> Steeleye Span > Songs > Peace on the Border

Peace on the Border

[Rick Kemp]

Steeleye Span recorded their bass player Rick Kemp’s song Peace on the Border for their 1986 album Back in Line. And John Wright, Linda Adams, Ross Kennedy, Graham Pirt, Janet Russell, and Maddy Prior sang Peace on the Border in 1998 on the Fellside Recordings album of songs of the Border reivers, Fyre and Sworde

Lyrics

Steeleye Span sing Peace on the Border

After the riding we dispersed
We drifted home in twos and threes
Through cold and rain we spat and cursed
This ancient war of families

Armies past and then returned,
They killed and raped, they stole and burnt
So from the cradle we have learnt
To be as hard as stone
And learned to stand alone

Chorus (after each verse):
They are gone now, the killing and disorder
They’re just ghosts now, the brigand and maurauder
And we give thanks for peace on the border
We give thanks for peace on the border

Cloak and dagger, crime on crime,
Anarchy in the borderlands
The King’s men came with a Valentine
To break to power of the border clans

Some were hung, some sent away
to Ireland and the low countries
Great was the price they had to pay
God bless their memory
And God bless you and me

The broken towers that stand today
Stand for peace and order
Reminding us until the day
That we need no more borders.

Chorus