Earthspan

My father was a lighthouse keeper
By Malcolm LeMaistre
 
LeMaistre: lead vocal, acoustic guitar
Robin: violin, cello, backing vocals
Heron: bass, piano, backing vocals
Dave Mattacks: drums
Produced by Mike Heron,
strings produced by Robin Williamson
 
Lying on the beach with desire
Rocking to the music of the waves
I was in despair
My heart needed repair
My lover had lied to me but
I was bored by what I saw there
Why? Why! Why?
My father was a lighthouse keeper
Watched the waves getting steeper
Watched the ships going down
In cadillacs they sailed with the tide
Beneath the pier the sea she stroked the night
I rocked a little then
I moved my body again
My lover kissed my lips
I was digging what I saw there
Why! Why? Why!
My father was a lighthouse keeper
Watched the waves getting steeper
Watched the ships going down
We watched the days slip by and the stars explode
And we watched them once again
Oh the laughter rose a cheer
Oh the laughter so nice to hear
Oh the laughter so good and free
Oh the laughter so nice to see
 
I lay among the shells and coke cans
In my lover
All the people were eating
And smiling sadly in their big cars
My father looked down from his lighthouse
He saw it all he knew it all
Then he laughed a little
Oh so pretty
Oh so easy
 
 
Antoine
By Mike Heron
 
Heron: church organ, vocals
Produced by Mike Heron
 
So still the green and golden plain in icy spring
They young French convent girls in white singing
He took the sacrament young Antoine not without a blush
He left the priest the good book the bread and cup
And took with him the voices hanging in the silver space
Not till he'd reached the vineyard rim did he look down
On the gentle valley breathing in the sun
Seeing the eastern slope where she lived he spoke her name
In love beyond his years he saw the mist come down
And knew there would be many mists he'd look through
For this mountain star
Ah if you'd seen me there hiding in the orchard
Rejoicing in my warm salt tears
Holding to my heart the beauty of a sad song
Needing, needing you.
 
 
Restless Night
By Robin Williamson
 
Robin: guitar, lead vocal
Heron: electric piano
Likky: backing vocals
Dave Mattacks: drums
Produced by Robin Williamson and Mike Heron
 
restless Night
walking nowhere in the foggy dew
restless years
whispering through
very long clouds
very low clouds
 
very long clouds
very low clouds
 
it wakes in me the wound of days
as dawn breaks bleak
I call to you
present the mirror as you comb your hair
horizons rising icy blue
yes and tall walls dwindle
steeples sink into the sea
old keys for old locks splash up a spray
grey thoughts and useless papers they roll and blow away
while the band was playing such a sad refrain
sounds my ears have lost
continue through the rain
 
 
Sunday Song
Lyrics by McKechnie, Music by Mike Heron
 
Likky: vocals
Heron: piano, organ, vocals
LeMaistre: vocals
Robin: oboe, flute, mandolin
Brian Davidson: drums
Produced by Mike Heron
 
In the church made of living trees entwined
Green and dapple golden trees enshrined us
I heard the mice murmur in the corners
Saw the moles move deep below the ground
 
Far below the great ships trembled
And a million men almost remembered
For one did
We are bonded
Love is god
For one did we are bonded love is god
Gold is roses and horses
Kissing petals, swishing tails
Love is god oh sweet joy
 
Venus fell for a while in England
Air was sweet as milk
The boy child's kisses still changed into birds
Grasses were violet swaying like silk
 
Now my friends are scattered wide
Over planet earth
I have so much to tell each one
Those of chosen birth
My friends who fold their wings away
In the day
 
Ah strange surprise
Grass being green
On planet earth
Galaxy thirteen
 
Yes I have so much to tell each one
Of things I truly know
Of our journeying creating golden dawn
Of our sweet and awesome bond
Why we fold our wings away
In the day
 
Love is god, it god oh sweet joy.
 
 
Black Jack David
By Mike Heron
 
Heron: acoustic guitar, lead vocals
Robin: violin, vocak
LeMaistre: mandolin
Stan Lee: bass, high hat, handclaps
Jack Ingram: handclaps
Produced by Mike Heron
 
Black Jack David is the name that I bear
Been alone in the forests a long time
But the time is coming when a lady I'll find
I will love her and hold her
Singing through the green green trees
The skin on my hands is like the leather I ride
And my face is hard from the cold wind
But my heart so warm with the song that I sing
Will charm a fair lady
Singing though the green green trees
 
Fari Eloise rode out that day
From her fine fine home in the morning
In the flush of dawn came a sound to her ear
Drifting and floating
Singing through the green green trees
 
Last night she slept on a fine feather bed
Far far from Black Jack David
But tonight she'll sleep on the cold cold ground
And love him and hold him
Singing through the green green trees
 
Oh saddle me up my fine grey mare
Cried the lord of the house next morning
For my servants tell me my daughter's gone
With Black Jack David
Singing through the green green trees
 
Now he rode all day and he rode all night
But he never did find his daughter
But he heard from afar come drift on the wind
Two voices laughing
 
Singing through the green green trees.
 
