Knot Fibb'n - Celtic Folk Music Lyrics

ARTHUR McBRIDE (from Fibb’nacci Sequence & Ten Years: Live at Byrne’s Pub)

I had a first cousin called Arthur McBride, he and I took a stroll down by the seaside / A-seeking good fortune and what might the tide, being just as the day was a-dawning / Then after resting we both took a tram, and we met Sergeant Parker and Corporal Cram / And besides a wee drummer that shook up our camp with his rowdy-dou-dou in the morning / He said, “my young fellows, if you will enlist, a guinea you quickly shall have in your fist / And besides a crown for to kick up the dust, and drink the King’s health in the morning” / Had we been such a fool as to take the advance, with a wee bit of money we’d have to run chance / “Do you think it no scruples for to take us to France, where we would be killed in the morning?” / He says, “my young fellows, if I hear but one word, I instantly now will out with my sword / And into your bodies as strength will support. So now my gay devils take warning!” / But Arthur and I, we took the odds, and we gave them no chance for to launch out their swords / Our whacking shillelaghs came over their heads and paid them right smart in the morning / As for the young drummer, we rifled his pouch and we made a football of his rowdy-dou-dou / And into the ocean to rock and to roll, and barring the day it’s returning / And as for the rapier that hung by his side, we flung it as far as we could in the tide / “To the devil I pit you!” says Arthur McBride, "to temper your steel in the morning!”

BRIDGET DONAGHUE (from Turning Ten Years: Live at Byrne’s Pub)

Twas in the County Kerry, just a little ways from Clare / Where the boys and girls are merry at the pattern dance so fair / The town is called Killorglin, a pretty place to view / But the thing that makes it int'resting's my Bridget Donaghue / (Ch) Oh Bridget Donaghue / I really do love you / Although I’m in America, to you I will be true / And Bridget Donaghue / I’ll tell you what we’ll do / Just take the name of Patterson, and I’ll take Donaghue / Her father is a farmer, a decent man is he / And he's loved and well respected from Killorglin to Tralee / And Bridget on a Sunday when coming home from Mass / She's admired by all the people, sure, they wait to see her pass (Ch) / I sent my love a picture, I did upon my word / Not a picture of meself but t'was a picture of a bird / It was the Yankee eagle, says I "Miss Donaghue / This eagle's wings are large enough to shelter me and you" (Ch) (repeat chorus)

THE DERBY RAM (from True...never been known to lie)

As I went down to Derby, all on a market day / I spied the biggest ram, sir, that ever did feed on hay / Oh the wool upon this ram, sir, it reached up to the sky / The eagles built their nests up there, you could hear the young 'uns cry / (Ch) And it's true, me lads! It's true, me lads! / I never was known to lie / And if you'd a-been to Derby, you'd seen him the same as I / Oh, the horns upon this ram's head, sir, they reached up to the moon / A little boy went up in January and he never got back till June / He had four feet to walk upon. He had four feet to stand / And every foot that he put down it covered an acre of land (Ch) / Well the tail upon this ram, sir, it reached on down to hell / The devil grabbed a hank of it and he rang the fire bell / Oh the man that killed this ram, sir, was up to his knees in blood / And the little boy that held the bowl was carried away in the flood (Ch) / This flood became a river, sir, and flowed down Derby Moor / It turned the biggest water wheel that was ever turned before / Took all the men in Derby to carry away his bones / Took all the women in Derby to roll away his stones (Ch) /

Oh the man that fed this ram, sir, he must have been very rich / And the singer of this song, sir, is a lying son of a bitch! (Ch)

ERIN GRA MO CHROI (IRELAND, LOVE OF MY HEART) (from True...never been known to lie)

