CHANGING TIMES
© 1985 Dan MacArthur, BMI
Gordon – vocal & 12-string guitar
Will, Matt, Kat, Jim, David, Anne, Holly -vocals
From my dear MacArthur family of Marlboro VT, whose love and work has kept so many traditions of music, building and land care alive and healthy in the world that feeds us all.
first chorus:
The grasses grow tall until the hay it is mown
Then the fields lie still till the new seed is sown
Many children standing here have watched the grass wave in the wind
We're the ones who stand here now but many others will again
Long, long ago these fields and the crops that they grew here
Might decide a family's fate for another coming year
Like the grasses that grow tall and get cut down for hay
So generations moved in here, made their marks and moved away
second chorus:
And the fields lie still till the new seed is sown
Many children standing here have watched the grass wave in the wind
We're the ones who stand here now, but many others will again
After clearing off the land and piling up their long stonewalls
They walked for miles for the seed, then they hoped the good rains fall
And when the rains come down right and all the crops grew tall and strong
Families had enough to eat for another winter long
(first chorus)
Perhaps the time will come again when these fields will mean more
And we'll learn to care for them as others did so long before
And like the seed that's newly sown and springs to life with sun and rain
People's lives may grow to know the value of these fields again
(second chorus)
We're the ones who live here now, but many others will again
Changing Times is recorded on the album Because You Asked and also on the Folk-Legacy album Minneapolis Concert.