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| I come down like an eagle An eagle from far on the sea Won't you set me free. Time spins down to a standstill My hands fill with all I desire I can feel your fire. I steal into your cities And pity the sleepers who say Time can't slip away. Light streams out from your doorway Your stairway is waiting to climb Then your sunburst's mine. Sun is shining on her wings Keeps her happy, makes her sing. But her talons flash upon the things She needs to keep her smiling. Prey is sighted from above It's moving fast but not quite fast enough Deathly grip - cruel love Take me to your sunburst. Want to feel your sunburst Sunburst deep inside of me Want to feel your sunburst Daylight creeps in your window You know all the promises made Cannot be betrayed. You wait for me to take you And make you a hunter like me |
| Part of the Annotated Horslips Pages Compiled by Lee Templeton, San Francisco |
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| "But her talons flash upon the things she needs to keep her smiling" |
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| First Posted: May 28, 2005 Last Revised: May 28, 2005 |
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| Recorded on: · Dancehall Sweethearts Source tune: Follow Me Up to Carlow, ("Lean Me Sios Go Ceatair-Loc" or "Lean go Ceatharlach sios me"). AKA "Follow Me Down," “Follow Me Up to Carlow.” AKA and see "An Ril Cam," “The Crooked Reel,” "Miss Murphy [2]," "Bonnie Annie [3]." Irish, Single Jig, Slide, March (6/8 or 4/4 time) or Reel; New England, Jig or Polka. A Dorian. Standard. AB (Breathnach, Joyce): AAB (Darley & McCall, Mitchell, O'Neill, Tubridy): AABBC (Moylan). Andrew Kuntz, The Fiddler's Companion, www.ibiblio.org The song "Follow Me Up to Carlow" was written by Patrick Joseph McCall (1861-1919) and appears in the Darley & McCall Collection of Traditional Irish Music (Ossian Publications, 1984.) First published in 1914, the song commemorates the victory of Fiach McHugh O'Byrne over the forces of the Crown as led by Lord Grey de Wilton in a battle which took place at Glen Malure, Co. Wicklow in the years 1580: "Lift Mac Cahir Og your face brooding o'er the old disgrace That black Fitzwilliam stormed your place and drove you to the fern. Grey said victory was sure, soon the firebrand he'd secure Untill he met at Glenmalure Feach Mac Hugh O'Byrne. (Chorus:) Curse and swear, Lord Kildare, Feach will do what Feach will dare Now, Fitzwilliam, have a care: fallen is your star, low! Up with halbert out with sword, on we go for by the Lord Feach Mac Hugh has given his word, follow me up to Carlow! See Emmett O’Bryne, The Battle of Glenmalure, 25 August 1580: Cause and Course, The O’Bryne Files Not to be outdone, someone from the Fitzwilliam family has also posted an annotated version of McCall’s “Follow Me Up to Carlow.” Recordings (Before Horsips): Planxty, Planxty, 1972 LT: Postings in this Mudcat thread (as quoted below) advance the theory that Christy Moore’s 1972 recording of “Carlow” rescued it from obscurity, or at the least, spread its popularity outside of Ireland. But there are two arguments against that theory here. One is that the tune, without words, was a common dance tune. The other is that the tune, with words, was apparently a school choir standard for students like Philip Chevron. An Earlier Tune Than Carlow? "The tune is the first two parts of Sweets of May; a 6/8 set dance, not a march as sometimes stated, and was posted in this previous thread: TUNE ADD: Follow Me Up To Carlow. So far as I know, the song has never been found in tradition, but was rescued from oblivion by Christy Moore in the 1960s." (LT: See above.) "Does anybody know if the text was originally set to Sweets of May when it was written (presumably at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries)? Quite a lot of websites out there optimistically state things like melody dates from pre-1500's” "The tune of "Follow me up/down to Carlow" is Donald Dow's "Bonnie Annie", c 1775." "…it was a dance tune before someone used it for the poem "Follow me up to Carlow." It just sounds like a dance tune, with a low A and a high B part, and a short