(trad)

1.Good master and good mistress, and all your household fine

Rise from your beds this morning while yet the stars do shine

Open your door and greet us with good cheer

May the good Lord God grant you, a Happy New year

2.We come here designing to taste of your good ale

So tap us a new barrel we’ll want none of the stale

Surely you’ll not leave us in frost and snow out here…

3.So here’s to your brownie, and here’s to your white horn

May God send your master a fine good crop of corn

You eat your oats, and we will drink our beer…

4.So here’s to old Cider, and here’s to new cake

And here’s to us poor lads must go before daybreak

For our time it is precious we can no more stay here…

(J. Arrowsmith, to trad tune “Mr. Isaac’s Maggot”)

1.Sing, sing, let’s bring good friends together

Leave our cares aside, hope for better weather

Sing, sing, join in our song,

Forever searching for a way to make the world anew

Every note a spark, driving off the dark,

Fan the flames up bright, bring the day more light

Sing, let it ring as we dance to enhance all the evening’s pleasure

Play, if we may, come and stay
in your hearts and your memories forever

Sing, dance, play, treasuring every day
the friends along the way who make the world anew

2.Dance, dance, what chance a finer meeting

Leave our cares aside, join our hands in greeting

Dance, dance, advance in time so fleeting

Forwards on our way to make the world anew

3.Play, play this day our tunes we’re sharing

Leave our cares aside, worries they are sparing

Play, play, and say your challenge,

Daring all to find a way to make the world anew

(L. Rosselson)

1.When you're new in the world, you've a dream that is wild,

And they tame you and mold you, 'til one day, behold,

You're obedient soldiers, commuters, consumers,

Reality rules, and there's no room for dreamers,

They teach you your place in the obstacle race

With a prize that you chase, always just out of reach,

And you're urged on by megaphone voices that offer you

Choices that are not your own.

Only listen for the voice that lives inside you;

Like a songbird in a cage, it waits in silence.

Find the key to set it free and soaring skyward;

Now the sky is filled with voices, hear them sing beside you.

2.When the powers that be in their wisdom decree

That you're no longer needed to feed the machine,

The wheel turns, you're dismissed; if you dare to resist,

There are walls, there are laws to confuse you and bruise you.

They'll label you scroungers and wasters and sponges;

They'll call you subversives, reds, traitors, and worse.

If you don't fit the norm, if your ways don't conform

To the rules, then you're out of the game.

3.The way they've arranged things, you think you can't change things;

You're one, you're just you; but whatever they do,

Don't forget to remember, you're a name not a number,

And no one can think for you, dream for you, speak for you.

Don't let them bind you down, don't let them grind you down,

Don't let them mold you, 'til one day, behold,

You're obedient tools, you're commuters, consumers,

And reality rules out your dreams.

(F. Mansell, to trad tune “Swaggering Boney”)

1.I'd sooner go hedging than build a stone wall

All pick up and place it and hope it don't fall

When the east wind blows bitter and keen through the trees

I'd sooner lay blackthorn than dry wall and freeze

I’d sooner lay blackthorn, sooner lay blackthorn,

Sooner lay blackthorn all the rest of my days

2.I'd sooner go hedging, the best thing I know

For anger and anguish and woman made woe

No matter how hurt or insulted I feel

A tussle with blackthorn will help it to heal

3.I'd sooner go hedging than read in a book

For the more you get thinking the darker things look

Since study and weeping are hard on the eyes

I'd sooner lay blackthorn than learn to be wise

4.I'd sooner go hedging than seek all my days

For wealth or position or other men's praise

Plain billhook and axe are the tools of my trade

Six shillings a chain is the rate I am paid

5.I'd sooner go hedging but come the next spring

I'll be up and be gone like a bird on the wing

And all I shall miss when I reach my new home

Will be hedges to slash at and blackthorn in bloom

(Lal & Mike Waterson)