(Ch) Oh Erin gra mo chroi, you’re the dear old land to me / You’re the fairest that my eyes have ever seen / And if ever I go home, it’s from you I never will roam / You’re my own dear native land so far away / At the setting of the sun when my long day’s work was done / I rambled down the seashore for a walk / And I being all alone I sat down upon a stone / For to gaze upon the scenes of New York / With the turf fire burning bright on a cold dark winter’s night / And the snowflakes falling gently to the ground / When St. Patrick’s Day has come, my thoughts will carry me home / To that dear little isle so far away (Ch) / On the day that I did part, well it broke my mother’s heart / Will I ever see my dear ones anymore? / Not until my bones are laid in that cold and silent grave / In my own native land so far away (Ch) /So far away

FIDDLER'S GREEN (from Knot Loitering & Ten Years: Live at Byrne’s Pub)

As I walked by the dockside one evening so fair, to view the salt water and take the sea air / I heard an old fisherman singing a song, "Won't you take me away boys, me time is not long!" / (Ch) Wrap me up in me oilskin and jumper / No more on the docks I'll be seen! / Just tell me old shipmates I'm taking a trip mates, and I'll see you someday in Fiddler's Green / Now Fiddler's Green is a place I heard tell where fisherman go if they don't go to hell / Where the skies are all clear and the dolphins do play, and the cold coast of Greenland is far, far away (Ch) / When you get on the docks and the long trip is through, there's pubs and there's clubs and there's lassies there too / Where the girls are all pretty and the beer it is free, and there's bottles of rum growing from every tree (Ch) / Now I don't want a harp nor a halo, not me. Just give me a breeze and a good rolling sea / I'll play me old squeezebox as we sail along, with the wind in the rigging to sing me a song (Ch) (repeat chorus)

THE FIELDS OF ATHENRY (from Knot Loitering)

By a lonely prison wall I heard a young girl calling / "Michael they are taking you away / For you stole Trevelyn's corn, so the young might see the morn / Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay" / (Ch) Low lie the Fields of Athenry / Where once we watched the small free birds fly / Our love was on the wing / We had dreams and songs to sing / It's so lonely ‘round the Fields of Athenry / By a lonely prison wall I heard a young man calling / "Nothing matters Mary when you're free / Against the famine and the Crown I rebelled, they ran me down / Now you must raise our child with dignity" (Ch) / By a lonely harbour wall she watched the last star falling / As that prison ship sailed out against the sky / Sure she'll wait and hope and pray for her love in Botany Bay / It's so lonely ‘round the fields of Athenry (Ch) (repeat chorus) / It's so lonely 'round the Fields of Athenry

FILLIMIOORIAY (from True...never been known to lie)

In eighteen hundred and forty-one, I put my corduroy britches on / I put my corduroy britches on to work upon the railway / In eighteen hundred and forty-two I left the old world for the new / Bad 'cess to the luck that brought me through to work upon the railway / (Ch) Fillimioo-rioo-riay / Fillimioo-rioo-riay / Fillimioo-rioo-riay to work upon the railway / In eighteen hundred and forty-three, 'twas then I met sweet Biddy McGee / An elegant wife she's been to me while working on the railway (Ch) / In eighteen hundred and forty-four, I worked again and then some more / It's "Bend your backs!" the boss did roar while working on the railway / It's "Pat, do this!" and "Pat, do that!" without a stocking or cravat / And nothing but an old straw hat while working on the railway (Ch) / In eighteen hundred and forty-five they worked us worse than bees in a hive / I didn't know if I was dead or alive while working on the railway (Ch) / In eighteen hundred and forty-seven, sweet Biddy McGee, she went to heaven / If she left one child, she left eleven, while working on the railway! (Ch) / (Ch) Fillimioo-rioo-riay / Fillimioo-rioo-riay / Fillimioo-rioo-riay to work upon the railway (repeat chorus)

THE GARDA CAR (from True...never been known to lie)

