For some reason, people find it easier to march to the beat of a drum, or following a band. It is hard to explain quite what’s so persuasive or intoxicating about it.
There’s a link to a demo recording of the song at the foot of the page.
Hear The Drum
Words and music ©Steven Clark
Chorus:
Hear the drum, hear the band, we’re marching together.
Each step’s like a beat of the same mighty heart.
Though we hold up our heads, we don’t see where we’re going
But we’ll trust in our comrades and all play our part.
Were you only a boy when they called you together
And you marched to the pipes from the land you had known
With your grandfather’s sword, and your father’s old musket.
To fight for the King’s son and win back a throne.
From Derby you turned home again in disorder
You marched like the Devil was hunting behind
Will you ever know how you escaped from the slaughter
To wither in France like the leaf on the vine?
You’re there in the mud with the bodies around you
Your ears singing loud from the crash of the shells
Can you still hear the bands as you marched off so proudly
As they waved you goodbye and condemned you to hell
At night in the trenches, do you think of your children
It’s their faces you see in the ghost-light of flares
If ever you’re home, you’ll never tell them
Of the horrors you knew in the depths of despair.
It’s a fine summer’s day and you’re all out together
Your wife and yourself and your children and friends
You march to the flutes, and listen to the speeches
Of tradition and history and fight without end
But at times when you stand with a workmate beside you
Or speak to your neighbour as you come through your door.
You just can’t remember why they say that you’re different
Can you always remember what all the marching’s for?
It’s fine to belong and grand to go marching
And to feel the earth shiver with each step that we take
But by marching in step, a bridge may be broken
And it’s hard to build up , but easy to break
And maybe not today, but maybe tomorrow,
It’ll come all the sooner if we give it a chance
The bands will all learn a different metre
And lead us all off in the steps of the dance…
stevenclarksongs 