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Gently Does It

  • (Rab Noakes)

    And a few years ago you'd been on this road so long
    Now they're building a highway to take you home

    Gently does it for a change
    I used to think you were just like a mountain range
    Your big boots stomped where small men feared to tread
    I can hardly believe what I've just read

    They say you can't travel any more
    But you've got the key to a new front door
    And don't you know 'cause you once said it all
    When you stand so high you've got so far to fall

    Not everyone can look you eye to eye
    'Cause you get difficult, dangerous I'm damned if I lie
    But we all pay the price
    And they place your ante high

    (as sung by Allan Taylor)

Susannes Folksong-Notizen

  • [1988:] Rab wrote this song when he played the Tønder Festival in Denmark and saw Alex Campbell for the first time in eight or nine years. Alex's health had deteriorated to the point where he could no longer sing, and in fact he died six months later in January '87. It's a fine song for Alex, who was perhaps the most influential performer in the folk song revival, though rarely credited as such. (Notes Allan Taylor, 'Lines')

  • [1994:] In Denmark in 1985 I met Alex Campbell for the first time in years. He was clearly dying and I thought about his presence in previous times. I wrote this in one afternoon and performed it the same night. It hasn't changed since. (Notes Rab Noakes, 'Standing Up')

  • [1995:] Noakes' tribute to Alex Campbell [...] manages to evoke both Campbell's colossal presence and Noakes' humbling experience upon meeting him just before his death, in a delicately structured song which you instantly know and love at first hearing. [...] Alex Campbell is described [by Noakes] as "the only man I've ever met who wore both Grecian 2000 and Levi 501s." (Ian Taylor, Rock 'n' Reel 22, p 21)

Quelle: Scotland

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