Fiddler's Green
Lyrics and music by John Connolly
Recorded most recently by John Connolly on Ranter's Wharf
Performed by Siler & Clarc on A Little Longer
Performed by The Burly Minstrels on This Is the Chorus

As I walked by the dockside one evening so fair
To view the still water and take the salt air
I heard an old fisherman singing this song
Saying, "Take me away boys, my time is not long."

Wrap me up in me oil skins and jumpers
No more on the docks I'll be seen
Just tell me old shipmates
I'm taking a trip, mates
I'll see you one day on Fiddler's Green

Now Fiddler's Green is a place I've heard tell
Where fishermen go when they don't go to hell
Where the weather is fair and the dolphins do play
And the cold coast of Greenland is far, far away

Where the skies are all clear and there's never a gail
And the fish jump on board with one swish of their tail
Where you lie at your leisure, there's no work to do
And the skipper's below making tea for the crew.*

Now when you're in dock and the long trip is through
There's pubs and there's clubs and there's lassies there too
And the girls are all pretty and the beer is all free
And there's bottles of rum growing on every tree.

Now I don't want a harp nor a halo, not me
Just give me a breeze and a good rolling see
I'll play me old squeeze-box as we sail along
With the wind in the riggin' to sing me a song

* The last two lines of this verse can also be sung this way:
You can lie in your hammock there's nothing to do
And the captain's below getting drunk with the crew

Alternate lyric: Bottles of rum hanging from every tree
Alternate lyric: I'll play me old guitar (any 2-syllable instrument will work here)

Background by Daniel Womack: This song was written in 1966 by John Conolly, member of The Broadside, a folk group from Grimsby, England. John has toured with a group called "Donkey's Breakfast", reunited for at least one gig with his old Broadside mates Bill Meek and Brian Dawson and has recently been working solo and traveling the folk club scene in the UK and currently hails from Cleethorpes.

According to Wikipedia, there's an old English legend that states:
They say that an old salt who is tired of seagoing should walk inland with an oar over his shoulder. When he comes to a pretty little village deep in the country and the people ask him what he is carrying... he will know that he's found Fiddlers Green. The people give him a seat in the sun outside the Village Inn with a glass of grog that refills itself every time he drains the last drop and a pipe forever smoking with fragrant tobacco. From then onwards he has nothing to do but enjoy his glass and pipe and watch the maidens dancing to the music of a fiddle on Fiddlers Green.

Wikipedia also states that origins of a place called Fiddler's Green may have come from Homer's Odyssey where Tiresias tells Odysseus that the only way to appease Poseidon was to take an oar and walk inland until he finds a land where he is asked what he is carrying.

If there is anything I've missed, any information that you know to be incorrect, or if there is a song you've heard on the podcast that you would like to see included, please do not hesitate to contact me at lyrics@renaissancefestivalmusic.com.