A Place Like This

In the 13th Century, 2 children with a green hue to their skin, were discovered in the Suffolk village of Woolpit. 

Their origins were a mystery to locals.

Have you ever seen a place like this, out of the darkness into light

Have you ever felt a fear like this, sensing that, something’s not quite right

The people round here are not like us, beyond the pit’s confines

The sickles and scythes terrify us, beneath the hirundine

From the shadow where the wolf does roam, trepidation marring every pace

Strangers crowding round the innocents, we cower and embrace

That burning light how it blinds us, confusion lays we down

The reapers hands how they bind us, can’t reach St Martin’s now

They seem not to mean us harm, but we’re hungry, lost and scared

Our flock is a-wanting, and these strange folk stand and stare

Drawn by the peel we lost our way, sweet music, enchanting and divine

Our captors can’t understand us, impartial and benign

Our craving is going unsated, however we implore

Strange foods that they offer before us, we’ve tasted none before

And the Devil only knows, the fear is holding us down

We can’t find our way back home, our way back home

Surrounded by these pallid people, we leave the green behind

Can’t wake from this arid reeling, our fate seems so resigned

©Phil Marshall 2012

Against The Sun

A true story of 3 American reconnaissance airmen during WW2, who, having crashed into the sea, managed to survive for 44 days before being rescued. During their ordeal, they would talk of home and family. One man described his sister to such an  extent, that one of his fellow crewmen declared that if they ever survive, he'll marry her. After they were rescued, he met her, fell in love, and his prophecy came true.

Fallen from the unknown skies, you don't know that I'm alive

But then you don't know me at all, endless days

Cut adrift on the open sea, will you ever think of me

The way that I have learned to do, endless dreams

Chorus 1

One day I will meet with you Irene, when tides are turned and I'm not caught between

The rise and fall of the ocean swell, and the haunting sound of the Keening bell

One day I will meet with you Irene

Visions come and visions go, above the sky, the sea below

The stars come out for everyone, we're hiding from the Rising Sun

Chorus 2

One day I will dance with you Irene, when tides are turned and I'm not caught between

The rise and fall of the ocean swell, and the haunting sound of the Keening bell

One day I will dance with you Irene

Bridge

I can hear music when I close my eyes, is it my imagination, or the Westerlies gentle sighs

Are these the winds that will finally bring me home, across the rolling foam

I'm fighting here against the sun, have you ever really missed someone

And will my dreams one day come true, and I walk down the aisle with you

Chorus 3

One day I will marry you Irene, when tides are turned and I'm not caught between

The rise and fall of the ocean swell, and the haunting sound of the Keening bell

One day I will marry you Irene, one day I will marry you Irene

© Phil Marshall 2016

Another Joe

My Grandad, Joe Marshall, left school at 13 years old and went to work in the local mine. In his first week working on the coal sorting machine, he became entangled. He lost an arm, and broke many other bones.

He survived the ordeal and lived until he was 88. This song is about him, miners, and the sad decline of British industry.                                                                    

School bell rings for the very last time              

Next day you're heading for the mine                

Join the line of new recruits                              

School shoes into for hob-nail boots                  

At 5 o'clock the church bell rang                       

At 13 years, you're now a man                          

Chorus

Joe's gone down in the Devil’s hole

Trapped in the wheels that haul the coal

To them in power, who have no soul

There'll always be another Joe

Your father moved into this town                      

To sink this mine shaft underground                 

You followed where your old man led                

It cost an arm, and near' your legs                   

Repeat Chorus

Men below pick at the seam                              

Their bodies ache, their muscles scream  

Eyes are striving for the light                            

In a world where all the day is night                 

Repeat Chorus

The Iron Lady drew the plans                            

To undermine the Working Man                        

Destroying opportunity                                     

And the heart of the community                        

Repeat Chorus x2

Last Chorus

Joe went down in the Devil's hole

Where men they used to mine for coal

Cast aside, put on the dole

There'll never be another Joe 

© Phil Marshall 13/09/2022

Beacons

A song about the importance of churches and cathedrals to communities, whatever their religious or spiritual beliefs.

Centuries old, the houses stand

Rising beacons across the land

To worship and to quantify

Subservience to God on high

Open arms to welcome in

Cleanse the soul, atone the sin

The righteous find their way within

Surrounded by their kith and kin

The place to turn, a place of hope

A shining light to help them cope

When darkness bears no hope today

The tender of a brighter way

Doors open wide throughout the years

A place for calm and quell the fears

Through plague and fire and pestilence

The offer of benevolence

For answers in the times of need

Believe the message thus decreed

The Pilgrims come from miles away

Self-sacrifice, respect and pray

A need to feel that we belong

Collective voices of the throng

For centuries these walls stand strong

Echoing in prayer and song

© Phil Marshall 8/5/23

Black Heart                                                            

Richard Munslow was the last Sin-Eater in England. This was a person, generally an outcast, who would perform a ritual of eating a small meal over the body of someone who had died without first confessing their sins, which would then be absorbed. Subsequently, the Sin-Eater would be feared and reviled as having a black soul. 

