© 1965 Gordon Bok, BMI
One of my early songs (that I didn't throw back). I forget what inspired it, but it's still fun to look at the world you think you know through others' eyes.
Gordon - laud
"Blue and green, cold and dark, seaweed growing high
Hills a hundred fathom deep where the dead men lie
Dogfish eyes and mackerel's eyes and they hunger after me
Net or weir, I don't care, catch me if you can."
Where do you go, little boat, tar and timber, plank and sail?
"I go to green bays, lift them under me
Cold, gray, combing seas come to bury me
Rocky jaws and stony claws and they hunger after me
Harbors cold, deep and bold, wish that I could see."
What do you see, fisherman, poor old sailor, blood and bone?
"Mackerel skies, mares' tails, reef and furl and steer
Poor haul and hungry days, rotten line and gear
Snow-wind and winter gales and oh, they hunger after me
Net or weir, I don't care, catch you if I can."
Where do you go, little herring, what do you see, tail and fin?
"Blue and green, cold and dark, seaweed growing high
Hills a hundred fathom deep where the fisherman lie
Dogfish eyes and mackerel's eyes and oh, they hunger after me
Net or weir, I don't care, catch me if you can."
New last verse: (sung on the album Other Eyes)
Where have you gone, little herring, what have you seen, tail and fin?
"Cold and black, dead and dark, homeland torn away
Draggers staving everywhere, drug my garden dry
Pair-trawl, midwinter-trawl; God they hunger after me
Tore my home to hell and gone, there's no more place for me."
Herring Croon is recorded on the albums Clear Away in the Morning, Herrings in the Bay, Jeremy Brown and Jeannie Teal, and Other Eyes (last verse only), Then and Now, and is also in the songbook Time and the Flying Snow