Big Dave
Virtual Giant
Folkcorp Guru 2nd Dan
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Posts: 1730
Loc: Hadfield (in the glorious High Peak of Derbyshire)
Stand us a pint guv!
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« Reply #20 on: June 21, 2007, 04:00:51 PM » |
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Well Put Simon! (*Ponders* why can't I articualte like that?)
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Live life, live love, Live for FAIRPORT!!!!!!
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Mix (Mic)
Cowcatcher for Coocachoo
Folkcorp Guru 2nd Dan
Offline
Posts: 1456
Loc: Staffs
Once more unto the breech...
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« Reply #21 on: June 21, 2007, 04:05:23 PM » |
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Thank you Simon.... it is one of my favourite FC songs  and I'm as 'ard as they come me  |
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Work like you don't need the money
Love like you've never been hurt
Dance like nobody's watching
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RichardH
Full Member
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Posts: 97
Loc: London N19
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« Reply #22 on: June 21, 2007, 04:12:34 PM » |
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Cheers Simon. I shall listen again.
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Bob Barrows
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« Reply #23 on: June 21, 2007, 04:28:06 PM » |
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Time to get Huw as a TAW guest ... |
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Will S
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« Reply #24 on: June 21, 2007, 05:09:56 PM » |
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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....
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... |
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All the diamonds in the world
That mean anything to me,
Are conjured up by wind and sunlight
Sparkling on the sea
(Bruce Cockburn)
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PaulT
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« Reply #25 on: June 21, 2007, 05:17:37 PM » |
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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...
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Flobbadob!
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Andy
Brain half the size of a planet
Global Moderator
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Posts: 8616
Loc: South West Wales
Not perfect. Never claimed to be.
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« Reply #26 on: June 21, 2007, 05:28:31 PM » |
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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...
Dad always said 1938 was a good summer, but 1940 was really pleasant. (He spent the summer in hospital, recuperating from Dunkirk). |
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Amethyst (Jenny)
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« Reply #27 on: June 21, 2007, 07:32:21 PM » |
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Dunes, sand dunes for me... in Wales!
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Farnsfield Acoustic ... Notts
Thank you to everyone that has ever been to a FarnsAc gig, and to all our wonderful performers since 2005
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John & Mo
Jr. Member
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Posts: 24
Loc: Deep in the Norfolk Broads
I'm not old. I'm a Real Classic.
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« Reply #28 on: June 21, 2007, 08:41:13 PM » |
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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.
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Anne T
I'm obviously missing the point here
Sr. Member
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Posts: 281
Loc: Berkshire
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« Reply #29 on: June 21, 2007, 10:16:19 PM » |
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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.
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Neil Morrell
Candlestick in the Library
Folkcorp Guru 2nd Dan
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Posts: 1106
Loc: St Helens, Lancs
Be careful Mr President - I think he's drunkkk!
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« Reply #30 on: June 22, 2007, 02:17:51 AM » |
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As Simon said, it's as individual as you want it to be..........
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No longer active on TAW. Cheers Y'all!!
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AdrianW
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« Reply #31 on: June 22, 2007, 02:25:45 AM » |
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... and a lovely song. Mawkish? Never!
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-- Adrian
I cried for madder music and for stronger wine,
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Malcolm
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« Reply #32 on: June 22, 2007, 10:07:19 AM » |
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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.  |
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Amethyst (Jenny)
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« Reply #33 on: June 22, 2007, 10:49:13 AM » |
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Huw Williams wrote/writes great songs, used to enjoy his live gigs with Tony Williams.. pity they finished.
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Farnsfield Acoustic ... Notts
Thank you to everyone that has ever been to a FarnsAc gig, and to all our wonderful performers since 2005
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Harriet
Full Member
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Posts: 40
Loc: Medway
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« Reply #34 on: June 22, 2007, 11:21:37 AM » |
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Another way of looking at it would be a couple and their child, going for a walk. A ovely song none the less.
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Pat Helms
Long live Freewheelin' Franklin!!
Sr. Member
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Posts: 375
Loc: E. TENNESSEE
Often wrong.....never in doubt
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« Reply #35 on: June 22, 2007, 01:06:21 PM » |
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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.
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JJ (Joanna)
safely sewn on
Global Moderator
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Posts: 1916
Loc: Essex
nice McTell I'm wearin!
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« Reply #36 on: June 22, 2007, 05:03:39 PM » |
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...Brighton Beach, black and white photos of Mum and Dad looking carefree with my Aunt.....  "....Oh what a summer, oh what a sun......." beautifully sung Simon, thank you! |
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....may my love be your protector; and walk with you 'til next we meet
R.McTell - An Irish Blessing.
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Chris
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« Reply #37 on: June 23, 2007, 11:41:34 AM » |
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Definitely the Great War of 1914-18
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Anna
I'll be Susan
Folkcorp Guru
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Posts: 982
Loc: London Colney, near St Albans, Herts
That's her, with the fluteystick...
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« Reply #38 on: June 28, 2007, 07:17:56 PM » |
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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... |
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Flute player seeks ragtime band...
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parkwood
torn away from morris men
Full Member
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Posts: 118
Loc: Glasgow, UK
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« Reply #39 on: June 29, 2007, 08:33:43 AM » |
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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'.
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