I go by the name of Richard Munslow, my burden it weighs heavy on my mind

I eat the sins of the parted, and I am the last of my kind

I come from Ratlinhope parish, I had a good life farming the land

A wife and 4 children were blessed unto me

Fore Death raised his cold bony hand

Chorus

So I’ll break my bread, as you lay down dead

Your body is my table so cold

And I’ll eat my fill, as you lie so still

And your sins will blacken my soul

I aided in the passing of my family, their small bodies laid out to rest

And I ate what I was able, upon that lifeless table

And took away their sins unconfessed

Repeat Chorus

I’m shunned by the people of the parish, no-one will ever meet my eye

They only come to call, for the chance of redemption

Before they say their final goodbye

Bridge 

For your soul to save, I’ll take your sins to my grave

Before I’m chased away from your door

But you will call again, and say the last Amen

As you will need my services once more

I go by the name of Richard Munslow, my burden it weighs heavy on my mind

Now I am black of heart, for I’ve pawned away my soul

And I am the last of my kind

Repeat Chorus

I give easement and rest now to thee, dear man

Come not down the lanes or in our meadows

And for thy peace, I pawn my own soul. Amen

© Phil Marshall June 2022

Colley’s Chains 

A true story of  an illegal witch hunt  in  18th Century Hertfordshire.

Mud splattered feet in the Gubblecote lane, on the way to Butterfield’s farm

Can you spare some milk for old Ruth and John, for we’re poor and we mean no harm

I’ve have not enough to feed my hogs, said the farmer slamming his door

Don’t show yourselves about this place, for I pay parish rate for the poor

Chorus

In the dead of night, you can see the Shuck in Lukes Lane

And hidden in the wind hear the rattle of Colley’s Chains

The grace of God’s not shown to me, no never from the likes of you

The Pretender will carry off you and your hogs, you mark my words as true

From that day his calves did ail, and the dairyman’s fits grew worse

Poor John and Ruth branded wizard and witch, her mutterings taken as curse

Repeat Chorus

Notice was served in 3 towns near of the plan to swim the Gubblecote 2

Now lodging in the back of the Tring Workhouse, as anger and excitement grew

John Tomkins was the charge of that old Poorhouse, had his life threatened in the search

He had taken them out under cover of night, and hidden them down in the Church

Repeat Chorus

Bridge

Colley took it on himself to join in the affray

Old Ruth & John were helpless as no familiars stood in the way

In water too shallow for to sink or swim, Colley dragged and beat his prey

Carried upstairs in the Half Moon inn, dead and bound with her husband lay

Colley was tried and swung by the neck, for the murder of Ruth Osborne

Left to hang from the Gibbet in chains, as a symbol for to warn

Repeat Chorus x2

© Phil Marshall 2009

Echoes 

A song about the feelings evoked on our first journey across the Arctic Circle in Northern Sweden.                                                        

This could be our moment, this could be our time

Awestruck by the beauty, in the heavens' great design

There's a calmness that’s descending, I'm holding your hand

We feel a connection, that draws us to this land

We're summoning the spirits, the clouds they drift and go

They dance in the heavens, tears fall onto snow

Nature and the culture, it's a link into the past

Respectful of the history, the knowledge they'd amassed

Through the fir of the forest, the ice of rivers and lakes

To the snow of the high ground, our spirit awakes

Whispers in the darkness, tales of long ago

Fortune rained upon us, enchanted in the glow

Bridge

And I'm taken back to childhood, I remember books I read

My eyes are wide in wonder, the boy with dreams inside his head

We're inside the circle, land of ice and of snow

The Gods of the old world, are waiting there to show

It's the chance of a lifetime, we question our worth

To be standing here at this time, this place, on the earth

Bridge 2

The drum beats of the old world, sketches drawn on skin

The bone and the antler, the echoes of lost kin

We're summoning the spirits, the clouds they drift and go

They dance in the heavens, tears fall onto snow

We're summoning the spirits, the clouds they drift and go

They dance in the heavens, tears fall onto snow

Repeat Bridge 2

© Phil Marshall 18/4/20

 Feathers And Wings

In the 11th Century, a monk believed he could fly like the birds, and so leapt from the top of Malmsbury Abbey to try and prove it.

Elmer sees further by far, desperate for knowledge, he wants to unravel the secrets

The mysteries born in the stars

He watches the crows in the sky, full of reverie, Elmer wonders why

A monk shouldn’t fly

Elmer gets down on his knees, looks to the heavens, clasping his hands and says please

won’t you show me the way

A thought now starts to appear, working away, developing his idea                                                        

He’s going to fly one day

Chorus

He dreams of feathers and wings, of flying high with celestial beings

Elmer’s climbing the tower stairs, crossing himself, and saying his prayers

As he waits, to make his leap of faith

Elmer’s up on the roof again, he’s testing the strength of the wind, and then he’ll fly

Or at least he’ll try

The brothers think he’s lost his mind, he shows them the models, the plans that he’s refined

To help him catch the air

He fashions himself a frame, cloth stretched taught, he tries his best to explain

To make them aware

Repeat Chorus

Bridge

People gathered down in the square, arms outstretched, Elmer takes to the air

Trusting in God, he flies on a wing and a prayer

Before their very eyes, collecting the breeze, Elmer goes gliding by

Towards Oliver’s Lane

More thana furlong he flew, losing control, crashing down he knew

He’d never walk again

Gravity he didn’t defy, but Elmer was the first man ever to fly

Elmer’s climbing the tower stairs, crossing himself and saying his prayers

As he waits, to make his leap of faith

Elmer’s up on the roof again, he’s testing the strength of the wind and then he’ll fly

Or at least he’ll try

© Phil Marshall 2018