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On the First Violin

from Sighting Shots by Dave Pierce

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about

This simple love song is set on an ocean liner in the 1950’s, before commercial flights took over from shipping as the most practical form of international travel. It speaks to the grief of losing a loved one as well as to the possibilities engendered by moving on.

lyrics

ON THE FIRST VIOLIN

I sat writing on a liner in the starboard lounge,
Looking out over the sea,
And as I wrote, I listened to the band,
Playing in a plaintive key.
On the first violin was a brown-eyed girl,
With her hair hung down in a flaxen curl,
And when she had completed all she had to play,
She looked up from her music and I caught her eye.

On the first violin was a brown-eyed girl,
Her hair hung down in a flaxen curl,
And as she played in a plaintive key,
I caught her eye and she was looking at me.

After the recital she demurely rose,
Turning away from me,
Out upon the deck breathing the salt-spray air,
Gazing on the troubled sea,
We engaged in talk and her eyes turned sad;
She was recently bereaved of a long-loved lad,
He was fighting as a conscript in the Kenyan war,
When a Mau-Mau bullet struck him and it laid him low.

On the first violin was a brown-eyed girl,
Her hair hung down in a flaxen curl,
And as she played in a plaintive key,
I caught her eye and she was looking at me.

I did not see her disembark,
We had connected but too soon,
Her healing heart would find a path to someone else.
With a busy schedule to pursue,
Of publishers and speaking coast-to-coast,
At small cafés I ended days in missed romance.

I was on a sister liner when a year had gone,
Homeward bound and free,
In the starboard lounge, I was waiting for the band,
Without expectancy;
The conductor stood with his baton poised,
Gesturing the audience to quell their noise,
When the first violin took the stage to play,
My brown-eyed girl was smiling and she caught my eye.

On the first violin was a brown-eyed girl,
Her hair hung down in a flaxen curl,
And as she played in a major key,
I caught her eye and she was smiling at me.
And as she played in a major key,
She caught my eye and she was smiling at me.

credits

from Sighting Shots, released October 30, 2019
Words and music by Dave Pierce.

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about

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Dave Pierce Saint Neots, UK

Dave Pierce is a Cambridgeshire-based folk /roots songwriter who has been performing his own songs in folk clubs since the early 70’s. Rooted in the English and American folk traditions, his song topics range widely from folk tales to contemporary issues. ... more

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