Alice Day returns

Once again it is Alice Day, the day when I put up lyrics, chords, and an mp3 for a new song. Alice Day is named for my friend Alice who originally asked me to put up some music, reminding me that there are people out there who are interested, and inspiring the current going-on-two-year burst of creativity.

This current song was inspired by the League of Women Voters and a little reading I did on the Women's Suffrage movement that sacrificed so much to get women the right to vote.  Like all my Alice Day songs, it is available from my hwaet.org songbook page

Seneca Falls
lyrics and melody by Cat Faber 2012
mp3 here

       D        A7         D         G
Five women sat talking at afternoon tea.
     D                    A
One spark a great fire ignites.
        D        A7        D          G
They decided to hold a convention, to be
    D          A          D
On women's condition and rights.
    G                            D        A
It must have seemed practically crazy to try
    D                                        A
So different their lives, in that distant July,
       D             A7          D       G
Yet a world greatly bettered in honor recalls
     D                     A      D
The Women's Convention in Seneca Falls.

They borrowed a Methodist chapel, but were
Locked out by mistake on that day.
Beth's nephew crawled in through the window for her,
And let them all in the back way.
As liberty locked from debate will despatch
A friend through the window to lift up the latch.
Now a world greatly bettered in honor recalls
The Women's Convention in Seneca Falls.

They laid out a bold declaration of rights,
And sentiments any must note,
Their measures to set the injustice to rights
Proposed giving women the vote.
One hundred people signed on to it then,
Sixty-eight women and thirty-two men.
And a world greatly bettered in honor recalls
The Women's Convention in Seneca Falls.

A fire too many times smothered, this theme
As many times leapt up anew.
But of all the people who signed for the dream,
Just one lived to see it come true.
But sometimes it happens the works we begin
Take more than one lifetime to finally win
A world greatly bettered in honor recalls
The Women's Convention in Seneca Falls