Come all you lads and lassies and listen to my sad tale / And I’ll tell you all what happened to me one night down in Kinsale / It being the Summer Season I found meself a job / Singing ballads in the bar to make a couple of bob / I was doing a bit of a stint me boys down in the Folk House Bar / Little did I know that night in town was the dreaded Garda car / (Ch) They’re baggin’ ‘em in Kilkenny / Dublin and Kildare / Cork and Tipperary / Donegal and Clare / No matter where you come from / No matter who you are / If you're a man who likes his porter, beware of the Garda car / Oh when the gig was over and my gear all packed away / Says I, I’ll have one for the road and I’ll leave without delay / Alas that was the one I feared that caused me my downfall / How was I to know me fate? I didn’t have a clue at all / When I put on me cap and coat and drank down my last jar / The barman’s final comment was “watch out for the Garda car!” (Ch) / I was just about to leave the pub when much to my dismay / A Garda car with flashing lights came up an barred me way / Says he, “Have you drink taken?”, says I, “a small amount” / Says he, “would that be four or five?”, says I, “I never count!” / Well they made me blow into the bag saying “tonight you’ve gone too far” / And to the station I was taken in the back of the Garda car (Ch) / Now the doctor he was sent for boys looking tired and distressed / Through bleary eyes he asked me would I mind a urine test?! / Says I, “I like things private when I answer nature’s call” / But that request was soon shut down they’d have to view it all! / What a terrible indignation to take the thing so far / And I wish that they’d all go to hell along with the Garda car! / Now I’ve been law abiding since the day that I was born / But this terrible legislation, I view it now with scorn / There’s trickies and there’s hooflers who break laws every day / But they can’t be caught easy and they gets clean away / Oh, I’ve tried every trick I know to avoid the social scar / But there is no way you’ll get fair play from the boys in the Garda car! (Ch) (repeat chorus)

GARDEN VALLEY (from True...never been known to lie)

This is really not my home / Where are you my lovely Jenny? / I’m afraid and all alone, there is no peace for me / I’m sitting in the stranger’s room / Playing at the stranger’s table / Shining empty like the moon, there is no peace for me / (Ch.) But in the darkness, struggle cold / I think about a Garden Valley / Gentle as the leaves unfold / Singing out along the Tay / Distant and so far away / There is no peace for me / I’m blinded by you city lights / I wander through these fearful places / The colours fade to black and white, there is no peace for me / And these are not the friends I know / These are not their smiling faces / A desert that no-one should know, there is no peace for me (Ch) / Now I know and feel it well / Poor immigrant’s deep sunken feeling / Standing at the gates of hell, there is no peace for me / Burned out by their masters’ greed / Cruel exile transportation / Robbed of every love and need, there is no peace for me (Ch) (repeat chorus)

I'LL TELL ME MA (from Fibb’nacci Sequence)

(Ch) I’ll tell me ma when I go home the boys won’t leave the girls alone / They pulled my hair, they stole my comb, well that’s alright ‘til I go home / She is handsome, she is pretty, she is the belle of Belfast City / She is courting 1-2-3, please won’t you tell me who is she / Albert Mooney says he loves her, all the boys are fighting for her / They knock at the door, and they ring at the bell, saying “oh my true love, are you well?" / Out she comes as white as snow, rings on her fingers and bells on her toes / Old Johnny Murray says she’ll die, if she doesn’t get the fella with the roving eye (Ch) / Let the wind and the rain and the hail blow high, and the snow come tumbling from the sky / She’s as nice as apple pie, she’ll get her own lad by and by / When she gets a lad of her own, she won’t tell her ma when she comes home / Let them all come as they will, for it’s Albert Mooney she loves still (Ch) (repeat & fade)

KEG OF BRANDY (from Fibb’nacci Sequence)

I'm always drunk and I’m seldom sober / A constant roving from town to town / Ah, but I’m old now, my sporting’s over / So Molly astore won’t you lay me down? / (Ch) Just lay my head on a keg of brandy / It is my fancy, I do declare / For while I’m drinking, I’m always thinking on lovely Molly from the County Clare / Oh, the ripest apple is the soonest rotten / And the warmest love is the soonest cold / And a young man’s fancy is soon forgotten / So beware young maids and don’t make so bold (Ch) / For it’s youth and folly make young men marry / And makes them tarry along the day / What can’t be cured love must be endured love / So farewell darling, I’m going away

