Across the Hills
One of Leon's most successful early songs, inspired by the nuclear issue, but applicable to other military disasters. The lyric follows a dialogue between two people caught in parallel realities, one trapped in the horror of the apocalypse, the other from a place unharmed. Although copyrighted by Leon, the melody owes a debt to the traditional song, "The Gardener", as recorded by Ewan MacColl in 1956, and we should also point out the song, "H Bomb Thunder", which according to Leon was set to the tune of "Miner's Lifeguard", and contained couplets such as:
Don't you hear the H-bombs' thunder?
Echo like the crack of doom
In his 2023 book, Where Are The Elephants? Leon mentions that this song was featured in a (rejected) West End musical he'd written in 1963, although he does not explicitely state it was written for the play.
Before being recorded by Leon, the song was released by The Ian Campbell Folk Group who used it as the title track to their 1964 album. (Although Leon conceived voice A as the female part, Ian Campbell handles these lines, and Lorna Campbell takes voice B.) A year later, The Three City Four captured their own version. Leon himself would have another crack in 1979, with then-regular collaborator Roy Bailey taking joint lead, and another in 1992, with Liz Mansfield.
Don't you hear the H-bombs' thunder?
Echo like the crack of doom
In his 2023 book, Where Are The Elephants? Leon mentions that this song was featured in a (rejected) West End musical he'd written in 1963, although he does not explicitely state it was written for the play.
Before being recorded by Leon, the song was released by The Ian Campbell Folk Group who used it as the title track to their 1964 album. (Although Leon conceived voice A as the female part, Ian Campbell handles these lines, and Lorna Campbell takes voice B.) A year later, The Three City Four captured their own version. Leon himself would have another crack in 1979, with then-regular collaborator Roy Bailey taking joint lead, and another in 1992, with Liz Mansfield.
"This is one of the best songs to come out of the folk revival... What is remarkable about the text is its particularity and its vividness, giving it the force of a dozen ordinary protest songs." - Steven Sedley (sleevenotes to The Three City Four, 1965)
"Voice A was conceived as being for a girl, voice B for a man. The two attitudes are intended to be complementary rather than contradictory - I wasn't taking sides. Together, they seem to me to represent a more complete awareness - of the possibilities of life and the possibility of its destruction." - LR (Songs For City Squares and Sceptical Circles (songbook), 1966)
“This song, recorded by the Ian Campbell Folk Group in 1964 and forty years later by Barbara Dickson, has had a long life, perhaps because the threats to the life of the planet it envisages extend further than from nuclear weapons. The opening stanza could just as easily refer to the ecocide wrought by America in Vietnam.” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), 2011)
"Voice A was conceived as being for a girl, voice B for a man. The two attitudes are intended to be complementary rather than contradictory - I wasn't taking sides. Together, they seem to me to represent a more complete awareness - of the possibilities of life and the possibility of its destruction." - LR (Songs For City Squares and Sceptical Circles (songbook), 1966)
“This song, recorded by the Ian Campbell Folk Group in 1964 and forty years later by Barbara Dickson, has had a long life, perhaps because the threats to the life of the planet it envisages extend further than from nuclear weapons. The opening stanza could just as easily refer to the ecocide wrought by America in Vietnam.” - LR (sleevenotes to The World Turned Upside Down (CD box set), 2011)
Recordings
Cover version (1964) By The Ian Campbell Folk Group. Also issued as a B-side single
Version 1 (1965) With Marian McKenzie (voice A) and Ralph Trainer (voice B) on vocals
Version 2 (1979) Leon takes voice A, Roy Bailey voice B
Version 3 (1992) Leon takes voice A, Liz Mansfield voice B
- Across The Hills .
Version 1 (1965) With Marian McKenzie (voice A) and Ralph Trainer (voice B) on vocals
- The Three City Four
- The Acoustic Folk Box (CD box set) (2002) Various artists collection
- Smoke & Dust
Version 2 (1979) Leon takes voice A, Roy Bailey voice B
Version 3 (1992) Leon takes voice A, Liz Mansfield voice B