Thom Moore lyrics and inspirations Man Alive

Man Alive

Large job; don't fail:

tote that barge and lift that bale!

(You've got to) Stay strong, you hard nail,

or love’ll come along and bust your tail.

Man alive, honey in the hive,

birds singing 'bout everything—

when the sun shines and the rainbow climbs,

grass is growing over wiser minds!

Dark woods, big bear;

Girls looking good but they don't care

(about you). Do right, and they will stare:

bring them his hide, ev'ry pitch-black hair

Man alive, honey in the hive,

birds singing 'bout everything—

when the sun shines and the rainbow climbs,

grass is growing over wiser minds!

Spark holds, wood burns;

the boy that's bold is the one who learns

(the diff'rence): Sap flows, and leaves turn,

love that you get is the one you earn.

Man alive, honey in the hive,

birds singing 'bout everything—

when the sun shines and the rainbow climbs,

grass is growing over wiser minds.

It has long been a peculiar habit of mine, when I use a tune that is very close to its parent, to include one of the more common names of the traditional tune in the song somewhere, either as its title or repeated prominently, in order that I shouldn’t be thought of as a sneak thief. This occasionally has its weirder sides, as in the opinion of some traditional fans that I am truly remiss to maintain that my song The Scholar, say, is the definitive version – of course it isn’t a patch on the original reel – but at least I included the title in order to show, as I said, that I was conscious of my debt. That can sometimes be next to impossible, as in the case of this tune, which I first heard in the playing of Paddy Glackin on the wonderful Hidden Ground album that he recorded in 1979 or thereabouts with Jolyon Jackson of fond memory: but I defy any songwriter to use ‘The Bank of Ireland’ as a title or line in a song. The closest I could get to any banking in this song was the reference to a beehive ... which was the logo of the now-defunct 1st Active building society. Aside from that detail, this song is clearly an attempt to philosophise about what was just previously described as a man’s ‘duty’: work hard, ‘kill that thing over there’ for any worthy woman who asks ... and bear in mind that love, like anything important, has a transcendence that makes it worthwhile ... unlike cruder pursuits, like sex, etc.