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When Ralph McTell Played Orpington
A specially written song from Ross Barlow and sung at the club on our 40th birthday night 19th May 2005.  Ross was there at the Royal Oak on that, as he puts it 'that fateful night' in May 1965.  Many thanks Ross for an excellent song and for coming all the way from Somerset to sing it for us
Was a warm and pleasant evening if memory serves me right?
As I strolled down to the Oak upon that rare and fateful night
I heard those ragtime tunes that brought my soul alive
When Ralph McTell played Orpington in 1965.
I tried, oh how I tried so hard to copy note for note
In truth I never mastered it, never even came that close
So I gathered notes from all the folks who’ve played here since the time
Ralph McTeIl played Orpington in 1965
And I’m standing here tonight, remembering the first time
I stood before this audience in eagerness and fear
And I'm standing here tonight, be it forty years and counting
Singing here’s to the next forty years.
And here’s to all the singers and musicians I recall
The poets and comedians and the storytellers all
And to all the brave first timers who found the wings to fly
Since Ralph McTeIl played Orpington in 1965.
And I’m standing here tonight, remembering the first time
I stood before this audience in eagerness and fear
And I’m standing here tonight, be it forty years and counting
Singing here’s to the next forty years.
So raise a glass to all of those who�ve brought us here this night
To Ivan, Russ, Ted, Steve and Anne who keep the candle bright
And to all the back room boys and girls who've helped this club survive Since Ralph McTell played Orpington in 1965.
Ralph McTell played Orpington in 1965.
That's before we won the world cup though it was to happen soon
Before we watched in wonder as a man walked on the moon
It pre dated Sergeant Pepper and Bob Dylan with The Band
And before Martin Luther King foresaw the Promised Land
It was earlier than Woodstock and before electric folk
When three and nine was currency, and a schoolboy's smutty joke Predated Monty Python, Watergate and Watershipdown
And before the name MacDonald�s came to every English town
The Beatles topped the charts again, at the very point in time
That Ralph McTell played Orpington in 1965
Ross Barlow 2005
(Friday 13th May 2005 to commemorate Orpington Folk Clubs 40th Birthday)
Orpington Folk Club
Orpington Folk Music & Song