THE GHOST LOVER
As sung by Ian Tyson on "Northern Journey" (1964)

1. Johnny, he promised to marry her.
She fears he's with some fair one and gone.
There's something that ails him and she don't know what it is,
And she's weary of lying alone.

2. Johnny he came at the appointed hour,
Tapped at the window so slow.
This fair maid arose and she hurried on her clothes
And she bid her true love welcome home.

3. She took him by the hand and she lay him down,
Felt he was as cold as the clay.
She said, "My dearest dear, if I only had my wish,
This long night would never turn to day.

4. "Oh, where is your soft bed of down, my love?
Where is your white Holland sheet?
And where is the fair maid who watches over you
As you lie in your long, dreamless sleep?"

5. "The sea is my soft bed of down, my love.
The sand is my white Holland sheet,
And the long, hungry worms they do feed off of me,
As I lie every night in the deep."

6. "Oh, when shall I see you my love?" she cried.
"When shall I see you again?"
"When little fishes fly and the seas they do run dry,
And the hard rocks do melt with the sun.
When little fishes fly and the seas they do run dry,
And the hard rocks do melt with the sun."


[The following verse was in a version collected by Maud Karpeles, which she called "The Lover's Ghost," but Ian and Sylvia did not record it:]

3.5 Crow up, crow up, my little bird,
And don't you crow before day,
And your cage shall be made of the glittering gold, she says,
And your doors of the silver so gay.