Red and Gold (Live: The Follow-On; Saturday 9.8.97)

歌詞

Blegvad Gold would be worthless if it didn’t require such heartbreak to seek it, to find it and mine it Things remain precious as long as they’re rare If gold could be found lying ‘round everywhere it would be the lowliest of metals, too soft for serious use Pretty, of course and warm to the touch but no longer alluring when you’ve handled so much The lowliest of metals Will you come with me through the ice and the snow? She thought for a minute, then she said: let’s go I rode behind her as she rode ahead and all through that winter I’d lose her and find her Our rations ran out, our horses were dead she forgot what gold was and I had to remind her: it’s the lowliest of metals, too soft for serious use pretty, of course, warm to the touch but no longer alluring when you’ve handled so much The lowliest of metals In a prospector’s shack she lay out of her mind describing how simple gold is to find Just under the surface in zigzagging veins it lies there in branches of midsummer lightning You just open a hole in the crust of the plains she said: you reach in and it’s there for the taking Gold Snow-blind and starving I sat by her side as the fever raged in her and the storm raged outside She said: now we are rich, I told her the truth: all the gold we had found could not crown a tooth She said: these things I know without being told we are rich in each other, so what good is gold? It’s the lowliest of metals Sometimes I dream that the world is reversed I dream that accountants are rarer than poets That things will get better, that they can’t get any worse and that a rich man has nothing but dirt in his purse And gold is the lowliest of metals, too soft for serious use pretty, of course and warm to the touch but no longer alluring when you’ve handled so much It’s the lowliest of metals, the lowliest of metals the lowliest of metals