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Five Rings

from 52 Songs by Bernard Houston

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about

I approached noted Brisbane singer Sandro Colarelli about writing a song for him. He was keen to have a song written based on an old Scottish story "The Twa Sisters". In this story a woman becomes jealous of her younger sister when she won the heart of a traveller. Believing that as the older sister she should be married first she murdered her sister with a view of inheriting the young mans love. This story had already inspired other song writers including Loreena McKennitt and Tom Waits. Those other songs took a ballad approach narrating the story from point of view of the sisters. My idea was to reinvent the story from the point of view of one of the bit players, a baker, who the guilty sister asked to help cover her crime.

lyrics

Five rings

Five rings she offered for each of my fingers
Their gold was pure in the sun
Please do me this favour, she asked with eyes weeping
And I’ll give you these rings as you own

Don’t go to the loch, where the ripples break gently
Don’t tarry, don’t linger be gone
And for your good silence I’ll give you this treasure
To feed your wife and your son

Chorus
Two sisters I met, by the road
One standing and one was asleep
Two sisters I met, but only one spoke
As tears slid down from her cheek to her throat

Five rings she held in her trembling hand, five rings she begged me to keep
Five rings lay silent in the cup of her palm, as the sister who lay near her feet
No action I ask of you, deed I request of you
Service, no favour nothing
All I am asking is that you keep walking away from my sister and me

Chorus

Five rings I took, one for each finger, five rings I keep with me still
And when the sun wakes, these rings I will wear to the scaffold they’ve put up for me
He was mine she said to me, I was the eldest, I should be married the first
He sister said nothing as the ripples broke gently upon her coat and her skirt

Chorus

credits

from 52 Songs, released January 1, 2015
Vocals Sandro Colarelli

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Bernard Composer Brisbane, Australia

Bernard has composed music for numerous films including “The Foal” (2010 Cannes Film Festival). Bernard has also produced music for theatrical productions at Brisbane’s Judith Wright Centre and Metro Arts. His credits include “Flicking the Flint” with an ambient electronic score that in the words of the Courier Mail “underscored the dual atmospheres of nature’s splendours and menace”. ... more

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