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The Stone Outside Dan Murphy’s Door.

The Stone Outside Dan Murphy’s Door.

Lyrics: Written sometime in the 1880s by Irish ballad writer, entertainer and dancer John Patrick Dane.
Vocals: The late Dublin born Irish singer, songwriter, guitarist and actor Ronnie Drew (1934–2008), recording with ‘The Dubliners‘.

The Stone Outside Dan Murphy’s Door.

There’s a sweet garden spot in our memory,
It’s the place we were born and reared.
‘Tis long years ago since we left it,
But return there we will if we’re spared.
Our friends and companions of childhood,
Would assemble each night near a store;
‘Round Dan Murphy’s shop, and how often we sat,
On the stone outside Dan Murphy’s door.

Chorus:

Those days in our hearts we will cherish,
Contented although we were poor,
And the songs that were sung, in the days we were young,
On the stone outside Dan Murphy’s door.


When our day’s work was o’er we’d meet there,
In the winter or spring, just the same.
Then boys and the girls all together,
Would join in some innocent game.
Dan Murphy would take down his fiddle,
While his daughter looked after the store;
The music would ring and sweet songs we would sing,
On the stone outside Dan Murphy’s door.

Repeat Chorus:

Back again will our thoughts often wander,
To the scenes of our childhood’s home.
The friends and companions we left there,
It was poverty caused us to roam.
Since then in this life we have prospered,
But still in our hearts we feel sore,
For memory will fly to the days long gone by,
And the stone outside Dan Murphy’s door.

Repeat Chorus:


END

Whenever You Come Around.

Whenever You Come Around.

Every so often the lyrics of a song, its music and vocal quality, pleasantly, makes those little hairs on the back of your neck stand up; such is the song hereunder.

Lyrics: American singer, songwriter and musician Vince Grant Gill.
Vocals: Vince Gill and American bluegrass-country singer, fiddler and music producer Alison Krauss.

Whenever You Come Around.

Face of an angel, pretty eyes that shine,
I lie awake at night wishing you were mine.
Standin’ here holding the biggest heartache in town,
Whenever you come around.
I get weak in the knees and I lose my breath.
I try to speak but the words won’t come I’m so scared to death,
When you smile that smile, the world turns upside down,
Whenever you come around.
I feel so helpless I feel just like a kid,
What is it about you that makes me keep my feelings hid.
I wish I could tell you, but the words can’t be found,
Whenever you come around.
I get weak in the knees and I lose my breath,
I try to speak but the words won’t come I’m so scared to death,
When you smile that smile, the world turns upside down,
Whenever you come around.
I get weak in the knees and I lose my breath,
I try to speak but the words won’t come I’m so scared to death,
And when you smile that smile, the world turns upside down,
Whenever you come around.
And when you smile that smile,
The world turns upside down,
Whenever you come around.
Whenever you come around.
END

Singer & Actress Ms Marianne Faithfull Dies Aged 78 Years.

Singer and actress Ms Marianne Faithfull sadly died today at the age of 78 years. Marianne passed away peacefully in London, in the company of her loving family.

Born in Hampstead, London, UK in December 1946, to parents, father Major Robert Glynn Faithfull (a British intelligence officer) and mother Eva (a ballerina), in the 1960s became famously the girlfriend of ‘Rolling Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger.
She rose to fame in 1964 with hit songs like ‘As Tears Go By’, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, which then reached the UK top 10.
She will also be remembered for starring roles in films including the 1968 ‘The Girl On A Motorcycle’.

The Ballad of Lucy Jordan.

Lyrics: Late American writer, cartoonist, songwriter and musician Shel Silverstein (1930-1999).
Vocals: The late English singer and actress Marianne Faithfull [Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull], (29th December 1946 – 30 January 2025). Song featured is from her 1979 album ‘Broken English’.

The Ballad of Lucy Jordan.

The morning sun touched lightly on,
The eyes of Lucy Jordan,
In a white suburban bedroom,
In a white suburban town.
As she lay there ‘neath the covers,
Dreaming of a thousand lovers,
‘Til the world turned to orange,
And the room went spinning round.

Chorus.
At the age of thirty-seven,
She realised she’d never ride,
Through Paris in a sports car,
With the warm wind in her hair.
So she let the phone keep ringing,
And she sat there softly singing,
Little nursery rhymes she’d memorised,
In her daddy’s easy chair.


Her husband, he’s off to work,
And the kids are off to school,
And there are, oh, so many ways,
For her to spend the day.
She could clean the house for hours,
Or rearrange the flowers,
Or run naked through the shady street,
Screaming all the way.

Repeat Chorus.

The evening sun touched gently on,
The eyes of Lucy Jordan,
On the roof top where she climbed,
When all the laughter grew too loud,
And she bowed and curtsied to the man,
Who reached and offered her his hand.
And he led her down to the long white car,
That waited past the crowd.
At the age of thirty seven,
She knew she’d found forever,
As she rode along through Paris,
With the warm wind in her hair.

END

After a period of heroin addiction in the 1970s, which at one point saw her living homeless on the streets of Soho; she resurrected her career with the classic album ‘Broken English’. The singer also had previously suffered multiple health problems, including bulimia, breast cancer and emphysema, latter caused by decades of smoking.

Ms Faithfull received the World Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Women’s World Awards, and was made a commandeur of the ‘Ordre des Arts et des Lettres‘, by the government of France.

The singer was married and divorced three times, to artist John Dunbar in 1965, Ben Brierly of the punk band the ‘Vibrators’ in 1979, and actor Giorgio Della Terza in 1988.

She is survived by her son, Nicholas Dunbar.

I’ll Be Here In The Morning.

I’ll Be Here In The Morning.

Lyrics: The Late American singer/songwriter John Townes Van Zandt (1944–1997).
Vocals: The Late American country music singer/songwriter Don Williams (1939–2017).

I’ll Be Here In The Morning.

There’s no stronger wind than,
The one that blows,
Down a lonesome railroad line.
No prettier sight than looking back,
On a town you left behind.
There is nothing that’s as real,
As a love that’s in my mind.
Close your eyes I’ll be here in the morning.
Close your eyes I’ll be here for a while.
There’s lots of things along the road,
I’d surely like to see.
I’d like to lean into the wind,
And tell myself I’m free.
But your softest whispers louder,
Than the highways call to me.
Close your eyes I’ll be here in the morning.
Close your eyes I’ll be here for a while.
All the mountains and the rivers,
And the valleys can’t compare,
To your blue lit dancing eyes,
And yellow shining hair.
I could never hit the open road,
And leave you laying there.
Close your eyes I’ll be here in the morning.
Close your eyes I’ll be here for a while.
Lay your head back easy, love,
And close your crying eyes,
I’ll be laying here beside you,
When the sun comes on the rise.
I’ll stay as long as the cuckoo wails,
And the lonesome blue-jay cries.
Close your eyes I’ll be here in the morning.
Close your eyes I’ll be here for a while.
Close your eyes I’ll be here in the morning.
Close your eyes I’ll be here for a while.


END

Poem “The Drawer” by Seamus O’Rourke.

A poem “The Drawer” by that great extoller of ‘words with rich rural feeling’, Seamus O’Rourke.

Based in rural Ireland, Seamus has become widely known for his simple storytelling, which captures rural Irish life in a way that both amuses and affects the reader and listener.

In September 2024, Seamus released his much anticipated sequel to his popular first memoir, Standing in Gaps.
Leaning on Gates is published by Gill Books and is available nationwide in bookshops.