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Madman Growing up in post-war Britain we had two things; freedom to roam the countryside from an early age, and very little stuff to entertain or distract from the roaming. The most interesting and scariest draws in the woods were vagrants (hobos)passing through,or camping even in winter. We kept our distance as instructed, but their life stories were a good subject for a boy`s imagination. Style is _BGRKWLZ.STY (Folk Rock in 3/4) RealTracks in style: 1106:Bass, Acoustic, BluegrassWaltz Ev 140 RealTracks in song: 2214:Bouzouki, Rhythm SlowWaltz Ev 100 RealTracks in style: 863:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PopRockWaltzPulsingA-B Ev 140 RealTracks in style: 866:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm PopRockWaltzSteadyA-B Ev 140 RealTracks in song: 1144:Fiddle, Background BluegrassWaltz Ev 140 (Outside) RealTracks in song: 1815:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking CelticSlowWaltz Ev 110 RealDrums in style: RockModernWaltz^1-a:Snare, HiHat , b:Snare, Ride Madman in the last wild wood castle past the freeway that buried this town the man who once flew Spitfires skins a rabbit by the sickle moon far away as a constellation city lights the unreachable shore of a world that watched him falling blood red sky nineteen forty four as boys we tracked his shadow his eye so raven bright at our voices his body would tremble like a deer in the headlights and shouting at him from the turnstile laughing madly all the way home we stopped to see him waving conducting his private storm he`d fling his black hat over the wheat field into the flames see it tumble and spin the madman`s soul flies over the wheat field like a raven with a broken wing round the snares of his rag and bone outpost harvest threshers thrum back and forth cutting golden life in ripples the cold steel of his unkind thoughts but he remembers her name was Annie when the wheat turns the colour of her hair and he curses the ones who`d harm her calls her name as a prayer he flings his black hat over the wheat field into the flames see it tumble and spin the madman`s soul flies over the wheat field like a raven with a broken wing there`s an oak in the wild wood castle after twenty years of siege bears scars of the man who flew Spitfires where the ravens wheel and grieve among the rust and the rags and the ashes there`s a name carved in the bone of a mirror I held for a moment for looking there turned my blood to stone now I sing my black song over the wheat field into the flames hear it tumble and spin for the madman`s soul that flies over the wheat field and for the raven with a broken wing for the raven with a broken wing © Robert Cordrey Feb.1995
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Such a great folk tune. Nice imagery and flow to the song.
Enjoyed my listen.
Charlie
BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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Such an interesting narrative, Robert.
A truly beautifully descriptive lyric.
"past the freeway that buried this town"
"city lights the unreachable shore"
"conducting his private storm"
"cutting golden life in ripples"
"when the wheat turns the colour of her hair"
"calls her name as a prayer"
...and many more...
The heart of folk music. Enjoyed.
floyd
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Hi!
Wow, what a beautifully written folk song! We're still mesmerized by this song. Such a wonderful story. The backing tracks were made for this song. Your voice, and the song, reminded us of John Denver. I hope you take that as the complement we intended.
Simply wonderful! We can't think of any other way to out it. Thanks for the great listen.
Alan & Di
BIAB 2024 Ultra Plus-all StylePaks*Win11*32GB DDR5*Rhyzen 9745x*AT 2035 Mic*Peavey Nashville 112 Amp*Ibanez ART120* Acoustic/Electric/Washburn D200S Acoustic*Stromberg Monterey Jazz Guitar Loops: https://aldavidmusic.wixsite.com/bestmusicloops
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Robert, There are a lot of great lines in this one. A fine poetic write. A modern folk piece. Nicely done. Tom
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Beautiful song Robert. Very cool lyric. Love your folk songs
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Such a great folk tune. Nice imagery and flow to the song.
Enjoyed my listen.
Charlie Thanks for listening,Charlie - glad the images led you through the story. Robert Such an interesting narrative, Robert.
A truly beautifully descriptive lyric.
"past the freeway that buried this town"
"city lights the unreachable shore"
"conducting his private storm"
"cutting golden life in ripples"
"when the wheat turns the colour of her hair"
"calls her name as a prayer"
...and many more...
The heart of folk music. Enjoyed.
floyd Floyd, This was an early write and its a favourite of mine- brings back the time and place as well as that boy making stories of everything. Thanks for your very kind comments. Robert
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Robert, I envy your ability to paint such wonderful word pictures with your lyrics! You have produced another fine piece of art here. Thanks, Torrey
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Hi Robertkc, Great inspiration for this song! Really well made and superb vocals. Well done! 
Cheers,
Joe
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Hi!
Wow, what a beautifully written folk song! We're still mesmerized by this song. Such a wonderful story. The backing tracks were made for this song. Your voice, and the song, reminded us of John Denver. I hope you take that as the complement we intended.
Simply wonderful! We can't think of any other way to out it. Thanks for the great listen.
