Digital Tradition Mirror

Brandy Tree (Otter's Song)

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Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

Brandy Tree (Otter's Song)

(E) Am Em / Em Am Em / F Em / Am G Am

I go down to the brandy tree
Take my nose and my tail with me,
All for the world and the wind to see
And never come back no more.

Down in the meadowmarsh, deep and wide,
Tumble the tangle by my side,
All for the westing wind to run
And slide in the summer rain.

     C G7 G / C G7 G / Am Em / Am G Am

     Sun, come follow my happy way;
     Wind, come walk beside me.
     Moon on the mountain, go with me:
     A wondrous way I know.

I go down to the windy sea
And the little grey seal will play with me;
Slide on the rock and dive in the bay
And sleep on the ledge at night.

     But the seal don't try to tell me
     How to fish in the windy blue:
     Seals been fishing for a thousand years,
     And he knows that I have too.

When the frog goes down to the mud to sleep
And the lamprey hide in the boulders deep,
I take my nose and my tail and go
A hundred thousand hills.

Someday, down by the brandy tree,
I'll hear the Shepherd call for me;
Call me to leave my happy ways
And the shining world I know.

     Sun on the hill, come go with me,
     My days have all been free.
     The pipes come laughing down the wind
     And that's the way I go, That's the way for me.

Words and music by Gordon Bok.
Recorded on "Seal Djiril's Hymn," FSI-48
     "I learned this song from a small otter on Sherman's Point,
Knox County, State of Maine, on a cold morning in 1966.  Thinking
it over, I wrote the refrain myself.  A thousand years (I was
told) is a long time for an otter.  So should it be for us."
Copyright Folk Legacy Records, Inc 1977
DC

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