Seagull / Penny the Hero

[Peter Knight]

Steeleye Span sang Peter Knight’s “song about the game ‘shove penny’ ” (as the album’s sleeve notes said) on their 1989 album Tempted and Tried. A live recording from St. David’s Hall, Cardiff, on 6 December 1994 was released on the video 25 Live: The Classic Twenty Fifth Anniversary Tour Concert.

Peter Knight sang this song as Penny the Hero in a live recording that was included on Gigspanner’s 2017 album The Wife of Urban Law.

Lyrics

Steeleye Span sing Seagull

Penny is shining beneath a bright light
With another resting beside her.
Maybe the light one will come back tonight
With the memories she carries inside her.

Chorus (after each verse):
Seagull, seagull, three three in a bed.
Seagull, seagull, three three in a bed.

Penny the hero, Penny the fool,
The gold watch she gave me I’ll treasure.
They say that it’s only a game after all
Apart from the pain it’s a pleasure.

Penny is silent when fortunes are lost,
She knows there is nothing worth saying.
You’re all alone when you’re counting the cost.
Is it more than a game you’ve been playing?

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Patrick Montague for correcting the lyrics.