Morning Way

Dreaming strands of nightmare are sticking to my feet
It’s time to wake up and throw away the last remaining sheep
Sunlight sliding down my back and dripping on the grey
It’s time to watch the dawning light reveal the morning way
Dreams are fading now it’s nearly noon and then it’s afternoon
The leaves are creeping green inside the day

To where the friends who used to lend me love were all about my head
And looking down at me to smile at how it ought to be. (Repeat a further 13 times)

- Trader Horne (Judi Dyble ex Fairport Convention & Jackie McAuley ex Them), "Morning Way" from the album Morning Way, 1970.

Jackie McAuley sings the first two lines, Judi Dyble sings the rest to the first repetition.

This is the forgotten music of the UK - early British Folk that is powerful and just stunning. Unlike anything that has come out of the modern day scene.

Now don't get me wrong I have got some recent releases, James Blunt - Back to Bedlam; Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams to name but two of the more recent pearls cast before swine.

Here is a classic example of inventive and evocative lyrics from Magna Carta's 1973 album "Lord of the Ages"

Lord of the Ages rode one night,
Out through the gateways of time
Astride a great charger, in a cloak of white samite
He flew on the air like a storm
Dark was the night
For he had gathered the stars in his hand to light a path through the sky
Whilst the hooves of his charger struck comets of fire
Bewitching all eyes that beheld them

Lord of the Ages
Nobody knows
Whither he goes
Nobody knows

Below a dark forest, in caves of black granite
The children of darkness dwelled in oblivion
Betraying one another in endless confusion
For the Lord of the dark
Had bewitched them

From time’s first creation
The wise men and prophetsAnd all workers of magic had warned of the reckoning
The wind and the fire
And the plague of destruction
That follows the paths of evil

Lord of the Ages
Nobody knows
Whither he goes
Nobody knows

Far above the wide oceans and thundering rivers
Through the sun and the rain and the turn of the seasons
Rode the God of all knowing
Whilst all about him, celestial companions
Friends from the void before time was woven
Honoured his crown with words of white fire
And carried his robes of light
Whither he goes
Nobody knows

But in the peace of a valley a young child was born
Filling the night with his crying
And an old man gave thanks to the Lord of the Ages
Whose battle is not with innocence
But the birds of the air were silent
Knowing the time had come
When time was forgotten
The waters were stilled
And the mountains stood empty
For the cities were deaf
Long, long ago
‘Enough’ cried a voice
And the earth was awakened
Poor and the rich felt the plague and the fire
Death and destruction rode out together
Turning the world to a funeral pyre

It was the Lord of the Ages
Gathering in the harvest
The Lord of the Ages
Gathering in the harvest

And from the blood and the thunder
Of men and their dyingHis eyes dark with sorrow
The Lord of the Ages gathered in his harvest
But to the old and the helpless
The weak and the humble
To the children of light
His words of compassion breathed on them gently
Dissolving the darkness across the great valley
That rumbled with fire
And from the death and destruction
The Lord of the Ages carried the fruit of the harvest
To freedom
Lord of the Ages
Nobody knows
Whither he goes
Nobody knows