Sails of Silver

LP:   Chrysalis CHR1304   (1980)
CD:   Park PRKCD40   (1997)

Personnel

Maddy Prior - vocals
Tim Hart - vocals, guitar
Bob Johnson - vocals, guitar
Rick Kemp - vocals, bass
Peter Knight - vocals, keyboards, violin
Nigel Pegrum - drums, percussion, woodwind

Produced by Gus Dudgeon
Engineered by Jerry Boys
Recorded at Sawmill Studios, Golant, Cornwall
Mixed at Marquee Studios, London
Mastered by Gordon Vicary at Utopia, London
Thanks to Janet, Mary, Julie and Peter
Tea and Tuck by Hazel Tether.
Road Crew: Andy Banks, John Wilford, Patrick Whitley.

Tracks

  1. Sails Of Silver
  2. My Love
  3. Barnet Fair
  4. Senior Service
  5. Gone To America
  6. Where Are They Now
  7. Let Her Go Down
  8. Longbone
  9. Marigold / Harvest Home
  10. Tell Me Why

  11. CD Bonus Tracks
  12. Thomas the Rhymer   (live in 1997)
  13. My Johnny   (live in 1996)
  14. The Lark in the Morning   (live in 1996)


Lyrics / Notes

Sails of Silver
The maid in a garden walking alone
What is it makes her to weep and to mourn?
I am as the tall sailing ship out on the sea
Where only long breezes reach out to me
Chorus:
And I set my sails of silver
And I steer towards the sun
And you false love will weep for me
When I'm gone, when I'm gone, when I'm gone
The maid in a garden, how can it be?
My starring sea would but what does she see?
A mast of the tall rowan tree, ropes of fine silk
Decks holy stone shining whiter than milk
Chorus

My Love
Do you remember what we promised when we met my love?
There would never be a reason for regret my love
Bad news has come to town but news flies up and down
That another you have found a life with you my love

If the wind could whisper by that it's not true my love
And the seas could rise and cry that it's not you my love
If the hills could only say that you were on your way
Then happy I would stay and be with you my love

Every night I light a light for your return my love
But the morning light's a lesson to be learned my love
That I who learned to trust have been betrayed and must
Forever more be cursed for wanting you my love

Remember what we promised when we met my love?
There would never be a reason for regret my love
But I who learned to trust have been betrayed and must
Forever more be cursed for wanting you my love

Barnet Fair
Once a year when the winter's calling
Birds fly south and the leaves are falling down
Just beyond the town, the meadow where a campfire's burning,
wakes in the morning to the music of the big fairground

Coming from the East, coming from the West,
All the gypsies are gathering
Just another town on the road for the travelling man
Chorus:
Follow me, boys, won't you follow me to Barnet Fair?
Follow on, children, won't you follow me to Barnet Fair?
If I show you the way, will you come along today?
Everyone you know will be there
Follow me, boys, won't you follow me to Barnet Fair?
Leave the factory, leave the field
Word is abroad that the fair arrives today
Come on from the dusty loom and the rusty plough
Join the procession, I can hear it come this way
Come and see the juggler, come and see the fiddler,
See the horses and the dancing bear
Come and see the pretty lasses with the coloured ribbons in their hair
Chorus
See the magic lanterns and the bat and hoop-la
Prizes for the twopenny shy
"All the fun on the fair" you can hear the showmen cry
Chorus

Senior Service
Chorus:
Sally's in the alley and Nancy's on the game
Emily is pregnant and wondering who to blame
We raise our port and lemon and toast a reply
That the Senior Service satisfy
See the bold man of war steaming into port
Guns fully primed, the 24 pounder sort
And down on the deck for a full broadside
Back on the high seas with the rising tide

Here's a little steamship chugging up the channel
Small smoke stack and a red smoking funnel
He brings the girls presents of stockings and tights
Comes regular as clockwork every Tuesday night
Chorus
Here come the sailor boys, Matthew, Luke and John
I like 'em with tattoos, I like 'em young and strong
Here come the sailor boys a-rousting up the town
Their rigging is up but their sails are down

Here's a skipper of a clipper with a broken bowsprit
Heading for a dry dock and a new re-fit
There's an oil tanker of the modern kind
A thousand foot length of throbbing steam turbine
Chorus
Here come the sailor boys, George, John and Paul
I like 'em lithe and lisson, I like 'em slim and tall
Here come the sailor boys whistling on the quay
Blue Peter up the mast where all the girls can see
Chorus

