Aha! I found it!
Way back in 2000, in the height of my Celtic Music craze, I rewrote If I Were a Blackbird, one of my favorite Silly Wizard songs. Or, rather, I kept the refrain and the first verse and rewrote the rest. (It could have been earlier, in truth, but the file I have is dated 2000.) Edit: Actually, it was 1998, and the lost lyrics have been available all this time with a quick Google Search. Of course!
A couple of weeks ago, I went in search of it again, and couldn't find it on my harddrive. This morning, since I'm out of disks, I decided to transfer some more photos and I found it!
It's funny, because I wrote this and posted it on a folk music related board a long time ago and someone actually emailed me years later to ask if they could use my lyrics in their band. Which was cool. I wish I remembered who asked me so I could see if it was ever recorded, but I don't think they were recording anything.
It will be on my website eventually, but here it is now:
(Tune: Traditional; First verse and refrain: traditional; the rest copyright 1998 Jennifer St. Clair; permission to use usually granted upon request.)
Refrain: If I were a blackbird,
Could whistle and sing
I’d follow the vessel
My true love sails in
And in the top rigging
I would there build my nest
And I’d flutter my wings
O’er her lily white breast
My parents they chide me
And will not agree
They say me and my false love
Married will never be
Ah, but let them deprive me
Oh let them do what they will
While there’s breath in my body
She’s the one that I’ll love still
Oh, if I was a blackbird
Could whistle and sing
I’d follow the vessel
My true love sails in
And in the top rigging
I would there build my nest
And I’d flutter my wings
O’er her lily white breast
I met this fair maiden
Back in London town
She ‘witched me and wooed me
‘til I thought I would drown
Then she pushed me aside
And went on with her life
She laughed when I said
I wanted her for my wife
Refrain
I left home one morning
Through snow, sleet and hail
I wanted to catch her
before she set sail
But alas, my heart broke
As the ship left the shore
And I lay there, a-moaning
To see her no more
Refrain
I went to the witch
Who lives out by the sea
And asked her for help
To get my love back to me
She offered me potions
She offered me wine
But not a drop I would drink
Till my love was mine.
Refrain
She gave me a bottle
She bade me to drink
I drank and I shivered--
I dared not to think
Was this death that I tasted
Or redemption at last?
Ah, my heart, it is broken
But the pain it will... pass?
Refrain
And now as I lay here
With grass for my bed
I lie here and wonder
Will she cry when I’m dead?
Will her sorrow surround her
As she kneels by my side
Or will she laugh as she dances
On the hill that I died?
Oh, if I was a blackbird
Could whistle and sing
I’d follow the vessel
My true love sails in
And in the top rigging
I would there build my nest
And I’d flutter my wings
O’er her lily white breast
I wake the next morning
I open new eyes
I flutter my feathers
I soar to the skies
The witch waves me on
And I fly out to sea
I will never forget her
But will she know me?
Oh, if I was a blackbird
Could whistle and sing
I’d follow the vessel
My true love sails in
And in the top rigging
I would there build my nest
And I’d flutter my wings
O’er her lily white breast
(And if you really, really want to hear me sing through my cell phone, wander on over to Pieces of String too Short to Save.)
Way back in 2000, in the height of my Celtic Music craze, I rewrote If I Were a Blackbird, one of my favorite Silly Wizard songs. Or, rather, I kept the refrain and the first verse and rewrote the rest. (It could have been earlier, in truth, but the file I have is dated 2000.) Edit: Actually, it was 1998, and the lost lyrics have been available all this time with a quick Google Search. Of course!
A couple of weeks ago, I went in search of it again, and couldn't find it on my harddrive. This morning, since I'm out of disks, I decided to transfer some more photos and I found it!
It's funny, because I wrote this and posted it on a folk music related board a long time ago and someone actually emailed me years later to ask if they could use my lyrics in their band. Which was cool. I wish I remembered who asked me so I could see if it was ever recorded, but I don't think they were recording anything.
It will be on my website eventually, but here it is now:
(Tune: Traditional; First verse and refrain: traditional; the rest copyright 1998 Jennifer St. Clair; permission to use usually granted upon request.)
Refrain: If I were a blackbird,
Could whistle and sing
I’d follow the vessel
My true love sails in
And in the top rigging
I would there build my nest
And I’d flutter my wings
O’er her lily white breast
My parents they chide me
And will not agree
They say me and my false love
Married will never be
Ah, but let them deprive me
Oh let them do what they will
While there’s breath in my body
She’s the one that I’ll love still
Oh, if I was a blackbird
Could whistle and sing
I’d follow the vessel
My true love sails in
And in the top rigging
I would there build my nest
And I’d flutter my wings
O’er her lily white breast
I met this fair maiden
Back in London town
She ‘witched me and wooed me
‘til I thought I would drown
Then she pushed me aside
And went on with her life
She laughed when I said
I wanted her for my wife
Refrain
I left home one morning
Through snow, sleet and hail
I wanted to catch her
before she set sail
But alas, my heart broke
As the ship left the shore
And I lay there, a-moaning
To see her no more
Refrain
I went to the witch
Who lives out by the sea
And asked her for help
To get my love back to me
She offered me potions
She offered me wine
But not a drop I would drink
Till my love was mine.
Refrain
She gave me a bottle
She bade me to drink
I drank and I shivered--
I dared not to think
Was this death that I tasted
Or redemption at last?
Ah, my heart, it is broken
But the pain it will... pass?
Refrain
And now as I lay here
With grass for my bed
I lie here and wonder
Will she cry when I’m dead?
Will her sorrow surround her
As she kneels by my side
Or will she laugh as she dances
On the hill that I died?
Oh, if I was a blackbird
Could whistle and sing
I’d follow the vessel
My true love sails in
And in the top rigging
I would there build my nest
And I’d flutter my wings
O’er her lily white breast
I wake the next morning
I open new eyes
I flutter my feathers
I soar to the skies
The witch waves me on
And I fly out to sea
I will never forget her
But will she know me?
Oh, if I was a blackbird
Could whistle and sing
I’d follow the vessel
My true love sails in
And in the top rigging
I would there build my nest
And I’d flutter my wings
O’er her lily white breast
(And if you really, really want to hear me sing through my cell phone, wander on over to Pieces of String too Short to Save.)
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