1.As I walked out one Summer’s morn

I saw a  scarecrow, tied to a  pole,  in a field of corn

His coat was black and his head was bare,

And as the wind shook him, the crows took into the air

Ah but you’d lay me down and love me

Ah but you’d lay me down and love me if you could

He’s only  a bag of rags in an overall

That the wind sways, so the crows fly away and the corn can grow tall

2.As I walked out one Winter’s day

I saw an old man, tied to a pole, in a field of clay

His coat was gone, his head hung low

Until the wind took it up to look, wrung its neck and let it go

How could you lay me down and love me?
How could you lay me down and love me now?
For you’re only a bag of bones in an overall
That the wind blows, and the kids throw stones at the thing on the pole

3.As I walked out one fine Spring day
I saw twelve jolly dons, dressed up in blue and gold so gay
And to a pole they tied a man new-born
And then they all sang, and the bells rang, as they sowed the corn

Now you can lay me down and love me

Now you can lay me down and love me if you will

You’re only a bag of rags in an overall

But the wind blew and the sun shone too, and you in the corn stood tall

As I walked out one Summer’s morn

I saw a scarecrow tied to a pole, in a field of corn

(trad)

1.Oh I was born in the land called England,
Now transported from my native shore,
And like Columbus in his circle sailing
Left behind the girl that I adore.

Through bounding billows that were loudly raging
Like a mariner bold my course did steer;
Bound to Bermuda, my destination,
Till at length that harbour did appear.

2.There we joined hands in congratulation
For safe arrival from the briny waves;
But I soon found out I was mistaken
For I was transported to Moreton Bay.

There every morning as the day was dawning
To trace from Heaven that falling dew,
Up we all started at a moment's warning
Our daily labour to renew.

3.As I walked out one summer's morning
I paid no need to where I took my way;
I paid no heed to where I wandered,
By Brisbane water I chanced to stray.

In silent solitude and meditation
As I stood watching of the flowing tide,
I spied a convict, he was loud complaining,
The tears of anguish down his cheeks did glide.

4.Saying, “I've been a prisoner at Port Macquarie,
In Norfolk Island and Emu Plains,
In Castle Hill, likewise Toongabbie,
In all these places I have worked in chains.

“But in all those places of condemnation,
Each penal station in New South Wales,
To Moreton Bay I can find no equal,
Excessive tyranny each day prevails.

5.“Now I am bereft of all consolation
Yet hope of liberty for me remains;
I am behoved in tribulation,
Infused with misery by wearing chains.

“Yet I have once more for to cross the ocean
And leave this station called Moreton Bay,
Where many a man through downright starvation
Now lies mouldering all in his clay.

6.“Like the Egyptians and ancient Hebrews
We were oppressed under Logan's yoke,
Till a native hunter lying there in ambush
Did give our tyrant his mortal stroke.

“Now fellow prisoners, be exhilarated,
Your former sufferings though bear in mind.
Where from bondage you are extracted
You will leave those tyrants far behind.”

(N. Kerr)

1.Arise with me

Before the dawn is breaking

There’s nothing here to give us cheer

Besides the roof is leaking

Across the sea

Or just a little nearer

Perhaps the skies are clearer

In a fine foreign land

So it’s rise up broken hearted

Rag and tatter kings and queens

Droving dreams on the ocean seems

A fine place to be

2.Some take the train

While others sail the ocean

I ask the sky to tell me why

We all must be in motion

Why some folks gain

And hanker for a peerage

While others travel steerage

To a fine foreign land

3.Some souls turn

To earn in honest labour

To factory or victory

Or for a lover’s favour

When young hearts burn

And sultry suns are gleaming

You always will be dreaming

Of that fine foreign land

4.Skies turn grey

For beggar as for gentry

From East to West the road is best

When neighbours are a-plenty

When children play

And babies they are squalling

Think on the bombs a-falling

On their fine foreign land

5.In a handmade home

Where nothing may assail us

 I ask the rain to please explain

Why memories do fail us

Why kind hearts roam

And flee the clouds above us

And leave the ones who love us

For a fine foreign land

-THE MARY ELLEN CARTER- (S. Rogers)

1.She went down last October in a driving pouring rain.
The skipper, he'd been drinking and the mate, he felt no pain.
Too close to Three Mile Rock, and she was dealt her mortal blow,
And the Mary Ellen Carter settled low.
There were just us five aboard her when she finally was awash.
We worked like hell to save her, all heedless of the cost.
And the groan she gave as she went down, it caused us to proclaim
That the Mary Ellen Carter’d rise again.

