TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Just played this. What's it about? OK, reminiscences of an affair in a golden time before the world is ripped apart by global conflict. Lovely song.

But why are there three characters: "you" "your lady" and I?

Is one of them a dog? Is a weird kind of troilism involved? An aristocratic chaperone?

I leave it to the board.

I think "I" was the younger brother of "the lady". But I haven't listened to this is ages, so I could be barking completely up the wrong tree.

Or just barking ::)

I always interpret this as some guy playing 'gooseberry!'  ::)

Just 3 friends I suppose.......

That's what I thought.. three friends.. or maybe a love triangle..  ;D

Lovely song..  would love to hear it live again!

Ambiguious as always. I Can't work it out.  It's a Huw Williams song apparently.

Where's Simon when you need him.......

SIMON!!!!

 I have always thought the same. Brother or sister! ;)

A man, his wife, who is servant to the Lady, cycle down to the sea the Whitsun before the war, probably WW1.

Might be related to "Dancing At Whitsun", a prequel if you will.

I reckon he is in love with him, who in turn, is in love with her

"loves that must remain unknown" as David Hughes sings ..............

I love that song. Beautiful tune and imagery - I can see the heat haze and small the golden corn.

A touch of Terry Jacks, then?

I suppose.

Quite a lot really.

I've always thought it depicted a time of innocence, when a lad and his lady and a friend could still go on a day out somewhere without jealous thoughts or covetous intentions  :-\  Maybe there was never such a time, but I think that's what I'd rather believe  :)

So what if it is a song about idealism? That's one of the things song writing is all about isn't it?  ;)

I've been out with Helen and James, nothing happened.

Innocence is nice.

I agree: that's what I hear. A tenderness and strong affection between all parties, but an underlying tone of acute bittersweet wistfulness, and the unspoken love being more romantic than sexual

but blimeyheck! what do I know  ;D ;D

More than most of us sweets, more than most  :)

So the theory that the protaganist is a dog is not gaining much ground then...

Not too many bicycling dogs in these parts, sorry.

It's a song: it means what you hear when you listen to it. Which is deliciously different from anyone else. Same as a moving play or novel, movie or painting. OK, it's specifically painting images for our delight, but the details we fill in ourselves as much as the faces we see when we listen to a play on the radio. I'm just an empty vessel resonating with noise through which the song passes on its way from author to listener so what do I know of how to cast the characters or place the location?

That said, I've always had Kenny More, John Mills and Celia Johnson in beautiful black+white 1938 Dorset....... But that doesn't rule out the cycling dog instead of John Mills, as long as it's a small terrier in the wicker basket on the front of Celia's sit-up-and-beg.

Glad you like it enough to bring up the subject: some have pointed the finger of mawkish sentimentality - heartless cynics to a man/woman....

So diplomatic. Never one to take sides  ;D


That said, there's definitely not enough of Red and Gold (apart from "Red and Gold") played at Cropredy  ::) ::) ::)

Well Put Simon! (*Ponders* why can't I articualte like that?)

Thank you Simon.... it is one of my favourite FC songs  ;D ;D   and I'm as 'ard as they come me  ;)

Cheers Simon. I shall listen again.

Time to get Huw as a TAW guest ...  ;D

That's how I've always listened to it too - and I have loved it since I first heard it - except that I have imagined it in colour and as July or August 1939, which as I understand it was a very good summer (though I wasn't around to know for sure).  But 1938 would make more sense as I imagine in 1939 there was a lot of tension in the air which isn't reflected in the song...

I always have a mental image of the valley running from Talyllyn to Tywyn, the characters cycling down to the seaside and the narrow gauge steam railway in the background...

Dad always said 1938 was a good summer, but 1940 was really pleasant. (He spent the summer in hospital, recuperating from Dunkirk).

Dunes, sand dunes for me... in Wales!

I had always thought of it as epitomising the innocent, optimistic attitudes of the late Edwardian era which were obliterated by the 1914-18 war. For me it's much more poignant set in 1913 not 1938 - and the setting; Sussex & the Bluebell Railway.

Definitely not a dog! "Your hand in her hand and her hand in mine" : I don't think this line would be improved by any of the hands being substituted by a paw.

As Simon said, it's as individual as you want it to be..........

... and a lovely song. Mawkish? Never!

Just goes to show what a good song it is when it conjures up such happiness and colour to us few listeners, each one a different interpretation. Magic. :)

Huw Williams wrote/writes great songs, used to enjoy his live gigs with Tony Williams.. pity they finished.

Another way of looking at it would be a couple and their child, going for a walk.  A ovely song none the less.

During our trip (which culminated at the '99 Cropredy), my wife and two dear friends went to Scarborough, before splitting up and meeting again in Banbury.  I have a picture I took of the three of them on the shore that day.  Instantly, the song came to mind, so that's its title of it in our scrapbook dedicated the trip.

For me, the song has an Edwardian resonance, making the "war" in question WWI........and not the Hundred Years War, mind you.  

...Brighton Beach, black and white photos of Mum and Dad looking carefree with my Aunt.....  8)


"....Oh what a summer, oh what a sun......."

beautifully sung Simon, thank you!

Definitely the Great War of 1914-18

Agree, WW1.

I get a memory from my childhood when my father took me and my brother and 3 bicycles to the "countryside".  Coming from SE London, it was probably Bromley.  Anyway, there was a hill we all free-wheeled down which was quite a winding road with trees both sides, dappled shade etc.  I imagine a railway line in the valley which I can just about glimpse through the trees...  No seaside, but in the imagining it's just around the next few bends.
Mmmm.  One of my all-time favourites too!   {:-)



But I love any song where Simon gets that huge sound of his going...

Huw says in his liner notes to the Live album:

'The 'War' referred to in the title is not as relevant as it may seem. This is a song more about a time in your life when things have to change'.

must dash home to listen to it again, I never thought to follow the story, just always think of my grandparents: so 1913 Twickenham...(no Heathrow then, I have photos of them cycling through orchards...) I've always loved it to bits: another for that sunset moment I think.
BTW he did come back from the Somme, but her brother was very badly injured and 'didn't make old bones'.