Henry's Songbook

They say he was the strangest man you'd ever want to meet
He didn't like the towns at all and he kept to the quiet streets
But mostly he was in the fields, he always wore a cap
The same one for a Sunday as for briardin' up a gap
And no one has a photo of this man

No one seemed to know his plan
He was lonely as a baby and as gentle as a child
And it seems he often spoke of Oscar Wilde

I mind we used to see him on the quiet summer nights
Standing by the roadside like a rabbit in the lights
He'd never wave, just nod his head, he always wore a tie
Some people said that he was odd, others said just shy
And no one has a photo of this man

It seems he loved a girl one time but she must have gone away
Perhaps he was too quiet or too different in his ways
He never bothered after that, got careless with his looks
Forgot to shave for seven years and took to reading books
And no one has a photo of this man

I saw him in the cornfield sowing with his hand
He understood the weather and he understood the land
He always wore what once had been a three-piece navy suit
The same one for the sowing as for standing of the stooks
And no one has a photo of this man

They say he'd stand for hours gazing at the hills
His bicycle beside him and both of them were still
As statues in the sunset, no one knew his mind
But when he died they said that he was kind

We laid him down this morning, the rain was falling fast
Those who thought they knew him were with him to the last
The priest was sprinkling prayers and holy water in the rain
And we said, We'll hardly ever see the likes of him again
And no one has a photo of this man

No one has a photo of this man

(as sung by Andy Irvine)

briardin' up - repairing

[1998:] This song is about my uncle (and three or four others). He never married. He thought about it till he was about seventy. By the time he was eighty he'd decided he wouldn't get married after all. He always had a bike with him. He never rode it, but pushed it. It was nice to have something to lean on. When the Russians and the Americans were doing their best to shoot rockets to the moon he once said to me, 'Why do they shoot their rockets up to the moon? You'd think they'd have enough sense to wait till the moon is just rising over the horizon so they only need to shoot them straight at the moon.' That's the kind of man he was. (Colum Sands, intro Kiel)