> The Albion Band > Songs > The Rose and the Rock

The Rose and the Rock

[ Roud - ; Ashley Hutchings, Dave Whetstone]

Cathy Lesurf sang The Rose and the Rock on The Albion Band’s 1987 album Stella Maris; this track was also included on Ashley Hutchings’ anthology The Guv’nor Vol. 2. Another recording with this lineup at the 23^th Cambridge Folk Festival on 1 August 1987 was included in 1998 on the Albion Band’s CD Live at the Cambridge Folk Festival and in 2005 on Hutchings’ Free Reed anthology Burning Bright. Ashley Hutchings also sang The Rose and the Rock in 1991 on his cassette A Word in Your Ear.

Lyrics

As we sailed to the islands
The rose and the rock
We heard the ancient hills
Heave a sigh as they slept
Dazzled by the light
The rose and the rock
We stood upon the deck
And we laughed and we wept

The vine shall be our shelter
The rose and the rock
The olive grove our store
Chamomile for our beds
No jade is like the sea
The rose and the rock
No sapphire like the skies
Stretching over our heads

No amber like the sun
The rose and the rock
No gold is like the sun
As it sets in the west
No jet is like the rock
The rose and the rock
No ruby like the rose
That she holds to her breast

We are returning home
The rose and the rock
We have travelled far
Now our wandering will cease
We are returning home
The rose and the rock
Rock your children in the cradle
Of the earth and the breeze

Just seven miles off Delos
The rose and the rock
The Mistral tied the two
In a true lovers’ knot
Fifty fathoms down
The rose and the rock
Love and death together
The rose and the rock