Well the dove she's a pretty bird, and she sings as she flies
She brings us glad tidings and she tells us no lies
Well she flies in the mountains and the valley so low
And if you live peaceful then she never will go
Come all you young men, take a warning by me
Don't you go for a soldier, don't you join no army
For the dove she will leave you and the raven will come
And death will come marching to the sound of a drum
And come all pretty young girls, come walk in the sun
And don't let your young men ever carry a gun
For the gun it will scare her and she'll fly away
And then there'll be weeping by night and by day
Well the dove she's a pretty bird, and she sings as she flies
She brings us glad tidings and she tells us no lies
Well she flies in the mountains and the valley so low
And if you live peaceful then she never will go
She brings us glad tidings and she tells us no lies
Well she flies in the mountains and the valley so low
And if you live peaceful then she never will go
Come all you young men, take a warning by me
Don't you go for a soldier, don't you join no army
For the dove she will leave you and the raven will come
And death will come marching to the sound of a drum
And come all pretty young girls, come walk in the sun
And don't let your young men ever carry a gun
For the gun it will scare her and she'll fly away
And then there'll be weeping by night and by day
Well the dove she's a pretty bird, and she sings as she flies
She brings us glad tidings and she tells us no lies
Well she flies in the mountains and the valley so low
And if you live peaceful then she never will go
inviata da Alessandro - 22/4/2010 - 11:42
The British folk group the Pentangle recorded the Cuckoo on their 1969 album Basket of Light
Holger Terp - 23/4/2010 - 23:41
This song is also heard in the intro and end sequence of the film "The Beguiled" (Don Siegel 1973), a very strange and dark movie best described as "Southern Gothic". The central character of the movie, a yankee soldier who is wounded and then.... (well, get the movie and watch it...), is played by Clint Eastwood (in a perfect counter-type casting, and one of his own favourite roles) and he is also the one singing the song.
"The Beguiled", in Italia uscito con l'incredibile titolo de "La notte brava del soldato Jonathan"... davvero disturbante... Non sapevo che fosse lo stesso Clint Eastwood a cantare "The Dove" di MacColl, e la canta come una macabra ninna nanna, come un canto di morte di un prigioniero o come il fantasma di un soldato caduto in battaglia... Gran bel film.
Bartleby - 15/5/2011 - 17:01
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“To the tune of a Kentucky song about The Cuckoo, one of the widest-spread folk songs, also very well known in Britain, Ewan MacColl put some words about a different bird as a symbol of peace.”
(MySongBook)
Canzone interpretata anche da Hamish Imlach, The Ian Campbell Folk Group, Leon Rosselson e Judy Collins.