what is this song?


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By heather on Tuesday, February 8, 2000 - 11:08 pm:

    my papa (grandfather) used to sing me this song as a lullaby. all i can remember is...

    speed bonnie boat
    like a bird on the wing
    over the sea to skye

    is this all?
    i think somewhere it says something about charlie...
    someone must know this and i'm dying to remember.


By Rhiannon on Tuesday, February 8, 2000 - 11:27 pm:

    SKYE BOAT SONG


    Speed bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
    Onward, the sailors cry
    Carry the lad that's born to be king
    Over the sea to Skye

    Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar,
    Thunder clouds rend the air;
    Baffled our foe's stand on the shore
    Follow they will not dare

    CHORUS

    Though the waves leap, soft shall ye sleep
    Ocean's a royal bed
    Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep
    Watch by your weary head

    CHORUS
    Many's the lad fought on that day
    Well the claymore could wield
    When the night came, silently lay
    Dead on Culloden's field

    CHORUS
    Burned are our homes, exile and death
    Scatter the loyal men
    Yet, e'er the sword cool in the sheath,
    Charlie will come again.

    CHORUS

    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    Words by Sir Harold Boulton, Bart., 1884. Music by Annie MacLeod.

    Charles Edward Stewart, the Young Pretender, was routed by the Duke of Cumberland on Culloden Moor in 1745. Aided by a Jacobite heroine, Flora MacDonald, Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped to the
    island of Skye in the inner Hebrides. He was finally taken by a French vessel to Morlaix on the coast of Bretagne. The first half of the tune is said to be an old sea shanty; the other half is traditionally attributed to Miss MacLeod.


By Rhiannon on Tuesday, February 8, 2000 - 11:28 pm:

    PS. I've been to the Isle of Skye. It is very, very beautiful.


By JusMiceElf on Wednesday, February 9, 2000 - 08:35 am:

    There were two bonny maidens and three bonny maidens
    Come o'er the minch and come o'er the main,
    With a wind for their way and a corrie for their hame
    And you're dearly welcome to Skye again.

    Come along come along with your boatie and your song
    To me hi, bonny maidens me twa bonnie maids
    For the night is dark, and the redcoat is gone
    And you're dearly welcome to Skye again

    There is Flora me honey, so neat and so bonny
    And one that is tall and handsome withal
    Put one for my Queen and the other for my King,
    And you're dearly welcome to Skye again.

    There's a wind on the tree and a ship on the sea
    To me hi, bonnie maidens, me twa bonnie maids
    By the sea mullet's nest I will watch o'er the main,
    And you're dearly welcome to Skye again.

    --------------------------------------------------

    This one's traditional. It's on a CD by the Flash Girls, who have such lovely voices. Flora MacDonald disguised Bonnie Prince Charlie as her maid and rowed with him in a small boat to Skye. He died drunk in France; she was captured and taken to London, where her beaty and brains were much admired, and where she was invited to all the best parties and became a huge social success....


By heather on Wednesday, February 9, 2000 - 09:52 am:

    thanks rhiannon!

    all i could find was robert louis stevenson

    i don't know if he ever sang all of that- but it was totally that first verse.

    thank you
    thank you
    thank you

    when i was little i had all these confused images of birds and the 'sky' when he sang it. he was part of some crazy children's choir when he was a boy and remembered all of these songs and poems- but now they sort of jumble together in my head.


By Rhiannon on Saturday, February 19, 2000 - 08:53 pm:

    Okay, does the following song seem familiar to anyone?


    Trot, trot to Boston
    Trot, trot to Lynn
    Watch out, little girl, that you don't fall in
    'Cause Lynn, Lynn is the city of sin
    You'll never come out the way you went in

    Shout, shout to heaven
    Shout, shout to hell
    You'll never get out of the place you fell
    So cry, cry...stick in your eye
    That's what you'll get if you tell me a lie

    Let's play a game, let's play a game
    Pick up all the pieces and set it up again
    Let's play a game, let's play a game
    Try not to cheat, dear...it wouldn't be the same

    Pray, pray for mercy
    Pray, pray for rain
    You won't get to heaven till the end of your pain
    Pain, pain...your loss is my gain
    Revenge is the only way to wash it down the drain
    All the lies that you tell
    The depth of your well
    The banquets you hold and the people you told
    To Cleveland and back
    It was a sneaky attack
    Of a sensitive mind with a killer inside
    The body of a rake
    You made a big mistake

    So let's play a game, let's play a game
    Show me your hand and I'll show you the same
    Let's play a game, let's play a game
    Give me another chance to take it all away





    It's supposedly based on a "traditional" song. Does it ring any bells?


