Songs for a Bard to sing

[Testament]

Eberron you say? I'd look up soldier's songs, especially from either WWI or the Napoleonic era, some great ones from around then. Some great bawdy ones too.

 

[Evilhalfling]

Ballad of Eskimo Nell

Cats on the Rooftops

the Ballad of King John the Bastard
Bring Me a Sheep....

None of these songs would be approved of by Erics Grandmother.

Our bards fav had was the Lay of Daring Deeds - the only part he sang was the chourus
"...and they died, died, died, died ..." it was very inspiring

 

[Severion]

Iron Maiden, "Die With Your Boots On", most anything by them works, maybe try some Floyd.

 

[Greylock]

This is why I never play, or should never be allowed to play, a bard.

Can't sing or perform worth a damn. But it seems to matter immensely to proto-bardic players. Doesn't seem to matter if I can't heal, summon animals, or cast fireballs IRL. But if you wanna play a bard....??

 

[Kuld]

You can always make them up yourself. It doesn’t take as much time as you might think. I used to do it for my bard PC, eons ago, and I still do for a bard NPC I often use IMC. Besides It adds a certain personal element to the character/game that the other players may (or may not ) appreciate more.

 

[MirrorMask]

Here is an old Irish folk song:

The Isle of Skye

Sing me a song
Of a lad that is gone
Over the sea to Skye

Merry of sail
He sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye

Willow and breeze
Islands and seas
Mountains of rain and snow

All that was good
All that was fair
All that was me is gone

Sing me a song
Of a lad that is gone
Over the sea to Skye

(I could be a little off on the lyrics, but that is how I remember my Irish grandmother teaching it to me.)

-MirrorMask

 

[Burrahobbit]

If you're looking for the lyrics to old broadside ballads and folk songs (or if you just want to go to a website that still has a .midi file playing in the background), this is a very good resource, organized thematically:

http://www.contemplator.com/folk.html

Some of them might not fit the campaign's atmosphere very well, but, even if you don't know the melodies, most of them are pretty easy to fake (or you could pick up a few Smithsonian Folkways albums, which are almost always worth it, anyway).

Public libraries usually have a few cassette tapes or CDs of Irish/Celtic type music (of sharply varying quality) that you could borrow from.

Testament's definitely got an interesting idea with the war and period songs; there's a 2-CD set of the popular music of WWI which I've never listened to, but you could at least find the track list on Amazon and then google the lyrics (it seems to have all the standards). There's also a series of CDs with the songs of the early 20th century (check on Amazon for "Waitin on the Levee" to see one of the series).

In addition to Bob Dylan, a lot of the Band's music has a sort of timeless quality that I could see working.

The 2E Bard's handbook had a whopping four sample songs for bard's to sing, including "The Skye Boat Song" and "The Minstrel Boy," both eminently appropriate.

And as some have noted, it can be fun to either invent or pull songs from other sources to cast your spells and bard abilties. (Elan the Order of the Stick bard is a good example of how to do this in an incredibly annoying and ineffective way ("Move, move, move, silently down the corridor!!"))

If you've got some small portable music-playing device, a good throwaway gag for your bard is saying "I Inspire Allies" and turn on "Eye of the Tiger."

 

[genshou]

I prefer to make my own songs. The one I'm about to share with you was actually developed for Pledge of Tyranny, but it'll be a while before it appears in the Story Hour, so you guys should consider yourselves lucky. This tune is popular among the Dalesfolk, especially itinerant merchants. The song as presented is the feminine version of the most popular variation. It is a song which starts out somber and melancholy, but picks up to a lilting, upbeat tempo by the end. Thrice O'er may not be appropriate for Eberron, as it was inspired by the feeling of camaraderie associated with heroes in the Forgotten Realms setting.

The following is copyrighted to Timothy P. Campbell. All rights reserved.

Thrice O'er
As penned by Lander the Jaunty of Daggerdale

Thrice o'er I pass the road tae home
Thrice o'er me longing waxeth
But still ahead me journey lies
So harrowing, it taxeth

Press oan I must, press oan
Until the shadows o'ercome
And wit' a heavy heart
See the peaks conceal the sun

And in the dark, the dreadful dark
Feel longing fer thee, me love
Thy touch, in the midst of the trees
And earth, seemeth soft as a dove

Without thee, oh me Theylïôn*
Me journeys must be the gravest
Wit' every waking moment I face
Think I of the love thou gavest

I travel now tae distant lands
Constant peril me only "friend"
If not fer thee, me Theylïôn
Me journeys surely shouldst end

Wit' weary heart, return I now
Me burdens seem so heavy
E'en wit' me best of effort giv'n
Our needs cannot we levy

The road seems longer wit' each step
Thy face I wish not tae view
Me hands again shall be empty
Me pockets still be so, too.

Yet, when I reach our humble door
Thou comest out tae greet me
And wit' thy arms around me thus
Relieve the ache within me

Me journey seems so long ago
When wit' thee be I reunited
Me hopes seemed tae be well restored
When thy face I lovingly sighted

The road again so long shall be
When again I must needs depart
But I fear not, me Theylïôn
For thou keepest me in thy heart

*Theylïôn (which may or may not appear correctly on your screen, it is Theylion with an umlaut above the "i" and a circumflex above the "o", good luck pronouncing it ) is an archaic elven word which denotes one's lover in a much endearing manner.

 

[Sanackranib]

the "bard" in my game likes to sing the greedy halfling song. its a song set to the "yellow rose of texas" about a halfling who while sitting at a table in an inn is served [well his table is] a plate of pasterys. he smaples one and finds it to his likeing whereuppon he grabs the rest. said action is witnessed by a bard who imediatly breaks out in the "greedy halfling song" and the refrain goes somthing like "if he eats them all he's gonna get fat" so the hafling puts a few back . . . then verse 2 starts somthing about "grubby little hands all over our pasterys . . " its become the "most popular" Inn song in my game sorry paul if you screw up in front of the bard its his OBLIGATION to imortalize you in song

 

[Hussar]

Here's more songs than you could ever possibly need.

I particularly like this one. Fantastically hillarious.