Gone to America
Married him in April, lost him in July
Listen to my story and I'll tell you why
They said that he'd been poaching and stealing wine
They said I wouldn't see him for a long long time
They said he's gone to America
To work the land that some called Virginia
They said he's gone to America
Married him in April, lost him in July
They took him as their prisoner then told me why
They said they had sent him where poachers go
I asked if I could see him but they said no
They said he's gone to America
To work the land that some called Virginia
They said he's gone to America
Married him in April, lost him in July
Curse the men who took him, curse their wicked lie
Tonight they saw him poaching and stealing wine
Was the night he took comfort in these arms of mine
But now he's gone to America
To work the land that some called Virginia
They said he's gone to America
Married him in April, lost him in July

Where Are They Now
Man said Nature was his mother
Made a promise at his birth
But she's running like a hunted fox for cover
All across the Earth

The forest turned into the tall ships,
And though they fought for England well
The emptiness is ringing down the ages
Like a hollow bell
Chorus:
Where are they now?
Old mysteries
The high ideas of thousand years
All lost on the breeze
Where are they now?
Asking wonders of our children
Blind faith in all the rules
But the blind lead the blind from the cradle
Through the faith of fools

One son gone unto the merchant
Another to the bishop went
Another son to serve the king
And country in some regiment
Chorus
Every year in late December
Hark the Herald Angels sing
In the church words of Peace on Earth are spoken
It doesn't change a thing
Chorus

Let Her Go Down
Sometime in October
We sailed from New England shore
When we sailed into a raging storm
Like I've never ever seen before
And all of the crew they were brave men
But the captain, he was braver
He said "Never mind the ship, me boys
There's none of us here can save her"
Chorus:
Let her go down
Swim for your lives
Swim for your children
Swim for your wives
But let her go down
Just let her go down
Just in the open ocean
There were some of the crew and me
While the captain steered our wounded ship
To the bottom of an angry sea
And with his dying breath we all heard him say
"Just the fortunes of a sailor"
And he said "Never mind the ship, me boys
There's none of us here can save her"
Chorus
He wondered if his ship mates
were ready just to pray and give in
So he called their names out one by one
But there was no-one else around but him
He saw the ship called down in the fading light
And he knew they couldn't save her
He said "The captain lied when the captain cried
There's none of us here can save her"
Chorus

Longbone
There was a king who built a ship
And sailed away
To look for gold in the hills of Scone
Far away
The only gold in the hills of Scone
Is gold you'll never own
It belongs to the giant Longbone
Far away
The only gold I've ever known
It all belonged to the giant Longbone
His teeth are sharp, his claws are long
So they say
His eyes are like a fire that burns
Far away
We will go to the hills of Scone
We'll find the giant Longbone
We'll turn him into stone
Far away
The only gold I've ever known
It all belonged to the giant Longbone
Through the rain and through the snow
We sailed away
To the land where only fools go
Far away
We stepped onto the shore
And then we heard him roar
He must have seen us

We tried to hide, we tried to run
Run away
He killed the crew, he threw the boat
Far away
And then he said "We are alone
I am the giant Longbone
You shold have stayed at home
Far away"
The only gold I've ever known
It all belonged to the giant Longbone

Marigold / Harvest Home

Marigold

When the marigold no longer blooms
When summer sun is turned to gloom
See the forecast winter snow
See the evergreen that lonely grows
Move close to the fireplace
Neglect the garden
See the ground harden
At a ghostly place

The golden summer sun is silver now
The fruit has fallen from the bough
The season moves to chestnut time
Toffee apples, treacle and mulled wine
Quilts and furs and woolens gay
You wrap around you
But the cold confounds you
On an autumn day

Stout and strong the walls of home and hearth
Curtains drawn against the draft
The rake has reaped, the blade has mown
Nights draw in to call the harvest home
The quiet of a heart at rest
In peace abounded
By love surrounded
Here the home is blest
Harvest Home
Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest home
All be safely gathered in
Ere the winter storms begin
God, our Maker doth provide
For our wants to be supplied
Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest home

Tell Me Why
What is deeper than the sea?
What is higher than a tree?
And what is louder than a horn?
What is sharper than a thorn?

What is lighter than the light?
What is darker than the night?
And what is colder than the clay?
What is broader than the way?
Tell me why
So many questions
Tell me why
The devil lies
Tell me why
Who will live or who will die?
Tell me why
So many questions
Tell me why
The devil lies
Tell me why
Which way leads to Paradise?
Tell me why
Tell me why
Hell is deeper than the sea
Heaven is higher than a tree
And thunder is louder than a horn
Hunger is sharper than a thorn

Truth is whiter than the light
The devil is darker than the night
And death is colder than the clay
Love is broader than the way
Tell me why
So many questions
Tell me why
The devil lies
Tell me why
Who will live or who will die?
Tell me why
So many questions
Tell me why
The devil lies
Tell me why
Which way leads to Paradise?
Tell me why
Live or die
Tell me why