Beeswing
More actions
"Beeswing" is a song written by English folk rock musician Richard Thompson and released on his 1994 album Mirror Blue. In 2022, The Longest Johns were featured on a cover of the song by Celtic Woman for their album Postcards from Ireland.
Lyrics
Based on the recording with Celtic Woman.
I was nineteen when I came to town
They called it a summer of love
They were burning pages, burning flags
The hawks against the doves
I took a job in the steamie
Down in Cauldron Street
I fell in love with a laundry girl
Who was working next to me
{Chorus}
Oh she was a rare thing
Fine as a beeswing
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
She was a lost child
Well she was running wild
She said, "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay
And you wouldn't want me any other way"
Brown hair zig-zag around her face
A look of half-surprise
Like a fox caught in the headlights
There was animal in her eyes
She said, "Young man, oh can't you see
I'm not the factory kind
If you don't take me out of here
I'll surely lose my mind"
{Chorus}
We busked around the market towns
And picked fruit down in Kent
We could tinker lamps and pots
And knives wherever we went
And I said that we might settle down
Get a few acres dug
Fire burning in the hearth
And babies on the rug
She said, "Oh man, you foolish man
It surely sounds like hell
You might be Lord of half the world
You'll not own me as well"
{Chorus}
We were camping down the Gower one time
The work was pretty good
She thought we shouldn't wait for a frost
And I thought maybe we should
We were fighting more in those days
And tempers reached a pitch
And like a fool I let her run
With the rambling itch
{Chorus}
She said, "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay
And you wouldn't want me any other way"