Steeleye Span Album

Fair maiden in the garden walking along
What is it makes her to weep and to moan?
I am as a tall sailing ship out on the sea,
Where only long breezes reach out to me.
Chorus: And I'll set my sails of silver,
And I'll steer towards the sun,
And you, false love, will weep for me
When I'm gone, when I'm gone, when I'm gone.
The maid in a garden, how can it be?
I'm staring seaward but what does she see?
A mast of the tall rowan tree, ropes of fine silk,
Decks holystoned shining whiter than milk.
Chorus: (2x)
(Key change) Chorus 3x and fade

Do you remember what we promised when we met, my love?
There would never be a reason for regret, my love;
The news has come to town, the news flies up and down,
That another you have found to lie with you, my love.
If the wind doth whisper by that it's not true, my love,
And the seas could rise and cry that it's not you, my love;
If the hills could only say that you were on your way,
Then happy I would stay and be with you, my love.
Ev'ry night I light a light for your return, my love,
But the morning light's a lesson to be learned, my love;
That I, who learned to trust, have been betrayed at last,
Forever I'll be cursed for wanting you, my love.
Remember what we promised when we met, my love,
There would never be a reason for regret, my love;
But I, who learned to trust, have been betrayed at last,
Forever I'll be cursed for wanting you, my love.

Kemp

Once a year when the winter's calling,
Birds fly south and the leaves are falling down
Just beyond the town, the meadow where a campfire's burning
Wakes in the morning to the music of the big fairground.

Coming from the east, coming from the west, all the gypsies are gathering.
Just another town on the road for the travelling man.

Follow me, boys, won't you follow me to Barnet Fair?
Follow on children won't you follow me to Barnet Fair?
If I show you the way won't you come along today?
Everyone you know will be there.
Follow me, boys, won't you follow me to baRnet Fair.

Leave the factory, leave the field
Word is abroad that the fair arrives today.
Come on from the dusty loom and the rusty plough
Join the procession, i can hear it come this way

Come and see the juggler, come and see the fiddler
See the horses and the dancing bear.
Come and see the pretty lasses with the coloured ribbons in their hair.

Follow me, boys, won't you follow me to Barnet Fair?
Follow on children won't you follow me to Barnet Fair?
If I show you the way won't you come along today?
Everyone you know will be there.
Follow me, boys, won't you follow me to Barnet Fair.

See the magic lantern and the batt and hoop-la,
Prizes for the twopenny shy.
"All the fun of the fair" you can hear the showmen cry.

Follow me, boys, won't you follow me to Barnet Fair?
Follow on children won't you follow me to Barnet Fair?
If I show you the way won't you come along today?
Everyone you know will be there.
Follow me, boys, won't you follow me to Barnet Fair.

Kemp-Prior

Sally's in the alley and Nancy's on the game
Emily is pregnant and wondering who to blame.
We raise our port and lemon and toast a reply
That the senior service satisfy.

See the bold man-of-war steaming into port
Guns fully primed, the 24-pounder sort
And down on the deck for a full broadside
Back on the high seas with the rising tide.

Here's a little steam ship chugging up the channel
Small smoke stack and a red smoking funnel.
He brings the girls presents of stockings and tights,
Comes regular as clockwork every tuesday night.

Sally's in the alley and Nancy's on the game
Emily is pregnant and wondering who to blame.
We raise our port and lemon and toast a reply
That the senior service satisfy.

Here come the sailor boys, matthew, luke and john
I like 'em with tattoos, i like 'em young and strong.
Here come the sailor boys a-rousting up the town
Their rigging is up but their sails are down.

-instrumental-

Here's a skipper of a clipper with a broken bowsprit
Heading for dry dock and a new refit
There's an oil tanker of the modern kind
A thousand foot length of throbbing steam turbine.

Sally's in the alley and nancy's on the game
Emily is pregnant and wondering who to blame.
We raise our port and lemon and toast a reply
That the senior service satisfy.

