Song #29 Song for Margot

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)

 

Song #28 With Her

 

WITH HER

 

Got no money, nowhere to go

No so funny with the old roads closed

Involved in a new life

Love and keeping still

Patience required to check the restless will

 

These times in the past

You’d have hit the road this morning

Free and alone; lonely and easy

Now the wind in the grass

Blows sometimes without you

 

But the smiles on waking

The hugs for the shaking

Feelings of a child in doubt

And in love

 

Means the sun can go down

And never return

The wind blow without me

The grass to brown be burned

 

I got no money, nowhere to go

But new roads are open

And this life with her still new

With love to help me through

With her to see me through

With me to help me through

With us to help me through

 

(1982)

Commentary

I have no memory of writing this; nor how the song went. No longer alone I'm now grappling with the changed nature of life. Exchanged freedom and loneliness for love!