THE MOUNTAINS OF MOURNE (from Knot Loitering & Ten Years: Live at Byrne’s Pub)

Oh Mary, this London's a wonderful sight, with people here working by day and by night / They don't sow potatoes nor barley nor wheat, but there's gangs of ‘em digging for gold in the street / At least when I asked them that's what I was told. So I took a hand at this digging for gold... / But for all that I found there I might as well be in the place where the dark mourne sweeps down to the sea / I believe that when writing a wish you expressed as to how the fine ladies of London were dressed / Well if you believe me when asked to a ball they don't wear no tops to their dresses at all! / Oh I've seen them myself and you could not in truth tell if they were bound for a ball or a bath / Don't be starting them fashions now Mary McCree, in the place where the dark mourne sweeps down to the sea / There's beautiful girls here now never you mind, In beautiful shapes nature never designed / Lovely complexions of roses and cream, But let me remark with regard to the same... / Now if of them roses you venture to sip, the colors might all come away on your lip / So I'll wait for the wild rose that's waiting for me in the place where the dark mourne sweeps down to the sea / You remember young Denny McClaren of course - Well he's over here with the rest of the force / I saw him one day as he stood on the Strand - he stopped all the traffic with a wave of his hand / And as we were talking of days that are gone, the whole population of London looked on / But for all his great powers he's wishful like me, to be back where the dark mourne sweeps down to the sea

ON THE TURNING AWAY (from Turning)

On the turning away / From the pale and down-trodden / And the words they say which we won’t understand / “Don’t accept that what’s happening / Is just a case of others’ suffering / Or you’ll find that you’re joining in the turning away” / It’s a sin that somehow / Light is changing to shadow / And casting its shroud over all we have known / Unaware how the ranks have grown / Driven on by a heart of stone / We could find that we’re all alone in the dream of the proud / On the wings of the night / As the daytime is stirring / Where the speechless unite in a silent accord / Using words you will find are strange / Mesmerized as they light the flame / Feel the new wings of change on the wings of the night / No more turning away / From the weak and the weary / No more turning away from the coldness inside / Just a world that we all must share / It’s not enough just to stand and stare / Is it only a dream that there’ll be no more turning away

ONLY OUR RIVERS (from Fibb’nacci Sequence)

When apples still grow in November, when blossoms still bloom from each tree / When leaves are still green in December, it’s then that our land will be free

I’ve wandered her hills and her valleys / And still through my sorrow I see a land that has never known freedom / And only her rivers run free / I drink to the death of her manhood. Those men who’d rather have died / than to live in the cold chains of bondage, to bring back their rights were denied / Oh where are you know when we need you? / What burns where the flame used to be? / Are ye gone like the snows of last winter?/ And will only her rivers run free? / How sweet is life but we’re crying, how mellow the wine that were dry / How fragrant the rose but it’s dying, how gentle the breeze but it sighs / What good is in youth when it’s aging? / What joy is in eyes that can’t see when there’s sorrow in sunshine and flowers? / And will only our rivers run free?

THE ROCKY ROAD TO DUBLIN (from Knot Loitering & Ten Years: Live at Byrne’s Pub)

