Fairport Convention Part Xi Lyrics

Part Xi Lyrics

Wake up John, it's time to go              Come along John and don't be
slow
Come along John, don't be slow             Wake up John, it's time to
go
Wake up John, it's time to go
A priest joins the procession just to
help me kneel
With a warder at my elbow and another at my heel
Marching
in the morning down a path I've lately seen
I was sleeping in this garden,
am I still within my dream?
The echo of my heartbeat is the beating of a
drum
And all the earth is singing with life's sweet hum
We filed in
solemn silence, shuffled through a door
The place where life is taken for
the letter of the law
(Chorus)
Shake the holy water, summon up the
guard
Dying's very easy, waiting's very hard
A rope was hanging from the
roof, a sight which puzzles me
I thought a gibbet and a guard would make a
gallows tree
But now all is revealed, stamped there is the command
My
feet are on the trapdoor with a rope around my hand
And now the executioner
is shaking hands with me
"My duty I must carry out, you poor
fellow," says he
A strap is tied around my feet and a bag upon my
head
And then the noose which separates the living from the
dead
(Chorus)
There he whispers to me "Have you anything to
say?"
My mouth is dry, my throat is tight, I answer "Drop
away"
Silence now surrounds me, my heart is beating on
The trapdoor
hardly moves at all, my life is still my own
They stand me in a corner with
my hands and feet still bound
While a carpenter is called for and an
explanation found
"The rain has warped the timbers," I hear the
hangman say
"It's funny but it worked well, I tried it
yesterday"
"All is mended now," they say, "your ordeal's
nearly over
Your life's as good as ended," but I hear their voices
waver
Once more the ?board is shaked? and again I hang in limbo
While the
guards jump on the trapdoor and my body stands on tip-toe
(Chorus)
They
stand me in a corner with my hands and feet still ties
A warder holds onto
the noose, the trapdoor opens wide
Is it magic or coincidence that keeps me
on the brink?
It seems to work without me, "Will it kill me now?"
I think
"Please, I'm tired of living and I really want to
die"
I was taken to the scaffold and I heard the hangman
cry
"Lee, I'm truly sorry, forgive these hands of mine"
He drew
the bolt and I felt the jolt the third and final time
My life was spared that
morning 'cos it wasn't theirs to take
Three's the ?boat? the law requires, a
man could feel the stake
(Repeat chorus)