By heather on Sunday, February 20, 2000 - 10:35 am:

    the beginning does

    on a whole i could hear tom waits doin' it, no?


By Markus on Monday, February 21, 2000 - 06:04 pm:

    Lynn is the city of sin? They've obviously never been to Charlestown.


By Rhiannon on Monday, February 21, 2000 - 06:06 pm:

    Where is Lynn? And Charlestown, for that matter?


By droopy on Monday, February 21, 2000 - 06:31 pm:

    lynn is ten or so miles northeast of boston. all i know is that somewhere in it's past it was "swing city" and the "city of sin" because of its bars and jazz clubs.


By Rhiannon on Sunday, March 12, 2000 - 01:07 pm:

    Okay, I have another one for you.

    I found this when I was looking through my old high school notebooks. I had scrawled this on the last page:



    Oh lovely appearance of death,
    No sight upon earth is so fair

    Not all the gay pageants that breathe
    Can with a dead body compare

    In solemn delight I survey
    The corpse when the spirit has fled

    In love with the beautiful clay
    And longing to lie in its stead





    Now, I know I didn't write this. It's either a poem or a song, because when I say the words I feel a tune behind the words (know what I mean?).

    I sense William Blake, maybe? Or not?

    Any ideas who could have written this and/or who sings it?


By Rhiannon on Sunday, March 12, 2000 - 01:19 pm:

    Never mind.


    OH, LOVELY APPEARANCE OF DEATH
    (George Whitefield)

    Oh, lovely appearance of death,
    What sight upon earth is so fair?
    Not all the gay pageants that breathe
    Can with a dead body compare.
    In solemn delight I survey
    A corpse when the spirit is fled
    In love with the beautiful clay,
    And longing to lie in its stead.

    Its languishing pain is at rest,
    Its aching and aching are o'er;
    The quiet immovable breast
    Is pained by affliction no more.
    The heart it no longer receives
    Of trouble and torturing pain;
    It ceases to flutter and beat,
    It never shall flutter again.

    From Our Singing Country, Lomax
    Note: Written ten years before the Reverend George Whitfield's death, to be sung
    at his own funeral.
    Recorded by Hally Wood


    http://media.mudcat.org/midi/LOVLYAPP.mid




    Now if only I could remember where I first heard it.


By droopy on Sunday, March 12, 2000 - 01:20 pm:

    george whitefield - an american evangelist who died in 1770, i think. he wrote that song for to be sung at his funeral. type his name into a word search.


By droop on Sunday, March 12, 2000 - 01:21 pm:

    nevermind.


By agatha on Sunday, March 12, 2000 - 03:25 pm:

    rhiannon, i got your mail art. you are an amazing girl. i wish i had been your friend in high school.


By Rhiannon on Sunday, March 12, 2000 - 06:23 pm:

    Thanks, Agatha! I wish you had been my friend in high school, too. You can see from the yearbook page what kind of people I *did* go to school with. Is it any wonder that I liked that Whitefield hymn?


    I still haven't mailed my essay yet. It's coming soon, though.


By Isolde on Sunday, March 12, 2000 - 09:44 pm:

    I'm realizing that
    a. I forgot to write some sort of essay. I think. Maybe I was smart and included one.
    b. I'll probab;y be gone by the time it arrives at my house, and it will sit in my mailbox all alone for six qweeks or so until I get back.
    *sigh*


By agatha on Monday, March 13, 2000 - 01:51 am:

    it was a childhood memory, isolde, and i think your poor quality ditto serves the purpose. are you going to ireland, or did i make that up?


By Isolde on Monday, March 13, 2000 - 11:40 pm:

    Poor quality ditto!
    Whatever. That was artisitic, I'll have you know--it reflects my own confused feelings about my childhood, and if you're thinking of the journal entry, that incident.
    I am going to Ireland. I am leaving in seven days.


