RIP, Mary Travers
Posted by John Manzo on September 16, 2009
Mary Travers, of Peter Paul and Mary, died today. She was 72.
I started kindergarten in 1969 and like every child of that generation sang “Puff the Magic Dragon” in class. I cried to it then, I cry to it now. But the song (and video) I want post here by way of memorial is even more beautiful and somber; “500 Miles”:
If you miss the train I’m on, you will know that I am gone.
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
A hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles,
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
Lord I’m one, Lord I’m two, Lord I’m three, Lord I’m four,
Lord I’m 500 miles from my home.
500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles.
Lord I’m five hundred miles from my home.
Not a shirt on my back, not a penny to my name
Lord I cant go a-home this a-way
This a-away, this a-way, this a-way, this a-way,
Lord I cant go a-home this a-way.
If you miss the train I’m on, you will know that I am gone.
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.
Jerry Weselake said
I think I’ll go out to Alberta,
The weather’s good there in the fall.
I’ve got some friends that I can go to workin’ for.
Still I wish you’d change your mind,
If I asked you one more time
But we’ve been through that a hundred times or more.
If I get there before the snow flies,
And if things are goin’ good.
You could meet me if I sent you down the fare,
But by then it would be winter, nothin’ much for you to do.
And those winds sure can blow cold way out there.
Four strong winds that blow lonely,
Seven seas that run high,
All those things that don’t change,
Come what may.
But our good times are all gone,
And I’m bound for moving on.
I’ll look for you if I’m ever back this way…