Song information On this page you can find the lyrics of the song Wake Up John (Hanging Song), artist - Fairport Convention. Album song Babbacome Lee, in the genre Фолк-рок
Date of issue: 31.12.2003
Record label: Universal-Island
Song language: English
Wake Up John (Hanging Song) |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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) |