Tumbleweed
Abandon all those earthly roots temptation of forbidden fruits
Set your burden baggage free kick your heels and follow me
Live a life of peaceful ease bowling along on a Kansas breeze
Like dandelion seeds on high kiss your apron strings goodbye
Lay to rest your twiddling thumbs feel the beating of the drums
Hear the tales of proud Arapahoe following trails of wild buffalo
Bouncing along gathering speed singing a song broadcasting seed
Like dandelion seeds on high kiss your apron strings goodbye
Leave behind the sparking logs come barking with the prairie dogs
Roll across wide desert plains Apache arrows and wagon trains
Bounding picking up a pace we runners in the tumbleweed chase
Like dandelion seeds on high kiss your apron strings goodbye
Not for you an empty sack a stumbling bumbling jumping jack
Look there toward the far horizon see the smoke rings are arising
Drifting from the Pawnee nation a pipe of peace our destination
Like dandelion seeds on high kiss your apron strings goodbye
Be with me as sun is setting see the young buck with the netting
Catching driftwood for the fire this will be our funeral pyre
Our seeds are scattered on the plain the journey starts all over again
Like dandelion seeds on high kiss your apron strings goodbye
Anne, gallivanting around the Highlands
Ullapool
Embroidery
In the parlour pitch of night aware of flickering candlelight
Silhouettes ghosts in black haunting memories flooding back
Wedding bells angels singing blacksmith hammer anvil ringing
Gone my treasury of wealth yours in sickness as in health
‘Needle needle sewing thread one more stitch then off to bed’
My earthly indiscretions ghost winging home their claws to roost
Upon a cross upon a lair upon a once upon a love affair
Those cruel deceptions evil eyes assured to be the truest lies
An angry word a steely stare a wishing you were never there
‘Needle needle sewing thread one more stitch then off to bed’
With drunken fits of bitter rage in life recurring page by page
The open window of my soul for all to see as black as coal
A shylock with a hoard of gold all for me when I grow old
As for she who sits and sews the less she sees the less she knows
‘Needle needle sewing thread one more stitch then off to bed’
All laid out amid the gloom a shadow in the funereal room
Bending low to kiss my brow a silent whisper graceful bow
‘Needle needle sewing thread one last stitch now you are dead
No more need of earthly riches shrouded in a merriment of stitches
Needle needle let it be I’m going on a shopping spree’
The Island of Arran
Drumlanrig Castle
Elspeth in the barley
(The Bard’s disappointment)
Fair whappit oot when the hervest’s o’er
A man fairly builds up a heid or twa o’ steam
Thinkin’ o’ the lassies o’ the sweetest flower
Elspeth in the barley in her gunny goon o’ green
Ye’re a hoot, Rab. Ye’re a hoot.
Fair fu’ tae burstin’ wi’ haggis an’ wi’ neeps
An’ an awfy peculiar feelin’ deep within my troosers
Ninemile Bar’s where my bonnie lassie sleeps
Efter I’ve feenished tourin’ roon’ the boozers
Ye’d better scoot, Rab. Ye’d better scoot.
Fair drunk wi’ passion is my unsteady gait
The lovely Elspeth Buchan is my awfy tasty bait
Wi’ my frame sae fu’ o’ longin’ her
Tae be lyin’ doon ding dongin’ her
Ye’re a brute, Rab. Ye’re a brute.
Fairly excited is my arisen state
As I traipse like a stallion tae Elspeth’s gairden gate
Up tae the gunnels wi’ my belly fu’ o’ Guinness
Jist tae be telt by yon eegit Andrew Innes
She’s oot, Rab. She’s oot.
