1. |
People and Places
04:14
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People and Places
I set off in the morning sun
In May with the sense of summer to come
And now as I smell the autumn air
The people will ask – did I get anywhere?
No great feats worthy of mention
Several hours in police detention
I can’t remember all the songs I’ve sung
I can remember that it was fun
I love new places and people I meet
I love to sing for you on the street
To give what I’ve got and take what I need
In the winter’s cold and the summer’s heat
Someone asked what message I’d got
They were right to ask, it was quite a shock
To think that they thought I was just having fun
A student on holiday, a man on the run
They asked again - and what of my wife
And how could she share such a vagabond life
And what of insurance and illness and health?
They even asked what I’d put on the shelf
I really love to be outside
With the whole wide world before my eyes
I’m not such a friend of the wind and the rain
But you can’t have the peace without the storm
When birds are singing in the trees
The breeze is playing with the leaves
You don’t have to own it or say it is yours
The main thing is you’re out of doors
For every king and every lord
There’s a jester in the court
Someone said – you should be a star
And they wondered why I hadn’t got that far
The funny thing is, if you hear it enough
You begin to believe in this flattering stuff
I‘m not a musician, not really a poet
If you read these lines you will surely know it
I give what I’ve got, take what I can
And happy to be a vagabond man
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2. |
Sweet Lovers
04:26
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Sweet Lovers
‚Twas of a lover and his lass
Hey and a ho and a hey-nonny-no
That through the green corn fields did pass
In the spring-time, the only pretty ring-time
When birds do sing, hey ding-a-ding-ding
Sweet lovers love the spring
Between the acres of the rye
These pretty country folks would lie
This carol they began that hour
How that life was but a flower
And therefore take the present time
Love is crowned with the prime
(William Shakespeare)
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3. |
Les Trouvères
03:27
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Les Trouvères
Oh travellers on the road, where oh where have you been
Oh minstrels of far-off times, what have you seen?
The wind and the weather and the rain, you say
The sun and the snow and the ladies way
The coming together at the end of the day
In the mighty halls and then you went your way
Les Trouvères
And what is the news today, was the battle won or lost
Of the history written down, what is true and what is false
What secrets do you hold, what stories were never told
Were you bought and were you sold
Did you hold your tongue for the sake of gold?
Les Trouvères
Despised by authority and hated by the priest
At the edge of society as a servant at the feast
Tell of the terror and the fighting and hunger
The lands and the people broken assunder
The face of the devil as he came to plunder
And why don’t you sing? I begin to wonder
Les Trouvères
The pope, he told his armies, „take the devil away
Rid me of these heretics and dreamers this day
Spare no woman, spare no child, do everything I say
And when your job is done, you will get your pay“
Oh travellers on the road, always going from door to door
Oh minstrel of these hard hard times always running from the law
It’s the same old story year for year
They’ll push you there and they’ll push you here
The price of freedom is so dear
Your place is this world is like the fool in King Lear
Les Trouvères
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4. |
Early one Morning
03:32
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Early One Morning
Early one morning just as the sun was rising
I heard a maid sing in the valley below
„Oh don’t deceive me,oh never leave me
How could you use such a poor maiden so?
Gay is the garland and fresh are the roses
I culled from the garden to bind on your brow
Remember the vow that you made to your Mary
Remember the bower where you vowed to be true“
So sang the poor maid in the valley below me
So sang the poor maid in the valley below
(trad.)
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5. |
Doctor Music
04:06
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Doctor Music
Went to the doctor as I was ill
He didn’t know what to do
I asked my friends, I asked a healer
She said, „there’s nothing much wrong with you
You know the answer all by yourself
You know the way to your own health
All I can do for you is open up a door
You’ll have to get working if you want more“
I smiled my smile, I thanked her well
Went on my way with a singing in my soul
I had the chance to look at myself and
Understand the worries that had made me feel ill
What can I change then, what is missing
What is healing and what does me harm?
