This blog is dedicated to the amateur or beginner musician with music written in a simple and easy to read Alpha Notes format and with Chords for the left hand. This is to assist those with little or hardly at all note reading skills. This is a blog that shows all the chords in Alpha Notes format too which you can find the notes for the chords in one of the blogs. Please feel free to leave a comment or any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy!
"The Boys of Wexford" (also known as The Flight of the Earls) is an Irish ballad commemorating the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and, more specifically, the Wexford Rebellion. The aim of rebellion was to remove English control from Irish affairs and it resulted in the 1801 Act of Union.
On the Isle of Man, the tune is known as Yn Speigh Er My Gealin (The Pick On My Shoulder).
In James Joyce's novel Ulysses, in the Circe episode, a navvy shouts, "We are the boys. Of Wexford."
On the second day of President John F Kennedy's four-day trip to Ireland in June 1963, school children sang The Boys of Wexford and Kelly the Boy from Killanne for the President. When asked if he'd like another song, Kennedy replied, "Another verse of The Boys of Wexford would be fine". Before leaving, he asked one of the students for a copy of the lyrics.
The melody, from a traditional Irish folk song, was arranged for the United States Marine Band at the request of President Kennedy, whose ancestors hailed from Wexford. The arrangement was done by noted composer and arranger Samuel L. Nestico.
The tune, orchestrated by Nelson Riddle, was later used for the opening and closing theme of the 1964 television series Profiles in Courage, based on Kennedy's book of the same name.
The song also held a prominent place in the political rallies of his younger brother, Senator Ted Kennedy.
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Lyrics:
In comes the captain's daughter, The captain of the Yeos, Saying "Brave United Irishmen, We'll ne'er again be foes. A thousand pounds I'll bring If you will fly from home with me, And dress myself in man's attire And fight for liberty."
We are the boys of Wexford, Who fought with heart and hand To burst in twain the galling chain And free our native land.
I want no gold, my maiden fair, To fly from home with thee. Your shining eyes will be my prize, More dear than gold to me. I want no gold to nerve my arm To do a true man's part - To free my land I'd gladly give The red drops of my heart.
We are the boys of Wexford, Who fought with heart and hand To burst in twain the galling chain And free our native land.
And when we left our cabins, boys, We left with right good will To see our friends and neighbours That were at Vinegar Hill! A young man from our Irish ranks A cannon he let go; He slapped it into Lord Mountjoy A tyrant he laid low!
We are the boys of Wexford, Who fought with heart and hand To burst in twain the galling chain And free our native land.
We bravely fought and conquered At Ross and Wexford town; And if we failed to keep them, 'Twas drink that brought us down. We had no drink beside us On Tubberneering's day, Depending on the long, bright pike, And well it worked that way.
We are the boys of Wexford, Who fought with heart and hand To burst in twain the galling chain And free our native land.
And Oulart's name shall be their shame, Whose steel we ne'er did fear. For every man could do his part Like Forth and Shelmalier! And if for want of leaders, We lost at Vinegar Hill, We're ready for another fight, And love our country still!
We are the boys of Wexford, Who fought with heart and hand To burst in twain the galling chain And free our native land.
"Matty Groves", also known as "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" or "Little Musgrave", is a ballad probably originating in Northern England that describes an adulterous tryst between a young man and a noblewoman that is ended when the woman's husband discovers and kills them. It is listed as Child ballad number 81 and number 52 in the Roud Folk Song Index. This song exists in many textual variants and has several variant names. The song dates to at least 1613, and under the title Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard is one of the Child ballads collected by 19th-century American scholar Francis James Child.
Little Musgrave (or Matty Groves, Little Matthew Grew and other variations) goes to church on a holy day either "the holy word to hear" or "to see fair ladies there". He sees Lord Barnard's wife, the fairest lady there, and realises that she is attracted to him. She invites him to spend the night with her, and he agrees when she tells him her husband is away from home. Her page overhears the conversation and goes to find Lord Barnard (Arlen, Daniel, Arnold, Donald, Darnell, Darlington) and tells him that Musgrave is in bed with his wife. Lord Barnard promises the page a large reward if he is telling the truth and to hang him if he is lying. Lord Barnard and his men ride to his home, where he surprises the lovers in bed. Lord Barnard tells Musgrave to dress because he doesn't want to be accused of killing a naked man. Musgrave says he dare not because he has no weapon, and Lord Barnard gives him the better of two swords. In the subsequent duel Little Musgrave wounds Lord Barnard, who then kills him. (However, in one version "Magrove" instead runs away, naked but alive.)
Lord Barnard then asks his wife whether she still prefers Little Musgrave to him and when she says she would prefer a kiss from the dead man's lips to her husband and all his kin, he kills her. He then says he regrets what he has done and orders the lovers to be buried in a single grave, with the lady at the top because "she came of the better kin". In some versions Barnard is hanged, or kills himself, or finds his own infant son dead in his wife's body. Many versions omit one or more parts of the story.
It has been speculated that the original names of the characters, Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, come from place names in the north of England (specifically Little Musgrave in Westmorland and Barnard Castle in County Durham). The place name "Bucklesfordbury", found in both English and American versions of the song, is of uncertain origin.
