Podcast: Lady Of Shalott (Down to Camelot)

This song is dedicated to my wife.

(Playing time: 2min 51secs):

or LISTEN HERE >>> Lady Of Shalott (Down to Camelot)
[Link to Odeo]
[Link to Archive.Org]

GarageBand effect settings:

• Guitar - Pre-selected “Acoustic Guitar Echos” setting (Compressor, Flanger, Track Echo)
• Vocals - Pre-selected “Radio Effect” setting (Compressor, Chorus effects, reverb + Echo)
• Percussion - Shaker (80 bps)

Chords:
G/ C/ G/ D
G/ C/ Em/ D

LYRICS (selected verses from Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “Lady of Shalott”)
[1 - Spoken]
On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro’ the field the road runs by
(To many-tower’d Camelot);
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott/ (To Camelot).

[2 - Sung]
But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror’s magic sights,
For often thro’ the silent nights
And music, went to Camelot:

[3 - Spoken]
Four gray walls, and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.
By the margin, willow veil’d,
Slide the heavy barges trail’d
By slow horses; and unhail’d
The shallop flitteth silken-sail’d
Skimming down to Camelot:

[Repeat 1 - Sung]

[Repeat 2 - Sung]

[Repeat 1 - Spoken]

[Repeat 2 - Sung]

[4 - Sung/ fade]
When the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed:
“I am half sick of shadows,” said
The Lady of Shalott.

This song came about quite unplanned. I was just strumming the basic guitar chords and then decided to record into GarageBand, with a percussion (shaker) layer set at 80 beats per second (bps). Once that was done, I hooked up the microphone to test the recording of vocals with the recorded tracks playing. There was no specific plans to record it as a song. So while I hummed a tune and it seemed to fit. In a flash I decided I needed lyrics (recording a hum wasn’t the same). The fastest way to get lyrics was to grab a yellowed copy of “Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson” that was sitting on my bookshelf. [Read more at RamblingLibrarian]

Read the poem in full at: www.poetry-online.org/tennyson_the_lady_of_shalott.htm

More about Lord Alfred Tennyson: www.online-literature.com/tennyson/

Explanation of the poem “Lady of Shalott”: www.pathguy.com/shalott.htm

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