Rocking at the End of Time

ARTISAN

Rocking at the
End of Time

Bedspring Music: BOING 9103

Track List
Intro
Reviews
Song: What Am I Bid?

Click here for details of Artisan CDs & Mail Order.

Track List


Track No.	Song	Writer	Performer
1.	Rocking at the End of Time Jim's apocalypse song and a great one to start a show or a CD with	(Jim Eldon)	Vocals - Artisan Lead - Hilary Spencer, Harmonies - Jacey & Brian Bedford
2.	Trivia * Listen We wanted to call thei Trivial Pursuit, but decided to avoid any confromtation with the game manufacturer over use of title. It's one of those relationsip/game songs.	(Brian Bedford)	Vocals - Artisan
3.	Talk to Me Full marks if you get the twist at the end of this song.	(Brian Bedford)	Vocals - Artisan Percussion - Mike Freeman
4.	The Tolaeth Huw's genuinely chilling song about he weslsh omen of death.	(Huw Williams)	Vocals - Artisan
5.	What's the Use of Wings This is the one everyone asks for. "If you give your love it's freedon it may stay a while, but if it leaves you, it was never yours to own."	(Brian Bedford)	Vocals - Artisan
6.	Speed The pace of life/life on the road.The pace of life on the road. Whew!	(Brian Bedford)	Vocals - Artisan
7.	The Iron Road Ray's song about his grandfather leaving the farm land of South Wales to find desperately needed work in the mines of Somerset.	(Ray Bradfield)	Vocals - Artisan
8.	Dear Mathilda This song was given into our Keeping by the late Tom Brown, a traditional singer from East Anglia. having no children to sing his songs, Tom parcelled them out to friends to keep them alive.	(Trad. arr. Bedford with additional verse by Brian Bedford)	Vocals - Artisan
9.	Sir Hubert Vayne Inspired by a local story. When an old manor house in Rotherham was demolished, a skeleton was found in the priest hole.	(Johnson)	Vocals - Artisan
10.	Walk My Path A spiritual which is not creed specific. take this song in your own context.	(Brian Bedford)	Vocals - Artisan
11.	Time My People Were Free An updated Moses gospel song	(Brian Bedford)	Vocals - Artisan
12.	Moth Anne's beautiful song about the magnetic pull of the need to be not alone	(Anne Lister)	Vocals - Artisan
13.	Strauss' Unicorn How would we recognise a unicorn if we saw one? Things are not always what they seem to be. A beautiful poem set to music by Angela King.	(Peter Strauss/Angela King)	Vocals - Artisan
14.	Another Train Pete's classic song affirming that opportunities come along all the time. All we have to do is be brave enough to reach out and take hold of them.	(Pete Morton)	Vocals - Artisan
15.	Don't Slay that Potato Tom Paxton's tongue in cheek song for vegetarians everywhere.	(Tom Paxton)	Vocals - Artisan
16.	One Minute Song * Listen When Yorkshire TV wanted us to sing a song that lasted less than a minute, we didn't have one. We do now.	(Brian Bedford)	Vocals - Artisan
17.	Roads The roads we travel are not easy, unless we find friends to shar the journey.	(Brian Bedford)	Vocals - Artisan

Album Credits Produced and recorded by John Adams at Beaumont Street Studio, Huddersfield Originally produced for and released by Festival Records, Halifax, England in 1991. Sleeve design and artwork by Bryan Ledgard of Ledgard Jepson Released 1996 by Bedspring Music, 10 Park Head, Birdsedge, Huddersfield, England, HD8 8XW e-mail brian at brian-bedford dot com Back to top of page.
About the album Seventeen contemporary songs by a variety of modern folk writers including eight by Brian Bedford and another eight by such writers as Anne Lister, Pete Morton, Tom Paxton and Huw Williams. There's just one song that falls into the traditional bracket. We guess Dear Mathilda was a music hall song from the late 20s or 30s. It was passed on to us orally, but it must have been written by someone. If you know who, please tell us. This CD showcases Artisan's varied vocal styles from soft sensuous harmonies to full-fledged rip-roaring gospel. This CD is the one that contains Brian Bedford's classic, "What's the Use ofWings" which has been recorded by lots of people from Marie Little to the Philadelphia Gay Men's Choir. It's been sung around the world by such folk luminaries as Vin Garbutt (and appears on Vin's "Plugged" CD) has been sung on Songs of Praise and has even been heard sung by a Children's choir in Lourdes Cathedral. The sightings/hearings of this song are still coming in, so if you hear it somewhere unusual, please let us know. Back to top of page.

Song Words

Strauss' Unicorn

(Song version by Angela King - slightly different from original poem by South African poet Peter Strauss)

In our China the unicorn is well known
For a beast of good omen, of good omen
But nowhere are we told, much as we seek this
The nature of the beast
So who could know for sure, meeting some creature
This is the unicorn

And I will bring her to star gazers
Pot-glazers, horoscope makers
Wise men, to wise men I will bring her
Yes I will bring her to star gazers
Pot-glazers, horoscope makers
Wise men, to wise men I will bring her

And yet my unicorn came near and I knew her no doubt
By occult sympathy, by occult sympathy
She wasn't as in books where her looks were
Thought out by artists' fantasy
Wine russet speckled and chestnut mare freckled
And lion dappled

Sugar makes her arch her neck like otter's back
Or dragon - cliff frowning, dragon - cliff frowning
Her nape's the split in plated rock where soft flower's grow
And like the bunched aloe
Hanging below, far over height
Her dizzy lips

For the grat snake of the world is curled
In her arms' circle, in her arms' circle
And all of the candled and bright starry nights
Since light has shone for men
Are spelled upon her skin
This is the unicorn, yes the true unicorn

Wise men, to wise men I will bring her

What's the Use of Wings?

I could have been a giant, said the bonsai tree
But someone bound my roots and held me down
I could have reached for heaven, said the snowy owl
But they clipped my wings and kept me on the ground
I think I heard them tell me that they loved me
They would care for me; without them I would die
But what's the use of roots if you can't spread them
And what's the use of wings if you can't fly?

I could have been a singer, said the mynah bird
But they caged me and then told me what to say
I could have run forever, said the pony
But they bridled me and made me go their way
I think I heard them tell me that they loved me
They would care for me; forever so it seems
But what's the use of voices with no freedom
And what's the use of living others' dreams?

Why do people cage the things they love the most
Is it simply that they fear to be alone?
If you give your love its freedom, it may stay a while
If it leaves you it was never yours to own.

I could have found adventure, said the angel fish
Now my world's so small there's nowhere left to go
I could have ruled a kingdom, said the lion
Now the land inside my head is all I know
I think I heard them tell me that they loved me
They would care for me; and tell me it's all right
But what's the use of life without adventure
And what's the use of strength if you can't fight?

Why do people cage the things they love the most
Is it simply that they fear to be alone?
If you give your love its freedom, it may stay a while
If it leaves you it was never yours to own.

I know I heard them tell me that they loved me
They would care for me; without them I would die
But what's the use of roots if you can't spread them
And what's the use of wings if you can't fly?

-o0o-

Back to Artisan Site Index
Jacey Bedford Tour Management

These pages were created by Jacey Bedford