FAIRPORT CONVENTION/SWARBRICK NICOL Close to the wind WITH LYRICS
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- Опубліковано 15 кві 2009
- From the Album CLOSE TO THE WHITE BEAR- A song based on a true story coming fron the pen of Stuart Marson. Simon great and Beautiful singing
Close to the Wind Lyrics
Farewell to you, my faithful Nancy
And a thousand times adieu;
For the constable comes up from Brackley Market
And a hundred volunteers too.
No more will we hide in the forest
For fear they might run us to ground
For the wild sea, we'd sailed upon it
Too close to the wind.
For twenty years, we have roved the highways
Of Northamptonshire.
From Daventry down to the southern byways
We robbed both the rich and the poor.
For ofttimes our families were starving
And the highway it kept them alive,
So the wild sea, we sailed upon it
Too close to the wind.
Tonight I lie in a darkened dungeon
Condemned on the gallows to die,
While the man who gave us away is only
Bound for Australia.
No man could be found to defend us
Naught but abuse came our way,
For the wild sea, we'd sailed upon it
Too close to the wind.
The clouds they rise over Northampton market,
And the crowds pour into the town,
And the people will throng in the streets until sunset,
'Til the hangman cuts us down.
And fifty children of c**worth
Their fathers are taken away,
For the wild sea they sailed upon it
Too close to the wind.
Beautifull song❤
In the late 1990s Stony Stratford had a fantastic live music culture. This song, was a standard and requested at least once a week. The fact it's about local events, was one of the attractions, but the music and the lyrics are superb. We lost one of our local song writers John Close to motor neurone disease during this period, and I still remember his guitar accompaniment to this ballad.
A fantastic (but moving) song, lovely memories of sessions in the Bull and other pubs and the wonderful company of talented musicians.
Thank you for recording this, I'm a Lawson, and many of my family was sent away from their homeland. Probably just trying to feed their families. I live in America, thank God, but this song touches my heart. We didn't want to leave our homeland. Love you Swarb, been following you since 1975! Now the national poet of Australia is Robert Lawson! Hope he's my Ancestor 😄
Thanks so much for posting this. I got this LP out of the library years ago and haven't come across it sinse. I f I remember correctly this the only song on the LP. It was written by a Bambury School Master.
fantastic song, the album live at the white bear is actually close to the wind and live at the white bear re-released as a double album
Ah! That takes me back long ago and far away. I ran a pub back then. We had musicians in most weekends. One group played this live in the pub. One of the musicians was Simon Swarbrick's nephew (Dave?) He was every bit as good a fiddler as Simon
This is a joke, right? Simon Swarbrick and his lad Dave??
BTW the Album is called 'Close to the Wind' not 'Close to the White Bear'. I'm not sure where this was recorded but I don't think it was in in a pub. I once got the LP out called Dave Swarbrick and Simon Nichol Live at the White Bear. I think you migght be getting confused with the titles, or perhap my memory is not what it used to be. Thanks anyway.
I prefer 'Unhalflieging'🤣
Loosely based. The song is about a group of highway-men called the 'Culworth Gang', who robbed travellers around Northamptonshire in the 1780s. They were all eventually caught (I think I was told that one was the local vicar of Sulgrave church, who kept the gang's pistols hidden in an iron chest in the church!), and the narrator of this song is one of the men, sentenced to hang for robbery.
The gang was led by a direct ancestor of mine, William Smith. I wrote the story up on the Culworth village website.