 
Banks of Sweet Italy
By Robin Williamson
 
Likky: vocals
Robin: bass, hardanger fiddle, guitar, vocak
LeMaistre: whistle, vocals
Heron: organ
Produced by Robin Williamson
 
and must you go my flower my gem
my laughter and my hope of joy
to follow fortune through all the world
make luck pursue you my darling boy
 
the sun shines bright in France
yellow it shines on high barbaree
o be my light of day
tarry not long on the banks of sweet Italy
 
a golden ring is a precious thing
red stockings and shoes of green
a dwelling place with painted door
a wide white bed to love you in
 
summer's gone with calm days
ungentle now is Biscay Bay
a cold fear claims my heart
god save all sailors from the cruel waves
 
 
The Actor
Lyrics by Malcolm LeMaistre, Music by Robin Williamson
 
LeMaistre: lead vocals
Heron: bass, piano
Robin: guitar, electric piano, flutes, viola, backing vocals
Produced by Robin Williamson
 
The actor leaves the stage with a rose in his hand
He settles in the back seat his thoughts are like fine sand
Driven through the rain swept streets casting a melancholy stare
Upon two enraptured loves kissing without a care
 
The dreams of an actor spill slowly by
Like the thoughts of a dreamer or the casting of a die
Talking to gay fellows of the follies on which they perch
He saw a lovely lady beneath the arches of a church
 
Cigarettes in the airless twenties
An estate well filled with dust
In the evening reading Swinburne
Eating mightily with some false lust
But a kiss was what we found
On damp but friendly ground
 
The lady wore no makeup but she stood like a swan
Thin body of a dancer her dress was quietly torn
Her eyes searched his distant heart that lingered in the ram
But his friends caught his iron gaze and carried it away again
 
Broken hearted in the loveless twenties
Where a wink was like an embrace
Making love on blue fridays
From across some foggy space
But a kiss was what we found
On damp but friendly ground
 
Tea was like a mirror a reflection never there
His thoughts upon that ring of love that burned upon her stare
Her eyes her lips her chin her grace the rain upon her hair
Thus it gripped his white gloved heart can anyone be so fair
 
Untied in the breezy twenties
With a hand held in my arms
Bearing my heart to the hallowed spires
Of this quiet and ancient land
For a kiss was what we found
On damp but friendly ground
 
 
Moon Hang Low
By Robin Williamson
 
Robin: guitar, vocals
Heron: bass
Dave Mattacks: drums
Produced by Mike Heron and Robin Williamson
 
let the moon hang low low down in the sky
the lower it goes the higher we fly
one small candle is just enough light
for endless moments of love bright
 
and the more I know you the more I know
and the more I love you the more love grows
 
let the fire burn way down low
in those early hours easy hours
when the world turns slow.
 
 
Sailor and the Dancer
By Malcolm LeMaistre
 
LeMaistre: harmonium, vocals
Robin: guitar, gimbri, chinese flutes
Likky: backing vocals
Produced by Robin Williamson
 
Beneath some shaded planet
before this earth was born
We came together
and we danced in the early dawn
For my hands contain ten dances
that shall bear us into the night
Into the sea
and the moon's morning light
Night mimed a bow
and broke into the day
Fair sailors and their cautious friends
smiled on the sea
That reflected all their gazes
and danced with the air
The breezes filled the sails
high against the quay
High on the limpid waves the ship it did fly
Rising as a condor into the silvery sky
Passing through the arches that begin his earth
The sailors saw the scenic air
as air gave Earth it's birth
Gazing ahead towards today
They saw the fields of this world
They watched the first new dancers
As their bodies did unfurl.
 
 
Seagull
By Mike Heron
 
Heron: acoustic and electric guitars, hammond organ, accordian, lead vocal
Robin: flute, ghimbri, whistle, guitar
Likky: backing vocals, bass
Digger and friends: additional backing vocals
Produced by Mike Heron
 
Cold morning sun to show me where I spent the night
Sun can you find through porthole on the anchored sea – me
Then I'm walking on the prom deck asking the sky
Oh someone won't you hear my cry
Come and stop my questioning, stop my lie
And maybe give me a sign to show me it's alright
 
Seagull come fly me your song your high song
 
It's very true there's nothing to complain of here
You know I've tried and not found an enemy to fear – here
There's safety in the warm thoughts all around me
Adventure in the strange port quay
But still a questioning in the quiet of me
Why do I need a sign to show me it's alright
 
Seagull come fly me your song your high song
All right, out on the rolling, rolling sea
Now.
 

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