The Moleskine strikes again...
Jun. 30th, 2008 07:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleetfootmikeI woke up this morning with a song in my head.
Not someone else's song, nor even one I'd written.
But.. most of a brand new song.
Tune and all.
On a subject I'd not even been considering writing about.
Grabbed the notebook, headed for the train, and finished it on the train.
Still boggled.
The Miller's Tale
Words & Music: Mike Whitaker
(feel somewhere like a non-shuffle version of Fairport/Ralph McTell's Bird From The Mountain)
My name is Mearson Oldham
I am keeper of the mill
Five hundred years and more it's stood
Its sails seldom still
John Barleycorn's my life and work
The Good Lord is my guide
Miller I will be until
He calls me to His side.
My windmill can be seen
My house is named for Providence
The Good Lord sends to me
The farms from here to Deeping
Bring the corn for me to grind
For which I praise the Lord above
With heart and gladsome mind
John Barleycorn is with me
From dawn to dusk always
The corn I grind, the bread I bake
On each and every day
When all is safely gathered in
Then to the church we come
To thank God for his goodness
With a song of harvest home
repeat verse 1
For those who don't know... the house Anne, James and I live in is called the Mill House. It's pretty obvious why, since we have a windmill at the bottom of our garden.
If you go stand out the front, there's a couple of stones in the wall that have a set of initials ('MMO'), a date, and the original name of the house - Providence House.
The 1880 census names the miller as Mearson M. Oldham. I see him, somehow, as a proud, God-fearing man with a simple understanding of his place in God's world.
And yes, the lyrics are under a process of continuous revision :) I think I'm happy with them now.
Not someone else's song, nor even one I'd written.
But.. most of a brand new song.
Tune and all.
On a subject I'd not even been considering writing about.
Grabbed the notebook, headed for the train, and finished it on the train.
Still boggled.
The Miller's Tale
Words & Music: Mike Whitaker
(feel somewhere like a non-shuffle version of Fairport/Ralph McTell's Bird From The Mountain)
My name is Mearson Oldham
I am keeper of the mill
Five hundred years and more it's stood
Its sails seldom still
John Barleycorn's my life and work
The Good Lord is my guide
Miller I will be until
He calls me to His side.
Winds blow, sails turn, every single mornBeside the road to Lincoln town
Shaft spins, wheels move, swift to grind the corn
Hands knead, bread's made, each day with the lark
And on each loaf and sack of flour
The miller sets his mark
My windmill can be seen
My house is named for Providence
The Good Lord sends to me
The farms from here to Deeping
Bring the corn for me to grind
For which I praise the Lord above
With heart and gladsome mind
John Barleycorn is with me
From dawn to dusk always
The corn I grind, the bread I bake
On each and every day
When all is safely gathered in
Then to the church we come
To thank God for his goodness
With a song of harvest home
repeat verse 1
For those who don't know... the house Anne, James and I live in is called the Mill House. It's pretty obvious why, since we have a windmill at the bottom of our garden.
If you go stand out the front, there's a couple of stones in the wall that have a set of initials ('MMO'), a date, and the original name of the house - Providence House.
The 1880 census names the miller as Mearson M. Oldham. I see him, somehow, as a proud, God-fearing man with a simple understanding of his place in God's world.
And yes, the lyrics are under a process of continuous revision :) I think I'm happy with them now.
