The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #128643 Message #3621623
Posted By: Jim Dixon
23-Apr-14 - 12:33 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Whippoorwill (various songs)
Subject: Lyr Add: WHIPPOORWILL (from New Christy Minstrels)
My transcription from Spotify:
WHIPPOORWILL
As sung by The New Christy Minstrels on "Tell Tall Tales! Legends, and Nonsense" (1963)
SPOKEN: In the southern mountains, the whippoorwill is both omen and messenger of death. it is said and believed that if the bird sings in one's backyard, there is a death in the family, or shortly will be.
1. Clouds have swept across the moon and all the world is still.
Somewhere in the night I hear a lonely whippoorwill.
Drifts(?) upon the midnight air; the call is wild and shrill:
Spilling out his sad lament, a lonely whippoorwill.
2. Whippoorwill, I hear your lonely cry.
The night is filled with sadness and so ill at ease am I.
Far across the hill, midnight(?) shadows fall.
Somewhere lies a sleeping mate to hear your mournful call.
3. Now I wish the silent winds would stir into a storm
And strike this earth with lightning and with rain.
How I long for loving arms to hold and keep me warm,
And hush away your sorrowful refrain.
4. Peace! Be still and rest this weary night,
Quiet as the velvet wings that carry you in flight.
Fly, fly away; let my world be still.
Go and find your sleeping mate, O lonely whippoorwill,
Whippoorwill, O lonely whippoorwill.
[I don't think "drifts" and "midnight" are correct, but at least this gives you something that fits, that you could plausibly sing.]