To hear your voices lifted up in radiant song
I've been intermittently working on putting together another CD of songs I like to sing along with in the car (I find such CDs especially useful in rental cars that don't have a way to connect my iPhone to the car stereo), but even after a fair bit of culling, my list has something like six hours' worth of music on it. So I've been occasionally listening to bits of that playlist in the car, trying to decide which songs will end up on the CD.
It's reminding me how much I like some of these songs, and some of the lyrics. I realize that lyrics never really give the flavor of a song, and can sometimes come across as dumb or banal without the music, but I'm nonetheless once again going to venture into posting some bits of lyrics.
The links are to iTunes Store versions of the songs; unfortunately, mostly not to the specific versions I have, because these performers are mostly not available in the iTunes Store. Hmph.
First, from Lui Collins's version of "Swimming to the Other Side":
We are living 'neath the great Big Dipper;
We are washed by the very same rain;
We are swimming in the stream together,
Some in power and some in pain;
We can worship this ground we walk on,
Cherishing the beings that we live beside;
Loving spirits will live forever;
We're all swimming to the other side.
(That RealAudio clip is kinda slow to load. If you get impatient, you can listen to a clip from the original version by Pat Humphries in the iTunes Store, but I like LC's version better.)
Next, from the Kallet/Epstein/Cicone version of "Farthest Field" (with their usual lovely harmonies)—this song's been running through my head a lot lately, and I love singing it (but seeing the words laid out like this really doesn't convey what the song is like):
Oh my dear friends,
I truly love
To hear your voices
Lifted up in radiant song
Though through the years
We all have made
Our separate choices,
We've ended here where we belong.
Here's an old favorite from another trio with great harmonies: the Short Sisters' version of "It's a Pleasure to Know You":
It's a pleasure to know you, a pleasure to see you smile,
A comfort to know we'll share the road awhile;
Pleasure is fleeting, and comforts are far between;
It's a pleasure to know you and the comfort you bring.
Now they say life's a journey, a highway from birth to death,
Mapped in despair, and traveled in hopelessness.
Well they may believe it, but just between you and me,
The trick to the travelin' is all in the company.
(Sadly, there doesn't seem to be an online clip of their version. You can get a sense of it from the Karl Williams version, but I like the Short Sisters' version better.)
Here's another from Kallet/Cicone/Epstein, one of my very favorites of theirs, "Cold Is the Night":
Run down these roads, keep an eye to the sky
The clouds on the prairies, the wind on the shore
Lay your course steady, these dreams take time
All I have lost are the ashes to sea
Oh, cold is the night
Oh, cold are these times
Oh, warm are the friends
We are singing
Oh, tell me a story
Come sing me a song
Come tuck me to sleep
I am dreaming.
Finally, the song I was singing in the car on Sunday. I think I must be more stressed than I'm consciously aware of; this one made me cry. Bill Staines's "Crossing the Water":
For there is no shallow water, and naught but love to keep
Us safely from the dangers and the devils of the deep,
Yet with every breath within us we search forevermore
To find some peaceful harbor on that far-off shore.
We are crossing the water,
Our whole life through;
We are making a passage that is straight and true;
Every heart is a vessel, every dream is a light,
Shining through the darkness of the blackest night.