> The Watersons > Songs > Lal & Mike Waterson: The Bird

The Bird

[Lal Waterson]

Lal Waterson sang her song accompanied by Mike Waterson on guitar for a home demo ca. 1970. Is was published in 2004 on the Watersons' 4CD anthology Mighty River of Song.

Cover Versions

1. Jo Freya's Lal Waterson Project, Lal (2007)
2. Alasdair Roberts on Migrating Bird: The Songs of Lal Waterson (2007)

Lyrics

The days are long, love,
And the nights are dreadful
And there is no time when I find these
And I cast a bird in the morning
When they waken me from my sleep

Ah, but the bird, love
Flies over the ocean
The bird, the bird flies o'er the sea
Isn't that a clever little bird
To make him a home in many old tree?

The bird does wrong, love,
To whistle in the morning
And sing those strange sweet songs in his tree
Isn't that a wicked little bird
To sing those terrible songs to me?

What's wrong, love,
That you cry all the morning
And it gets worse day by day by day by day
And there is no reason in your answers
And I can't understand what you say

The beast is come, love
Into the day and the evening
And in the garden peeping through the bushes him
I know he, he sees me

Acknowledgements

Transcribed by Reinhard Zierke