Lyrics and Chords

Lyrics and Chords

Click here for Elaine Wood singing The Spinning Wheel Song

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Lyrics and Chords

The lyrics to the Spinning Wheel Song tells the story of a young girl who is spinning in her home while her blind grandmother snoozes by the fireside.

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The girl’s lover comes to call and she is torn between going with him or staying with her grandmother. No prizes for guessing that she goes with the lover.

The chords are given here in C Major for simplicity. The song is often performed in D Major or Eflat major.

Guitarists who wish to play in D Major can simply put a capo on the second fret and use the chord shapes below to produce the correct chords. To play in Eflat major, place the capo on the third fret.

Two more videos on Spinning Wheel main page.

The Spinning Wheel Song – lyrics and chords

C 

Mellow the moonlight to shine is  

G7 

beginning.

 

Close by the window young Eileen is  

C 

spinning

 

Bent o’er the  

C7 

fire her blind  

F 

grandmother 

 

 

C 

sitting

 

G7 

Crooning and moaning and drowsily  

C 

knitting.

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Chorus

 

C 

Merrily cheerily noiselessly  

G 

whirring

 

Spins the wheel, rings the wheel while the foot’s  

C 

stirring,

 

Sprightly and  

C7 

lightly and  

F 

merrily 

 

 

C 

ringing

Dm 

Sounds the sweet  

G7 

voice of the young maiden  

C 

singing.

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“Eileen, a chara, I hear someone tapping.”

“ ‘Tis the ivy dear mother against the glass flapping.”

“Eileen, I surely hear somebody sighing.”

“ ‘Tis the sound mother dear of the autumn winds dying.”

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Chorus

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“What’s the noise I hear at the window I wonder?”

“ ‘Tis the little birds chirping, the holly-bush under.”

“What makes you shoving and moving your stool so,

And singing all wrong the old song of ‘The Coolun’?”

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Chorus

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There’s a form at the casement, the form of her true love,

And he whispers with face bent, “I’m waiting for you love.

Get up from the stool, through the lattice step lightly,

And we’ll rove in the grove while the moon’s shining brightly.”

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Chorus

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The maid shakes her head, on her lips lays her fingers,

Steps up from the stool, longs to go - and yet lingers.

A frightened glance turns to her drowsy grandmother

Puts her foot on the stool, spins the wheel with the other.

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Chorus

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Lazily, easily, now swings the wheel round,

Slowly and lowly is heard now the reel’s sound.

Noiseless and light to the lattice above her

The maid steps, then leaps to the arms of her lover.

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Chorus

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Slower… and slower… and slower the wheel swings,

Lower… and lower… and lower the reel rings

Ere the reel and the wheel stop their ringing and moving

Through the grove the young lovers by moonlight are roving.

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Chorus

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Lyrics and Chords