The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #120609   Message #2626205
Posted By: Charley Noble
07-May-09 - 09:24 AM
Thread Name: Michigan Musically Revisited (2009)
Subject: RE: Michigan Musically Revisited (2009)
I should post "When the West Wind Blows" here even though it is posted somewhere else on the forum. As mentioned above it forms a set with "When I Was the Queen":

Words & music by Kitty Donahue, © 1977
Recorded on Farmer in Florida
Slightly modified by Eli Dale of Roll & Go
Key: F(D/3)

WHEN THE WEST WIND BLOWS

Chorus:

A7--------D-------------------------Bm
When the west wind blows, he'll always leave her,
Em-----------------G
Always leave her, has to leave her;
----------D---------------------------Bm
When the west wind blows, he'll always leave her
---------Em-----------------G--------A-----D
Till the storms of autumn call him back again.


D----------------------A7
Sailors are men who marry the sea,
---------Bm-----------------G
A good ship is the best of company,
---D------------------------------A-----------A7---D
A life of streets and houses is no life for me at all;
-------A-----D---------------------------------A7
When we've raised our glasses and we've sung our song,
----------Bm-----------------------G
And the night is empty with the hours so long,
---------D----------------------------A-----------A7---------D
Doubts fade with morning and a wind that's strong and full.

In a harbor town one September night,
When a summer's heat had finally taken flight,
He watched her working in a café light alone;
Though the years and beauty had passed her by
She kindled fires he swore would die
And he thought of comforts he could deny no more.

Bridge:
---------C-----------------------Bm
But the sailor that longs for hearth and home
---C7-------------------G
Is bound to spend his life alone,
------------Em-------------------G------------------------A
Unless he finds a woman who knows the call of the sea. (CHO)

He said, "I'll stay till winter turns with the sun,
Till the boats move out to where the salmon run,
There are coves and shorelines I haven't begun to see;
With your woman's heart you'll never understand
The kind of longing that takes a man
Into a world of strangers to try his hand on his own."
She said, "A woman dreams no differently,
About the curlews crying and the changing sea,
A life of work and waiting is no life for me at all;
But we can sail for islands that are green and new,
Where a calypso rhythm takes ahold of you,
There's too much parting and the years too few to spare.

But the sailor that longs for hearth and home
Is bound to spend his life alone,
If he finds a woman who knows the call of the sea.

Final Chorus:

When the west wind blows, she'll always leave him,
Always leave him, has to leave him;
When the west wind blows, she'll always leave him
Till the storms of autumn call her back again.


This was one of the songs I requested be sung at my wedding some ten years ago.

Charley Noble