George Fox song lyrics?

[Nomen Nescio]

Hi!

Does anyone know the lyrics to the so-called 'George
Fox Song'?

I know (from the FAQ) that it includes the lyric:

If we give you a rifle
will you fight for the lord?
But you can't kill the devil
with a gun or a sword.

And

Will you swear on a bible?
I will not said he,
For the truth is more holy
than any book you see.

Thanks if you can help!

[The Iron Muffin]

Post by Nomen Nescio
Hi!
Does anyone know the lyrics to the so-called 'George
Fox Song'?

Indeed I do. This song was the first Quaker song that I ever heard, and it
spoke to me in a way that no hymn ever had before. It remains to this day
my very favorite song of the spirit.

Post by Nomen Nescio
If we give you a rifle
will you fight for the lord?
But you can't kill the devil
with a gun or a sword.
And
Will you swear on a bible?
I will not said he,
For the truth is more holy
than any book you see.
Thanks if you can help!

George Fox
(Words and music by Sydney Carter)

Verse 1:
There's a light that is shining in the heart of a man,
it's the light that was shining when the world began.
There's a light that is shining in the Turk and the Jew
and a light that is shining, friend, in me and in you.

Chorus:
Walk in the light, wherever you may be,
Walk in the light, wherever you may be!
"In my old leather breeches and my shaggy, shaggy locks,
I am walking in the glory of the light," said Fox!

Verse 2:
"With a book and a steeple, with a bell and a key
they would bind it forever, but they can't," said he.
"Oh, the book it will perish and the steeple will fall,
but the light will be shining at the end of it all."

(chorus)

Verse 3:
"If we give you a pistol, will you fight for the Lord?"
"But you can't kill the Devil with a gun or a sword!"
"Will you swear on the Bible?" "I will not!" said he,
"For the truth is more holy than the book, to me."

(chorus)

Verse 4:
There's an ocean of darkness and I drown in the night
till I come through the darkness to the ocean of light,
for the light is forever and the light it is free,
"And I walk in the glory of the light," said he.

(chorus)

If you need the chords, I can supply those too.

[Ian Davis]

Post by The Iron Muffin

Post by Nomen Nescio
Hi!
Does anyone know the lyrics to the so-called 'George
Fox Song'?

Indeed I do. This song was the first Quaker song that I ever heard, and it
spoke to me in a way that no hymn ever had before. It remains to this day
my very favorite song of the spirit.

Post by Nomen Nescio
If we give you a rifle
will you fight for the lord?
But you can't kill the devil
with a gun or a sword.
And
Will you swear on a bible?
I will not said he,
For the truth is more holy
than any book you see.
Thanks if you can help!

George Fox
(Words and music by Sydney Carter)
There's a light that is shining in the heart of a man,
it's the light that was shining when the world began.
There's a light that is shining in the Turk and the Jew
and a light that is shining, friend, in me and in you.
Walk in the light, wherever you may be,
Walk in the light, wherever you may be!
"In my old leather breeches and my shaggy, shaggy locks,
I am walking in the glory of the light," said Fox!
"With a book and a steeple, with a bell and a key
they would bind it forever, but they can't," said he.
"Oh, the book it will perish and the steeple will fall,
but the light will be shining at the end of it all."
(chorus)
"If we give you a pistol, will you fight for the Lord?"
"But you can't kill the Devil with a gun or a sword!"
"Will you swear on the Bible?" "I will not!" said he,
"For the truth is more holy than the book, to me."
(chorus)
There's an ocean of darkness and I drown in the night
till I come through the darkness to the ocean of light,
for the light is forever and the light it is free,
"And I walk in the glory of the light," said he.
(chorus)
If you need the chords, I can supply those too.
--
The Iron Muffin
DEAD FREAKS UNITE
Who are you? Where are you?
How are you?

Is it a coincidence that I hear echo's of one of my favourite religious
anthems in the above?

http://www.users.on.net/~arachne/lotd.html

Ian

[The Iron Muffin]

Post by Ian Davis

Post by The Iron Muffin

Post by Nomen Nescio
Hi!
Does anyone know the lyrics to the so-called 'George
Fox Song'?

