Lyr Req: We Built This Old Ship (Stewart, Bok)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Built This Old Ship- Bok&Stewart
From: beetle cat
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 12:21 PM

thanks guys.
thats wonderful.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Built This Old Ship- Bok&Stewart
From: MMario
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 08:57 AM

Thanks Kendall -

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Built This Old Ship- Bok&Stewart
From: kendall
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 04:43 AM

Also, it's Tamarack, locally called Hackmatack or Larch.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Built This Old Ship- Bok&Stewart
From: kendall
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 04:42 AM

They say that a new age soon will beset us
Their engines and boilers will soon rule the day...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Built This Old Ship- Bok&Stewart
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Dec 04 - 08:45 PM

Jim Stewart is a fine songwriter and singer based in St. John, New Brunswick, the same harbor that the clipper ship Marco Polo was built. The Marco Polo Suite is a folk opera celebrating the 150th anniversity of her launching, and beautifully done.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Built This Old Ship- Bok&Stewart
From: beetle cat
Date: 12 Dec 04 - 07:27 PM

hmm. So was this an organized attempt to write songs about the Marco Polo (New Brunswick, 1851) or was it a natural phenomenon?

OHH never mind. Its a Jim Stewart project.
check this out!
You can even listen to a clip. Not full lyrics though.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Built This Old Ship- Bok&Stewart
From: MMario
Date: 12 Dec 04 - 07:02 PM

BTW - not sure how accurate the above is - I *know* at least one of the lines in the last verse is "folk processed" - I believe the orignal line referred to steam ships.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Built This Old Ship- Bok&Stewart
From: MMario
Date: 12 Dec 04 - 07:00 PM

again - from the dim depths of recall - I believe it was a song/music cycle written about the 'Marco Polo' one of the last sailing ships constructed in...errr...one of the Canadian provinces. Nova Scotia?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Built This Old Ship- Bok&Stewart
From: beetle cat
Date: 12 Dec 04 - 06:55 PM

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
(yippi!)
...whats the Marco Polo Suite?

Subject: Lyr Add: WE BUILT THIS OLD SHIP (Stewart, Bok)
From: MMario
Date: 12 Dec 04 - 06:47 PM

from memory - As I recall Bok had credit as co-author and it was from the Marco Polo Suite.

We gathered the tamerask, oak birch and pine
We took from the forests and took to the shore
We gave her her breadth and her depth and her lines
With the skills we had learned from our fathers before

We worked in the heat and the wind and the rain
We cursed and rejoiced in our sorrows and pain
And we never imagined our hands would grow old
Or her like on the water we ne're see again

We built this old ship with our sweat and endeavor
She ran with the wind and the wind set her free
And we once dared to dream she would sail on forever
But although she was ours she belonged to the sea..

there's more to her making then canvas and wood
Theree's more to her leaving then going away
And maybe we loved her much more then we should
but a part of us left when she sailed from the bay

Will those that she carried to each far off place
Remember her name when the voyage is done?
Will the empty horizon still carry her trace
when the rocks break her heart or she's too old to run?

We built this old ship with our sweat and endeavor
She ran with the wind and the wind set her free
And we once dared to dream she would sail on forever
But although she was ours she belonged to the sea..

Will there be a monument held by each wave
Will the gulls sing a dirge as they circle above
When the length of the sky at last marks her grave
Will her name be remembered with wonder and love

they say that a new age soon will beset us
Ships larger and faster will soon rule the day
And the times will arrive, when the times will forget us
Like the sawdust around us we'll all blow away

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Built This Old Ship- Bok&Stewart
From: beetle cat
Date: 12 Dec 04 - 06:11 PM

ok.. some more hints..

apparently Gordon Bok, Ed Trickett and Ann Mayo Muir recorded it on "Harbors of Home"

a song about the transition from sail to steam.


"...We built this old ship with our sweat and endeavor
She ran with the wind and the wind set her free
And we once dared to dream she would sail on forever
But although she was ours she belonged to the sea..."

"...Will there be a monument held by each wave
Will the gulls sing a dirge as they circle above
When the length of the sky at last marks her grave
Will her name be remembered with wonder and love..."


is there more??

I got this info here

Subject: Lyr Req: We Built This Old Ship- Bok&Stewart
From: beetle cat
Date: 12 Dec 04 - 04:05 PM

Can anyone help me out? is was mentioned in the thread "songs about building boats/ships?"