Wake up my love beneath the midday sun
Alone, once more alone
This Travellin' boy was only passing through
But he will always think of you
One night of love beside a strange young smile
As warm as I have known
A travelling boy and only passing through
But one who'll always think of you
This is a beautiful song entitled "Travellin' Boy". It has been notably recorded by Art Garfunkel and more recently by female artist Rumer. But neither of them wrote the song. It is just one of a number of outstanding pieces written by American singer-songwriter Paul Williams. And I guarantee you will know some of his output.
Williams was hugely popular decades ago as something of a teen idol despite being about 5ft tall. He let fame get to him, however, and took to the bottle etc before drying out and he is still going.
He wrote one of the most romantic songs of all times, which is regularly played at weddings. "We've Only Just Begun." Williams wrote the lyrics and Roger Nicholls the music. It became a massive hit for the Carpenters.
But Paul Williams also wrote a number of other songs for the Carpenters including "Rainy Days and Mondays" and "I Won't Last A Day Without You" along with Evergreen for Barbra Streisand and "You and Me Against The World" for Helen Reddy. He also wrote the music for the Bugsy Malone film and "The Rainbow Connection" for the Muppets. Quite a variety there.
I have an album by Williams entitled "Just An Old Fashioned Love Song" which is full of lovely laid back songs. If you have Spotify or one of the other sites give it a listen.
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Yesterday's leg of our coastal walk was from Brancaster to Burnham Ovary Staithe via a lunch stop at Burnham Deepdale where I had cockles and chips (I know I know).
The coastal path veers from the very interesting to the mundane. Yesterday's walk incorporated both aspects. We are quite quickly covering the first part of the path from Hunstanton to Cromer and should have that completed by the end of the year and then we will start again in the spring to cover the area from Cromer to Hopton.
Our efforts to walk the 85 or so miles of the coastal path were put into the shade by one of the staff at the pub who told us she spent a month walking 500 miles across Spain. Mind you she was much younger than us.
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Was doing some research into my family tree yesterday evening and came across a Mary Kett who was my third great grandmother and came from Wymondham. I continued to trace the tree backwards from that name and there's a possibility that I'm directly descended from Robert Kett - he of Kett's Rebellion. More research is needed to check this out.