Tidewave

[ Roud - ; Anne Briggs]

Anne Briggs sang her own song Tidewave on her 1971 album The Time Has Come. She noted:

A song for friends. I could never see the beginnings nor the end of this song, though I know it’s there—it’s just a bit misty.
Base string on the bouzouki dropped to an octave drone.

Robin Dransfield recorded Tidewave as the title track of his 1980 album Tidewave. A live recording from 14 November 1972 at the Medway Folk Centre was included in 2008 on the bonus CD of this album’s CD reissue A Lighter Touch. He also sang Tidewave live at the 1973 Kertalg Folk Festival in France. He wrote in his original album’s liner notes:

Tidewave is by the elusive Annie Briggs who wrote it, I think, for Johnny Moynihan. It has a sympathy which reminds me of those who have seen others, especially me, through the hard times. Too numerous to mention.

Lyrics

Anne Briggs sings Tidewave

Oh, you came to stay and the day was brighter,
The way much lighter.
You brought your joy, your music too,
We’d laugh and sing and play the Summer through.
And with time and faces your love for all things grew
But the day was growing colder, cold Winter reaching you.

And the words of a song were the only exception
To your lonely reflection.
You brought so much and your friends to me
With your friends you tried to share your own eternity.
And nobody knowing how you wanted things to be,
But the day was growing darker and you couldn’t really see.

And when the fortune-teller spoke, you held lightly in your hand
The mirror of your mind,
Which you thought to be true to when you’d see
The days ahead were nothing but transparency.
An image of the no-man’s land, the sun at the edge of the sea,
Tides came and departed, took you away from me.

Oh, you came to stay and the day was brighter
The way much lighter.
You brought your joy, your music too,
We’d laugh and sing and play the Summer through.
And with time and faces your love for all things grew
But the day was growing colder, cold Winter reaching you.