Romanian Song (Blood and Gold) Andy Irvine

Romanian Song (Blood and Gold)
(Andy Irvine & Jane Cassidy )


This is a great old English antiwar song, arranged again in 1980 by Andy Irvine and Jane Cassidy on a Romanian tune. It is included in the masterpiece ""Rainy Sundays...Windy dreams". The singer is called Lucienne Purcell.

The lyrics:

# On rides the captain and three hundred soldier lads
Out of the morning mist and through the silence go
Whistling gaily rides the captain at the head
Behind him soldier boys sadly weeping go

O lads of mine weep no more
You are gone to kill and die

# For when you took my gold and swore to follow me
You stole away your life and your liberty
No more youll work the soil, no more youll till the land
No more to the dance youll go and take girls by the hand

Oh mother weep for your son
he is gone to kill and die

# You'll weep you'll die by the keen edge of the sword
All alone by the muddy Danube shore
He gave the order for the drummers to beat their drums
That mothers all might know the life a soldier leads

Oh mothers weep for your sons
They have gone to kill and die

# Unfurl your ragged banner and raise your pale young face
You'll all go in the fire there'll be no hiding place
Mothers hear the drumbeat in the village square
That drums for me to go for a soldier there

Mothers, sisters, wives
weep for us
Marked as Cain we die alone

Andy notes:"This one started as a Romanian song collected by Bela Bartok
in the early part of this century. A friend of mine, Jane Cassidy from
Kilkeel, Co. Down and myself re-wrote it a few times and put it to a
Bulgarian dance-song tune (When a dance is danced to singing, the singers
themselves also dance). This song is in Paidushka rhythm 5/16."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• antiwar
• English
• Romanian
• Andy
• Irvine
• rainy
• Sunday
• windy
• dream
• folk
• Paidushka
• Bulgarian
• dance-song
• rhythm
• 5/16

[PaskaJarkko]

Great song. How old is it ?

[mardimitriou]

The English part is from the times of the Napoleonian wars.The Romanian,before the early part of 20th century.The release by Andy is from 1980.

[flura1]

sorry , but it's not a romanian song , maybe it's sounds like a gipsy one

[mardimitriou]

Andy notes:"This one started as a Romanian song collected by Bela Bartok

in the early part of this century. A friend of mine, Jane Cassidy from

Kilkeel, Co. Down and myself re-wrote it a few times and put it to a

Bulgarian dance-song tune (When a dance is danced to singing, the singers

themselves also dance). This song is in Paidushka rhythm 5/16."

[flura1]

sorry , i understand . bela bartok is an hungarian name , maybe from transylvania . i love a lot irvine's music . it was just an opinion , not a criticism . anyway , congratulation for posting orthodox hymns .

[mardimitriou]

Thank you!

[starryday100]

I want to be Romanian.

[Mixedia]

my mum often sings this at folk festivals, but without musical accompaniment. It's simply chilling listening to her version. she sings a lot faster than this though, almost like the hearts of those lads that get sent off to war

[fedayachild07]

@flura1 the name of the song is romanian song, nothing else, yes.

[Ratchenitsa]

The rhythm and harmonies are Bulgarian. The dance is a paidushko rhythm: quick slow, quick slow, or "limping dance".