Kingston upon Hull Marina
THE JIM GLAZZARD SONGBOOK
No bamboos or any other plants on this page - this corner of the glade is where I keep the songs I make up when the weather's not fit for gardening.
Musical influences are mainly English folksong and antediluvian pop.
I am not a performer - as you will discover if you listen to my efforts on the websites below - but have always enjoyed English folk music and folk festivals.
For many years we went to Whitby Folk Week each August, mainly for the dancing, until old age crept up on our aching limbs. Now instead we take a craft stall to various folk festivals around England.
This year so far we've booked into:
Shepley Spring Festival 16th - 18th May 2008
Warwick Folk Festival 25th - 27th July 2008
Pickering Folk Festival 8th - 10th August 2008
Some of these songs can be heard on ezfolk.com
Jim on ezfolkand on myspace.com
Jim on myspaceLYRICS
BLACKBIRD
By Jim Glazzard
Music based on a traditional Swedish folk tune
Fine fellow with a musical note
Song mellow from a velvety throat
Bill yellow and a black glossy coat
Say hello to the blackbird.
CHORUS
Down in the dell
Or up high in a tree
Singing to me
When I hear sweet-sounding song
It'll be the blackbird.
Rain's coming and the roof's got a leak
No money till the end of the week
My budgie he refuses to speak
I wish he were a blackbird.
(CHORUS)
Wind whistles through a hole in my jeans
My cupboard's full of old magazines
Dead matches and a last can of beans
I wish I were a blackbird.
(CHORUS)
He really is a beautiful bird
Rail at him and he won't say a word
Just sing the sweetest song ever heard
Thank heaven for the blackbird.
(CHORUS)
HEDON ROAD
Words and music by Jim Glazzard
Arranged by Helen Glazzard
He was born on the morning tide.
Sirens called and the baby cried.
Over the way the Humber flowed
His first day on Hedon Road.
He grew up in a tenement block
Hard by the jail and the King George dock,
Up in the morning when the first light showed
To spend his days on Hedon Road.
Chorus
The stars looked down, the pale moon shone,
The fog rolled in, the river ran on,
The sun came up, the rain came down
And the snow it snowed on Hedon Road.
Down on the dock his thoughts roamed free
With ships that sailed to the endless sea.
He longed for the day when away he stowed
And saw no more of Hedon Road.
He worked on the dock to earn his bread
Till he met a girl and the two were wed
They vowed they'd find a new abode
and say farewell to Hedon Road.
(CHORUS)
Then one night to defend his bride,
He drew a knife and a seaman died.
The judge invoked the penal code
Fifteen years in Hedon Road.
His wife she stayed and wept awhile,
Until a sailor made her smile
Arm in arm away they strode
And looked no more on Hedon Road.
(CHORUS)
From his cell the ships he spied
Watched them go till the day he died
Through the bars his spirit flowed
And sailed away from Hedon Road.
They laid his bones in the cemetery
Where ships sailed by to the endless sea.
On his grave the bindweed grows,
The fairest flower in Hedon Road.
(CHORUS)
HOLDERNESS FISHERMAN
Words and music by Jim Glazzard
Arranged by Helen Glazzard
Boy, I've been to Newfoundland and sought the Greenland whale
Trawled the Northern Ocean with a gunboat on my trail, but
CHORUS
As the bird flies to its nest
I'll be gone boy, gone boy
Bound for Hull and Humber
Heading home, heading home,
Heading home to Holderness.
Boy, I've seen the Northern Lights and fought the arctic gale
Spent the night in Grimsby town and lived to tell the tale, but
(CHORUS)
All the grounds are out of bounds and all the fish are caught
All the boats of Humberside are rusting in the port, so
(CHORUS)
See the Queen of Holderness is standing by the shore
Calling me to come to her and go to sea no more, so
(CHORUS)
Boy, I know you're longing to be sailing on the sea.
Roam the whole world over, boy, but never look for me, for
(CHORUS)
THE FALL
Words and music by Jim Glazzard
Seemed like a Garden of Eden
Where we first met in the spring
Spent all the sweet hours of summer
Careless what autumn may bring.
I see the leaves turning brown
The sun goes early to bed
And sad birds sing me
A song of the fall.
I see the leaves falling down
The swallows fly overhead
As they go winging
Away from it all.
Away from it all
In a land of make believe
We two were in Paradise
Like Adam and Eve
Before the fall.
I see the leaves on the ground
The summer swallows have fled
And left me singing
A song of the fall.
SHAKESPEARE MAYBE
Words and music by Jim Glazzard
I remember the first time, ages ago,
Rehearsing a play with some people I no longer know.
Sunlight streamed through the tall
Windows of the dusty hall,
Turned the morning, dust and all,
To an island of dreams
And it still gleams.
Nobody's known, for nobody's seen
A morning so green and gold.
We and the summer were young
And the play it was ...........
Shakespeare maybe.
As you stood in the sunlight, gold in your hair,
The place and the play and the people were no longer there.
Then you whispered my name,
And love burst into flame.
Even now it's still the same,
A steadier glow,
But it's still so.
Nobody's known, for nobody's seen
A morning so green and gold.
We and the summer were young
And the play it was ...........
Shakespeare maybe.
I remember the first time, when we were young,
Rehearsing a play, oh the name's on the tip of my tongue.
Like the flowers and the fun
Friends have faded, everyone.
But love opened in the sun
Like a morning rose
And it still grows.
Nobody's known, for nobody's seen
A morning so green and gold.
We and the summer were young
And the play it was ...........
As You Like It
And I still like it.
I still like it.
TUMBLE DOWN DEEP
Traditional Yiddish tune
Words by Jim Glazzard
Eagle eagle teach me to fly
Swooping, soaring high in the sky
Teach me to fly and never look down
On where I was born, this grimy old town.
CHORUS
Tumble down tumble down tumble down deep
Tumble down tumble down tumble down deep
Build them up high and while you're asleep
They shiver and sigh and tumbledown deep.
Salmon salmon teach me to swim
Over the ocean to the world's rim
Where I can live and never look back
On rivers so dead and beaches so black.
(CHORUS)
Pine tree pine tree teach me to grow
High as a mountain covered in snow
Where I can breathe an air that is clear
Far from the fumes that poison us here.
(CHORUS)
Ivy Ivy teach me to stay
Change what I have and not run away
This land was green and glorious then
When we first came, and could be again.
(CHORUS)
JESUS BABY
Words and music by Jim Glazzard
On Christmas Eve I go to bed, and
When I close my eyes and start to pray
The intervening years all fall away
I wake up on that first Christmas Day.
CHORUS
Coming to see you Jesus baby
When Mother Mary sees us maybe
She'll say "Glad we found you
Wrap the love of Jesus round you.
All God's children, come and see the baby King.
All God's children, come and see the baby King."
The shepherd boys are weary, it's a
Bleary-eyed and drowsy watch they keep
Till angel voices wake them from their sleep
They say the Shepherd King has come to tend his sheep.
(CHORUS)
In kingdoms at the rainbow's end
The wise men hang their hopes upon a star
It's time I made my way to where you are
Like Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar.
(CHORUS)
There's little that I understand
Of wisdom and of wonder but I know
It's faith that makes the footprints in the snow
And God will be beside me as I go.
(CHORUS)
