Lyrics for Fiddler's Green as interpreted by black_cow_of_death

Fiddler's Green Lyrics
September Seventeen
For a girl I know it's Mother's Day
Here son has gone alee
And that's where he will stay
Wind on the weathervane
Tearing blue eyes sailor-mean
As Falstaff sings a sorrowful refrain
For a boy in Fiddler's Green

His tiny knotted heart
Well, I guess it never worked too good
The timber tore apart
And the water gorged the wood
You can hear her whispered prayer
For men at masts that always lean
That the same wind that moves her hair
Moves a boy through Fiddler's Green

He doesn't know a soul
And there's nowhere that he's really been
But he won't travel long alone
No, not in Fiddler's Green
Balloons all filled with rain
As children's eyes turn sleepy-mean
And Falstaff sings a sorrowful refrain
For a boy in Fiddler's Green

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  • 23 Comments
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Katydid
05-09-2002

Rated 0 
I'm guessing there are no Hip comments because there aren't many Canadians bouncing around this site? Too bad. Anyway, one of my fav Hip songs....out of the many I have ^_^

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bosco9
05-09-2002

Rated 0 
thanks god someone else recognizes the hip's talent.....there isn't a band out there that can match the hip's eclectic, wide-ranging musical style and talent. people need to see this.

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mojo6
07-31-2002

Rated 0 
this song is about avillage wher people go when they are tired

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Fully__Completely
03-07-2003

Rated 0 
Maybe people will notice this song. I heard a Cover of this song on the radio by the stereophonics. But they don't sing it nearly as good as Gord Downie does.
The tragically Hip is the greatest band ever, and they don't get any credit.

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madscooterfoo9
06-21-2003

Rated 0 
You're right, the Hip don't get enough credit, it's cuz the huge world of consumers live in America

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OpinionHead
04-19-2004

Rated 0 
I live in America, and I love this band. I live near about five score distance from the forty-ninth and I heard them on my local rock-n-roll station. Thanks to At the Hundreth Meridian, I became hooked. The best album I have heard is Road Apples and Fiddler's Green is in my top 5 songs for the record.

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wonderdog
01-31-2005

Rated 0 
This song is an elegy for a dead child.

Fiddler's Green is a kind of "sailor's heaven," where sailors go when they die. Downie sticks with the nautical metaphor by suggesting that the child has "gone alee" (downwind) and comparing his heart failure with the sinking of a wooden ship.

There's not much else to say about what this "means."

Folk singer John connolly did a song called "Fiddler's Green" in 1970, which includes these lines:
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

Then there's "Final Trawl" by folk singer Archie Fisher:
And when I die, you can stow me down
In her rusty hold, where the breakers sound
Then I'll make the haven and the Fiddler's Green
Where the grub is good and the bunks are clean

But the traditional idea of Fiddler's Green is much older than that. It was coopted by landlubbers and appears in an old post-Civil-War U.S. Cavalry song:
Halfway down the trail to hell
In a shady meadow green,
Are the souls of all dead troopers camped
Near a good old-time canteen
And this eternal resting place
Is known as Fiddler's Green.

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Blue_Man
02-23-2005

Rated 0 
I can't add much more to wonderdog's comment, except to mention that a personification of Fiddler's Green appears as a character in the Sandman comics by Neil Gaiman, and, coincidentally enough, becomes a dead child's heaven at the end of one story arc.

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mdibon
03-10-2005

Rated 0 
Fiddlers Greein is an Exit of the 403... a highway that runs from Toronto to London Ontario!

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OpinionHead
07-01-2005

Rated 0 
If anybody's seen the movie Land of the Dead, it's the place where the rich people live while the scavengers try to find a way in. There's no obvious connection between this song and that piece of useless trivia except the name.

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OpinionHead
06-29-2006

Rated 0 
Stereophonics did an awesome cover of this song.

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heartbeats_xxx
09-08-2006

Rated 0 
The child is Downie's sister's boy. It has never been sung live. I guess because of the deep meaning to Gord. One of the lines is "ballons filled with rain" which I believe are referring to intravenous bottles.

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ProudesterMonkey
01-18-2007

Rated 0 
Correction: this song had never been sung live until 2006.

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GypsyRhapsody
02-05-2007

Rated 0 
nice job wonderdog

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cedartie
02-07-2007

Rated 0 
Heartbeats is correct, this is about his nephew who was stricken down by cancer. He wrote this song for him as a tribute. I was under the impression that he would never perform it live but I could be wrong.

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1 Reply
jane007
03-30-2007

Rated 0 
i really wanna make-out with somebody right now...

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Leppy Leroux
08-15-2007

Rated 0 
can anybody explain the reference to falstaff?

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ordinarydude
12-11-2007

Rated 0 
There is a really famous character in Shakespeare's history plays called "Falstaff." He is a sarcastic joker kind of character who. Even though he's a goofball he is ironically wise.

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Jp_spencer3
09-19-2008

Rated 0 
Thanks guys! i loved reading the comments. This song is amazing.

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justholdstill
10-01-2008

Rated 0 
Probably the most moving song the Hip have ever done.

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bighouse1347
03-26-2009

Rated 0 
I wish he would play it live, it holds a really sentimental place in my heart and a lost friend. It's by far their most emotional song for me.

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Shiresy
08-05-2009

Rated 0 
I was in Saskatoon last night and they played this song. It was amazing!

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coryk
08-06-2009

Rated 0 
I was at the show in Saskatoon as well. Someone held up a sign requesting that they play Fiddler's Green. Gord acknowledged the sign and stated that they until recently they never ever played this one live as it carried so much pain, and then introduced the song. It was as awesome as you would expect. It is very touching to know how personal this song is for the band... the performance was amazing.

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