Last Of The Summer Wine

Original Air Dates: 1973 - 2001 (BBC1)

Music by Paul Hart and Joe Campbell and lyrics by Bob Mahoney.

Additional lyrics by Roy Clarke (see below).

The last of the summer wine.  The last of the summer wine.
The sweet bouquet of memories, of you and I, as time goes by,
I still remember these.

The last of the summer wine.
When passing shadows still recur, of golden days, so young in love,
And that's the way we were.

We had our dreams to change the world as people will,
But now we're known as the folk who live on the hill.

The last of the summer wine,
A vintage love, a vintage brew, and now my love this toast I give,
Thank you for being you.

   

 

The following lyrics are by Roy Clarke, the long-time writer of the show. They were first sung on the movie Getting Sam Home and altered for the episode Just A Small Funeral.

The colour of summer's gone,
Of golden days when I was young,
Of girls who came but soon moved on.  Is in my summer wine.

The perfumes of earth and vine,
Of meadows when the rain has gone,
Of women with their finery on.  Is in my summer wine.

The memories I can see, here in my cup,
Of sweet short days, bitter days, now all drunk up.

The taste of the life that slips,
From day to day through fingers blind,
The honey from the woman's lips is in my summer wine.

The following are the modified lyrics sung in the Just A Small Funeral episode. The were altered to fit the situation of the episode.

Now all of his summer's gone
Those urgent days when he was young
Those girls he loved but soon moved on to drink his summer wine.

Now perfumes of earth and vine
Of meadows when the rain has gone
These friends with their black armbands on salute his summer wine.

The memories he left to me, here in my cup,
Of sweet short days, bitter days, now all drunk up.

The fullness of the life that slipped
The other day all mortal pain
Free now to roam fresh hills and lanes and taste eternal wine.