Beeswing
Richard Thompson

[capo on 2]

      G       C       G                                C         G
I was nineteen when I came to town, they called it the Summer of Love
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They were burning babies, burning flags. The hawks against the doves
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I took a job in the steamie down on Cauldrum Street
      G       C           G                    D               C
And I fell in love with a laundry girl who was working next to me


[chorus]
             Em                    G
Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
   Em               D                    C
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
          Em                     G
She was a lost child, oh she was running wild
             Em                 D                   C
She said "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay.
        Am               D         G
And you wouldn't want me any other way"


      G        C    G                            C       G
Brown hair zig-zag around her face and a look of half-surprise
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Like a fox caught in the headlights, there was animal in her eyes
    G           C       G                         C       G
She said "Young man, oh can't you see I'm not the factory kind
   G         C       G                D              C
If you don't take me out of here I'll surely lose my mind"


[chorus]
             Em                    G
Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
   Em               D                    C
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
          Em                     G
She was a lost child, oh she was running wild
             Em                 D                   C
She said "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay.
        Am               D         G
And you wouldn't want me any other way"


   G      C          G                             C       G
We busked around the market towns and picked fruit down in Kent
    G        C      G                 D                  C
And we could tinker pots and pans and knives wherever we went
      G         C        G                      C     G
And I said that we might settle down, get a few acres dug
G    C       G                 D             C
Fire burning in the hearth and babies on the rug
    Em                                       D           G
She said "Oh man, you foolish man, it surely sounds like hell.
    G        C       G                      D             C
You might be lord of half the world, you'll not own me as well"


[chorus]
             Em                    G
Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
   Em               D                    C
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
          Em                     G
She was a lost child, oh she was running wild
             Em                 D                   C
She said "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay.
        Am               D         G
And you wouldn't want me any other way"


       G       C        G                            C      G
We was camping down the Gower one time, the work was pretty good
G            C            G           D                  C
She wouldn't wait for the harvest and I thought maybe we should
G      C        G                              C         G
We was drinking more in those days and tempers reached a pitch
    G      C      G                    D                C
And like a fool I let her run when she got the rambling itch


[chorus]
             Em                    G
Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
   Em               D                    C
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
          Em                     G
She was a lost child, oh she was running wild
             Em                 D                   C
She said "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay.
        Am               D         G
And you wouldn't want me any other way"


       G      C           G                          C     G
Oh the last I heard she's sleeping rough back on the Derby beat
G           C          G            D                C
White Horse in her hip pocket and a wolfhound at her feet
         G       C    G                            C      G
And they say she even married once, to a man named Romany Brown
    G      C     G           D                 C
But even a gypsy caravan was too much settling down
         Em                                D                G
And they say her flower is faded now, hard weather and hard booze
    G            C        G                     D            C
But maybe that's just the price you pay for the chains you refuse


             Em                    G
Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee's wing
      Em                 D                C
And I miss her more than ever words could say
   Em                            G
If I could just taste all of her wildness now
   Em               D            C
If I could hold her in my arms today 
       Am                D         G
Well I wouldn't want her any other way