Sydney Bertram Carter
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Sydney Bertram Carter, British poet, songwriter and folk musician, a Christian, was born at Camden Town, London, on 6 May 1915, and died 13 March 2004.
Sydney Carter is best known for two songs:
- One More Step along the road I go...
- Lord Of The Dance (1963), an adaptation of the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts featured in Aaron Copland's ballet Appalachian Spring.
Education
- Islington
- Christ's Hospital school in Horsham, West Sussex
- University: read history at Balliol College, Oxford (1930s)
Work
- teaching at Frensham Heights school, in Farnham, Surrey (1940s);
- service in World War II with the Friends' Ambulance Unit in the Middle East and Greece;
- lyricist for Donald Swann's reviews and musicals (1950s);
- 1962 album Putting Out The Dustbin with Sheila Hancock, with the song Last Cigarette on failing to give up smoking that became a minor hit;
- 1964 composed six songs for the Donald Swann EP, Songs Of Faith And Doubt;
- critic for Gramophone magazine;
- 1965 wrote the six-song EP album Lord Of The Dance with Martin Carthy on guitar, the Johnny Scott Trio and the Mike Sammes singers;
Personal
- 1999 - Alzheimer's disease
- Family:
- second wife: Leela Carter
- son: Michael Carter - neurosurgeon
- second wife: Leela Carter