Penance (Sam Johnson's Lament)

Описание: The song Penance (Sam Johnson’s Lament) is based on the true event that took place in the town where I was born and lived for the first half of my life and where the rest of my immediate family still live. Here is Dr Samuel Johnson’s brief description of that event, in which, in his dotage and many years after the source of his pain, he felt the need to do a penance for having disobeyed his father.

“Once, indeed, I was disobedient. I refused to attend my father to Uttoxeter Market. Pride was the source of this refusal, and the remembrance of it was painful. A few years ago I desired to atone for this fault. I went to Uttoxeter in very bad weather, and stood for a considerable time, bareheaded, in the rain, on the spot where my father’s stall used to stand. In contrition I stood, and I hope the penance was expiatory.” (Dr. Johnson’s conversation with “Mr. Henry White, a young clergyman” in Lichfield, in 1784)—Boswell’s Life of Johnson.

A monument (a kiosk and conduit with a bas relief depiction of Johnson’s penance) stands in Uttoxeter’s Market Place and every year the Dr Johnson Society meet to commemorate the occasion. The monument, was for years a newspaper vendor’s shop and has been, among other uses, a baked potato outlet!!

The lyrics are by Julian Parker.

Do as I do
Don't do as I say
You've got to be kind to be cruel
Thinking you’re wise
Could be your demise
For a wiseman can soon become a fool

Sow what you reap
Practice what you preach
I have only yourself to blame
Like a beggar I speak
My pride out of reach
For you I will stand out in the rain

The shelter you gave
From cradle to grave
A light that I could not see
You’re no longer here
But I feel you so near
With this penance I'll set myself free

Let the rain wash me clean
From the fool I have been
A guilt that will drive me insane
How long will it take
My sins I forsake
For you I will stand out in the rain
For you I will stand out in the rain……