Our
Captain Cried "All Hands"
The Mermaid
Streams of Lovely Nancy
The False Bride
The Steggie
All the Tea in India
Don’t You Go
When A Man’s In Love
Time to
Remember the Poor
(Traditional)
Oh the captain cried all hands, and away tomorrow
Leaving my dearest dear in grief and sorrow
Dry up your briny tears and leave off weeping
How happy shall we be at our next meeting
How can you go away and fight for strangers
You’d better stay at home, here out of danger
I’d roll you in my arms my dearest jewel
So stay at home with me and don’t be cruel
When I had gold in store you seemed to like me
Now that I’m low and poor you do despise me
You courted me a while just to deceive me
Now my poor heart you’ve won, and you’re going to leave
me
Down on the ground she fell like one a-dying
Tearing her arms abroad sobbing and sighing
There’s no believing man, not your own brother
So girls if you must love, love one another
Farewell my dearest friends, Father and Mother
I am your only child, you have no other
Tis vain to weep for me, for I am going
The lad I loved so well has been my ruin
Oh the captain cried all hands, and away tomorrow
Leaving my dearest dear in grief and sorrow
Dry up your briny tears and leave off weeping
How happy we will be at our next meeting
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(Traditional)
One night as I lay on my bed,
I lay so fast asleep,
When the thought of my true love came running to my head
And poor sailors that sail on the deep.
As I sailed out one day, one day,
And being not far from land,
There I spied a mermaid a-sitting on a rock
With a comb and a glass in her hand.
The song she sang, she sang so sweet,
But no answer at all could us make,
Till at length our gallant ship she tooked round about,
Which made all our poor hearts to ache.
Then up stepped the captain of our ship,
And a well-speaking man is he,
He says: "I have a wife in fair Plymouth town,
And this night a widow she will be."
Then up stepped the helmsman of our ship,
In his hand he held a lead and line,
All for to sound the seas that is so wide and deep,
But no hard rock or sand could he find.
Last night, when the moon shined bright,
My mother she had sons five,
Now she may look in the salt, salt sea,
And find but one alive.
Call a boat, call a boat, my fair Plymouth boys,
Don’t you hear how the trumpets sound?
For the want of a long-boat we were lost,
And most of our merry men drowned.
Last night as I lay on my bed,
I lay so fast asleep,
When the thought of my true love came running to my head
And poor sailors that sail on the deep.
Ahh sailors that sail on the deep.
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(Traditional)
Ah, the streams of lovely Nancy are divided in three
parts
Where the young men and maidens they do meet their
sweethearts.
It is drinking of good liquor caused my heart for to sing
And the noise in yonder village made the rocks for to
ring.
At the top of this mountain, there my love’s castle
stands,
It’s all overbuilt with iv’ry on yonder black sand.
Fine arches, fine porches, and diamonds so bright,
It’s a pilot for a sailor on a dark winter’s night.
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(Traditional)
When that I saw my love, in the church stand
With a ring on her finger, and a glove in her hand
I stepped in between them, and kissed the false bride
Saying adieu to false loves forever
The parson who married them, gave a loud cry
Oh you that forbid this, I’d have you stand nigh
I thought to myself, "I’ve a good reason why"
But I had not the heart to forbid it
When that I saw my love, set down to meat
I sat myself by her, but nothing could eat
I thought her sweet company better than wine
Although she was tied to some other
Go dig my grave, make it long, wide and deep
And strew it all over with flowers so sweet
And I’ll lay me down there and take the long sleep
And that’s the best way to forget her
Ah go dig my grave
Make it long, make it wide, make it deep
I’ll lay me down and I’ll lay me down
And that’s the best way to forget her
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(Traditional)
Oh there was an old wifey at the top of yon hill
And the green leaves so green-o
She keeps her housey where you get your fill
And you know very well what I mean-o
She keeps her house o’ the Broadwood ale
Green leaves so green-o
And her bonny servant lassie for to carry it all
And you know very well what I mean-o
A bonny soldier laddie on the very next night
And the green leaves so green-o
She’s called for a beaker of the broadwood ale
And you know very well what I mean-o
He’s called for a beaker and called for another
Green leaves so green-o
And the soldier and the lassie they got bedded down
together
And you know very well what I mean-o
She’s put her hand all on his leg
(instrumental response)
Saying fat as that like a hardwood peg
And you know very well what I mean-o
It is my steggie that I ride on
(instrumental response)
And my wallet is for keepin’ all my confidences in
And you know very well what I mean-o
And he’s put his hand all on her thigh
(instrumental response)
Saying fat as that like the tits on a swine
And you know very well what I mean-o
It is my wellie that I draw frae
You can water your steggie in it if you may
