WILLIAM TELL
Theme from the TV Series "The Adventures Of William Tell" (1957)
(Music by Gioacchino Rossini / Lyrics by Harold Purcell)

David Whitfield - 1957



Come away, come away with William Tell,
Come away to the land he loved so well;
What a day, what a day when the apple fell,
For Tell and Switzerland

Come away with Tell to the mountainside
Look down to the pass where the tyrants ride.
Fit a bolt to your bow and down they go,
For Tell and Switzerland

We are simple peasant folk
We will not bear a foreign yoke
Our freedom song will echo on
To fight for what is right.

Hurry on, hurry on, there’s a dungeon cell;
Hurry on, hurry on, there’s a noose as well;
But we'll escape from the jaws of hell
For Tell and Switzerland.

We lived our lives, we loved our friends,
We never wanted more.
We had the skill to plough and till,
But not the art of war,
But now the tyrant from the plains
Steals up to take our lands,
Instead of spade we wield the blade
Our life is in our hands.


 (with closing credits:)
 
Follow on, follow on, at the leader's heel
With a thrust of a pike and a clash of steel
Follow on with the fight till the tyrants reel
For Tell and Switzerland.

Give ‘em one for the day they burned the grain,
Give ‘em two for the night that Fritz was slain,
Give ‘em three, give ‘em four and hooray for more,
For Tell and Switzerland.

The shepherd’s crook, the reaping hook
Has taken on a warlike look.
With blades we’ve beaten from the plough
We'll reap a harvest now.

Come away, come away with William Tell,
Come away to the land he loved so well
Fit a bolt to your bow, and away we go
For Te-e-e-ell, and Switzerland.




(Transcribed by Bill Huntley - November 2004
From "The Very Best of David Whitfield" - Volume Two
additional info from Bruce Laidlaw August 2018)