Quiet Joys of Brotherhood
Lyrics by Richard Fariña
As gentle tides go rolling by
Along the salt sea strand,
The colours blend and roll as one,
Together in the sand.
And often do the winds entwine
Do send their distant call,
The quiet joys of brotherhood,
And love is lord of all.
The oak and reed together rise,
Along the common ground.
The mare and stallion, light and dark,
Have thunder in their sound.
The rainbow sign, the blended flower,
Still have my heart enthralled.
The quiet joys of brotherhood,
And love is lord of all.
But man has come to plough the tide,
The oak lies on the ground.
I hear their fires in the fields,
They drive the stallion down.
The roses bleed both light and dark,
The winds do seldom call.
The running sands recall the time
When love was lord of all.
Lyrics by Richard Fariña
As gentle tides go rolling by
Along the salt sea strand,
The colours blend and roll as one,
Together in the sand.
And often do the winds entwine
Do send their distant call,
The quiet joys of brotherhood,
And love is lord of all.
The oak and reed together rise,
Along the common ground.
The mare and stallion, light and dark,
Have thunder in their sound.
The rainbow sign, the blended flower,
Still have my heart enthralled.
The quiet joys of brotherhood,
And love is lord of all.
But man has come to plough the tide,
The oak lies on the ground.
I hear their fires in the fields,
They drive the stallion down.
The roses bleed both light and dark,
The winds do seldom call.
The running sands recall the time
When love was lord of all.
Although most people probably associate this beautiful and haunting song with folk rocker Sandy Denny, I was introduced to it via Wendy Matthew’s gospel/soul-infused third album, The Witness Tree (1994), which I came across during my sojourn in Australia last year.
See also the previous Wild Reed post:
• The Many Manifestations of God’s Loving Embrace
Image: David Greene.
I came across this page because I typed in "buffy sainte-marie" and "gay rights." I was interested whether buffy had ever addressed gay issues at all. And I saw "love is Lord of all" in the corner. I love this song, it is the opening track on Richard and Mimi Farina's album "Memories" (you may know this all already but just in case ya don't :) which was released posthumously. Actually, I love that whole album. "Lemonade Lady" is a really song too. And speaking of Richard Farina, Joan Baez does a cover of his song "Children of Darkness" on her album "Joan" and the instrumentation and arrangement of it is so so so cool. If a song written and recorded 40 years ago can still strike you and move you, and musically make you think "damn that's really cool!", even though we've had years of synthesizers and computers, then you know it's good!
ReplyDeleteOh, and that's how a feel abut Buffy too by the way. She has songs like "He's a Keeper of the Fire" and "Better to Find Out for Yourself" where I put on the RECORD and I think, "damn that's cool! that rocks!" :)