Rise again, rise again,

Let her name not be lost to the knowledge of men.
All those who loved her best and were with her to the end
Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

2.The owners wrote her off; not a nickel would they spend.
She gave twenty years of service, boys, then met her sorry end.
But insurance paid the loss to them, they let her rest below.
Then laughed at us and said we had to go.
But we talked of her all winter, some days around the clock,
She's worth a quarter million, afloat and at the dock.
And with every jar that hit the bar, we swore we would remain
And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

 

3.Since Spring now, we've been with her, on a barge lent by a friend.
Three dives a day in hard hat suit and twice I've had the bends.

Thank God she’s only sixty feet and the currents here are slow
Or I'd never have the strength to go below.
We've patched her rents, stopped her vents, dogged hatch and
porthole down.
Put cables to her, 'fore and aft and girded her around.
Tomorrow noon we’ll hit the air and then take up the strain.
And make the Mary Ellen Carter Rise Again.

4. We couldn't leave her there, you see, to moulder into scale.
She'd saved our lives so many times, living through the gale
And the laughing, drunken rats who left her to her sorry grave
They won't be laughing in another day. . .
And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go
Stand to, and put out all your strength with arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Rise again, rise again

Though your heart it be broken and life about to end
No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend.
Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

(trad)

1.One morning in the month of May,
Down by a rolling river,
Oh, a jolly sailor, I did stray,
And I beheld some lover.
She carelessly along did stray,
A-viewing of the daisies gay;
And she sweetly sang a roundelay,
Just as the tide was a-flowing.

2.Oh, her dress it was as white as milk,
And jewels did adorn her.
And her shoes were of the crimson silk,
Just like some maid of honour.
Her cheeks were red, her eyes were brown,
Her hair in ringlets hanging down;
She'd a lovely brow without a frown,
Just as the tide was a-flowing.

3.I made a bow and said, “Fair maid,
How came you here so early?
My heart by you it is betray'd
And I could love you dearly.
I am a sailor come from sea,
Will you accept my company
To walk and view the fishes play,
Just as the tide is a-flowing?”

4.And no more we said, but on our way
We walked along together;
And the small birds sang and the lambs did play,
And pleasant was the weather.
When we were weary we sat down
Beneath a tree with the branches round;
And what was done shall ne'er be found
As long as the tide is a-flowing.

5.And as she lay there on the grass
Her colour it was a-changing
And she cried out and said, “Alas,
Never let your mind be ranging.
Here's twenty pounds I have in store,
Well use it, when you will there's more.
Oh the jolly sailor I adore
Just as the tide is a-flowing.”

6.We both shook hands and off did steer,
Jack Tar drinks rum and a brandy.
And to keep his shipmates in good cheer
The lady's gold is a-handy.
So along with another pretty maid I'll go
To a public house where the beer do flow,
Success to the maid that will do so
Just as the tide is a-flowing.”

(N. Kerr)

1.As I was going to Dartford 

all on a winter’s day 

Those lads of Kent were downward sent 

With the pilot underway 

And we were gettin’ a rise, gettin’ a rise With a tee i ee i o 

We were gettin’ a rise, gettin’ a rise With a tee i ee i o

 2.Well we were feeling jammy 

Gone down to 8-hour shifts 

Then the foreman cries "You’ll be gettin’ a rise 

Every time you take the lift!"

3.The craic was up to ninety but the foreman’s face was drear 

“There’s industry in the old country 

But beggar-all happening here!” 

4.And it’s oh the cruel compressor 

And oh the miners’ moans 

And oh the shock of the medical lock 

When the wind gets in your bones 

5.Well love can move a mountain 

But we could shift the moon 

We could shovel to hell then sleep so well 

That we wouldn’t wake up till noon 

6.Well some say digging’s lousy 

But miners know it’s grand 

When you’re down the hole you’ll bless the soul 

Of a Dartford tunnelling man