Gethsemane

[poliphilo]

I've been looking for this for years. It's Peter Bellamy's setting of Kipling's Great War poem "Gethsemane". Bellamy included it on the album "Mr Kipling Wrote Exceedingly Good Songs" which- at the time of writing- is unobtainable in any form. Here it's sung by Andrew King in a version taken from his Album The Amfortas Wound.

Comments

[sovay]

Bellamy included it on the album "Mr Kipling Wrote Exceedingly Good Songs" which- at the time of writing- is unobtainable in any form.

Here; I picked it up off the internet years ago. (If you have difficulty with the filesharing, I can send it to you directly.)

I hadn't heard Andrew King's version, though: thank you for it. It's ghostlier than Bellamy's and the title of the album it comes from makes me want the rest of it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I'm struggling with the filesharing.

So if you could send it me directly it'd be great...

Since posting this I've listened to more of King on YouTube. He does some interesting material- including a version of My Boy Jack.

[sovay]

So if you could send it me directly it'd be great...

Done. I sent it to the last address I had for you.

Since posting this I've listened to more of King on YouTube. He does some interesting material- including a version of My Boy Jack.

I'll have to check him out. How did you find him—with "Gethesemane"?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

With the Internet one thing leads to another. I looked for "Bellamy Gethsemane" and somewhere picked up the info that King had done a version so I googled "Andrew King Gethsemane" and there it was...

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I've known Andrew well for many years- he has an amazing singing style.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He was a new name to me....

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Not so jingoistic now, is he? The Great War had a way of changing men. I do better when I see the words, so here they are for folks similarly challenged:

The Garden called Gethsemane
In Picardy it was,
And there the people came to see
The English soldiers pass.
We used to pass—we used to pass
Or halt, as it might be,
And ship our masks in case of gas
Beyond Gethsemane.

The Garden called Gethsemane,
It held a pretty lass,
But all the time she talked to me
I prayed my cup might pass.
The officer sat on the chair,
The men lay on the grass,
And all the time we halted there
I prayed my cup might pass.

It didn’t pass—it didn’t pass-
It didn’t pass from me.
I drank it when we met the gas
Beyond Gethsemane!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a great poem.

Kipling was haunted by the war. So many of his later stories are about psychological healing and forgiveness and the futility of carrying forward a hatred.