Here come the sailor boys, George, John and Paul.
I like 'em lithe and lissom, like 'em slim and tall.
Here come the sailor boys whistling up the quay,
Blue peter up the mast where all the girls can see.

Sally's in the alley and nancy's on the game
Emily is pregnant and wondering who to blame.
We raise our port and lemon and toast a reply
That the senior service satisfy.

Married him in April, lost him in July;
Listen to my story and I'll tell you why,
They said that he'd been poaching and stealing wine,
They said I wouldn't see him for a long long time.
Chorus: They said he's gone to America,
To work the land that some called Virginia;
They said he's gone to America.
Married him in April, lost him in July;
They took him as their prisoner then told me why,
They said they had sent him where poachers go,
I asked if I could see him but they said no.
Chorus:
Married him in April, lost him in July;
Curse the men who took him, curse their wicked lie,
The night they saw him poaching and stealing wine,
Was the night he took comfort in these arms of mine.
Chorus:
Married him in April, lost him in July.

Kemp

Man said nature was his mother
Made a promise at his birth
But she's running like a hunted fox for cover
All across the earth

The forest turned into the tall ships,
And though they fought for england well
The emptiness is ringing down the ages
Like a hollow bell

Where are they now?
Old mysteries
The high ideas of thousand years
All lost on the breeze
Where are they now?

Asking wonders of our children
Blind faith in all the rules
But the blind lead the blind from the cradle
Through the faith of fools

One son gone unto the merchant
Another to the bishop went
Another son to serve the king
And country in some regiment

Where are they now?
Old mysteries
The high ideas of thousand years
All lost on the breeze
Where are they now?

Every year in late december
Hark the herald angels sing
In the church words of peace on earth are spoken
It doesn't change a thing

Where are they now?
Old mysteries
The high ideas of thousand years
All lost on the breeze
Where are they now?

Sometime in October,
We sailed from England's shore,
When we sailed into a raging storm
Like I've never ever seen before;
And all of the crew they were brave men,
But the captain, he was braver,
He said "Never mind the ship, me boys,
There's none of us here can save her."
Chorus: Let her go down,
Swim for your lives,
Swim for your children,
Swim for your wives,
But let her go down,
Just let her go down.
Lost in the open ocean,
There were some of the crew and me,
While the captain steered our wounded ship,
To the bottom of an angry sea,
And with his dying breath we all heard him say,
"Just the fortunes of a sailor."
And he said "Never mind the ship, me boys,
There's none of us here can save her."
Chorus:
He wondered if his shipmates
were ready just to pray and give in,
So he called their names out one by one,
But there was no one else around but him,
He saw the ship go down in the fading light,
And he knew they couldn't save her.
He said "The captain lied when the captain cried,
There's none of us here can save her."
Chorus:

Hart-Johnson-Kemp-Knight-Pegrum-Prior

There was a king who built a ship
And sailed away
To look for gold in the hills of scone
Far away

The only gold in the hills of scone
Is gold you'll never own
It belongs to the giant longbone
Far away

The only gold I've ever known
It all belonged to the giant longbone
His teeth are sharp, his claws are long
So they say
His eyes are like a fire that burns
Far away

We will go to the hills of scone
We'll find the giant longbone
We'll turn him into stone
Far away

The only gold I've ever known
It all belonged to the giant longbone
Through the rain and through the snow
We sailed away
To the land where only fools go
Far away

We stepped onto the shore
And then we heard him roar
He must have seen us

We tried to hide, we tried to run
Run away
He killed the crew, he threw the boat
Far away

And then he said "We are alone
I am the giant longbone
You shold have stayed at home
Far away"

The only gold I've ever known
It all belonged to the giant longbone

Prior / Elvey-Alford

When the marigold no longer blooms
When summer sun is turned to gloom
See the forecast winter snow
See the evergreen that lonely grows
Move close to the fireplace
Neglect the garden
See the ground harden
At a ghostly place
The golden summer sun is silver now
The fruit has fallen from the bough
The season moves to chestnut time
Toffee apples, treacle and mulled wine
Quilts and furs and woolens gay,
You wrap around you.
But the cold confounds you,
On an autumn day.

