THE HERMIT
Mountain Ash Band
Research and original concept, music for songs – Colin Cripps
Lyrics – Ray King Narration - Sean Mansley
Featuring Lynda Hardcastle / Alan Rose / Martin Carter / Geoff Bowen / Graham Jones / Kevin slingsby
Job
Senior was a hermit. There are many ways of being a hermit. It was only for a
short time towards his later years that Job lived on Ilkley Moor away from
other people. For most of his life Job was a hermit in a crowd. The facts of
his life, as far as they are known, are narrated on this album. The songs are
not an attempt at story telling; more a series of glimpses of his world as we
imagine it would have been seen by Job at the crisis points of his life. Yorkshire Tales - The Hermit
For the introduction by Colin Cripps click HERE
Recorded on
13th / by Look Records, September Sound
Studios, Golcar, ,
The tracks need to be listened to in order as there is a narration followed by a song.. For more background on the group click HERE
BIRTH (Narration)
Narrator – Sean Mansley
Guitar – Colin Cripps
BIRTH (Song)
Vocals – Lynda Hardcastle, Alan Rose, Martin Carter. / Guitar – Colin Cripps
Fiddle – Geoff Bowen / Bass Guitar – Graham Jones / Drums – Kevin Slingsby
On crimson wings the sun comes up
Across the eastern sky
Who sees the early dawning hour
When some may live and some may die.
Bent on the earth beneath the sky
A new born cry is heard.
The silent sky is split in two
The first eruption of a word.
Your life is started
Your life’s begun.
Be quick, the years wait for no one.
A million things are left undone.
Before the winking of an eye,
Before the setting of the sun
A chance is barely waiting,
A chance is barely anything.
Please know your hour will come, ( too soon, too soon, too soon)
Your time will come.
Mother’s in the kitchen and father’s on the land.
They’ll tell life is only what you’re holding in your hand.
They know the price of hardship, yes they know the coins of sweat.
They know the price that pain affords. They know, they know they know it all and yet
Your baby hands are open
And clutching for a star
But still they stop and warn you
You will never reach that far.
Be quick time’s waiting,
Be quick it slips away.
A lifetime will not leisure
In the
measure of today.
JOURNEYS (Narration)
Tune – Goddesses
Narrator – Sean Mansley
Descant Recorder – Lynda Hardcastle
Fiddle – Geoff Bowen
JOURNEYS (Song)
Vocals - Alan Rose, Lynda Hardcastle, Martin Carter, Graham Jones.
Guitars – Colin Cripps, Martin Carter. / Fiddle – Geoff Bowen
Bass Guitar – Graham Jones / Drums - Kevin Slingsby
The long and rolling road
That carries all the way to
Is calling me…Is calling me…
Where the road kisses the skyline
On that rolling green horizon
Is where I’ll be.. Is where I’ll be.
I don’t care if they say I’m ugly
‘Cause I’ll shed my tears alone.
My thoughts they do not haunt me,
I willfind another home.
For I have youth to face tomorrow. The Hermit Inn and Restaurant
I am stronger than today.
I am stronger than the strangers
Who are sending me this way.
I am bigger that he whispers
That they send to torment me.
I will reach the furthest star. Hermit Inn (site 2)
I will reach, I will be free.
The long and rolling road
That carries all the way to
It carries me ..It carries me.
The man is young, the sun is old,
It paves the streets of with gold.
Oh let it be that way…
…………..
Tunes; Rosebud – Pigeon on the gate – Dust in the Lane.
The grey and ugly streets
That slowly stretch away from
Are made of dust…made of dust.
I am hungry, I am thirsty.
Have my soul but give a crust.
My clothes are dirty.
My shoes are full of water
And my mind is full of hate.
I knocked the door of providence
They said I’d come too late.
I thought to stay forever
With the corpses at the gate.
Now the streets of are empty
As the faces stop and stare, and stop and stare.
I’ve no money for the alehouse
So I’ll find no comfort there, no comfort there.
Give me anything for pain.
I am truly so alone, Yes I’m alone.
I will face all the slander.
I am going home again, I’m going home again, I’m going home.
…………….
STONE ON STONE (Narration)
Tune – Leapfrog
Narrator – Sean Mansley
Tenor Recorder – Lynda Hardcastle
Fiddle - Geoff Bowen
STONE ON STONE ( Song)
Vocals _ Martin Carter / Guitar _ Colin Cripps /Fiddle – Geoff Bowen
Bass Guitar – Graham Jones
I’ve ostled and I’ve bustled,
I’ve trod the straight and narrow.
I’ve seen the road in yesterday
That stretches through tomorrow.
I’ve reaped and sowed,
I’ve bent and bowed.
I’ve scraped me way alone
But nothing pleases me as much as placing stone on stone.
Begone the song that others sing
In many voices loud.
I’ll sing me song and build along
Where no one else has ploughed.
Their voices strangle
In their throats
As years outstrip the bone
But my song is spelled in solid words, spelled out in
Stone on stone, stone on stone.
