Lyr Req: Navajo Rug (Ian Tyson/Tom Russell)

Subject: Lyr Req: Katy and the Navajo Rug
From: Barbara
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 05:32 PM

Subject: RE: Need Lyrics to Ian Tyson song: navajo rug
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 12:36 PM
--------------------------------------------------------
A GUEST posted this to another Ian and Sylvia thread.
I did learn that the song is composed in 1986 by Ian Tyson and Tom Russell and is called 'Katy and the Navajo Rug' rather than just 'Navajo Rug', but I didn't find the words, so I am starting a new thread here.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Katy and the Navajo Rug
From: Chris in Wheaton
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 05:46 PM

one line is about "two eggs up and whiskey toast" -- sounds great, especially with a little salsa, and a bump

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Katy and the Navajo Rug
From: Tig
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 05:48 PM

I sort of wish you hadn't posted this Barbara. I'd only JUST got the chorus out of my head having heard it on Monday night at the Watering Hole and now it's right back in there!

If no one comes up with the words for you before Monday I'll give Cuvero Nights a ring and get them for you. I know it's on their CD but I don't think the words are there too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Katy and the Navajo Rug
From: Louie Roy
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 06:58 PM

I'M downloading this song right now on a MP3 off of one of Ian Tyson site but I don't know whether there are any words

Subject: Lyr Add: NAVAJO RUG (Ian Tyson/Tom Russell)
From: Midchuck
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 07:20 PM

From a Jerry Jeff Walker lyric site:

Peter.

Ian Tyson/Tom Russell

Well it's two eggs up on whiskey toast
Home fries on the side,
You wash her down with the roadhouse coffee
that burns up your inside,
It's just a canyon, Colorado diner,
A waitress I did love,
We sat in the back 'neath an old stuffed bear,
A worn out Navajo rug.

Aye, aye, aye, Katie,
Shades of red and blue
Aye, aye, aye, Katie,
Whatever became of the Navajo rug and you?

Well, old Jack the boss, he left at six
It was, 'Katie, bar the door'.
She'd pull down that Navajo rug
And we'd spread it across the floor,
I saw lightning frame the sacred mountains
The wooing of the turtle doves
Just Iying next to Katie,
On that old Navajo rug.

Aye, aye, aye, Katie,
Shades of red and blue
Aye, aye, aye, Katie,
Whatever became of the Navajo rug and you?

Well, I saw old Jack about a year ago,
Said the place burned to the ground,
All he saved was an old bear tooth
And Katie she left town,
Well, Katie, got a souvenir too,
Jack smiled as he spit out a big old plug,
Well, you shoulda seen her coming through the smoke
She was dragging that Navajo rug.

Aye, aye, aye, Katie,
Shades of red and blue
Aye, aye, aye, Katie,
Whatever became of the Navajo rug and you?

So every time I cross the sacred mountains
And lightning jumps above,
It always takes me back in time
To my long lost Katie love,
You know everything keeps on a moving
Everybody's on the go,
Hey, you don't find things that last anymore
Like a hand-woven Navajo.

Aye, aye, aye, Katie,
Shades of red and blue
Aye, aye, aye, Katie,
Whatever became of the Navajo rug and you!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Katy and the Navajo Rug
From: open mike
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 10:00 PM

http://navajocentral.org/rugs.htm
http://www.canyonart.com/rugs.htm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Katy and the Navajo Rug
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 10:05 PM

An excellent song. I've heard the words slightly different, but substantially as shown above.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Katy and the Navajo Rug
From: PoppaGator
Date: 21 Aug 04 - 01:58 AM

I just read elsewhere -- in the just-refreshed thread about Sing Out! magazine, which includes some discussion of Tom Russell and this song he co-wrote with Ian Tyson -- that "whiskey toast" means rye toast. Undoubtedly, this is occupational terminology among diner waitresses and short-order cooks. Makes plenty of sense once you're clued in, but I might never have figured it out on my own.

Ian apparently wrote the song near-complete, and then Tom added the "aye, aye, aye" vocal riff while singing along and thus gets credit for creating the chorus in its fully-developed form.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Katy and the Navajo Rug
From: bigchuck
Date: 21 Aug 04 - 03:33 PM

I saw Tom in concert last week and he introduced this song as the first song he cowrote with Ian. If I remember correctly, he said that he started writing the song and put what verses he had in Ian's guitar case without telling him about it (probably some liquid substances involved)and that Ian called him a week later, saying he'd finished the damned song and thought it was a hit. Apparently he was too much in awe of Ian to approach him more directly. It was a pretty good rap, but then most of Tom's are.

Sandy