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The Song Goes On

[ Roud - ; Mick Ryan]

Mick Ryan wrote The Song Goes On after Cyril Tawney’s death and dedicated it to him. Mick Ryan, Pete Harris, Keith Kendrick, Sylvia Needham, and Doug Bailey sang it at a concert in memory of Cyril Tawney which was held at the Sidmouth Folk Festival in 2005. This live recording was included in 2007 on the Cyril Tawney anthology The Song Goes On. Mick Ryan and Pete Harris also recorded it in 2006 for their WildGoose album The Island of Apples.

This video shows Mick Ryan singing The Song Goes On at the Swindon Folksingers Club in probably 2013:

Lyrics

There are singers that we love as we sing our lives away
And though we all fall silent in the end,
They will sing with us forever they’ll be singing every day
When we sing the songs they sang.

Chorus:
For the song goes on in the songs we sing,
And when one song ends then another song begins,
So the singers who are gone will be singing once again
When we sing the songs they sang.

Some are heard by many and some are heard by few,
And though we all fall silent in the end,
Someone will remember both the song you sing and you,
When they sing the songs you sang.

(Chorus)

Refrain:
Sing the chorus, sing the song,
And the singers gone before us will be singing right along.
Sing the chorus and refrain,
And the singers gone before us will be singing once again.

We can drive away the silence of the grave that we all fear,
And though we all fall silent in the end,
Sing and you’ll be singing with the singers you hold dear
When you sing the songs they sang.

(Chorus)

So if you sing along you bring along the singers who are gone
Though we all fall silent in the end.
Sing and you’ll be singing both the singer and the song
When you sing the songs they sang.

(Chorus, Refrain and Chorus)