Unicorn (1968)

These (English) lyrics are based upon files found on the Web, corrected according to my old and possibly failing memories...

• Black Velvet Band
• Bonnie Kellswater
• Bridget Flynn
• Come In
• First Love in Life
• Goodbye Mrs Durkin
• Hiring Fair
• Orange and the Green
• Pat of Mullingar
• Unicorn
• Wind That Shakes the Corn

Bonnie Kellswater

On the hills and the glens and the valleys
Grow the softest of women so fine
And the flowers are all dripping with honey
There lives Martha, a true love of mine

Bonnie Martha, you're the first girl I courted
You're the one put my heart in a snare
And if ever I should lose you to another
I will leave my Kellswater so fair

For this one and that one may court her
But no other can take her from me
For I love her as I love my Kellswater
Like the primrose is loved by the bee

Here's health to you, bonnie Kellswater
For it's there you'll find the pleasures of life
And it's there you'll find fishing and farming
And a bonnie wee girl for your wife

Bridget Flynn

I don't know, maybe so
But a bachelor's life is easy and it's free
I'm the last to complain, but I'm living all alone
Sure nobody's looking after me

Me father often tells me I should go and have a try
To find a girl that owns a bit of land
And I know the way he says it, there is someone on his mind
And me mother has the whole thing planned

I don't know, maybe so
It would mollify them so to agree
Now there's little Bridget Flynn, sure it's her I'd like to win
But she never has an eye for me

Now there's a little girl who is worth her weight in gold
And that's a decent dowry, don't you see
And I mean to go and ask her just as soon as I get home
If she'll come and have an eye for me

Will she go, I don't know
But I'd love to have her sitting on my knee
And I'd sing like a thrush in the hawthorn bush
If she'd come and have an eye for me

Come In

I've traveled East, I've traveled West, I roamed from town to town
I cut the harvest down and there are people up and down
Wherever I go the welcome mat was always waiting for me
So fill your glass along with us and sing Old Ireland Free.

Come in, come in, we'll do the best we can
Come in, come in, bring your whole bloody band
Take it slow and easy and I'll shake you by the hand
Set you down, I'll treat you decent, I'm an Irishman.

When I am gone some other place, my memory growing dim
Just fill a glass and drink a toast, invite the colleens in
Think about the good old times and you'll remember me
When good old songs are roaring out and porter flowing free.

Come in, come in, we'll do the best we can
Come in, come in, bring your whole bloody band
Take it slow and easy and I'll shake you by the hand
Set you down, I'll treat you decent, I'm an Irishman.

First Love in Life

Goodbye Mrs Durkin

In the days when I was courtin', I was never tired resortin'
To the alehouse and the playhouse, And the other house besides.
But I told my brother Shamus, I'll be off now and grow famous,
And before that I return again, I'll have roamed the whole world wide.

   (chorus)

I've courted girls in Blarney, in Antram and Klarney
In Dublin and in Kerry, Down to the coast of Cork.
But I'm tired of all this pleasure, so now I'll take my leisure,
And the next time that you hear from me, I'll write you from New York.

   (chorus)

When I landed in Ameri-Ka, I met a man named Dirk.
He told me if I stayed awhile, he'd surely find me work.
Well work he didn't find me, so there's nothing here to bind me.
I'm bound for San Fransico, in Californ-i-a.

   (chorus)

Well I'm down in San Francisco and me fortune it is made.
My pockets loaded down with gold, I threw away me spade.
I'll go back to the land I treasure and me fortune never carried. (?)
I'll marry Queen Victoria, Mrs. Durkin for to spite.

   (chorus)

Hiring Fair

Orange and the Green

My father was an Ulster man, proud Protestant was he.
My mother was a Catholic girl, from county Cork was she.
They were married in two churches, lived happily enough,
Until the day that I was born and things got rather rough.

   (chorus)

Baptized by Father Riley, I was rushed away by car,
To be made a little Orangeman, my father's shining star.
I was christened "David Anthony," but still, inspite of that,
To me father, I was William, while me mother called me Pat.

