Nettle Leaves(Bread Alone)Lyric video on Youtube

In 1771 in the fens of Cambridgeshire a miller manages to escape the smoking paws of Black Shuck , but at what cost ? If anyone could bluff Shuck it be a miller I suppose. Cautionary note , this is a true story.
https://youtu.be/j54v4pA5sPg

Tiddy Mun (awesome video  on youtube)

This song is based on a real piece of folklore from Norfolk, England. Mister Hickathrift was probably a real person and the story tells us he was from the time of William the Conqueror. A hero from the rebellion of Hereward the Wake in 1071 ? Maybe ? However the first time we encounter him in the written form is in the 17th century, this song focuses on his battle with a greedy giant. It may also incorporate other local legends?
Mr Hickathrift by Wergulu Blue

Well
I was the semi finalist
In the seventeenth Cambridgeshire
Stick snapping championship
I was only bettered by the winner
Yes everyone else cracked willow thinner
Except that prodigious giant killer Hickathrift 

Now some folk called him Thomas 
And others called him John
But I always called him Eugene
’Cause he claimed he was high born

And I had a shinning wagon
And a hardworking heavy horse
When we embarked on our bold venture
In the world of ale transports

And with Mister Hickathrift
God’s Good was always given
To anyone that wanted some
Fine ale in good condition

We got working for a brewer
Way over near Kings Lynn
And we took his ale to Wisbech
And brought the empties back again

And it was over twenty mile
Each and every day 
And so we had to cut some corners
If this job was going to pay

And in between the seven towns
Stood the shinning plain of Smeeth
Where all liberties were taken
By a cruel and greedy thief

But if we could but sneak across it
We’d cut the journey down to ten
And we’d get home in time for dinner
And get back on the ale again

’Cause with Mister Hickathrift
God’s Good was always given
To anyone who wanted some
Fine ale in good condition

A feast day sun was rising
As we cut across the Smeeth
And the shadows they were dancing
And tripping up our feet
(Fe Fi Fo)

We saw a mighty tree
Adorned with heads hung high
And I thought that this might be
The day that we would die
(Fe Fi Fo)

Then Eugene turns to me and says
‘’I wouldn’t give this thief a fart
And I’ll put him in his church hole
If he touches your horse and cart’’
(Fe Fi Fo)

Then out his filthy pig hole 
Come this robber twelve feet tall
And he says he’d dash our brains out
Once he’d drunk up all our ale
(Fe Fi Fo)

Then Eugene did retort
“If you fight me you will lose
’Cause these firkins aren’t for the taking
So a turd in your teeth for your news’’
(Fe Fi Fo Fum)

’Cause with Mister Hickathrift
God’s Good was always given
To anyone who's wanting some
Fine ale in good condition

And then Eugene upended my cart
And took the wheels off the pole in between
And by spoke he beheld a round shield
And I cried “Careful with that axle Eugene”

Then this robber he got in a passion
And our future it hung by a thread
But when he tried to darken my daylights 
Mister Hickathrift knocked off his head

Such a ding then a bang loud as thunder
By God’s body I says that went well
And he sunk in the marsh six feet under
Still are souls are as thirsty as hell

But with that Mister Hickathrift
God’s Good was always given
To anyone that wanted some
Fine ale in good condition

And good riddance to that greedy tyrant
And farewell to the next one as well
A well swung cart axel might kill you
But it’s your greed that will take you to hell

Cause he ate a cow
And a calf
And an ox
And a half
And the church 
And the steeple
And then he ate all of the people 

And still he had
Yet still he had 
Yet still he had 
Yet still he had 
Not enough

And there was gold and silver in great store
But worth twice as much more
Was the land from the Ouse unto the Nene
That Hickathrift made common land again

To Mr Hickathrift, raise your glass
To Mr Hickathrift, come on and raise your glass
To Mr Hickathrift, raise your glass
To Mr Hickathrift, come on and raise your glass.

Wergulu Blue

Mister Hickathrift

Shiny silver, eyes of steel,nothing inside ‘cept the 
rush you feel,
And your the cold wind from the unshut door
Your what’s missing from the kitchen draw
We all think we’re different, but your not the same
No magic water, gonna shift this stain 

And no ones listening and no one cares

Do you remember, the middle of that day
You lost your shadow,when the sky went grey
But silver still shone, bright in your hand
As you took the short cut,to the house of the damned
And that moments gone now, long disappeared 
Along with your shadow, even though the sky has cleared 

And no ones listening and no one cares 

Down by the river, the lights are on
You hear the sirens, sing out their song
What price forgiveness, can it be bought 
When your really sorry, that you got caught 
And they found you guilty, as you were charged 
But shiny silver is still at large

And no ones listening and no one cares 

Or so it seems

Heavy like a gold bar
They told me that I’d go far
Heavy like a gold bar

The Unshut Door( Acoustic)

Dusty flues, cogs in a wheel
Strike for the smith, turn that iron into steel
A precious thing experience, 
I have found it of great use and assistance 
To see a profit, you need more steam
And to these ends I have made these plans and schemes

To make things better I have a dream
And change that colour to improved engine green

Now good enough will never do
Remember the reason why your doing what you do
So prides a sin that might be true
But I’ve seen the damage that a lack of it can do
And I’d write you name way up on high
And the good we do we still be here after we die

To make things better I have a dream
And change that colour to improved Engine green

Improved Engine Green (Acoustic)

ITS 1917 IN SURREY AND

 FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOPS TO THE LOWLAND SEAS NEW LINES ARE DRAWN IN CASUALTIES

It’s been nice but I can not stay
I’ve seen what the papers say
Reminds me of what Iago said
And part of it stuck in my head
Hey slacker some men in khaki cry
It’s the green eyed monsters call to die
But it mocks the meat on which it feeds 
As the more it takes the more it needs

And at Madame Lind’s the lights are on
The clink of Glass and pianola song 
I can still hear as I reach my door 
Where a letter looms on the hallway floor

Now I was nearly forty one
when I appealed for my exemption 
For domestic hardship would ensue 
If I should limp round the colours too
Cause rheumatic fever did for me
When I was young my stick you see
So to aid the prosecution of the war 
In a civil role I’d help much more

And mechanically it carries on 
The ticking clock goes on and on 
Below the mantle piece supine on my knees
The fires lit with obituaries 

And like the steam from the six forty six
I was compelled into a new office
Where the letters swam in elusive shoals
I cast my net of coherent wholes
And the thief of time had been and gone
when the knot i tied it came undone
And that’s when I began to roam 
Beneath starlight and hedgerow 
I made my home

And I woke with the feathered songsters song 
And in my bones I felt the sunlight shone
Touched by the beauty of life and its brevity 
From small mindedness momentarily 

I took my, I took my, I took my , I took my      leave

Clink of Glass (Acoustic)

Story telling rooted in a sense of place and time.

Popular tracks by Wergulu Blue