Some versions of the ballad include elements of an alba, a poetic form in which lovers part after spending a night together.
There are few broadside versions. There are three different printings in the Bodleian Library's Broadside Ballads Online, all dating from the second half of the seventeenth century. One, The lamentable Ditty of the little Mousgrove, and the Lady Barnet from the collection of Anthony Wood, has a handwritten note by Wood on the reverse stating that "the protagonists were alive in 1543".
Below are the first four verses as written in a version published in 1658.
As it fell one holy-day, hay downe, As many be in the yeare, When young men and maids Together did goe, Their Mattins and Masse to heare,
Little Musgrave came to the church dore, The Preist was at private Masse But he had more minde of the faire women; Then he had of our lady grace
The one of them was clad in green Another was clad in pale, And then came in my lord Bernards wife The fairest amonst them all;
She cast an eye on little Musgrave As bright as the summer sun, And then bethought this little Musgrave This lady's heart have I woonn.
It seems that the ballad had largely died out in the British Isles by the time folklorists began collecting songs. Cecil Sharp collected a version from an Agnes Collins inLondonin 1908, the only known version to have been collected inEngland.James Madison Carpenterrecorded someScottishversions, probably in the early 1930s, which can be heard on theVaughan Williams Memorial Librarywebsite.The Scottish singerJeannie Robertsonwas recorded on separate occasions singing a traditional version of the song entitled "Matty Groves" in the late 1950s byAlan Lomax,Peter KennedyandHamish Henderson.However, according to theTobar an Dualchaiswebsite, Robertson may have learned her version from Johnny Wells andSandy Paton, Paton being an American singer and folk song collector.
Dozens of traditional versions of the ballad were recorded in the Appalachian region. Jean Bell Thomas recorded Green Maggard singing "Lord Daniel" in Ashland, Kentucky, in 1934, which was released on the anthology 'Kentucky Mountain Music' Yazoo YA 2200. Bascom Lamar Lunsford was recorded singing a version called "Lord Daniel's Wife" in 1935. Samuel Harmon, known as "Uncle" Sam Harmon, was recorded by Herbert Halpert in Maryville, Tennessee, in 1939 singing a traditional version. The influential Appalachian folk singer Jean Ritchie had her family version of the ballad, called "Little Musgrave", recorded by Alan Lomax in 1949, who made a reel-to-reel recording of it in his apartment in Greenwich Village; she later released a version on her album Ballads from her Appalachian Family Tradition (1961). In August 1963, John Cohen recorded Dillard Chandler singing "Mathie Groves" in Sodom, North Carolina, whilst Nimrod Workman, another Appalachian singer, had a traditional version of the song recorded in 1974.
The folklorist Helen Hartness Flanders recorded many versions in New England in the 1930s and 40s, all of which can be heard online in the Flanders Ballad Collection.
The song is about an elderly couple living in Amsterdam, Margaret and the title character. The unnamed Dutchman is senile, and Margaret cares for him with a sadness over what has happened to him over the years. It is a story of unconditional love.
To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here.
Enjoy!
Lyrics:
The Dutchman's not the kind of man Who keeps his thumb jammed in the dam That holds his dreams in That's a secret that only Margaret knows
When Amsterdam is golden in the summer Margaret brings him breakfast She believes him He thinks tulips bloom beneath the snow He's mad as he could be Margaret only sees that sometimes Sometimes she sees her unborn children in his eyes
Let us go to the banks of the ocean Where the walls rise above the Zuiderzee Long ago, I used to be a young man Dear Margaret remembers that for me
The Dutchman still wears wooden shoes And his cap and coat are patched with the love That Margaret sewed there Sometimes he thinks he's still in Rotterdam
He watches tug-boats down canals and calls out to them When he thinks he knows the Captain Margaret comes to take him home again Through unforgiving streets that trip him, though she holds his arm Sometimes he thinks he's alone and he calls her name
Let us go to the banks of the ocean Where the walls rise above the Zuiderzee Long ago, I used to be a young man And dear Margaret remembers that for me
The winters whirl, the windmills 'round She winds his muffler tighter And they sit in the kitchen Some tea with whiskey keeps away the dew
And he sees her for a moment, he calls her name And she makes the bed up Singing some old love song She learned it when it was very new
He hums a line or two They hummed together in the dark The Dutchman falls asleep Margaret blows the candles out
Let us go to the banks of the ocean Where the walls rise above the Zuiderzee Long ago, I used to be a young man And dear Margaret remembers that for me
Let us go to the banks of the ocean Where the walls rise above the Zuiderzee Long ago, I used to be a young man And dear Margaret remembers that for me
"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is a song written byRobbie Robertson. It was originally recorded by his Canadian-Americanroots rockgroupthe Bandand released on theireponymous second albumin 1969.Levon Helmprovided the lead vocals. The song is a first-person narrative relating the economic and social distress experienced by the protagonist, a poor white Southerner, during the last year of theAmerican Civil War.
Joan Baez's version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 on October 2, 1971; it did likewise on the Cashbox Top 100 chart. On the Record World Top Singles chart for the week of September 25, 1971, the Baez single hit No. 1 for one week.