Alan & Di Alan & Di, Thank you! For the backing I was aiming for a Fairport Convention folk rock sound -happy you thought it worked for the song. I`m only familiar with John Denver`s hits and now you`ve made me curious about his lesser known songs. Robert Robert, There are a lot of great lines in this one. A fine poetic write. A modern folk piece. Nicely done. Tom Tom, Thanks very much for listening and commenting. Robert Beautiful song Robert. Very cool lyric. Love your folk songs Much appreciated, Scott!
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Robert,
Great song - so many vivid images. Love the performance and production as well.
Excellent!
Bob
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Such an interesting narrative, Robert.
A truly beautifully descriptive lyric.
"past the freeway that buried this town"
"city lights the unreachable shore"
"conducting his private storm"
"cutting golden life in ripples"
"when the wheat turns the colour of her hair"
"calls her name as a prayer"
...and many more...
The heart of folk music. Enjoyed.
floyd Yes! Very nicely told story. The "band" was absolutely perfect. Love the finger-picked guitar and fiddle. Your vocal is as good as I've heard from you (or almost anyone else). Really excellent work!! Take care. Greg
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That is a superb write and performance Robert. There are literally too many wonderful lines to pick out a favorite. Janice and I both were captured and taken back to your world.
What a gift to be able to remember in such rich imagery and then have the skills to reduce it to pure poetry. My childhood years are a blur with occasional glimpses of clarity...but not often.
Your choice of RT's is both interesting and effective and the mix works very nicely with your vocal.
"The heart of folk music" indeed.
J&B
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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Fantastic write, another great one
I see that it's from 95, thanks for bringing this out
and sharing. I'm a history buff and you captured my
imagination quickly with the opening lines.
in the last wild wood castle
past the freeway that buried this town
the man who once flew Spitfires
skins a rabbit by the sickle moon
That is great writing! I can see that Spitfire so clearly
the desolation is painted in this scene so well
very nice mix also, a lot of thought as to how to
make those drums bring a dynamic powerful build to this
good stuff
Kenny
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Robert, I envy your ability to paint such wonderful word pictures with your lyrics! You have produced another fine piece of art here. Thanks, Torrey Torrey, Feels good to be acknowledged by a real musician -thank you! Robert Hi Robertkc, Great inspiration for this song! Really well made and superb vocals. Well done! Thanks for the listen and kind comments,Joe. Robert,
Great song - so many vivid images. Love the performance and production as well.
Excellent!
Bob Bob, Thanks for that - glad you liked this song. The production took a number of tries as the acoustic/electric folk rock sound is a balancing act. Robert
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Such an interesting narrative, Robert.
A truly beautifully descriptive lyric.
"past the freeway that buried this town"
"city lights the unreachable shore"
"conducting his private storm"
"cutting golden life in ripples"
"when the wheat turns the colour of her hair"
"calls her name as a prayer"
...and many more...
The heart of folk music. Enjoyed.
floyd Yes! Very nicely told story. The "band" was absolutely perfect. Love the finger-picked guitar and fiddle. Your vocal is as good as I've heard from you (or almost anyone else). Really excellent work!! Take care. Greg Greg, You are too kind... but I`ll take the kudos on the "band" as mixing the rock waltz guitar & drums with bluegrass fiddle & acoustic guitar did take some work. Robert That is a superb write and performance Robert. There are literally too many wonderful lines to pick out a favorite. Janice and I both were captured and taken back to your world.
What a gift to be able to remember in such rich imagery and then have the skills to reduce it to pure poetry. My childhood years are a blur with occasional glimpses of clarity...but not often.
Your choice of RT's is both interesting and effective and the mix works very nicely with your vocal.
"The heart of folk music" indeed.
J&B
Janice & Bud, That`s much appreciated. I was a wordy kid who didn`t write much until way later... when I discovered I had a pretty good memory too. Robert
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Hello, Robert
Very beautiful Folk Rock Waltz!
Filled with Dylan feel.
The melody is very pleasant.
And so is your vocal.
Enjoyed my listen a lot.
Best regards.
Shigeki Adachi
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Robert
That was pretty special - excellent writing - stunning lyric and a matching atmospheric track.
Very impressive all round.
Peter
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Robert,
Well almost everything has already been said here, so what could I add?
Wait, I know:
Your voice here is so nice and fragile, it's got that slightly dark tone in it, that reminds me of Philadelphia from Neil Young. In fact there's more of your songs that remind me of Neil which should be a fine complement ;-)
beautiful lyrics, beautiful song.
You've outdone yourself again!
Rob
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Fantastic write, another great one
I see that it's from 95, thanks for bringing this out
and sharing. I'm a history buff and you captured my
imagination quickly with the opening lines.
in the last wild wood castle
past the freeway that buried this town
the man who once flew Spitfires
skins a rabbit by the sickle moon
That is great writing! I can see that Spitfire so clearly
the desolation is painted in this scene so well
very nice mix also, a lot of thought as to how to
make those drums bring a dynamic powerful build to this
good stuff
Kenny
Thanks Kenny! I tried to make the transition from folk to folk rock fit the build of the song - glad you thought it worked. I started songwriting in `94 and still have a few left in that locker. Robert
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