Appears On - Source Tune - Recordings of Traditional Tune - General Notes - Annotated Lyrics - Comments
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
When we're flying free.
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 Radiators, "Party Line" on their album 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, 16 May 2005
For a number of years, since the early days of Tara Telephone, I had been toying with what I considered to be mutant renga (linked verse in the Japanese style) in different syllabic patterns, neither haiku nor tanka, as a means of expression.
This approach would enable me to arrive at Time To Kill on The Táin album, a series I felt particularly happy with.
There were a number of writers whose work made a powerful impression on me. Basho, obviously. Issa, too. And also the little known Tachibana Akemi.
In the summer of 1974 we arrived for recording sessions in Rockfield Studios with some material unfinished. I had found that the three line verse concept fitted one of the emerging songs. The closest Japanese form would probably have been the folksy katauta.
A series of linked images weren't sufficient to create a proper song structure so Barry helpfully contributed a middle section. He also proposed the last triplet which tidied the piece up by suggesting an ending.
With their roots in a deep longing, I had hoped that each three line verse would be robust enough to stand alone if necessary, but as a looped verse structure might carry an added emotional impact.
Eamon Carr, email to site, 5 October 2010
An eagle from far on the seaFrom the hawk in Dearg Doom to the 2008 collection of haiku in Origami Crow, bird and flight imagery appear frequently in Eamon Carr's lyrics and poetry. The eagle image here works as metaphor but also evokes the spirit of the Irish white-tailed sea eagle, which is a native species that has only recently returned home to Irish shores.
In the nineteenth century, estate management techniques introduced poison bait and other practices with severe consequences for the sea bird populations of the island. By the early twentieth century, white-tailed eagles were extinct. Golden eagles followed, with the last confirmed siting in South Mayo in 1931.
For a full story on the history of the Irish Golden Eagle and White Tail Sea Eagle and current efforts of the White-tailed Sea Eagle Reintroduction Programme, visit The White Tail Eagle Project.
Time spins down to a standstill
The lyrics of Sunburst paint an aural picture that moves inexorably from wide sweeping views suggesting encompassing heights ("from far on the sea," "steal into your cities") to a narrowing focus of particulars ("your doorway" "your stairway" and "your window"). The movement of the verses convey an appropriate sense of a bird circling its prey.
Daylight creeps in your window
There are several pairs of opposites running throughout the lyrics of the songs on Dancehall Sweethearts. These include day and night; light and darkness; sight and blindness; and time/motion and stasis. I always hear a wry echo of this line which promises a morning dawn in the later Lonely Hearts line "Night has fallen again, And I hardly even saw the day."