Went to the doctors – doctor music
Doctor dancing and doctor song
Follow the path along the trail
Checking all the turnings, lifting up the veil
Asking lots of questions, weighing up the past
The only real danger is in going too fast
The time is right, the time has come
To trust your feelings and walk with the sun
Believe your doctors – doctor music
Doctor dancing and doctor song
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6. |
Tropez
04:13
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7. |
Fear no more
03:21
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Fear No More
Fear no more the heat of the sun
Nor the furious winter’s rages
Thou, thy worldly task hast done
Home art gone and taken thy wages
Golden lads and girls all must
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust
Fear no more the frown of the great
Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke
Care no more to clothe and eat
To thee the reed is as the oak
The sceptre, learning, physic must
All follow this and come to dust
Fear no more the lightening-flash
Nore the dreaded thunder-stone
Fear not slander, censure rash
Thou hast finished joy and moan
All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee and come to dust
(William Shakespeare)
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8. |
Walking on together
03:14
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Walking on Together
With your woman and your mother
With your man and with your father
With your sister and your brother
With your son and with your daughter
Let your hearts beat as one
At peace with one another
Take and give of what you can
Walking on together
With the neighbour and the stranger
With the baby in the manger
With the Buddhist and the Hindu
With the Muslim and the Jew
Conscious of deficiency
Of dreams we have before we sleep
Of promises we never keep
We should walk before we run
Examine the efficiency
Throughout our modern history
Of men at arms demanding
Peace on earth for everyone
I cannot change my neice or neighbour
Neither change my ageing mother
Only love my son and daughter
Children living in Calcutta
Pilgrims on the way to Mecca –
We could love them everyone
With the actor and musician
With the priest and politician
With the butcher and the baker
With the cook and candle-maker
With the thief and with the lawyer
With the tramp and with the courtier
With the blessed and the damned
Walking on to understand
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9. |
Bonny at morn
02:56
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Bonny At Morn
The sheep is in the meadow, the kye is in the corn
Tha’s o’er long in bed, bonny at morn
Canny at night, bonny at morn
Tha’s o’er long in bed, bonny at morn
The bird is in the bush, the trout is in the burn
Tha hinders thy mother with many a turn
We‘re all laid idle with minding the bairn
The lad will not work, the lass will not learn
(trad.)
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10. |
Sickle Moon
04:15
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Sickle Moon
In the meanness of the winter, when I looked up high
I saw the sickle moon shining in the sky
Over the whitened rooves of the town
Calling my lonely heart to the dance
You are beautiful if you love me, will you marry me?
Be my wife, share my bed, bear my child, live as wed
You are beautiful, if you love me, will you marry me?
In the meanness of the winter she lighted up my eyes
White as ice her steely gaze
Longing and rebellious and curled up in the cloud
I threw back my head and I cried out loud
Are you willing me away from my home and field?
Are you calling me away into the wild?
Tearing up the roots I have set in the ground
Scattering the flowers that I have sown?
Do I have a will or must I follow?
Will you still need me in the pale light of the morrow?
Listen to the singing-birds, surprised by the dawn
They sing this is a day, which night was a dream
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11. |
Love Child
03:50
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Love Child
Love-child, flower in your hair
Love-child, do you know where
You’ve been to all of these years?
The answer, my child, is shrouded by tears
Love-child, caught in a trap
Love-child, who yearns to go back
To fields, days frozen by time
Your companions living in rhyme
Stop, look, go back if you dare
My poor love-child with a flower in your hair
Love-child, daughter of time
Love-child, sister of mine
Still gazing at the full moon
The piper is calling a different tune
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12. |
Wonderful Day
03:41
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Wonderful Day
It was just a wonderful day
Smiling eyes and a song in my heart
And sorrow drifted away
If I could choose what I’d give to you
I’d give you this wonderful day
It was just a wonderful day
The hills are alive with the reddening sun
In the field is lying the hay
Blackbird is singing his evening song
At the end of a wonderful day
At the end of this wonderful day
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Julia & Chris Simmance Aix En Provence, France
Dear Music-Friends,
We are happy to tell you, that we are out there again, on the streets of South of
France !
Hopefully rather sooner than later we will also add some new recordings on our site here.
Greetings and till then,
Julia and Chris
... more
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