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Silly Sisters: The Grey Funnel Line
The Grey Funnel Line
[Cyril Tawney]
Cyril Tawney wrote this melancholy song in 1959 before he left the Royal Navy. The title The Grey Funnel Line is an euphemism for the Navy, equating the colour of its funnels with those of company emblems found on commercial shipping lines (e.g. the Blue Funnel Line or the Black Ball Line). The song, though romantic, does show the boredom, loneliness, and longing for home that afflicts many who work on modern screw-driven vessels, be it naval or merchant marine. On Cyril Tawney in Depth he describes the background of his song and how he came to write it. His own recordings of The Grey Funnel Line can be found on his Argo LP In Port (1972) and on his Neptune cassette Sally Free and Easy (1989); the latter was reissued on the CD Navy Cuts: The Songs of Cyril Tawney.
The Clancy Brothers with Louis Killen recorded The Grey Funnel Line in 1972 for their album Save the Land; and Louis Killen sang it at the Festival of the Sea 1980 at the National Maritime Museum, San Francisco. This concert was published on the Folkways LP Sea Music of Many Lands.
Maddy Prior and June Tabor sang The Grey Funnel Line (with Nic Jones and Brian Golbey playing fiddle and Danny Thompson on bass) in 1976 on their album Silly Sisters, and June Tabor sang it again in 2011 on her Topic CD Ashore.
This YouTube video shows June Tabor singing The Grey Funnel Line at LSO St Luke's, London:
Further recordings of The Grey Funnel Line:
- Dave Burland on his album You Can't Fool the Fat Man (1979),
- Swan Arcade on their cassette Nothing Blue (1988),
- Emmylou Harris, Dolores Keane & Mary Black on the BBC TV series Bringing It All Back Home (1991); reissued on the anthology The Acoustic Folk Box (2002),
- Barry Dransfield on his CD Be Your Own Man (1994),
- Jolie Holland on the anthology Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys (2006)
Jon Boden sang The Grey Funnel Line as the February 21, 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.
Lyrics
Don't mind the rain or the rolling sea,
The weary night never worries me.
But the hardest time in sailor's day
Is to watch the sun as it dies away.
It's one more day on the Grey Funnel Line.
The finest ship that sailed the sea
Is still a prison for the likes of me.
But give me wings like Noah's dove,
I'd fly up harbour to the girl I love.
It's one more day on the Grey Funnel Line.
There was a time my heart was free
Like a floating spar on the open sea
But now the spar is washed ashore
It comes to rest at my real love's door.
It's one more day on the Grey Funnel Line.
Every time i gaze behind the screws
Makes me long for old Peter's shoes
I'd walk right down that silver lane
And take my love in my arms again.
It's one more day on the Grey Funnel Line.
Oh Lord, if dreams were only real,
I'd have my hands on that wooden wheel.
And with all my heart I'd turn her round
And tell the boys that we're homeward bound.
It's one more day on the Grey Funnel Line.
I'll pass the time like some machine
Until blue water turns to green.
Then I'll dance on down that walk ashore
And sail the Grey Funnel Line no more.
And sail the Grey Funnel Line no more.