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Brave Wolfe

from Land Of Heroes by Ray Cooper

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about

A few years ago, I had the great privilege to play one afternoon at a music festival in Quebec city. After the show, I was looking at a map and noticed that nearby was a park called 'Le Parc d'Abraham'. I knew this had to be the old battle site where the young General Wolfe in 1759 won Quebec and the French part of Canada for England. I had heard the story many times; how Wolfe and his small army sailed up the St Lawrence river at night and climbed the cliffs outside Quebec to be ready to meet the French at dawn. In those days, battle was more like a duel, lines of soldiers discharging their muskets at close range until one party broke and ran. Seeing the battle ground was informative; the British had nowhere to run. At the opening of hostilities, Wolfe sent a note to his counterpart General Montcalm inviting him to have the honour of the first volley. Wolfe was killed but not before he learnt that Quebec had fallen.
I looked for a monument, but the only one I found was to earlier heroes and a much earlier battle which had taken place on the same ground; a terrible slaughter between two indigenous bands. Of course, the land Quebec is built upon has always had a strategic importance to whoever lived there, it lies at the first narrowing of the St Lawrence. It was humbling to be reminded how easy it is to ignore the long pre-Columbian history of the great continent.
But this story explains why, when you land today at Toronto airport today and go through immigration, there is a picture on the wall of a very familiar looking lady. Underneath, it reads, 'Queen Elizabeth II of Canada'.

lyrics

Brave Wolfe
(trad - After Allan Mills.- arr Ray Cooper)


Come you young men all and hear my story
Of how Bold Wolfe did fall in all his glory
On the fields of Abraham fell that great hero
We'll long lament his loss in deepest sorrow

That brave and gallant youth did cross the ocean
To free America of her division
He landed in Quebec with all his party
The city to attack, being brave and hearty

Bold Wolfe drew up his men in a line so pretty
On the plains of Abraham before the city
On the plains before the town where the French did meet him
In double numbers round all for to beat him

When drawn up in a line for death preparing
And in each other's eyes those two armies were staring
Where the canons on both sides did roar like thunder
And youth in all it's pride was torn asunder

The guns the ground did shake where he was lying
Bold Wolfe he seemed to wake as he was dying
He lifted up his head as the guns did rattle
And to his men he said how goes the battle

His aide-de-camp replied it's in our favour
Quebec in all her pride, there is none can save her
For 'tis falling in our hands with all her treasure
And then Bold Wolfe replied, I die in pleasure.

credits

from Land Of Heroes, released April 16, 2021

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Ray Cooper UK

Ray Cooper is a singer/songwriter and multi instrumentalist currently residing in the depths of Sweden where he moved in 2000. He left Oysterband in 2013 after a year in which they picked up 3 BBC2 Folk Awards and appeared live on the "Later..with Jools Holland' show. Since then he has carved out a successful solo career.

Photo by Kerstin Maier ... more

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