   (chorus)

With Mother every Sunday, to Mass I'd proudly stroll.
Then after that, the Orange lads would try to save my soul.
For both sides tried to claim me, but I was smart because
I'd play the flute or play the harp, depending where I was.

   (chorus)

One day me Ma's relations came round to visit me.
Just as my father's kinfolk were all sitting down to tea.
We tried to smooth things over, but they all began to fight.
And me, being strictly neutral, I bashed everyone in sight.

   (chorus)

My parents never could agree about my type of school.
My learning was all done at home, that's why I'm such a fool.
They've both passed on, God rest 'em, but they left me caught between
That awful color problem of the Orange and the Green.

   (chorus)

Pat of Mullingar

   The fellers chased him out of Town O'Meara,
   For beatin' up the valiant Dan O'Hara.
   And when he came to Ballymore, he stole the Parson's car,
   And he sold it to the Bishop in the town of Castlegar.

Seven hundred Peelers couldn't match him.
The Chief paid the army for to catch him.
And when he came to Dublin Town, he stole an armoured car
And sold it to the IRA brigade in Mullingar.

Well, the Peelers got their orders to suppress the man on sight.
So they sent for reinforcements through the county left and right.
Three thousand men surrounded him, they hunted near and far.
But he was with the IRA in Johnson's motorcar.

They came with tanks and armoured cars, they came with all their might.
Them Pellers never counted on old Paddy's dynamite.
On the fourteenth day of April, well he blew them to July.
And the name of Paddy Mulligan took [?] of Ireland's pride.

Unicorn

   There were green alligators and long necked geese,
   Some humpty-back camels and some chimpanzees,
   Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you're born,
   The loveliest of all was the Unicorn.

Now God seen some sinning and it gave him pain,
And he said stand back I'm going to make it rain.
He said "Hey brother Noah, I'll tell you what to do,
Build me a floating zoo. And take some of them..."

   Green alligators and long necked geese,
   Some humpty-back camels and some chimpanzees,
   Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you're born,
   Don't you forget my Unicorn.

Well Noah was there to answer the call,
And he finished making the ark just as the rain started to fall.
He marched in the animals two by two,
And he called out as they went through... "Hey Lord, I got your..."

   Green alligators and long necked geese,
   Some humpty-back camels and some chimpanzees,
   Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you're born,
   I just don't see no Unicorn.

Well Noah looked out through the driving rain,
Those Unicorns were hiding, and playing silly games.
They were kicking and a-splashing while the rain was pouring down,
Oh them silly Unicorns.

   There were green alligators and long necked geese,
   Some humpty-back camels and some chimpanzees,
   Noah cried "Close the door, for the rain is pouring,
   And we just can't wait for no Unicorn."

Well the ark started moving, it drifted with the tide.
Those Unicorns looked up from the rocks and they cried,
And the waters came down and sort of floated them away,
And that's why you'll never see a Unicorn... to this very day.

   You'll see green alligators and long necked geese,
   Some humpty-back camels and some chimpanzees,
   Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you're born,
   You're never gonna see no Unicorn.

Wind That Shakes the Corn

I looked at her and then I thought
How Ireland was torn
While soft the wind blew down the glen
And shook the golden corn

T'was hard the woeful words to bring
To break the ties that bound
But harder still to bear the shame
Of English chains around

And so I said, the mountain glen
I'll seek in early morn
And join the brave united men
While soft winds shook the corn

While sad I kissed away her tears
My fond arms round her clung
A British shot burst in our ears
From out of the wild woods round

A bullet struck my true love's side
A rose pierced by a thorn
And in my arms in blood she died
While soft winds shook the corn

So blood for blood without remorse
I've taken to the glen
I placed my true love's playful corpse
I joined true Irish men

But around her grave I wander drear
Sometimes in early morn
And with breaking heart sometimes I hear
The wind that shakes the corn