> Lal Waterson > Songs > Red Wine (and) Promises

Red Wine (and) Promises

[Lal Waterson]

Norma Waterson sang Red Wine and Promises, accompanied by Martin Carthy on acoustic guitar, in 1972 on Lal & Mike Waterson’s album Bright Phoebus. This song was also released as B-side of the single Rubber Band (Transatlantic BIG 507, 1972). A demo version sung by Lal Waterson in 1971 with Mike Waterson playing the guitar was included in 2004 on the Watersons’ 4CD anthology Mighty River of Song and in 2017 on the original album’s reissue’s bonus CD.

Cover Versions

  1. Tony Capstick on his live album Tony Capstick Does a Turn (1978)
  2. June Tabor live on The Best of Mountain Stage Volume Two (1991)
  3. Grace Notes on their album Red Wine & Promises (1998)
  4. Richard Thompson sang this as Red Wine Promises on the tribute album Shining Bright: The Songs of Lal & Mike Waterson (2002)
  5. Victoria Williams on Migrating Bird: The Songs of Lal Waterson (2007)
  6. Unthank | Smith on Nowhere and Everywhere (2023)

Lyrics

Norma Waterson sings Red Wine and Promises

Fell in the street in a drunken heap;
There’s bright water all around me.
And the cheap red wine in me drunken brain
Has left a burning flame in me belly.
I don’t need nobody helping me;
I don’t need nobody’s arm around me.

If I was a black beetle upside down,
I could kick all night long and never turn around.
But I’m flat on my back in the rainbow rain,
Still I know, in the morning I’ll be on me feet again.
Just can’t get a grip on the ground;
I’m upside down the right way round.

I promise thee, my shameless lady,
Who laughs out loud in the sad patient night,
Always to be honestly thee,
In me waking dreams or me drunken nights,
I don’t fear the yawning sunshine morning;
I’m forward running back again.

Fell in the street in a drunken heap;
There’s bright water all around me.
And the cheap red wine in me drunken brain
Has left a burning flame in me belly.
I don’t need nobody helping me;
I don’t need no bugger’s arm around me.

(repeat first verse)