By agatha on Tuesday, March 14, 2000 - 04:11 pm:

    i wasn't saying your ditto didn't have nice words on it, but it was a poor quality photocopy. i'm in the industry, yknow. copies are my business.


By droopy on Tuesday, March 14, 2000 - 04:38 pm:

    i will mail my stuff in a couple of days. all i have to do is get a couple more items from a house that's being renovated and write the story. or write it down, i've got the whole thing in my head. and it's short.


By Rhiannon on Tuesday, March 14, 2000 - 04:47 pm:

    I mailed my essay today.

    I wanted to find a picture that would go with it, but all I found was a copy of a baby picture of mine, so I sent that instead. Oh, well.

    It's cute, though. I think so, anyway, if I may be so vain.


By patrick on Tuesday, March 14, 2000 - 05:09 pm:

    what is it with you kids sending baby pics....?


By Rhiannon on Tuesday, March 14, 2000 - 05:14 pm:

    The theme this time was childhood. I couldn't very well send a recent picture, could I?


By patrick on Tuesday, March 14, 2000 - 05:28 pm:

    Well no of course not dear. I didn't realize that. i was just curious, as you know Gee sent nate baby pics too


By Isolde on Tuesday, March 14, 2000 - 06:18 pm:

    (P.S.--It's actually a scan, not a photocopy, which I scanned at a really low resolution--I made it look shitty on purpose, in other words. Although had I copied it, it probably would have been illegible...Oh well.)
    I don't think I sent any baby pictures. I have a good one of me reaching for a bottle of Guiness, though. I should have sent that one.


By Rhiannon on Friday, November 10, 2000 - 03:48 pm:

    Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.


    (That's the sound of me whining for mail art.)


By Isolde on Friday, November 10, 2000 - 04:02 pm:

    Me too! When mailart get?


By agatha on Saturday, November 11, 2000 - 02:33 am:

    weeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!

    that's me crying because my part of the mail art isn't done yet. it keeps falling by that damn wayside. i'll try to finish this week.


By droopy on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 - 11:56 am:

    rhiannon asked me if i knew where to get the sheet music for "oh lovely appearance of death", so i went on a word search. it brought me to this thread.

    and here

    lovely appearance of death.


By Rhiannon on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 - 12:00 pm:

    Droopy, I kiss you from afar! Thank you!


By semillama on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 - 07:41 pm:

    MAILART???


By Div on Thursday, April 5, 2001 - 08:18 pm:

    Come boat me o'er, come row me o'er,
    Come boat me o'er to Charlie;
    I'll gie John Ross anither bawbee
    To boat me o'er to Charlie. -

    Chorus:

    We'll o'er the water, we'll o'er the sea,
    We'll o'er the water to Charlie;
    Come weal, come woe, we'll gather and go,
    And live or die wi' Charlie. -

    I lo'e weel my Charlie's name,
    Tho' some there be abhor him:
    But O, to see auld Nick gaun hame,
    And Charlie's faes before him!
    We'll o'er the water, we'll o'er the sea...

    I swear and vow by moon and stars,
    And sun that shines so early!
    If I had twenty thousand lives,
    I'd die as aft for Charlie. -
    We'll o'er the water, we'll o'er the sea...

    Text by Robert Burns (1759-1796)



By patrick on Friday, April 6, 2001 - 12:43 pm:

    speakin of mailart....agatha..check your sorabji mail?


By Spider on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 12:42 pm:

    There's this song, see.....and I don't know any words to it or who the band is....but I can hum the chorus....

    How can I make a midi file or something so you guys can hear the tune and help me identify it?



By kazu on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 12:55 pm:

    oh, I have one of those tunes that gets stuck in my head all the time. And it's played during the closing credits of The Celebration. I want to know what that song is too.


    I dunno about the midi stuff though.


By eri on Friday, April 16, 2004 - 01:03 pm:

    I have had an issue with one of those songs lately too. No words to it. All instrumental. From the 80's. Don't know the name of it. Can't figure out how to get the sheet music for my violin. It's been driving me crazy for months. But I can hum the damned thing.


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