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Ye Jacobites By Name
Robert Burns 1759 - 1796

Ye Jacobites by name, lend an ear, lend an ear,
Ye Jacobites by name, lend an ear,
Ye Jacobites by name,
Your fautes I will proclaim,
Your doctrines I maun blame, you will hear, you will hear
Your doctrines I maun blame, you will hear.

What is right, and what is wrong, by the law, by the law?
What is right and what is wrong by the law?
What is right, and what is wrong?
A short sword, and a long,
A weak arm and a strong, for to draw, for to draw
A weak arm and a strong, for to draw.

What makes heroic strife, famed afar, famed afar?
What makes heroic strife famed afar?
What makes heroic strife?
To whet th' assassin's knife,
Or hunt a parent's life, wi' bloody war?

Then let your schemes alone, in the state, in the state,
Then let your schemes alone in the state.
So let your schemes alone,
Adore the rising sun,
And leave a man undone, to his fate, to his fate.
And leave a man undone, to his fate.

Ye Jacobites By Name

You can sow a lie
You can do or die
But "fields of red and green are mine"
You can build with stone
You can break young bones
But "all comes back to me in time”
	
Jack fell down and broke his crown         
Nothing would put Jack together again
Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust
All you think you’ve done will go the same

You can shatter lives
Like broken ice
Taking life to save your own
Do you feel strong?
Know right from wrong?
You’ll reap the dust you have sown

See the chains that hold you up
Don’t you know they’re bound to pull you down
Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust
All you think you’ve done will go the same

Jenny blushed*
Behind her fan
And thus she did declare her mind
Cherry pie is very nice, she said
So is apple wine
But she will wear the brown of her kind 

Your time, your life magnificent
Will cost, your precious peace of mind
Ivy’s growing over, and lilies scent does smother
All that’s dust, all that’s left, of humankind

*This verse is paraphrased from the ancient nursery rhyme The Marriage of Cock Robin and Jenny Wren.  Jenny is offered the apparel of a goldfinch or a peacock for her wedding to Cock Robin but in her modesty declines, and is true to herself. Jenny Wren is kind of a contrast to the vanity of leaders who start wars, which is the  subject of this song.

All Is Dust

Soundtrack to our first video https://vimeo.com/762584534

In A Dark Wood

Extracts from The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver by Edna St Vincent Millay 1892-1950
Recital from LibriVox.org read by Linda Leu

“Son,” said my mother,
   When I was knee-high,
“You’ve need of clothes to cover you,
   And not a rag have I”.
 
“There’s nothing in the house
   To make a boy breeches,
Nor shears to cut a cloth with
   Nor thread to take stitches.”
 
“There’s nothing in the house
   But a loaf-end of rye,
And a harp with a woman’s head
   Nobody will buy,”  
   And she began to cry.
 
…

Men say the winter
   Was bad that year;
Fuel was scarce,
   And food was dear.
 
A wind with a wolf’s head
   Howled about our door,
And we burned up the chairs
   And sat on the floor.
 
All that was left us
   Was a chair we couldn’t break,
And the harp with a woman’s head
   Nobody would take,
   For song or pity’s sake.
 
…

Looking nineteen,
   And not a day older,
And the harp with a woman’s head
   Leaned against her shoulder.
 
Her thin fingers, moving
   In the thin, tall strings,
Were weav-weav-weaving
   Wonderful things.
 
Many bright threads,
   From where I couldn’t see,
Were running through the harp-strings
  Rapidly,
 
…

There sat my mother
   With the harp against her shoulder
Looking nineteen
   And not a day older,
 
A smile about her lips,
   And a light about her head,
And her hands in the harp-strings
   Frozen dead.
 
And piled up beside her
   And toppling to the skies,
Were the clothes of a king’s son,
   Just my size.

The Ballad Of The Harp-Weaver

From a sonnet written by Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892-1950.  (Originally published as “Sonnet VI” in 1917’s Renascence and Other Poems)

Thanks for recital from LibriVox.org read by Linda Leu and to Grace for Piano.