Stone on stone the walls go up
Beneath the massive hand
But sickles sweep the years away
While still the old stone stands
So here beneath the harvest moon
I build the big stones strong
And I think the things I’m building will outlive the sickle’s song.
Stone on Stone, stone on stone.
……………………….
A LONG WINTER (Narration)
Tune – Cliffs of Duneen
Narrator – Sean Mansley
Whistle – Alan Rose
A LONG WINTER (Song)
Vocals – Alan Rose, Lynda Hardcastle, Martin Carter /Guitar – Colin Cripps
Fiddle – Geoff Bowen / Bass Guitar – Graham Jones /Drums – Kevin Slingsby
Mary old dear draw closer
The night wind is blowing and shaking our stack.
I know that you’re older; I know your age
But none that I know can turn the hands back.
We had our share of hardship Mary.
Soon you’ll leave me too.
Though you’re old your heart is warmer by the fire.
We’ll see this long, long winter through.
Together mary, inside our house
We two are living close as one.
The years have robbed us, stripped our eyes
And to the night have taken and gone.
Count years away my Mary
For the wind is growing colder.
We may see a better time
Before we get much older.
Mary, Mary you can’t answer.
Are you gone away forever?
Are you gone?....
Are you gone?....
Are you gone?....
…………………..
WHO KNOWS (Narration)
Tune – Greenland Man’s Tune
Narrator - Sean Mansley
Fiddle – Geoff Bowen
WHO KNOWS (Song)
Vocals – Alan Rose, Lynda Hardcastle, Martin Carter, Graham Jones.
Guitar – Colin Cripps / Fiddle - Geoff Bowen / Bass Guitar - Graham Jones
Drums – Kevin Slingsby
Who knows, who knows
What time has done to me?
Who shows, who shows
The things that I can’t see>
I wander home,
My house is broken down,
My money is lost
My life is scattered to the ground.
Who comes today
To rob me of my time?
I’d go insane
But still I hope the sun will shine.
Again. Who knows…
There’s little left to trust.
The tables never turned.
Who knows, who knows
Why all I touch just turns to dust?
I tried, I tried
But life’s an enemy.
I’ve trod the road.
They all lead back to me.
………………
I’LL SING FOR ME SUPPER (Narration)
Tune - Drive the Cold Winter Away
Narrator – Sean Mansley
Whistle – Alan Rose
Descant Recorder – Geoff Bowen
Treble recorder - Graham Jones
Tenor recorder – Lynda Hardcastle.
I’LL SING FOR ME SUPPER (Song)
Vocals _ Lynda Hardcastle, Alan Rose, Martin Carter, Graham Jones /
Guitar - Colin Cripps / Fiddle – Geoff Bowen / Bass Guitar – Graham Jones
Drums – Kevin Slingsby
I’ll sing for me supper
I’ll sing for me beer.
I’ll sing for you who heartily cheer.
You never will admit me
Not one into your door
But I’ll carry on singing
And then I’ll sing some more.
Now take my advice all you young men and true
Though you frown and you scwl for the want of a sou
Don’t wed and old widow with money galore
Nor love a young and a pretty maid who’ll always keep you poor.
Instrumental tune: Shooting
…………………….
THE OUTCAST (Narration)
Tune – Scollay’s Reel
Narrator - Sean Mansley
Treble recorder – Lynda Hardcastle
THE OUTCAST (Song)
Vocals - Alan Rose, Lynda Hardcastle, Martin Carter, Graham Jones
Guitars – Coin Cripps, Martin Carter / Fiddle – Geoff Bowen / Drums - Kevin Slingsby
If time has done me bad, then in this moment I’m not bitter
Or full with songs of hatred to the brim
Please think nothing of my anger in the days when I was younger still
I’m lonely now and breath my last.
Love me now – Oh love the Outcast.
The world was mine in bigger ways: my stones stand on the skyline.
The wind avoids the shadow of my walls.
I did my share of working and had my fill of learning.
I know that I am dying but I hear a baby crying
Far away across the moorland
Of my dreaming and my slowly closing eyes…
REBIRTH
Vocals – Martin Carter, Alan Rose, Lynda Hardcastle / Guitar – Colin Cripps,
Fiddle _ Geoff Bowen / Drums – Kevin Slingsby
On silver wings the sun goes down
Beneath the western sky
And sees this softly closing hour
When some may live and some may die.
Bent on the earth beneath the sky
A new born cry is heard.
The silent star is split in two
The first eruption of a word.
Your life is started.
Your life’s begun.
END................................
English Birds is an instrumental tht never made it to the final album, kindly sent to us by Colin Cripps.
Colin also provided a couple of other tracks that were played live after the Hermit project as part of another project. The other two tracks here are a couple of nos from their next project 'wind over the borderland'.
The Patient's Song and Leading Lady Thanks to Colin Cripps for these and his Mountain Ash Band introduction which is on another post here