One Night As I Lay On My Bed

song notes

One night as I lay on my bed

I dreamed about a pretty maid

being so distressed I could take no rest

love did torment me so

so away to my true love’s I did go

And when I came to my love’s window

I boldly called her by her name

saying it was for your sake

I’ve come here so late

through this bitter frost and snow

so open the window my love do

My mum and dad they are both asleep

and they are for to hear us speak

there’ll be no excuse then but sore abuse

so away from my window

my love do

Your mum and dad they are both asleep

and they are sure not to hear us speak

they’re sleeping sound on their bed of down

they draw their breath so low

so open the window my love do

My love arose and she opened the door

and just like an angel she stood on the floor

her eyes shone bright like the stars at night

no diamonds could shine so

so in with my true love I did go

Traditional English

Here I Am

song notes

Here I am beneath your sky

Here I am bequeathed your stale sigh

Here I am veiled in refrain

Here I am dragging chains

You don’t know me very well

You don’t know me well enough to tell

You don’t know me from my shell

You don’t know me well

High above your autumn sky

High above leaves in golden flight

Spinning seasons and changing light

Dreams wave goodbye

Don’t abide your precious mood

Don’t deny the lure of moon

Don’t mind me if I don’t mind

Don’t mind me if I mind

Here I greet the coming night

The rising moon and fading light

While others sleep now I wake

If they dream I cannot say

Here I am beneath your sky

Here I am bequeathed your stale sigh

Here I am veiled in refrain

Here I am dragging chains

© Michael Azzopardi

Lough Erne Shore

song notes

In Our Disease

song notes

Dangling from a branch of your family tree

hiding behind the leaves of envious green

never content with your forefather’s lot

there’ll be a space for you in your family plot

Proud to be bottled and branded with a name

that somehow announces from where you came

with a selective memory and a very short fuse

you wave your flag and you hurl your abuse

Heir to a throne in a kingdom of naught

with a prejudice you can no longer afford

for your neighbours don’t talk or dress like you

now they are many when once they were few

What does it matter what we believe

when we’re all in our disease

You say my grandfather fought to save this land

I’m proud of what he was and who I am

but you hunt and you fish for fun litter and waste

you have no respect for the land that he saved

I can understand where you’re coming from

but that doesn’t mean I don’t think you are wrong

wrong to hate people for the way that they look

the way that they live or the job that they took

If we were all like you how would the world be

fussing and fighting in our ignorance and greed

but what am I saying that’s how the world seems

I must be you and you must be me in our disease

What does it matter what we believe

when we’re all in our disease

© Michael Azzopardi

John Barleycorn

song notes

There were three men came out of the West
Their fortunes for to try
And these three men made a solemn vow
John Barleycorn must die

They've ploughed, they've sewn, they've harrowed him in
Threw clods upon his head
And these three men made a solemn vow
John Barleycorn was dead

They've let him lie for a very long time
‘Till the rains from heaven did fall
And little Sir John sprung up his head
And so amazed them all

They've let him stand ‘till midsummer's day
‘Till he looked both pale and wan
And little Sir John's grown a long, long beard
And so become a man

They've hired men with the scythes so sharp
To cut him off at the knee
They've rolled him and tied him by the way
Serving him most barbarously

They've hired men with the sharp pitchforks
Who pricked him to the heart
And the loader he has served him worse than that
For he's bound him to the cart

They've wheeled him around and around the field
‘Till they came unto a barn
And there they made a solemn oath
On poor John Barleycorn

They've hired men with the crab-tree sticks
To cut him skin from bone
And the miller he has served him worse than that
For he's ground him between two stones

And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl
And he's brandy in the glass
And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl
Proved the strongest man at last

The huntsman, he can't hunt the fox
Nor so loudly to blow his horn
And the tinker he can't mend kettle nor pot
Without a little Barleycorn

Traditional English

God Rest Ye

song notes

Bathed in our indifference

drowned in christmastide

with no greater sin to repent

than love that is denied

no courtesy no kindly wish

just me myself and I

in tidings of comfort and joy

comfort and joy

tidings of comfort and joy

Begging homeless people

all in the streets are lain

‘neath the false hope of charity

for a pocket full of change

lost within the season’s greed

mindful of our gain

in tidings of comfort and joy

comfort and joy

tidings of comfort and joy

Waiting for a saviour

to fall down from the sky

whilst wars keep a raging

and there’s hunger still to find

whist a child plays on christmas morn

another elsewhere dies

some tidings of comfort and joy

comfort and joy

some tidings of comfort and joy

Your money will it save you?

your ignorance bring you peace?

and of all the gifts they gave to you

which one would you keep?

the pride the joy the brand new toy

or a sense of family?

some tidings of comfort and joy

comfort and joy

some tidings of comfort and joy

Go ask your god a favour

and wait for its reply

that the gift that they gave to you

is not your size nor type

don’t look a gift horse in the mouth

or it might just take your eye

in tidings of comfort and joy

comfort and joy

in tidings of comfort and joy

God rest ye merry gentlemen

in the laurels of the day

as for christ the lord our saviour

what do you think he’d say

I don’t know much of satan’s power

but we’ve been led astray

in tidings of comfort and joy

comfort and joy

in tidings of comfort and joy

© Michael Azzopard

adapted Traditional English

Beneath a Silvery Moon

song notes

Tonight the light of a silvery moon

danced upon the sea

crickets chorused a dulcet tune

a fleeting harmony

Tonight let’s let the moon decide

the crashing of the waves

the pull of moon on time and tide

come carry us away

Far beyond this glistening sea

into the starry sky

carried on a gentle breeze

adrift upon a sigh

Hear how the wind conspires

to blow your dreams away

now the world has retired

you are still awake

chase the moon across the sky

until daylight breaks

catch a star within your eyes

as the world awakes

© Michael Azzopardi