The song was written by Robbie Robertson, who spent about eight months working on it. Levon Helm performed lead vocals on the song. Robertson said he had the music to the song in his head and would play the chords over and over on the piano but had no idea what the song was to be about. Then the concept came to him and he researched the subject with help from the Band's drummer Levon Helm, a native of Arkansas. In his 1993 autobiography, This Wheel's on Fire, Helm wrote, "Robbie and I worked on 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' up in Woodstock. I remember taking him to the library so he could research the history and geography of the era and make General Robert E. Lee come out with all due respect".
The lyrics tell of the last days of the American Civil War, portraying the suffering of the protagonist, Virgil Caine, a poor white Southerner. Dixie is the historical nickname for the states making up the Confederate States of America. The song's opening stanza refers to one of George Stoneman's raids behind Confederate lines at the end of the Civil War in 1865:
Virgil Caine is the name, and I served on the Danville train 'Til Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again In the winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely alive By May the tenth, Richmond had fell, it's a time I remember, oh so well ...
A mainstay of the Band's repertoire, the song was included in every compilation covering the Band's recording career from 1968 to 1977.The Band frequently performed the song in concert,and it is included on the group's live albums Rock of Ages (1972) and Before the Flood (1974). The song was also included in the Band's Thanksgiving Day concert in 1976 (which was the subject of Martin Scorsese's documentary film The Last Waltz,) and on that film's soundtrack released in 1978.
The last time the song was performed by Helm was in The Last Waltz. Helm refused to play the song afterwards. Although it has long been believed that the reason for Helm's refusal to play the song was a dispute with Robertson over songwriting credits, Garth Hudson said that the refusal was caused by Helm's dislike for Joan Baez's cover version.
"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is considered one of the highlights of The Band, the group's second album, which was released in the fall of 1969.
In the October 1969 U.S. edition of Rolling Stone, critic Ralph J. Gleason explained the song's impact on listeners:
Nothing I have read … has brought home the overwhelming human sense of history that this song does. The only thing I can relate it to at all is The Red Badge of Courage. It's a remarkable song, the rhythmic structure, the voice of Levon and the bass line with the drum accents and then the heavy close harmony of Levon, Richard and Rick in the theme, make it seem impossible that this isn't some traditional material handed down from father to son straight from that winter of 1865 to today. It has that ring of truth and the whole aura of authenticity.
Writing forTimein 2012 about the Band's performance of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" duringThe Last Waltz, Nate Rawlings said, "Helm was the only southerner in The Band—the rest were Canadian—and he wears the pain and suffering of ordinary people in the South late in the Civil War on his face from the song’s beginning until the final strike of his drum stick".
In 2023, Dan Rys of Billboard wrote the following about "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down":
In some ways, it’s ironic that one of the greatest songs about the American Civil War was written by a Canadian. And while sometimes criticized due to its lyrics coming from the viewpoint of a defeated Confederate soldier, the song is anything but a glorification of the Confederacy, instead a wide-eyed grappling with the aftermath of war and the devastation of the land, and of countless families, that it wrought. Levon Helm’s vocals drip with emotion, while the hook is one of the most memorable in the classic rock canon, with backing vocals that only reinforce the rawness of the subject matter at hand. It's a true testament to Robertson's songwriting ability that he was able to conjure such a nuanced song from such a brutal piece of another country's history.
Some commentators in the 21st century have questioned whether the song's original lyrics were an endorsement of slavery and the ideology of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. In 2009, writing in The Atlantic, African-American author Ta-Nehisi Coates characterized the song as "another story about the blues of Pharaoh," stating that he "can no more marvel at the Band than a Sioux can marvel at the cinematography of They Died With Their Boots On." In an August 2020 interview in Rolling Stone, contemporary singer-songwriter Early James described his changes to the lyrics of the song, while covering it, to oppose the Confederate cause – for example, in the first verse, "where Helm sang that the fall of the Confederacy was 'a time I remember oh so well', James declared it 'a time to bid farewell'". A 2020 editorial in The Roanoke Times argued that the song does not glorify slavery, the Confederacy, or Robert E. Lee, but rather tells the story of a poor, non-slave-holding Southerner who tries to make sense of the loss of his brother and his livelihood. Jack Hamilton, of the University of Virginia, writing in Slate, said that it is "an anti-war song first and foremost", pointing to the references to "bells ringing" and "people singing" in the chorus.
The most successful version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" was Joan Baez's version, which became a RIAA-certified Gold record on October 22, 1971. In addition to chart action on the Hot 100, the record spent five weeks atop the easy listening chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 20 song for 1971. Baez's version of the song reached number six in the pop charts in the UK in October 1971.
On the Record World Top Singles chart for the week of September 25, 1971, the Baez version of the song ranked No. 1 for one week.
The Baez recording contained slightly different lyrics than the Band's version of the song. Baez later told Rolling Stone's Kurt Loder that she initially learned the song by listening to the recording on the Band's album, and had never seen the printed lyrics at the time she recorded it, and thus sang the lyrics as she had (mis)heard them.
To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here.
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