In the merry month of June from my home I started / Left the girls of Tuam nearly broken hearted / Saluted father dear, kissed me darling mother / Drank a pint of beer, my grief and tears to smother / Then off to reap the corn, leave where I was born / Cut a stout blackthorn to banish ghost and goblin / A brand new pair of brogues, rattled o'er the bogs / Frightened all the dogs on the Rocky Road to Dublin / (Ch) One, two, three, four, five / Hunt the hare and turn her down the rocky road and all the way to Dublin / Whack! / Whack-fo-lol-de-dah! / In Mullingar that night I rested limbs so weary / Started by daylight next morning light and airy / Took a drop of the pure to keep me heart from sinking / That's an Irishman's cure, e'er he's on for drinking / To see the lassies smile, laughing all the while / At me daring style ’twould set your heart-a-bubblin' / Asked me was I hired? Wages I required? / I was almost tired of the Rocky Road to Dublin (Ch) / In Dublin next arrived, I thought it such a pity / To be so soon deprived a view of that fine city / When I took a stroll all among the quality / Bundle it was stole in that neat locality / Something crossed my mind, then I looked behind / No bundle I could find upon my stick a-wobblin' / xQuirin' for the rogue, said my Connaught brogue / Wasn't much in vogue on the Rocky Road to Dublin (Ch) / From there I got away, my spirits never failin' / Landed on the Quay as the ship was sailin' / Captain at me roared, said that no room had he / When I jumped aboard, a cabin found for Paddy / Down among the pigs, played some funny rigs / Danced some hearty jigs, the water round me bubblin' / When off Hollyhead, wished meself was dead / Or better far instead on the Rocky Road to Dublin! (Ch) / The boys of Liverpool, when we safely landed / Called meself the fool -- I could no longer stand it / Blood began to boil, temper I was losin' / Poor old Erin's Isle they began abusin' / Hurrah me soul said I, me shillelaugh I let fly / Some Galway boys came by, they saw I was a-hobblin' / With a loud hurray, joined in the affray / And quickly cleared the way for the Rocky Road to Dublin! (Ch)

UNDER THE IRISH MOON (from True...never been known to lie)

Under the Irish Moon, here I stand all alone / My love has gone away /Was it so long ago when we pledged our love, under the pale November moon? / Away, away you said you had to go to the shores of Amerikay / When you come back home to me, will you bring with you a better life? / When you come back to Ireland, will you make me your wife? / (Ch) Under the Irish Moon, here I stand all alone / My love has gone away to the shores of Amerikay / Great silent moon, courier of my heart, carry a kiss to my love / Through the sky, sailing in the night to the shores of Amerikay / Weary we walk day and night, looking for a grain of hope / My body is empty but my heart is full of hope to see you again (Ch) / Everyday that goes by, more and more of us die and are buried in unmarked graves / Before I die, will you come back from the shores of Amerikay / How will I say good-bye to you, will the moon carry my song? / How will you know that my love for you will live on and on? (Ch) / Under the Irish Moon, here I stand all alone / My love has gone away / Under the Irish Moon, here I lie all alone

WAVE OVER WAVE (from Turning)

Oh my name's Able Rodgers, a shore man am I / On a three-masted schooner from Twillingate Isle / I've been the world over north, south, east, and west / But the middle of nowhere's where I likes it best / (Ch) Where it’s wave over wave, sea over bow / I'm as happy a man as the sea will allow / There's no other life for a sailor like me / Than to sail the salt sea boys, sail the sea / There's no other life but to sail the salt sea / Well I leave my wife lonely ten months of the year / For she built me a home and raised my children there / She never comes out to bid farewell to me / Or ken why a sailor must sail the salt sea / Ah, the work it is hard and the hours are long / But my spirit is willing, my back it is strong / And when the work’s over the whisky will pour / And we'll dance with the girls upon some foreign shore (Ch) / I've sailed the world over for decades or more / And oft' times I wonder what I do it for / I don't know the answer it’s pleasure and pain / But with life to live over I'd do it again (Ch) (repeat chorus)

WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME (from Knot Loitering)

I want to run, I want to hide / I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside / I want to reach out, and touch the flame, where the streets have no name / I want to feel sunlight on my face / I see that dust cloud disappear without a trace / I want to take shelter from the poison rain, where the streets have no name / (Ch) Where the streets have no name... / Where the streets have no name... / We're still building and burning down love, burning down love / And when I go there, I go there with you / It's all I can do / The city's aflood, and our love turns to rust / We're beaten and blown by the wind and trampled in dust / I'll show you a place high on a desert plane, where the streets have no name (Ch) / Our love turns to rust / We're beaten and blown by the wind, blown by the wind / Oh, and I see our - see our love turn to rust / We're beaten and blown by the wind, blown by the wind / Oh, when I go there, I go there with you / It's all I can do