The Fishermen's Reel (Redcar Reel)

I wrote this song after attending the Redcar Folk Club in 1996 or 1997. I remember walking along the North Sea shore and seeing a couple of rusting old boats and that started off the process. Added to this the north-east's history of fishing, piracy and dare one mention the monkey?

A walk by the seaside can truly inspire
A city mind, weary and fill it with fire
Waves keep on rolling and rolling again
Bringing memories of sailors and brave fishermen.

Like crumbling carcasses rotting boats lie
Between the sea and the sand and the salty blue sky
To watch them and wonder what stories they'd tell
And just for a moment fall under their spell.

Where the fog it comes creeping and seagulls they wheel
Round and around just like dancing a reel
Ducking and diving they rise.....then they fall

Before the steam engine and the coming of oil
When the wind was their master the sailors would toil
High in the rigging, the crow's nest and sail
Through mountainous seas and battering gale

A red sky at morning could fill them with fright
A red sky at sunset would be their delight
Upon the vast oceans for months they would roam
Until longing or loneliness carried them home

Where the fog it comes creeping and seagulls they wheel
Round and around just like dancing a reel
Ducking and diving they rise.....then they fall

We may see them as heroes and men without fear
We may see them as drunkards and lovers of beer
But, whatever we see we may not see their kind
These men from an age we have long left behind

For a walk by the seaside can truly inspire
A city mind, weary, and fill it with fire
Waves keep on rolling and rolling again
Bringing memories of sailors and brave fishermen

Category:

Music

Tags:

• fishermen's
• reel
• redcar
• folk
• song
• david
• mason