shift from minor to major at the begging [sic] of the B part. Dance tunes do this all the time." Selections from Discussion Thread, "Origins: Follow Me Up To Carlow," www.mudcat.org LT: The last thing I’m capable of doing is correctly identifying a traditional tune. From the chapter entitled “Ask My Father” in Ciaran Carson’s Last Night’s Fun: In and Out of Time with Irish Music, it appears that I’m not alone in this failing. So for your consideration, here’s a downloadable Mp3 that makes a good case for : “Sweets of May,” http://www.joelmabus.com/sweets_of_may_mp3.htm And here’s a Fiddler’s Companion entry with strong evidence for “Bonnie Annie:” FOLLOW ME DOWN TO CARLOW [2] ("Lean Me Sios Go Ceatair-Loc" or "Lean go Ceatharlach sios me"). AKA "Follow Me Down," “Follow Me Up to Carlow.” AKA and see "An Ril Cam," “The Crooked Reel,” "Miss Murphy [2]," "Bonnie Annie [3]." Irish, Single Jig, Slide, March (6/8 or 4/4 time) or Reel; New England, Jig or Polka. A Dorian. Standard. AB (Breathnach, Joyce): AAB (Darley & McCall, Mitchell, O'Neill, Tubridy): AABBC (Moylan). Breathnach (1977) states the tune is a 6/8 version of a Scottish reel by Donald Dow (Glen Collection, pg. 23 {4th tune}, and Gow's Complete Repository, Vol. 1, pg. 22 {3rd tune}). Darley & McCall state that the air is called "Follow Me Up to Carlow" and that there is a tradition that this air was the Clan March of the O'Byrne family. Its first public airing was supposedly when it was played by the Irish war pipers of Feagh MacHugh (Fiach Mc Hugh O’ Byrne) at the fight of Glenmalure (1580) when he attacked the English of the Pale (the environs surrounding Dublin), defended by the troops of Lord Deputy Grey. Sources for notated versions: Mrs. Anastasia Corkery (Irish American from Co. Cork and Cambridge, Mass., 1930's) [Bayard]: "...copied from (a) very old well written manuscript lent to me in 1873 by Mr. J. O'Sullivan, of Bruff, Co. Limerick" [Joyce]; "received from the Rev. Father Gaynor, C.M., Cork" [Darley & McCall]; piper Felix Doran, 1969 (Co. Kilmany, Ireland) [Breathnach]; west Kerry fiddler Padraig O’Keeffe via accordion player Johnny O’Leary (Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border) [Moylan]; piper Willie Clancy (1918-1973, Miltown Malbay, west Clare) [Mitchell]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; Appendix No. 35, pg. 586. Breathnach (CRÉ I), 1963; No. 107. Breathnach (CRÉ II), 1976; No. 84, pg. 45. Darley & McCall (The Darley & McCall Collection of Traditional Irish Music), 1914; No. 65, pg. 29. Henebry, 1928; No. 75, pg. 255. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 243, pgs. 117 118. Miller & Perron (101 Polkas), 1978; No. 10. Mitchell (Dance Music of Willie Clancy), 1993; No. 129, pg. 103 (appears as “Follow Me Up to Carlow”). Moylan (Johnny O’Leary), 1994; No. 325, pg. 185 (slide version). O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903/1979; No. 1282, pg. 241. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 988, pg. 170. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, Book Two), 1999; pg. 5. Andrew Kuntz, The Fiddler's Companion, www.ibiblio.org Recordings Influenced: (Or so we thought until we asked!) The Radiators "Party Line," TV Tube Heart. It is well and truly "Follow Me Up To Carlow", though my first exposure to it probably dates back to my 6 years in the school choir before Sunburst or, indeed, the first Planxty album. "Party Line" began as a one off theatrical gesture called "Election Special" at a gig during the 1977 Irish General Election campaign. Steve Rapid sang it through a loud hailer atop a soap box, through which he later fell. The soap box that is. I can't remember the lyrics now, but they must no longer have been topical by the time we were making the first album. No problem: short of material for the LP, we dusted it down and gave it a new coat of paint. I've always been kind of glad we did, as it makes the link between Horslips/Radiators/Pogues. Not eloquently, but at least inarguably. Philip Chevron, email to site, May 16 2005 Annotated lyrics: Time, fire, light, sunburst, sun and daylight See extended essay on thematic imagery of Dancehall Sweethearts in Blindman, when posted. |