Sometime in 1982 Jeff and I began playing with Margot in our Last Wave trio. Margot played congas and sang. I had written an instrumental tune that we were experimenting with and Margot asked if she could have a go at writing some lyrics to it. That was fine with me, but we were very clear that we didn’t want it to be religious. (Margot was an avid Christian.) Some time later we were playing an outdoor gig in an Adelaide park on Easter Sunday when Margot suggests we do the song. Jeff and I were expecting to play it as an instrumental but Margot started singing – about Easter Sunday and the risen Christ!!!! We were stunned. I guessed we finished the song and at the end of the gig we agreed that we should go our separate ways. I went away and wrote the following lyrics to tell the story of what happened that day and it became one of my better and favourite songs. And it still is. Written in an upbeat English folk song style.
Margot – if you’re
out there somewhere – thank you. And if you ever read this I hope there are no
hard feelings.
SONG FOR MARGOT
I once wrote a song and it went like this
I gave it to a friend to write some words to
But she was a woman of God you see
She couldn’t find the words that suited me
She sang about God and she sang about a day
She sang about the love that the Christians say
Will save the whole world when the sky comes down
But I thought I could do it on my own
So we sang without words
We sang to the sky
We sang to the sun that shone in my eye
We sang to the people in the park that day
We sang the same tune in our different ways
She had long blond hair and she played on her drum
She played with the spirit of a life that’s done
With love and care for the people she sees
But she was blind to the truth that guided me
She couldn’t believe that the life we lived
Could be empty of the way she thought should work
So we sang without words, we sang the same tune
In different keys of the life we play
At the end of the song
We knew it was time
For the parting of the ways that we each must find
We sang without words
We sang to the sky
We sang to the people that happened by
Because of a tune that I wrote one day
It’s yours now friend if you’d like to play
(Copyright Michael Coghlan 1982)
