Lyr: Sometimes When I Get To Thinkin (Sainte-Marie

Subject: Lyr Req: Sometimes When I Get to Thinking
From: glauber
Date: 16 May 07 - 12:34 AM

Could someone contribute the lyrics for the beautiful Buffy Sainte-Marie's song "Sometimes When I Get To Thinking"?
I searched a lot but wasn't able to find the words on the Internet.

I fell in love with this song when i heard Neko Case cover it in the radio program Sound Opinions:
[Sound Opinions with Neko Case] <-- click for MP3
but i can't make out all the words

Sometimes I recall what others have said:
love is for lovers in love and full grown,
life's for the living and death's for the dead,
and the depth of a heart is a fathom unknown

I know you know all about love,
you know I know nothing at all,
still why should I ever be blue
when the blink of your eye makes ????

([more stuff i don't understand])

sewing (?) and growing and learning to care
for ourselves and preparing
for each others' arms

(are there more verses?)

Many thanks,

glauber

Subject: Lyr Add: SOMETIMES WHEN I GET TO THINKIN'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 May 07 - 01:59 AM

This was a tough one, glauber. I hope others will chip in and try to decipher this one.
-Joe-

Sometimes When I Get To Thinkin'
(Buffy Sainte-Marie)

Sometimes I recall what others have said:
Love is for lovers in love and full grown,
Life's for the living and death's for the dead,
And the depth of a heart is a fathom unknown.

Sometimes when I get to thinking about you,
And all the things that we've never said
To each other, it seems such a shame to (go look, go blue?)
When there's so many years to lie silent and dead.

I know you know all about love (life?),
You know I know nothing at all,
Still why should I ever feel blue
When the blink of your eye makes me glad I'm so small.

Think of the years before we were a pair,
Years lived apart we spent learning to farm (?)
Sowin' and growin' and learnin' to care
For ourselves and preparin' for each other's arms.

Love is a flower, blooms when we're too young;
Pluck it, it's gone; Tend it, it grows.
We've been tending since the first (?sprout was sprung?)
To the most patient farmer, the best harvest goes.

Sometimes I recall what others have said:
Love is for lovers in love and full grown,
Life's for the living and death's for the dead,
And the depth of a heart is a fathom unknown.


Transcribed by ear from Buffy Sainte-Marie: Best of the Vanguard Years

Subject: Lyr Add: SOMETIMES WHEN I GET TO THINKIN'
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 16 May 07 - 04:43 AM

Here's the version she sang on Little Wheel Spin And Spin. Mostly it's the same as Joe's version, but with one extra verse and a few changes. (Most of Joe's queried transciption seems to be correct). (I made the transcription back in the late 60s/early 70s I think, but I've just listened to the record again and it seems OK. sprout is the only word that doesn't seem clear, but I think that's what it is).

Mick

---

SOMETIMES WHEN I GET TO THINKIN'
(Buffy Sainte-Marie)

Sometimes I recall what others have said:-
Love is for lovers in love and full grown,
Life's for the living and death's for the dead,
And the depth of a heart is a fathom unknown.

Sometimes when I get to thinking about you,
And all the things that we've never said
To each other, it seems such a shame to go blue
When there's so many years to lie silent and dead.

I know, you know, all about life.
You know, I know, nothing at all.
Still why should I know daily strife
When the touch of your hand makes me glad I'm so small.

Time brings us trouble as days come and go.
I know, you know I'll understand.
Could you, would you suffer a woe,
When a blink of your eye and I'm at your command.

Think of the years before we were a pair,
Years lived apart we spent learning to farm.
Sowing, growing and learning to care
For ourselves, and preparing for each other's arms.

Love is a flower, blooms when we're too young;
Pluck it, it's gone, tended it grows.
We've been tending since the first sprout was sprung -
To the most patient farmer, the best harvest goes.

Sometimes I recall what others have said:-
Love is for lovers in love and full grown,
Life's for the living and death's for the dead,
And the depth of a heart is a fathom unknown.


Source: Buffy Sainte-Marie LP Little Wheel Spin And Spin (Vanguard 1966)

The notes (by Nat Hentoff) say: "Songs of love as fullfillment are not nearly so easy to come by as songs of love as loss.
Sometimes, When I Get To Thinkin' is of the first state and succeeds flowingly in distilling that best of all feelings - the
pleasures and surprises of intimacy still to come."

Subject: RE: Req: Sometimes When I Get to Thinking (Ste-Marie)
From: cetmst
Date: 16 May 07 - 06:29 AM

Mick's version is exactly that printed in "The Buffy Sainte-Marie Song Book", Grosset and Dunlap, 1971, with melody line and guitar chords. The book also contains more than 50 of her songs, dicography and many pictures.

Subject: RE: Req: Sometimes When I Get to Thinking (Ste-Mar
From: Midchuck
Date: 16 May 07 - 07:50 AM

IIRC, Mick's lyrics are right, but when she re-recorded it on "I'm Going to Be a Country Girl Again" she changed "...know daily strife" to "...ever feel blue," which doesn't rhyme, but sounds a lot less contrived.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Req: Sometimes When I Get to Thinking (Ste-Mar
From: glauber
Date: 16 May 07 - 09:07 AM

Many thanks. You guys rock.

Subject: RE: Req: Sometimes When I Get to Thinking
From: glauber
Date: 16 May 07 - 09:13 AM

Peter,

"daily strife" -> "ever feel blue"

I wonder if that was an accidental echo of the "such a shame to go blue" from the previous verse.

Anyway, thanks again. I couldn't find these anywhere; love this song.

Subject: RE: Req: Sometimes When I Get to Thinking (Ste-Marie)
From: GUEST,seth in Olympia
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 05:37 PM

Another beautiful "sixties" song that I am sure you will never hear while pushing your cart through Safeway. Thanks. Saved me a trip through 6000 disorganized LP's
seth

Subject: RE: Req: Sometimes When I Get to Thinking (Ste-Marie)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 06:32 PM

It's a wonderful love song. One that I have never forgotten, and I can still feel the thrill of hearing it for the first time.