Song information On this page you can find the lyrics of the song South Coast, artist - The Kingston Trio. Album song Stereo Concert, in the genre
Date of issue: 05.11.2019
Record label: Limitless Int
Song language: English
South Coast |
South Coast, the wild coast, is lonely |
You may win at the game at Jolon |
But the lion still rules the barranca, and a man there is always alone |
My name is Juan Hano de Castro |
My father was a Spanish grandee |
But I won my wife in a card game, when a man lost his daughter to me |
I picked up the ace |
I had won her! |
My heart, which was down at my feet |
Jumped up to my throat in a hurry- |
Like a warm summers' day, she was sweet |
South Coast, the wild coast, is lonely |
You may win at the game at Jolon |
But the lion still rules the barranca, and a man there is always alone |
Her arms had to tighten around me as we rode up the hills from the South |
Not a word did I hear from her that day- or a kiss from her pretty red mouth |
We came to my cabin at twilight |
The stars twinkled out on the coast |
She soon loved the valley- the orchard- but I knew that she loved me the most |
South Coast, the wild coast, is lonely |
You may win at the game at Jolon |
But the lion still rules the barranca, and a man there is always alone |
Then I got hurt in a landslide with crushed hip and twice-broken bone |
She saddled our pony like lightning- rode off in the night, all alone |
The lion screamed in the barranca; |
the pony fell back on the slide |
My young wife lay dead in the moonlight |
My heart died that night with my bride |
South Coast, the wild coast, is lonely |
You may win at the game at Jolon |
But the lion still rules the barranca, and a man there is always alone |
Daughters were possessions, to be bet away or arranged marriages for; |
also, |
note the use of «young wife» in the final stanza. |
Her shyness- «had to tighten» |
— and her silent reticence but adaptable «soon loved…» indicates no previous |
marriage, and «lost his daughter to me» indicates her origin, whereas «to hell with the lords o’er the sea» seems thrown in. If this man were a sailor, |
why would he have established orchards? |
Just a thought. |
I’d really like to see the original music if it were available. |
The concept of betting away a daughter was my first exposure to the concept of |
women as property and the sung stuck with me my whole life. |
(I was the oldest |
and only daughter and I was afraid of the possibility; |
I was 9 and the chorus, |
except for one word, and the storyline, and the tune have stayed with me for |
the last 25 years; |
it influenced my major «women's studies») |