And this is one that I'll bet nobody else here knows because it was written by a friend of mine named Gerry Hubbe who lived in Eugene and who is unfortunately no longer living, but he used to sing songs to children and play his guitar and this, which also has a beautiful, haunting, but simple tune, is a song he wrote. It is one of my very favorite songs:

Who Are You?

Who are you, branching tree?
Who are you, buzzing bee?
Who am I, perfect me?
Who are you, Mystery?

Who knows you, branching tree?
Who knows you, buzzing bee?
Who knows me, perfect me?
Who knows you, Mystery?

Yet we are wisdom,
Yet we are known.
And we together
Make the earth our home.

Yet we are fleeting,
Yet we are old,
And we can carry
Beauty in the world.

Sing and dance and laugh and cry and be who we are.
Honor each other for the burdens we bear.
Work and play and live and die and be who we are.
Honor each other for the light that we share.

Who are you, branching tree?
Who are you buzzing bee?
Who am I, perfect me?
Who are you, Mystery?

Thanks for finding that link to From the Beginning, Saffron.

Since you liked that '70's blast from the past, and to make up for posting something for which I can't post the tune that no one knows, I'm posting one most people know, with the music. This is also one of my all-time favorite songs, just to lie down and listen to, in order to feel better, from the days when people had attention spans....

"Remember when you were young?
And you shone like the sun.
Shine on, you crazy diamond..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyqgjCKm9nQ

Laura Veirs is a favorite of mine. Her lyrics are poetry and so is her music.

Cast A Hook In Me


Breathe life to the street from the mouth
Those ruby red lips have much to give
Pull life from the land with your capable hands
Those life loving beautiful broken hands
Oh, I'll stand with you and marvel
At the cosmos pink and bright
All the pages flipping backwards
Til time is gone and wrong is right

Rivers running up the hills and to the sky and down to the sea
Where a merman with a twinkle casts a hook in me

Sing me a salty blue song, I'll be gone
With watery cheeks down flowered lanes
Tattered sails on a ramshackle ship, I'll go pale
Staring straight in the face looming tempest waves
Otherwise I'll wither and die here
On this reach of rubble rambling
With two years filled up with sand, dear
In a broken daze I'll be scrambling

Like rivers running up the hills and to the sky and down to the sea
Where a merman with a twinkle casts a hook in me

Summer sky falling into the sea, taking part of me
See the bones on the sand in the light
All the heards of the sea rushing by, pay no mind
To the dancing reflections gone wild
And at night a fractured star fell
And pierced right through the thick of me
I cried out in pain and joy, yes
I'm not dead, not numb, not withering

Like a falling leaf who keeps her green
I'm turning bright in the sea
Where a merman with a twinkle casts a hook in me

Laura Veirs - Cast a hook in me

Please excuse the thematic break. I am jumping over to this thread from the one about original poetry to post the words to this favorite Quaker hymn.

That Cause Can Neither Be Lost Nor Stayed

That cause can neither be lost nor stayed
Which takes the course of what God has made
And is not trusting in walls and towers
But quietly growing from seeds to flowers.

Each noble service that men have wrought
Was first conceived as a fruitful thought.
Each worthy cause with a future glorious
By quietly growing becomes victorious.

Then by itself like a tree it shows
That high it reaches as deep it grows
And though the storms are its branches shaking,
It deeper root in the soil is taking.

Then be no more by the storm dismayed,
For by it the full-grown seed is laid,
And if the tree by its might it shatters,
What then, if thousands of seeds it scatters?


That's it. I love the idea that what IS, simply grows strong and deep and reaches high and spreads beauty and life and has no need to fight for its life, because it is life and as such in its largest, truest Self will never be destroyed.

Good idea for a thread. Steeleye Span did this creepy ballad back in the 70s, borrowing the lyrics from an old English poem, I think. It has always haunted me.

