Longbone

[trad. arr. Bob Johnson]

Longbone is a song from Steeleye Span’s 1980 reunion album Sails of Silver. A live recording from the Royal Opera Theatre in Adelaide, Australia in 1982 was released on the rare Australia-only LP On Tour and in 2001 on the CD Gone to Australia. Bob Johnson noted:

Before, when we were young and carefree, we did songs about elves, witches and goblins. Now we’re older, more mature, we’re writing about giants.

Lyrics

Steeleye Span sing Longbone

There was a king who built a ship
And sailed away
To look for gold in the hills of Scone
Far away
The only gold in the hills of Scone
Is gold you’ll never own
It belongs to the giant Longbone
Far away

Chorus (repeated after each verse):
The only gold I’ve ever known
It all belonged to the giant Longbone

His teeth are sharp, his claws are long
So they say
His eyes are like a fire that burns
Far away
We will go to the hills of Scone
We’ll find the giant Longbone
We’ll turn him into stone
Far away

Through the rain and through the snow
We sailed away
To the land where only fools go
Far away
We stepped onto the shore
And then we heard him roar
He must have seen us

We tried to hide, we tried to run
Run away
He killed the crew, he threw the boat
Far away
And the he said “We are alone
I am the giant Longbone
You shold have stayed at home
Far away”