This door you might not open, and you did;
So enter now, and see for what slight thing
You are betrayed... 

Here is no treasure hid,
No cauldron,
no clear crystal mirroring the sought-for truth,
no heads of women slain for greed like yours,
no writhings of distress, but only what you see... 

Look yet again—
An empty room, cobwebbed and comfortless.
Yet this alone out of my life I kept unto myself, lest any know me quite;

And you did so profane me when you crept
unto the threshold of this room to-night

That I must never more behold your face.
This now is yours. I seek another place.

Bluebeard

Thanks to Grace for harmonies.

Hey you, with your mask and your MP3,
where d’you think you’re going to?
I got someone I got to see,
maybe too good to be true.

Hold on, 		        just a little bit longer
Reach out, 		just a little bit further
Head down, 		in the overhead crossfire
Fading with the evening

Hey, with your bed on your shoulder pack, 
when d’you think you’re coming home?
I just need to get back to my love,
been too long alone

How long, 			when you com’in back kid?
Head strong, 			you’re radio active
Done nothing wrong,	I wish you’d come back now
You broken rolling stone

Hey, you, with your style and your different friends,
with your new name, what d’you think you’ve done?
I’m in between two places,
don’t belong in either one.

Long time, 		searching for obscurity
Maybe 		        a little bit traumatized
Seems like 		all the time she knew me
Searching for a sign
Shining 		        blue and green beryline
Coming home,		maybe Sapphirine
She smiles,		she smiles like you’ve never seen
I wish I was there

Aquamarine

Thanks to the very excellent Sevi Turlington - Vocals, Chloe Tyghe - Harmonies and Rob Collins - Sax.

You won’t see, you won’t hear,
You’d hardly know I’d been here.
Stepping lightly through;
Just a footprint or two,
Watch them fade away.
Who will see them pass;
Who is not
Just a mayfly dance?

Mayfly

Ft Helen Bousfield on Bass and Flute

She's heaven sent, she's Queen 
She's president, she’s extreme 
She's sinew and bone, she’s the real thing 
She's home alone, she's folded her wings   

She's formula one, she’s bat girl 
She's got a gun, she’s off world 
She's close, she’s Neptune's moon 
She’s the sun in a black sky, she’s coming home
 
She's back stage, waiting in the wings 
She's on the edge, poised on the brink 
She's a dreamy delight, She’s a perfect storm 
She's the dead of night, she will be reborn    

She's the next generation backlash, born of the new age 
She's a cyclone train smash, fallen from the ragged edge 
She's the final word; she knows the three in three 
She's a caged bird, but she will be free

Sun in a Black Sky

Larissa looked through the silver fountain
Her hair streamed across her face
She saw her lover on the golden mountain
Across the deeps; across the ocean of space
Nereid waited out the long days
Like a pearl she stayed hidden there
She watched with envy through Larissa’s eyes
And longed for what she did not dare 

And then in time she came closer
And she resolved to realise her dreams
She was drawn to him like she was chosen
And her passion defied all reason
Nereid disguised herself as Larissa Moon
And crashed into the halls of Neptune
She stole the kiss that collided the worlds
And embraced him; embraced him in her Mother of Pearl
And she entwined him; enfolded him in her aquacade circle

Then Nereid fled away from there
But she tore her clothes on his silver mail
And the madness of love pursued her
And Larissa saw, and knew betrayal
But Nereid knows the deep dark places
And ran to them where her sisters rule
And she will hide with them until the madness passes
Until she comes again; Nereid, handmaiden of the lover of Neptune

The Madness Of Nereid

I wish I was a hippie,
I’d grow my hair long again.
I wouldn’t care what people think,
We’d just have peace and love and dreams.

I’d lie in the flowers and listen
to the genius of the Bevis Frond.
I’d meditate on the concept of the album,
In the glow of the joss stick stand.

I’d look down the barrel of your gun.
If you can’t see it, you can’t see it done.
You can stick your flowers where you want;
I don’t care, I’m solid gone.

