Beeswing

Lyrics for Beeswing

I was 19 when I came to town They called it the Summer of Love They were burning babies, burning flags The hawks against the doves I took a job in the steamie Down on Cauldrum Street I fell in love with a laundry girl Who was working next to me She was a rare thing Fine as a beeswing Oh so fine a breath of wind might blow her away She was a lost child She was running wild 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-zagged around her face And 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 She was a rare thing Fine as a beeswing Oh so fine that I might crush her where she lay She was a lost child She was running wild Said as long as there's no price on love, I'll stay And I wouldn't want her any other way So we busked around the market towns We picked fruit down in Kent We could tinker lamps and pots and pans And knives wherever we went And I said that we might settle down And get a few acres dug A fire burning in the hearth And babies on the rug She said oh man, you foolish man That surely sounds like hell You might be lord of half the world You'll not own me as well She was a rare thing Fine as a beeswing Oh so fine a breath of wind might blow her away She was a lost child She was running wild Said as long as there's no price on love, I'll stay And you wouldn't want me any other way We were camping down the Gower one time The work was pretty good She thought we shouldn't wait for the frost I thought maybe we should We were drinking more in those days And fevers reached a pitch And like a fool I let her run off With the rambling itch And last I heard she's sleeping rough Down on the Darby beat White horse in her hip pocket And a wolfhound at her feet And they say she even married once A man named Romany Brown But even a traveling caravan Was too much settling down And they say her flower is faded now Hard weather and hard booze But maybe that's the price you pay For the chains you refuse She was a rare thing Fine as a beeswing And I miss her now more than words could say If I could just taste All of her wildness now If I could hold her in my arms today Then I wouldn't want her any other way