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Rocking at the End of Time

ARTISAN

Rocking at the
End of Time

Bedspring Music: BOING 9103

CD

LISTEN TO MUSIC

Track List
Intro
Reviews
Song: What Am I Bid?
Artisan-site links

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Track List

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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
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
When YTV 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
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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

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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.

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Song Words

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?

© Brian Bedford

Published by Bedspring Music
brian at brian-bedford.com

10 Park Head, Birdsedge, Huddersfield, England, HD8 8XW
Phone + 44 (0)1484 606230 Fax +44 (0)1484 606290

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This page was created by Jacey Bedford © August 2000 and last modified 23rd January 2006