I've just realised I've never asked my mother how he broke it.

You make a good point about WWII. Though the threat from the Japanese was much more serious than that of the Viet Cong.

One of my biggest regrets was that I never got to talk to my grandfather about his experience at Gallipoli.

Holy **** - you had a grandfather at Gallipoli? Your mum's dad no doubt. I have confession about Gallipoli but it's only PM worthy and I wouldn't mention it if it weren't for a margaret river verdehlo.

Me Mum's dad. For years I was obsessed with that battle.

Thanks for the great music, hingehead.

What edgar said, hinge.

This one tells a story as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCh3rCXrgnQ

Maybe some of you can identify the men.

I think some are Lord Byron; Al Jolson; Van Gogh, and Oscar Wilde

I did not recognize many of them, letty. I remember the song by Roberta Flack, but this man does very well also.