Time passes, great voices like these leave us. These recordings remain to enrich our lives with the craft of their voices. Long may we be able to listen. Thank you lads for sharing your gift.
Lyrics: When first to this country a stranger I came, I placed my affections on a maid that was young, She being young and tender, her waist was small and slender, Kind Nature had formed her for my overthrow. On the banks of the Bann, where I first beheld her, She appeared like fair Juno or a Grecian queen, Her eyes shone like diamonds, her hair softly twining, Her cheeks were like roses or blood drips in snow. 'Twas her cruel parents that first caused our variance, All because I was poor of a low degree, But I'll do my endeavour to gain my love's favour, Although she is come from a rich family. My name is Delaney, a name that won't shame me, And if I had saved money, I'd have plenty in store, But drinking and courting, night rambling and sporting, Are the cause of my ruin and absence from home. Had I all the money that's in the West Indies, Or had I the gold of the African shore, I would spend it on pearls and on you my brown girl, For there's no other love on this earth I adore. Now since I have gained her I'm contented for life, I'll put rings on her fingers and gold in her ear. We'll live on the banks of the lovely Bann river, And in all sorts of splendour I'll style her my dear
Yes, I remember it from school. I think it was originally an Irish tune called Slane. And over time it came to be used for hymns, in the way of these things.
I translated this song into Norwegian, and me and my wife, three of my daughters, and her boyfiend sang that song for my youngest daughter when she turned 30, a story of HER life-song, and no eye was dry...
Great stuff lads. I love your singing and your songs. Maybe I'll get back to Ireland (home) for the Frank Harte festival in 2014 and I will get to sing with you all.
The tune SLANE is not where this tune came from - it's where it ended up, used for "Be thou my vision." "With my love on the road" is the immediate predecessor of "Be thou my vision;" "The banks of the Bann" is an earlier variant of this tune, as would be "The hielan's o' Scotland." I expect there are others. (note: I am not 'shouting' by using all caps. when referencing hymn tunes, the convention is all caps to distinguish a tune from place names, surnames, titles, etc.) edited for accuracy and grammar.
A church hymn reference states that The Banks of the Bann was published in 1909, and the tune was used for Be Thou My Vision, published in the Irish church hymnal in 1919. The English church hymnal usually states the name of the tune, as where it came from - Slane, which is a hill near Tara in Co. Meath. Does this fit in with your information? ..... Anyway, a good tune ends up spawning many songs in no time at all - and I’ve also written a folk song using it. But I'd be interested in how it became associated with Slane. You said it didn’t come from there originally.