I wouldn’t wear flowers in my hair.
But you’d be my girl; you’d be so fine.
We’d take a trip to the daisy fair;
Blowing our brains and expanding our minds.

There was a time when I was stick thin.
I wanted to go there but I was too young.
Let me take you down to the King’s Road parade.
I’d show you, but all the hippies have gone.

Hippie Flowers

A misty eyed memory of Woodstock...
Thanks to Helen for bass and concertina (yes - there really is concertina!), and thanks to "you know who" for harmonies.

Where did all the young people go, with their high ideals?
They took a one-way trip out west; in their hazy daze. 
They took a trip and followed the Sun, to where it’s always day.
Why did all the young people have to go?

Chorus:
       I’m left here, wishing	 I could be like they were
       They left us their music, like the wind in their flowing hair
       They were always so far above, what I could ever hope for
       They left us sweet memories, like the sun in their shining eyes

Where did all the beautiful ones go, with their hippie days?
They took a ship to the stars, where they do not age
They took a ship to the stars, and left me behind
Why did all the young ones have to go?

Chorus

Somewhere out there above the blue sky, they’re playing just the same
But half a million strong been gone, seventeen thousand days
Still just as fresh to our ears, as on that summer day
 Real life evaporated away to leave a perfect memory 

Chorus
Chorus

Starship

Thanks to Helen, Simon and Rob for this collaboration with Stray Ground

Orphic Lament

My garden’s overgrown
Now I can’t find my way through
Been ten years since I went down there    
With the good friends     I once knew
But now it’s time I found my way, it’s time I found my way
Before it’s gone

I recall a door at the end
Opened through the garden wall 
I turned from it seems like years ago     
Locked the door and walked away
But I could find the key, I could find that key
Before it’s gone

They say that door’s still there
And the path and the fields beyond
They say it will be spring again soon
And there’s a revival on the way
But I can’t believe it’s that good; nothing can be that good, 
No I don’t believe it’s that good; nothing can be that good, 
And so it’s gone

Before It's Gone

Time and tide, as everybody knows 
Lies in saintly waiting
Inside your mind is where nobody goes
Hides the silence deafening
You show a side for everyone around
And hope someone will care
You’d invite them in, and show them all round
but no one could ever live there  
 
Unlovely, unlovable and so
Unloved, and lonely in a crowd
What say, we say “no”!
And we say “you can say it loud”!
Lift up your head my beautiful son
We’ve come at last
Come into my arms precious one
Leave your sorrows in the past.

Everybody And Nobody

In the days before, I don’t know if I understood
When you said what you said, when I first saw you
In the John Peel bar that night 

In the days before, I knew I loved you, as soon as you spoke 
And there was nothing we needed to say
That night, at the Camden Palace St Valentine’s 

And we will not grow old; and we will not diminish 
And we will not be aged by the corrosive agents of time
We will not be stained by the filth of degradation
Nor crushed by the humiliation of indignity   
And we will endure, and we will be constant
And we will carousel in the wheel of time
And we will swim in the eroticism of beauty
And we will lie in the cradle of our ancestors  
And there we will continuously be reborn
Until the last time,
When we will be seen, to have survived.

The John Peel Bar

Video link: https://vimeo.com/765406511?share=copy

I stood myself high on the parapet
I laid myself down in the river bed 
Ignited the charge of the light brigade
And faded myself out of the day

Falling

Speak a man’s name,
and he will live
I say speak truth
and leave it ringing in their ears.

Hear the overhead lines buzz
in the silence of the midday heat 
I may not be your best friend 
But I’m the one you’ll keep.

Speak a man’s name,
and give him life
But I say a woman knows the heart 
And knows between truth and lies.

‘Been so long since I heard truth,
we never hear it spoken
I guess they have no use for it, 
where morality is broken.

Speak a name
and do not fear,
Stand tall brave hearts,
and shed your crimson tears 

Hear the rhythm of life
Ringing like a song
I may not be much company
But I’ll be there when they’re all gone.

speak my name,
and my heart will beat
don’t need to say another word
I'm already at your feet

I’ll be here when they’re all gone
and I’m the one you’ll keep.

