Sydney Carter

Sydney Bertram Carter (6 May 1915?13 March 2004) was an English poet and songwriter and folk musician, a Christian, was born at Camden Town, London, who is best known for two songs:

Related Topics:
6 May - 1915 - 13 March - 2004 - English - Poet - Songwriter - Folk - Musician - Christian - Camden Town - London

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• Lord Of The Dance (1963), an adaptation of the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts featured in Aaron Copland's ballet Appalachian Spring.
• One More Step along the road I go...

He studied at Christ's Hospital school in Horsham, West Sussex and Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in history in 1936. A committed pacifist, Carter joined the Friends' Ambulance Unit on the outbreak of World War II and served in Egypt, Palestine and Greece.

Related Topics:
Christ's Hospital - Horsham - West Sussex - Balliol College, Oxford - History - Friends' Ambulance Unit - World War II - Egypt - Palestine - Greece

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He worked as a lyricist for Donald Swann's reviews and musicals in the 1950s and in 1962, produced an album Putting Out The Dustbin with Sheila Hancock, with the song Last Cigarette on failing to give up smoking that became a minor hit.

Related Topics:
Donald Swann - 1962 - Dustbin - Sheila Hancock

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Partly inspired by Jesus, and partly by a statue of Shiva as Nataraja, Sydney wrote the lyrics "Lord Of The Dance" in 1963, as an adaptation of Joseph Brackett's "Simple Gifts", and a tribute to Shaker music. He later stated, "I did not think the churches would like it at all. I thought many people would find it pretty far flown, probably heretical and anyway dubiously Christian. But in fact people did sing it and, unknown to me, it touched a chord? Anyway, it's the sort of Christianity I believe in."

Related Topics:
Jesus - Shiva - Nataraja - Joseph Brackett

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: "I see Christ as the incarnation of the piper who is calling us. He dances that shape and pattern which is at the heart of our reality. By Christ I mean not only Jesus; in other times and places, other planets, there may be other Lords of the Dance. But Jesus is the one I know of first and best. I sing of the dancing pattern in the life and words of Jesus. Whether Jesus ever leaped in Galilee to the rhythm of a pipe or drum I do not know. We are told that David danced (and as an act of worship too), so it is not impossible. The fact that many Christians have regarded dancing as a bit ungodly (in a church, at any rate) does not mean that Jesus did. The Shakers didn't...

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:: Green Print for Song (1974)

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In 1964, he married his second wife Leela Nair, with whom he had a son Michael, who became a neurosurgeon.

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He continued to work with Donald Swann writing six songs for the 1964 Donald Swann EP, Songs Of Faith And Doubt.

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In the 1960s, he also worked as a critic for Gramophone magazine.

Related Topics:
Critic - Gramophone

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In 1965, Carter wrote the six-song EP album Lord Of The Dance with Martin Carthy on guitar, the Johnny Scott Trio and the Mike Sammes singers.

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Sydney Carter: Bibliography ►