• From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,707

Topic: PALE hORSEMAN

Pale HorsemanUndefined


Verse 1


[C]From the darkness comes the moon.


Clouds move by and vengeance looms.


[G] No words, [F]no sound, [Am]horses hooves don't [F]disturb the ground.




Verse 2


[C]In a distant home remote.


Invisibility hope beyond hope


[C]No words, [F]no sound, [Am]horses hooves don't [F]disturb the ground




Verse 3


[Fm]In the gloom a bird disturbed.


[C]Horseman cares not if he's been heard


[Fm]A widow maker for his pay.


[G]Will make the children orphans today


solo...C-|G-|F-|Am-|F.x2




repeat verse 3





Verse 4


A pale horseman rides away.


In his wake, bodies lay.


No words, no sound, his horses hooves don't disturb the ground.




Verse 5


In the gloom a baby cries.


Horseman hears and turns around.


He looks about and finds the child.


Opens his coat and puts the child inside.




Verse 6


Now the clouds will hide the moon.


Horseman rides back to the gloom.


||:No words, no sound, horses hooves don't disturb the ground:|| X3



Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,707

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

Bernard Cornwell is one of favourite writers and this song was possibly inspired by a title of a book I have yet to read. It deals with life in the reign of King Alfred and his troubles with the Viking and Norse invasions.
The song is about a  "pale horseman" paid to kill a man and his family who are in hiding, after the deed he finds the man's baby, but instead of killing the child, takes him to raise as his own!...where do these ideas come from? answers on a post card....

Hope you like it, it will be on myspace shortly

Phill

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • From: Belfast, Northern Ireland
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 338

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

Hi Phil,

Really like this one - very atmospheric.

Reminds me of a print I had from way back in the '70's. It was called "The Sentinel" - showed a lone horseman on a misty background.

"What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understandin' ."    Elvis Costello

alansheeran's Website

  • From: A black hole in deep space
  • Registered: 2007-10-28
  • Posts: 7,865

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

nice discriptive picture in words,I recall a John Wyane movie where he saved a baby and had to go across a barren stretch of land( cant recall the title ) look forward to hearing this smile

"Growing old is not for sissies"

Russell_Harding's Website

  • From: derbyshire
  • Registered: 2007-05-17
  • Posts: 2,844

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

hi phill sounds like something out of a chiller but nice ending when the baby was saved,great song....stay cool

love is life ,life is for love,keep a true heart and live life to the full....stay cool

daddycool's Website

  • arkady
  • arkady
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  • From: England
  • Registered: 2006-11-23
  • Posts: 2,147

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

Hi Phil
Now thats a bit different. I like the simplcity a nice change
Well done
Bernard Cornwell's a great writer read most of what written all the historical stuff.
I've read "Pale Horseman" and his latest in the Saxon series "Sword Song" great stories.
He hails from Essex but now lives in the USA..

Russ the John Wayne movie is called "The Searchers" appropriately  smile
ark

  • From: A black hole in deep space
  • Registered: 2007-10-28
  • Posts: 7,865

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

Thanks Ark and did you get the spider lol

arkady wrote:

Hi Phil
Now thats a bit different. I like the simplcity a nice change
Well done
Bernard Cornwell's a great writer read most of what written all the historical stuff.
I've read "Pale Horseman" and his latest in the Saxon series "Sword Song" great stories.
He hails from Essex but now lives in the USA..

Russ the John Wayne movie is called "The Searchers" appropriately  smile
ark

"Growing old is not for sissies"

Russell_Harding's Website

  • selso
  • selso
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  • From: El Paso, TX
  • Registered: 2007-07-18
  • Posts: 994

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

Awesome song. Seems more like a country and western song than a song about the saxons. Those books your talking about sound pretty cool. Im going to have to check them out. Cant wait to hear this one

Everything is bad including me
But being bad is good policy
Reverend Horton Heat
  • Registered: 2007-04-03
  • Posts: 3,489

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

Love this one Phill,

The horses breath was on my neck as i read it, so descriptive is this piece.