And you know very well what I mean-o
And what if my steggie it should fall in
And the green leaves so green-o
You can aye grab a hand on the breadth of the brim
And you know very well what I mean-o
He’s put in his steggie so plump and fat
Green leaves so green-o
And he’s pulled it out again like a half-drowned rat
And you know very well what I mean-o
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Words and Music by Jennifer Cutting ©1994 Once and
Future Songs, BMI
From far away the planters came
In rugged clippers ’cross the sea
Those pale undaunted strangers
With pictures of their foreign queen
They came here from a sunless place
As overlords to live
To wrench from Mother India
What she would freely give
They brought the seeds from China
The seeds of slavery
From Assam Valley to Ceylon
To sow the land with tea
They marched us by the thousands
Across the land of dust and heat
With promises of better times
And prosperity
CHORUS
Om Namah Shivayah
Break the spell of this bad dream
For all the tea in India
We could not be free
And many died along the road
And many died along the road
In building up their empire
An empire built on weary bones
We worked for sixteen hours a day
To pluck and prune and hoe
This half-lit world of leafy grey
The only home we’ll ever know
CHORUS
These stains that darken all our hands
These stains, born of poverty
Are only with us this one life
Unlike the stains of cruelty
These Christian men looked on
As the disease and hunger claimed our lives
"That’s one less hungry mouth to feed"
And they called us uncivilized
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Words and Music by John Martyn
The army and the navy
They never will agree
Til all the men, and all the boys
Are gone from this country
CHORUS
Don’t you go
Don’t you go my son
Don’t you go
Don’t you go my son
The proud and the powerful
In whose hands we lie
They never will be pleasured
Til all our women cry
CHORUS
The mastery of misery
They call the art of war
Must never triumph over peace
As they have done before
CHORUS
Repeat first verse
CHORUS
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(Traditional)
When a man’s in love he feels no cold
Like me not long ago
Like a hero bold to see his girl
He’ll plow through the frost and snow
The moon she gently shed her light
Along my dreary way
Until I came to that sweet spot
Where all my treasure lay
I knocked at my love’s window
Saying "My dear are you within"
Slowly she undid the latch
Slyly I slipped in
Her hands were soft, her breath was sweet
Her tongue did gently glide
I stole a kiss, it was no miss
I asked her to be my bride
Take me to your chamber love
Take me to your bed
Take me to your chamber love
To rest my weary head
To take you to my chamber love
My parents won’t agree
So sit you down by yon bright fire
And I’ll sit close to thee
Many is the time I’ve courted you
Against your father’s will
But you never once said that you would be my bride
So now my dear sit still
Tonight I’m going to cross the sea
To far Columbia’s shore
You will never, never, never see
Your youthful lover more
Many is the dark and stormy night
I came to visit you
Whether tossed about by the cold winter winds
or wet by the morning dew
Tonight our courtship is at an end
Between my love and me
Fare thee well my favorite girl
A long farewell to thee
Are you going to leave me now?
Oh pray what can I do?
I would break through every bond of love
To go along with you
Perhaps my parents, they won’t forget
But maybe they’ll forgive
But from this hour I am resolved
Along with you to live
Then with a kiss the ring was closed
The wedding it’s come on
From courtship’s cares they are released
These two are joined in one
Then with a kiss the ring was closed
The wedding it’s come on
From courtships cares they are released
These two are joined in one
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from the Hungry for Music
various artists charity CD
(Traditional)
Cold winter is come, with it’s cold chilling breath
And the leaves are all gone from the trees
All nature seems touched, by the finger of death
And the streams are beginning to freeze
When the young wanton lads o’er the river slide
When the flowers attend us no more
In plenty you’re sitting, by a warm fireside
That’s the time to remember the poor
When the cold feathery snow, from the north does
descend
It blankets the prospects around
The keen cutting wind, from the north will attend
And cover it over the ground
When the bright twinkling stars, they proclaim the
cold night
And the rivers are froze on the shore
When the hills and the dales, are all mantled with white
That’s the time to remember the poor
When the poor harmless hare, he escapes from the wood
His footprints indented in snow
When the lips and the fingers, are tinted with blood
And sportsmen a-hunting do go
When poor robin red-breast approached your cot
When icicles hang from the door
When the smoke it does billow, reviving and hot
That’s the time to remember the poor
Soon the time will be here, whan our Saviour on Earth
The ends of the Earth will rejoice
And angels and men, Alleluia shall sing
Then the rich shall lie down with the poor
Then the rich must remember the poor
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