Our Mother the Mountain
Album - 1969 - Debaser id 48594

By townes van zandt

It's plain to see, the sun won't shine today
But I ain't in the mood for sunshine anyway
Maybe I'll go insane
I got to stop the pain
Or maybe I'll go down to see kathleen.

A swallow comes and tells me of her dreams
She says she'd like to know just what they mean
I feel like I could die


As I watch her flying by
Ride the north wind down to see kathleen.

Stars hang high above, the oceans roar
The moon is come to lead me to her door
There's crystal across the sand
And the waves, they take my hand.
Soon I'm gonna see my sweet kathleen.

Soon I'm gonna see my sweet kathleen.

By townes van zandt

My lover comes to me with a rose on her bosom
The moon's dancin' purple
All through her black hair
And a ladies-in-waiting she stands 'neath my window
And the sun will rise soon
On the false and the fair

She tells me she comes from my mother the mountain
Her skin fits her tightly
And her lips do not lie
She silently slips from her throat a medallion
Slowly she twirls it
In front of my eyes

I watch her, I love her, I long for to touch her
The satin she's wearin'
Is shimmering blue
Outside my window her ladies are sleeping
My dogs have gone hunting
The howling is through



So I reach for her hand and her eyes turns to poison
And her hair turns to splinters,
And her flesh turns to brine
She leaps cross the room, she stands in the window
And screams that my first-born
Will surely be blind

She throws herself out to the black of the nightfall
She's parted her lips
But she makes not a sound
I fly down the stairway, and I run to the garden
No trace of my true love
Is there to be found

So walk these hills lightly, and watch who you're lovin'
By mother the mountain
I swear that it's true
Love not a woman with hair black as midnight
And her dress made of satin
All shimmering blue

by Townes Van Zandt

When she had twenty years she turned to her mother
saying Mother, I know that you'll grieve
but I've given my soul to St John the gambler
tomorrow comes time leave
for the hills cannot hold back my sorrow forever
and dead men lay deep 'round the door
the only salvation thats mine for the asking
so mother, think on me no more


Winter held high round the mountains breast
and the cold of a thousand snows
lay heaped upon the forests leaf
but she dressed in calico
for a gambler likes his women fancy
fancy she would be
and the fire of her longing would keep way the cold
and her dress was a sight to see


But the road was long beneath the feet
she followed her frozen breath
in search of a certain St John the gambler
stumbling to her death
she heard his laughter right down from the mountains
and danced with her mothers tears
to a funeral drawn a calico
'neath the cross of twenty years


To a funeral drawn a calico
'neath the cross of twenty years

The name she gave was Caroline
Daughter of miner
And her ways were free
And it seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her

She come from Spencer across the hill
She said her Pa had sent her
'Cause the coal was low
And soon the snow
Would turn the skies to winter

She said she'd come to look for work
She was not not seeking favors
And for a dime day
And a place to stay
She turn those hands to labor

But the times were hard, Lord, and the jobs were few
All through Tecumseh valley
But she asked around
And a job she found
Tendin' bar for Gypsy Sally

She saved enough to get back home
When spring replaced the winter
But her dreams were denied
Her Pa had died
Word come down from Spencer

So she turned to whorin' out on the streets
With all the lust inside her
And it was many a man
Returned again
To lay himself beside her

They found her down beneath the stairs
That led to Gypsy Sally's
An in her hand when she died
Was a note that cired
Fare thee well
Tecoumseh valley

The name she gave was Caroline
Daughter of miner
And her ways were free
And it seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her