This is a haunting lament and Jon says, “A beautiful song about which I know very little, learnt from Maddy Prior. I sang this at my Grandfather’s funeral.” I’ll add that I also know very little and cannot find anything to help. Mainly Norfolk has the lyrics and I’ll note that it only appears on the live CD, ironically titled Tonight The Night. Steeleye have never recorded this in the studio. Anything you can add here will be appreciated as Mudcat offered an impenetrable wall of threads either related to ‘dawn’ or ‘day,’ but not necessarily both and nothing with this title or first line.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
You can buy the October digital album now from all good download stores:
Dawn is still an hour away but this is a fine way to start the day. Thank you!
Absolutely gorgeous – and another for my ever-growing “to learn” list. I have Steeleye’s “Tonight’s the Night” album so I’ll be able to do a compare and contrast excercise.
Lovely song, sensitively sung…….especially poingnant as sung for Gdad…but the fine lyric loses track in lines 3 & 4 in last verse…..both in MNorfolk and Jon’s versions.
The theme has to be winter and apply to departed person……..my first thought follows:
When the end of the day is a-falling
When night time’s rest is a-calling
Safe from winters darkness keep
And in comfort gently sleep
When the end of the day is a-falling
Forgot to say…….”when the evening star is a-sparkling” has more punch than “a-starting”
Another song beautifully done. Odd that there’s so little info anywhere, not even googling the lyrics gives much.
Can’t agree with you though muzza, I much prefer the less sentimental original lyrics.
muzza – “starting” is the best word to my mind, as it refers to the evening star coming out. I also like “You can hear the winter moan/On the long road home” – is this the same as Steeleye’s version? (Reinhard’s transcription is different but looks a bit garbled.)
I’d love to know who Steeleye got it from – it looks to me like a fairly recent addition to the tradition!
Oh, and lovely singing, btw.
What a lovely gentle song, although a completely different subject it gives me the same peaceful feeling that Ed Rennie’s song for his wife does on Narrative.
Yes Phil, there were some mis-hearings in the first and last verse of my transcription. I hope they are fixed now.
I think this is just lovely. It is sung beautifully and shows Jon’s voice off perfectly.
[...] The Dawn of the Day « A Folk Song A Day [...]
Very lovely, and beautifully sung, Jon. I think it is rather fitting that there is some mystery about this song, if sung at your grandfather’s funeral, going into the unknown. Mysterious, haunting, something special…
Love this! I think the song is beautiful and the singing (as always) fantastic.
Maddy could always bring me near to tears with this song, and now you have done the same, sentimental old fool that I am.
I tried to Google more info on this song, but drew a blank – save coming back to Reinhard’s excellent Mainly Nor-folk! He gives the source as Steeleye Span’s live CD, ‘Tonight’s The Night’ as stated above, and suggests the lyrics sound like they could have been written by Ross Kemp. If you click on the link to the album title, you then find a footnote to the tracklist that says all songs are traditional, save some exceptions, incl. track 10, which is this, and is just credited to Steeleye Span.
Crediting this song to Steeleye Span’s bassist Rick Kemp or to the whole band is just an educated guess of mine, Jane. The CD is a typical Shanachie Records CD and doesn’t have *any* information about the songs on it.
Thanks for the clarification, Reinhard.
The words are lovely – for the rest everyone has said it better than I.
I’m very embarrassed by my comments of previous years………….
listened again and at no time did I feel the need to challenge the original words.
Lovely song..lovely sentiments…
What a beautiful song and so well sung. Thank you Jon.