Chorus:
Mother mother make my bed
Make for me a winding sheet
Wrap me up in a cloak of gold
See if I can sleep
Four and twenty bonny bonny boys playing at the hall
Along came little Sir Hugh, he played with them all
He kicked the ball very high, he kicked the ball so low,
He kicked it over a castle wall where no one dared to go

Out came a lady gay, she was dressed in green
"Come in, come in little Sir Hugh, fetch your ball again"
"I won't come in, I can't come in without my play mates all
For if I should I know you would cause my blood to fall"
Chorus
She took him by the milk white hand, led him to the hall
Till they came to a stone chamber where no one could hear him call
She sat him on a golden chair, she gave him sugar sweet
She lay him on a dressing board and stabbed him like a sheep

Out came the thick thick blood, out came the thin
Out came the bonny heart's blood till there was none within
She took him by the yellow hair and also by the feet
She threw him in the old draw well fifty fathoms deep

Chorus

And, speaking of Dylan, this is one of the few songs I can recite from memory.

Subterranean Homesick Blues

Johnnys in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
Im on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says hes got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
Its somethin you did
God knows when
But youre doin it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin for a new friend
The man in the coon-skin cap
In the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten

Maggie comes fleet foot
Face full of black soot
Talkin that the heat put
Plants in the bed but
The phones tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early may
Orders from the d. a.
Look out kid
Dont matter what you did
Walk on your tip toes
Dont try no doz
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You dont need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows

Get sick, get well
Hang around a ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write braille
Get jailed, jump bail
Join the army, if you fail
Look out kid
Youre gonna get hit
But losers, cheaters
Six-time users
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool
Lookin for a new fool
Dont follow leaders
Watch the parkin meters

Ah get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Dont steal, dont lift
Twenty years of schoolin
And they put you on the day shift
Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Dont wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Dont wanna be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump dont work
cause the vandals took the handles

You picked a good one, Geo! I love listening to that Dylan song, but it's always gone by so fast with so many other things going on, I have never learned the words. I admire you for knowing them all. I would also like to learn all the words to "Hard Rain," which you reminded me of by posting the above. Anyone have those lyrics?

I've always like the chorus to this song especially the final four lines. It makes you think about the things in life that you get very upset about and think you cannot deal with, when in reality they are not as important as you think. I used to sing these lines to my kids when we were overreacting to some small problem in life, and I'd sing it in a very passionate, wailing voice. I'm sure they appreciated it.


Mac Arthur's Park


Spring was never waiting for us till
it ran one step ahead
as we followed in the dance.

Between the parted pages
we were pressed,
in love's hot, fevered iron
like a striped pair of pants.

Mac Arthur's Park is melting in the dark
all the sweet green icing flowing down
someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'cause it took so long to bake it
and I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, nooo!

I recall the yellow cotton dress
foaming like a wave
on the ground beneath your knees
birds like tender babies in your hands
and the old men playing
Chinese checkers
by the trees

Mac Arthur Park's is melting in the dark
all the sweet green icing flowing down
someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'cause it took so long to bake it
and I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, nooo!

There'll be another song for me
and I will sing it
there'll be another dream for me
someone will bring it
I will drink the wine while it is warn
and never let you catch me
looking at the sun, oh yeah
and after all the loves of my life
after all loves in my life
you'll be the one

I will take my life into my hands
and I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes
and I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
and my passion flow
like rivers through the sky
oh and after all the loves in my life
after all the loves in my life
you'll still be the one
and I'll ask myself why.

Mac Arthur's Park is melting in the dark
all the sweet green icing flowing down
someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'cause it took so long to bake it
and I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, nooo!

So glad to see people enjoying this thread! I love it - Boy Dylan, a Quaker hymn to Steeleye Span.

One of my favourites by a great Canadian poet and songwriter, maybe mediocre singer though ... but he does sing with passion.

Suzanne
Leonard Cohen

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half crazy
But that's why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That come all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you've always been her lover

And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.

And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone

And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with his mind.

Now Suzanne takes your hand
And she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers
From Salvation Army counters
And the sun pours down like honey
On our lady of the harbour
And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed
There are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love
And they will lean that way forever
While Suzanne holds the mirror

And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that you can trust her
For she's touched your perfect body with her mind