Brave Hearts

No one told us, when we were still young,
There’d be no buses after ten.
Hitched down a truck; he said, you can get a ride,
You can get up with my dogs and my gun.

We looked up to the stars, with the wind in our hair;
Not quite sure who put them there.
But it’s cold at night in just a skinny motif shirt,
But no one told us we had to care.

Next day, somehow we got back home,
And everything seemed the same.
But no one told us what we started that night,
Coz’ no one speaks in a dream.

Well I’m older now,
And I’m supposed to reap what I sowed.
But if there’s anyone made any sense of it,
No one told me; but I’d like to know.
Yeah, I’m older now,
And I’m supposed to reap what I sow.
But if anyone out there made any sense of it,
They never told me, so I don’t know.

Who Knows

Mad creatures loosed from my mind
Press the walls tonight, running riot
But if I shout at them they’ll know I’m here
Crawling up the walls with all my fears

Lift your eyes from the here and now
See the field beyond the cradle on the bough
I’ll meet you there where the grass is long
Lay down and hear the thousand Rumi songs

Let’s get out while there’s still time
Meet me on the corner by the last sign
Bring your precious things, leave the rest behind
Meet me on the corner for a desperate ride

Lift your eyes from the here and now
See the field beyond the cradle on the bough
I’ll meet you there where the grass is long
Lay down and hear the thousand Rumi songs

Nature’s hard, nature lives
She takes back all she gives
Kisses, and whispers that sweet refrain
She takes back so she lives again

“Oh Sun” said the Moon; “I do adore you”
But her smile sent him reeling to the floor
She lights his face and shines so fair
But she can’t see him in his pale despair
Lift your eyes from the here and now
See the field beyond the cradle on the bough
I’ll meet you there where the grass is long
We'll lay down and sing the thousand Rumi songs

The Thousand Rumi Songs

It’s autumn, somehow summer got behind me 
Yeah it’s autumn, you know always it has to be
Looking through a mirror to our misty mountain springtime; sweetest love I ever saw
Sunny, funny, honeybee smiling face; now I love you more.

Seasons leaves are turning, but they’re not falling to forget
Yeah it’s autumn, but it’s not nearly winter yet
Looking through a mirror to our hazy crazy springtime; wildest love I ever saw
Sunny, funny, honeybee smiling face; you know I love you more.

It’s autumn, somehow summer got behind me
Yeah it’s autumn, you know it always has to be
Looking through a mirror to our dreamy crystal fountain; deepest love I ever saw
Sunny, funny, honeybee smiling face; yes I love you more.

Autumn

I felt a frisson, a presence, as she passed me; “never fall behind” she said
Blue eyes, yeah china blue; or green maybe 
The silhouette of a crown was it? Or of his fine hair on a perfect head
I lost them in the dream; never saw them again
 
Green on blue, he flashed by me; Kingfisher
She’s chimera, he’s quicksilver; Arcadia dancers 
She passes by like a mayfly; sweet Calista
You reach and fall, you try and call; they don’t answer
   
These were different, seven years on, but it felt the same
They stood and looked me in the eye, and I could only stare
Felt like honey kisses, like the remembered bliss of a dream
Felt like a lost love, then they were gone; if they were ever there

Green on blue, he flashed by me; Kingfisher
She’s chimera, he’s quicksilver; Arcadia dancers 
She passes by like a mayfly; sweet Calista
You reach and fall, you try and call; they don’t answer

Seven times seven years, waiting and waiting long 
I sensed them in the twilight, in the half conscious fall into dream time
This time I was ready, I had waited for them through the long years
I reached and touched her hair, ephemeral in the sun

Green on blue, he flashed by me; Kingfisher
She’s chimera, he’s quicksilver; Arcadia dancers 
She passes by like a mayfly; sweet Calista
You reach and fall, you try and call; they don’t answer

Kingfisher and Calista

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