Story Behind the Song
You can find the CD with this song at:
http://wodin.is.jahweh.tripod.com/dig.this.html
William the Conqueror is one of the links between Viking civilization and the eventual creation of America. In the early 1980's I wanted to put those links into song.
I wrote a song that lasted 20 minutes, all singing, without instrumental breaks, and p layed it at a couple of parties, and after about the 5th verse, people stopped listening and started conversing. In consequence, I shortened the song a couple of times, until there were only five verses, those having the most dramatic or indispensable scenes of the narrative.
Having lost some of the words from my memory, I took out a book about the Norman Conquest, in order to patch the lacunae in the verses. Upon more closely scrutinizing the story, I came to realize that the Normans were the agents of church building and rebuilding in the region at the time, whereas the other factions were much less entwined with the Roman church-organization, while some were of the old religion. Thus, I added a reference to the Norman connection to the Roman church.
The book, "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", points to a Benjamite origin of the Franks. The Normans interwedded with the Franks. The Assyrian border-guard reports on clay tablets are synoptic with Greek and other histories, which, combined with one another, establish a link between the Hebrew tribes of Assyrian captivity, and the subsequent tribes of Europe, such as Scandinavians, Kelts, Saxons, Iberians, Scythians (who later became known as "german"=genuine Scythians in order to distinguish them from the Sarmatians, who drove them out of their territory, and thus became also known as Scythians), etc..
Thus, I added a verse at the beginning of the song, pointing to parts of the origin of the Normans.
The core of the song was written either in D.C. or possibly in Washington, VA, or maybe in Poolesville, MD, in the early-to-mid 1980's. The later additions and gap-fillings were done in Frostburg, MD, about the years 1999 and 2001.
When I write song lyrics I just whip them out. Occasionally I get stuck for a rhyme that means what I want it to mean, but it takes only about ten minutes to half an hour to finish a verse.
When I first got my groove box, in December of 2001, I had already a copying of the song done acoustically, as a deposit for the copyright office. I put that on an acoustic CD entitled, "Legends, Dreams, and Myths" (http://wodin.is.jahweh.tripod.com/legends.dreams.myths.html) while I was learning to program the groove box. Then I programmed an accompaniment to the singing of William the Conqueror, which, by the advice of my collaborator, Marc Slanger (http://www.aboutcultfilm.com) was deliberately quasi-acoustical sounding, not too electronic, or techno. Then I added an experimental electronic long break after the end of the lyrics. It was too hard to sing the verses all in a row without a break between the refrain and the verse (I needed time to remember what the next verse was going to be), so I added electronic quasi-baroque breaks in those places. It took a long time to get the volumes of the different patterns to match together, since the synthesizer on each pattern had a different "effect" from the other patterns. Some were too loud, some too soft, some had the drums too loud, etc.. It took a long time to balance it.
Finally Marc and I captured the song and put it into a CD entitled "Dig This" (http:wodin.is.jahweh.tripod.com/dig.this.html)
I would like to add that when I first made the song, it was kind of humorously inspired by the children's song, "Sparky the Fire Dog."
The live premiere of the song was done as the opening act at the premiere of Marc's and Tyler Ralston's movie, "Dracula Versus Frankenstein", on May 11 of 2002, at the Palace Theatre in Frostburg, MD.
Lyrics
VERSE 1
When Benjamin left Israel we stopped in Neustria.
All of the tribes thereafter wandered from Assyria.
Of Benjamin a mother to a Viking son gave birth,
The nation he assembled became ruler of the Earth.
The unity of Benjamin and Viking Israel man
Became the Norman duchy, 'twas according to God's plan.
A holy trip to Jerusalem Robert Duke did make,
Leaving Child William in his wake.
REFRAIN
William the Conqueror, William the Conqueror
He was a wonderful man.
William the Conqueror, William the Conqueror
And he conquered Eng-Land.
VERSE 2 (this verse will be deleted from future versions)
It was in the year 1051 his cousin, Edward, said
That when he died he'd let the crown be placed on William's head,
But in the year 1066, 'twas Harold took the c rown;
That mighty son of Godwin was the pride of London Town;
But William then was many times more mighty than before --
He then made up his mind that Godwinson would hear him roar.
In Northmandi the warriors assembled on the strand,
And then we sailed for Yngling Land.
(REFRAIN)
VERSE 3
Now one of William's archers, he did let his arrow fly;
That arrow was the selfsame one that pierced King Harold's eye,
And Harold and his brother both were corpses on that day,
While all their men who were alive did turn, and ran away;
'Twas then the men of London Town chose Edgar Atheling,
Grandson of Edmond Ironsides, to be their lo'ward and king,
'Twas thus in Kent and Sussex Lands the tongues of flame arose,
Burning the houses of our foes.
(REFRAIN)
He took our army 'cross the Thames, we burned Southwark Town,
For when we went to London we couldn't knock her down.
We made a sweeping western arc with fire and with sword,
Dividing Anglo-Saxon lands 'til London was ignored.
The erstwhile chiefest men of London came unto his place;
They gave to him their hostages, he promised them his grace.
The Godwin's org'nization was replaced by William's own --
Seeds for the future thus were sown.
(REFRAIN)
The Kirk of Christ and William ever functioned hand-in-hand;
The one without the other no assailing could withstand,
So on December twenty-sixth, with cheering from the crowd,
They joined him in West Minister to be their leader proud.
The Northmen in the streets, we heard the cheering from within,
But we mistook the noises for a hostile battle din.
We set fire to the houses of the men of London Town.
See the red rooster all around.
(REFRAIN)
Now when the men of London saw their houses were afire,
They rushed to their belongings, every one, both knight and squire,
The left our lo'ward alone among the priests in church so bare,
Who then did put the English crown on William's golden hair;
The church, it then was empty and the flames did crackle so,
And in the streets the striving of the men, both to and fro'
Was sounding to the abbey, where King William wore his jewel;
That was the birth of Norman rule.
(REFRAIN)
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