End of a Holiday

that is Fairport Convention playing, that is not Fairport Convention in the photograph

Meet On The Ledge

If Fairport Convention have a theme tune, this is it, Richard Thompson's masterpiece.

We used to say that come the day
We'd all be making songs
Or finding better words
These ideas never lasted long

The way is up along the road
The air is growing thin
Too many friends who tried
Blown off this mountain with the wind

Meet on the ledge, we're gonna meet on the ledge
When my time is up I'm gonna see all my friends
Meet on the ledge, we're gonna meet on the ledge
If you really mean it, it all comes round again
Yet now I see I'm all alone
But that's the only way to be
You'll have your chance again
Then you can do the work for me

Meet on the ledge, we're gonna meet on the ledge
When my time is up I'm gonna see all my friends
Meet on the ledge, we're gonna meet on the ledge
If you really mean it, it all comes round again
Yet now I see I'm all alone
But that's the only way to be
You'll have your chance again
Then you can do the work for me

Meet on the ledge, we're gonna meet on the ledge
When my time is up I'm gonna see all my friends
Meet on the ledge, we're gonna meet on the ledge
If you really mean it, it all comes round again
Yet now I see I'm all alone
But that's the only way to be
You'll have your chance again
Then you can do the work for me

[Richard Thompson]

(Copyright © exists)

She Moves Through the Fair

My young love said to me "My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you for your lack of kind"
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say
"Oh, it will not be long, love, till our wedding-day"

And she went away from me and moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her move here and move there
And then she went onward, just one star awake
Like the swan in the evening moves over the lake

Last night she came to me, my dead love came in
So softly she came that her feet made no din
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say
"Oh, it will not be long, love, till our wedding-day"

[Padraic Colum/trad]

(Copyright © exists)

Tale In Hard Time

music by Fairport Convention, pictures by William Blake
and you can't say fairer than that!

Take the sun from my heart
Let me learn to despise
I'll show you another who cannot tell lies

The blind man can't see
Who demands to his eyes
I'll show you another who sings as he cries

I cannot be whole
As the beggar who sighs
I'll show you another who knows as he dies

[Richard Thompson]

(Copyright © exists)

Nottamun Town

In Nottamun Town not a soul would look up,
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down,
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down,
To show me the way to fair Nottamun Town.

Met the King and the Queen, and a company more
Come a-walking behind and a-riding before
Come a stark naked drummer a-beating the drum
With his hands on his bosom, come marching along.

Sat down on a hard, hot cold frozen stone,
Ten thousand stood 'round me, yet I was alone
Took my hat in my hands for to keep my head warm,
Ten thousand got drownded that never was born.

In Nottamun Town not a soul would look up,
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down,
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down,
To show me the way to fair Nottamun Town.

[Trad. arr. Fairport Convention]

(Copyright © exists)

I'll Keep It With Mine

You may search at any cost
But how long can you search for what's not lost?
Everybody will help you
Some people are very kind
But if I can save you any time

Come on, give it to me
I'll keep it with mine

I can't help it, if you might think I'm odd
If I say I'm loving you, not for what you are, but for what you're not
Everybody will help you
Discover what you set out to find
But if I can save you any time

Come on, give it to me
I'll keep it with mine

The train leaves at half past ten
But I'll be back tomorrow at the same time again
The conductor, he's weary
He's still stuck on the line
But if I can save you any time

Come on, give it to me
I'll keep it with mine

Copyright © 1965, 1968 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993, 1996 by
Special Rider Music

No Man's Land

Hey, come and make it easy
Hey, come and make it black
It's no use to be free
If lies are all the truth they see
They'll screw up what you do
When you're through

Hey, come and make it easy
Hey, come and make it black
If you need a friend
And you need a way to loose the end
You know a place for you
When you're through

Hey, come and make it easy
Hey, come and make it black
It's no use to be free
If lies are all the truth they see
They'll screw up what you do
When you're through

[Richard Thompson]

(Copyright © exists)