Indeed I do. This song was the first Quaker song that I ever heard, and it
spoke to me in a way that no hymn ever had before. It remains to this day
my very favorite song of the spirit.

Post by Nomen Nescio
If we give you a rifle
will you fight for the lord?
But you can't kill the devil
with a gun or a sword.
And
Will you swear on a bible?
I will not said he,
For the truth is more holy
than any book you see.
Thanks if you can help!

George Fox
(Words and music by Sydney Carter)
There's a light that is shining in the heart of a man,
it's the light that was shining when the world began.
There's a light that is shining in the Turk and the Jew
and a light that is shining, friend, in me and in you.
Walk in the light, wherever you may be,
Walk in the light, wherever you may be!
"In my old leather breeches and my shaggy, shaggy locks,
I am walking in the glory of the light," said Fox!
"With a book and a steeple, with a bell and a key
they would bind it forever, but they can't," said he.
"Oh, the book it will perish and the steeple will fall,
but the light will be shining at the end of it all."
(chorus)
"If we give you a pistol, will you fight for the Lord?"
"But you can't kill the Devil with a gun or a sword!"
"Will you swear on the Bible?" "I will not!" said he,
"For the truth is more holy than the book, to me."
(chorus)
There's an ocean of darkness and I drown in the night
till I come through the darkness to the ocean of light,
for the light is forever and the light it is free,
"And I walk in the glory of the light," said he.
(chorus)
If you need the chords, I can supply those too.
--
The Iron Muffin
DEAD FREAKS UNITE
Who are you? Where are you?
How are you?

Is it a coincidence that I hear echo's of one of my favourite religious
anthems in the above?
http://www.users.on.net/~arachne/lotd.html

Not in the slightest. The two songs were written by the same person, and
share a very similar structure.

[Bill Samuel]

Post by Ian Davis
Is it a coincidence that I hear echo's of one of my favourite religious
anthems in the above?
http://www.users.on.net/~arachne/lotd.html

Did you notice that Sydney Carter wrote both of them?

Bill Samuel, Silver Spring, MD, USA bill[at]friendsinchrist.net
http://home.comcast.net/~wsamuel/ http://www.quakerinfo.com/
Internet Ministries Coordinator, Friends in Christ, http://www.friendsinchrist.net/
Member, Adelphi MM, BYM; Affiliate, Rockingham MM, Ohio YM
"There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition."

[Ian Davis]

Post by Bill Samuel

Post by Ian Davis
Is it a coincidence that I hear echo's of one of my favourite religious
anthems in the above?
http://www.users.on.net/~arachne/lotd.html

Did you notice that Sydney Carter wrote both of them?

No I hadn't.. What I noticed was the same spirit, underlying pattern,
and the emphasis's on you, and the said he's. Also so the same imagery..
"can't kill the devil" versus "hard to dance with the devil on your back".
I don't think I noticed this consciously -- what I first noticed was a
sense that the song I didn't know, was bringing to the forground a song
that seemed to say -- sing me.. sing me. The scorn of the ones who would
lock the doors and throw away the keys is also present in both songs.. in
one saying they wouldn't dance, and in the other saying that they wanted
to bind the light.

So the obvious question was whether Sydney Carter was a Quaker. Would
seem a contradiction in many peoples eyes for the silent folk to be
writing verse.

I note belatedly having now done a search for Sydney Carter than he died
earlier this year. Still not sure if he was a Quaker, though it says that
he served with Friends' Ambulance Unit in WWII. His attitude seems at
least Quakerly...