Stout and strong the walls of home and hearth
Curtains drawn against the draft
The rake has reaped, the blade has mown
Nights draw in to call the harvest home
The quiet of a heart at rest
In peace abounded
By love surrounded
Here the home is blest
Harvest home
Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest home

All be safely gathered in
Ere the winter storms begin
God, our maker doth provide
For our wants to be supplied
Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest home

Traditional

What is deeper than the sea?
What is higher than a tree?
And what is louder than a horn?
What is sharper than a thorn?

What is lighter than the light?
What is darker than the night?
And what is colder than the clay?
What is broader than the way?

Tell me why
So many questions
Tell me why
The devil lies
Tell me why
Who will live or who will die?
Tell me why
So many questions
Tell me why
The devil lies
Tell me why
Which way leads to paradise?
Tell me why
Tell me why

Hell is deeper than the sea
Heaven is higher than a tree
And thunder is louder than a horn
Hunger is sharper than a thorn

Truth is whiter than the light
The devil is darker than the night
And death is colder than the clay
Love is broader than the way

Tell me why
So many questions
Tell me why
The devil lies
Tell me why
Who will live or who will die?
Tell me why
So many questions
Tell me why
The devil lies
Tell me why
Which way leads to paradise?
Tell me why
Live or die
Tell me why

Traditional

True Thomas sat on Huntley bank
And he beheld a lady gay
A lady that was brisk and bold
Come riding o'er the ferny brae

Her skirt was of the grass green silk,
Her mantle of the velvet fine
At every lock of her horse's mane
Hung fifty silver bells and nine

True Thomas, he pulled off his cap
And bowed him low down to his knee
`All hail, thou mighty Queen of Heaven
Your like on earth I ne'er did see.'

`No, no Thomas she said
That name does not belong to me
I am the queen of fair Elfland
And I have come to visit thee.'

`You must go with me Thomas she said,
True Thomas you must go with me
And must serve me seven years
Through well or woe, as chance may be.'

Chorus
Hark and carp, come along with me, Thomas the Rhymer
Hark and carp, come along with me, Thomas the Rhymer
Hark and carp, come along with me, Thomas the Rhymer
Hark and carp, come along with me, Thomas the Rhymer

She turned about her milk white steed
And took Thomas up behind
And aye whenever her bridle rang
Her steed flew swifter than the wind

For forty days and forty nights
They rode through red blood to the knee
And they saw neither sun nor moon
But heard the roaring of the sea

And they rode on and further on
Further and swifter than the wind
Until they came to a desert wide
And living land was left behind

`Don't you see yon narrow, narrow road
So thick beset with thorns and briars?
That is the road to righteousness
Though after it but few enquire.'

`Don't you see yon broad, broad road
That lies across the lily leaven?
That is the road to wickedness
Though some call it the road to heaven.'

`Don't you see yon bonnie, bonnie road
That lies across the ferny brae?
That is the road to fair Elfland
Where you and I this night must go.'

Chorus

Traditional

My Johnny was a shoemaker and dearly he loved me
My Johnny was a shoemaker but now he's gone to sea
With pitch and tar to soil his hands
And to sail across the sea, stormy sea
And sail across the stormy sea
His jacket was a deep sky blue and curly was his hair
His jacket was a deep sky blue, it was, I do declare
For to reive the topsails up against the mast
And to sail across the sea, stormy sea
And sail across the stormy sea

Some day he'll be a captain bold with a brave and a gallant crew
Some day he'll be a captain bold with a sword and spyglass too
And when he has a gallant captain's sword
He'll come home and marry me, marry me
He'll come home and marry me