Ethereal feeling to it. soooo good.

Old Doll.

Why Blend in with the Crowd ? When you were made to stand out !
  • KAP54
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  • From: London Ontario Canada
  • Registered: 2008-06-04
  • Posts: 1,746

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

Hi Phill smile

A very melodic write. Well done on the production.

Is this bound for Avalon?

Kenny

Just Keepin on Keepin on
Martin DC15E
Cort MR710F
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  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,707

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

hi kenny,

yup you've guessed it my friend, it didnt start out that way, but that's how it ended up.

nice to hear from you again, you been keeping company with the bears all winter? i think i'll hibernate next year too.

hi helena,  do horses have bad breath? just a thought..lol

hi selso,  i wrote it like that on purpose, so that it would mean different things to different people, so there's no mention of vikings, romans, thuggies, cowboys or indians or conquistadors! you imagine your own movie, i just supply the script.

hi ark,  cornwell is king, pale horseman is the only one i haven't read...yet! i'm just finishing sword song, what a twit, i read them all in the wrong order, doesn't spoil anything it's just that references get mixed up.

hi daddy, i had to decide if he killed the baby or not, in saxon/viking times they might well have done that...cruel times.

hey russ, the john wayne film you mentioned is called the searchers [ark said so...lol]
isnt that the film where he has to cross the salt flats or something?

hi alan, thanks very much. i have to say though that this was a throw away song, it took less than an hour to write and record and stick on chordie, so i'm very surprised at the response!


thanks everyone

phill

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • From: Almancil, Algarve, Portugal
  • Registered: 2006-09-02
  • Posts: 6,205

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

Hi Phill,

A great song and what a talent if it only took an hour to write and record.  One's imagination can certainly run wild listening to it. Well done,

Roger

"Do, or do not; there is no try"

Roger Guppy's Website

  • From: Bellevue, WA
  • Registered: 2006-06-15
  • Posts: 3,336

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

I love songs where people get killed.

Someday we'll win this thing...

[url=http://www.aclosesecond.com]www.aclosesecond.com[/url]

jerome.oneil's Website

  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,707

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

hi roger,

thanks to bernard cornwell's graphic descriptions, it was all there coupled with the fact that i'm quite depressed as my job nears it's end. i shall be one of the unemployed by july, and that's really putting the mockers on me...but thanks for the thumbs up, i'm fairly happy with it myself and i'm glad i didnt over record it as i tend to do.

mmm, jerome,

i can't believe you mean that statement, but then again, i suppose death in the imagination is better than in real life?

phill

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

15 Reply by jerome.oneil (edited by jerome.oneil 2009-04-07 23:02:27)

  • From: Bellevue, WA
  • Registered: 2006-06-15
  • Posts: 3,336

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

Phill Williams wrote:

i can't believe you mean that statement, but then again, i suppose death in the imagination is better than in real life?

phill

I very much mean it.  All the best songs have someone getting shot, or someone killing someone, usually ending up in prison.   Violent death has been a staple of country and blues music for decades.

Fulsom Prison Blues
Don't Bring Your Guns to Town
Thunder Rolls
Banks of the Ohio
Miller's Cave
Any of the thousand songs about Stack Lee and his white Stetson hat.
Hey Joe (where you going with that gun in your hand?)

And those are just some of my favorites.   The list goes on and on!

It's even better if there's a hanging at the end.

Someday we'll win this thing...

[url=http://www.aclosesecond.com]www.aclosesecond.com[/url]

jerome.oneil's Website

  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,707

Re: PALE hORSEMAN

hi jerome,

funnily enough one of my favourite songs is by sting and called "hung my head" it's on mercury rising...and about a guy who borrows his brothers rifle and shoots a man...accidentally? he gets hung at the end too...say lavie.

phill

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

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