"Faith is more basic than language or theology. Faith is the response to
something which is calling us from the timeless part of our reality.
Faith may be encouraged by what has happened in the past, or what is
thought to have happened in the past, but the only proof of it is in
the future. Scriptures and creeds may come to seem incredible, but faith
will still go dancing on. Even though (because it rejects a doctrine)
it is now described as "doubt". This, I believe, is the kind of faith
that Christ commended."

http://www.stainer.co.uk/carterobit.html

"If any church could come to holding Sydney's allegiance, it was the Society
of Friends, with its rejection of dogma, and its reliance on personal
experience and social activ-ism, and its affirmation of God's presence in
every human being."

...

In 1960, Sydney wrote his most controversial song, Friday Morning. I believe
it was also one of the most profound. In it, the robber, crucified with
Jesus, cries out:

It was on a Friday morning that they took me from my cell
And I saw they had a carpenter to crucify as well.
You can blame it on to Pilate, you can blame it on the Jews,
You can blame it on the Devil, it's God I accuse.
It's God they ought to crucify, instead of you and me,
I said to the carpenter a-hanging on the tree.

...

"Bibles, legends, history are signposts: they are pointing to the future,
not the past. Do not embrace the past or it will turn into an idol."
Jesus was central to his experience, but not, in his words, "the official
Jesus - but the Jesus who is calling you to liberty, to the breaking of
all idols including the idol which he himself has become."

Your holy hearsay is not evidence
Give me the good news in the present tense ...
So shut the Bible up and show me how
The Christ you talk about is living now.

...

More than 30 years ago, Sydney had written his own epitaph:

Coming and going by the dance, I see
That what I am not is a part of me.
Dancing is all that I can ever trust,
The dance is all I am, the rest is dust.
I will believe my bones and live by what
Will go on dancing when my bones are not.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1170682,00.html


Now that is an epitaph, I'd happily put on my own tomb stone..

Ian

[Cmgreenlnd]

Dear Friends --

Just a quick note.

Sydney Carter collected the songs and received attribution. He may have
twizzled the lyrics a bit, too.

The tune of both is derived "The Monck's March" which is 17th century, and is
in earlier collections (Cecil Sharp ca. 1910) of Morris Dance tunes
(Sherbourne). Monck was, I believe, a general during the English Civil War. So
having this in a Quaker song book of any sort is ironic. Parodies are parodies,
though. Part of the tradition -- but I doubt seriously that George Fox would
have approved of such frivolity...


Christine M. Greenland

"Give over thine own willing, give over thy own running, give over thine own
desiring to know or be anything and sink down to the seed which God sows in the
heart." Isaac Penington

[Bill Samuel]

Post by Cmgreenlnd
Dear Friends --
Just a quick note.
Sydney Carter collected the songs and received attribution. He may have
twizzled the lyrics a bit, too.
The tune of both is derived "The Monck's March" which is 17th century, and is
in earlier collections (Cecil Sharp ca. 1910) of Morris Dance tunes
(Sherbourne). Monck was, I believe, a general during the English Civil War. So
having this in a Quaker song book of any sort is ironic. Parodies are parodies,
though. Part of the tradition -- but I doubt seriously that George Fox would
have approved of such frivolity...

George Fox almost certainly would not have approved, but the songs do have
serious purposes.

Bill Samuel, Silver Spring, MD, USA bill[at]friendsinchrist.net
http://home.comcast.net/~wsamuel/ http://www.quakerinfo.com/
Internet Ministries Coordinator, Friends in Christ, http://www.friendsinchrist.net/
Member, Adelphi MM, BYM; Affiliate, Rockingham MM, Ohio YM
"There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition."

[The Iron Muffin]

Post by Cmgreenlnd
Dear Friends --
Just a quick note.
Sydney Carter collected the songs and received attribution.
He may have twizzled the lyrics a bit, too.
The tune of both is derived "The Monck's March" which is
17th century, and is in earlier collections (Cecil Sharp ca.
1910) of Morris Dance tunes (Sherbourne). Monck was,
I believe, a general during the English Civil War. So having
this in a Quaker song book of any sort is ironic. Parodies
are parodies, though. Part of the tradition -- but I doubt
seriously that George Fox would have approved of such
frivolity...

Thank you for this additional information, Christine!