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Harvest Festival Lyrics
See the flowers round the altar
See the peaches in tins 'neath the headmaster's chair
Harvest festival
See the two who've been chosen
See them walk hand in hand to the front of the hall
Harvest festival
Harvest festival
What was best of all was the
Longing look you gave me
That longing look
More than enough to keep me fed all year
See the children with baskets
See their hair cut like corn neatly combed in their rows
Harvest festival
Harvest festival
What was best of all was the
Longing look you gave me
That longing look
Across the hymnbooks and the canvas chairs
The longing look you gave me
That longing look
More than enough to keep me fed all year
And what a year when the exams and crops all failed
Of course you passed and you were never seen again
We all grew and we got screwed and cut and nailed
Then out of nowhere invitation in gold pen
See the flowers round the altar
See that you two got married and I wish you well
Harvest festival
Harvest festival
What was best of all was the
Longing look you gave me
That longing look
Across the hymnbooks and the canvas chairs
The longing look you gave me
That longing look
More than enough to keep me fed all year
Harvest festival
See the peaches in tins 'neath the headmaster's chair
Harvest festival
See them walk hand in hand to the front of the hall
Harvest festival
What was best of all was the
Longing look you gave me
That longing look
More than enough to keep me fed all year
See their hair cut like corn neatly combed in their rows
Harvest festival
What was best of all was the
Longing look you gave me
That longing look
Across the hymnbooks and the canvas chairs
The longing look you gave me
That longing look
More than enough to keep me fed all year
Of course you passed and you were never seen again
We all grew and we got screwed and cut and nailed
Then out of nowhere invitation in gold pen
See that you two got married and I wish you well
Harvest festival
What was best of all was the
Longing look you gave me
That longing look
Across the hymnbooks and the canvas chairs
The longing look you gave me
That longing look
More than enough to keep me fed all year
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I can't believe no one has commented on this song. The orchestration, the pronunciation of words, it's so heartbreaking, but so magical. "That longing look / Across the hymn books and the canvas chairs" Just amazing.
It's a little melancholy, a little bittersweet. But, I like how their friendship, their flirtation, is 'more than enough to keep him fed all year'. How nice for both of them, to have that friendship in their lives, even as their lives float off in separate directions.
The thing that moves me about this song is the sense that the person he was infatuated with is somewhat of a superior. Somehow meant for greater things. She was one of the "two who've been chosen" and when he remained in the town (and got "screwed" etc): "Of course you passed and you were never seen again." And her longing look last him the whole year. So the narrator of the song loves the girl but recognizes that she's out of his league. Then she comes back for her wedding, to someone in her league. So there's that odd recognition of social strata, but not in a social stigma sort of way -- the backdrop of the song gives us that. It's more sprung from nature. The harvest festival is both an image of how the town would regularly get together, and also an image of the children themselves growing up (or being "harvested"). Some are better crops than others. It's just nature. The theme may be the sort of thing that might anger folks if it were about another situation. But since it is about a boy's sweet memory about a girl he could never have, it's perfectly acceptable as such. And wonderful.