Saturday, November 2, 2019

Anne Murray - Snowbird

Today the local Harley Owners Group cleaned up trash along one of the county roads as part of the "Adopt-a-Highway" program.  We got a lot - 14 big bags in half a mile or so - which is a sad indictment of the local drivers.

But it was 33° at 8:00 this morning.  Two days ago it was 70°.  Winter is coming.

Who better to sing about winter than a Canadian, eh?  And who better to represent Canadian country music than Anne Murray - who I was somewhat astonished to find that I haven't posted even once in eleven years of country music blogging.  I mean, she has four Grammys.  Probably the reason was that she was as much pop as country (one of the Grammys was in the pop category).  But she has more Gold and Platinum albums than you can shake a snow shovel at, and this was her very first hit way back in 1970.

And did I mention that it was cold this morning, and that winter is coming?  Probably already there up in Spring Hill, Nova Scotia where she hails from.  Brrrr.



Snowbird (Songwriter: Gene MacLellan)
Beneath this snowy mantle cold and clean
The unborn grass lies waiting
For its coat to turn to green
The snowbird sings the song he always sings
And speaks to me of flowers
That will bloom again in spring

When I was young
My heart was young then, too
Anything that it would tell me
That's the thing that I would do
But now I feel such emptiness within
For the thing that I want most in life's
The thing that I can't win

Spread your tiny wings and fly away
And take the snow back with you
Where it came from on that day
The one I love forever is untrue
And if I could you know that I would
Fly away with you 
The breeze along the river seems to say
That he'll only break my heart again
Should I decide to stay
So, little snowbird
Take me with you when you go
To that land of gentle breezes
Where the peaceful waters flow

Spread your tiny wings and fly away
And take the snow back with you
Where it came from on that day
The one I love forever is untrue
And if I could you know that I would
Fly away with you

Yeah, if I could I know that I would
Fly away with you

4 comments:

LindaG said...

A sad commentary on many people in general. Trash left in shopping carts and parking lots; I've seen it happen even with a trash can nearby.

Tacitus said...

Today is the one year anniversary of a local incident where a hit and run driver ran into a troop of girl scouts picking up trash. Three girl scouts and a troop mother killed. There was a memorial service yesterday. Sadness with an undertone of anger.

So there's worse things than throwing trash along a roadside. When this guy goes to trial shortly we'll hear about them. It challenges one's basic beliefs. At what point does forgiveness become impossible? "Seventy times seventy times" we are told to forgive. It's a hard standard to attain.

TW

Tacitus said...

-correction- the biblical standard is seventy times seven. Still pretty hard to manage.

TW

Roy said...

It is my observation that most of the trash along the roadways is not thrown from the windows of passenger vehicles. (Note that I said most, not all.) After all, who would throw a 3'x2' cardboard box out of their car window, or an empty mulch bag, or a 5 gallon bucket even. No, most of that junk comes from trucks, and the vast majority from the beds of pickup trucks where the owner of said pickup uses the truck bed as a trash can and then bops his way down the road while the accumulated trash in the bed gets distributed hither and yon by the hurricane force wind blowing across it.