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Yon Two Crows Lyrics
Pennies from heaven
Don’t make me laugh
Here all you’ll get's the pattering rain
Or yon two crows up over the hill
Looking for winterkill
Always at your boots
The mud behind the byre
With its clammy hold
Would mock you up a grave
Here in the mire of a wrecked sheepfold
And all you’ll bring to this
Is muscle and grit
Persistence, that’s just about it
What made you think
There’d be a living in sheep?
Eat, work, eat, work and sleep
Duck under the eaves of the bothy
To sit here, caged by rain
Somewhere to go conjure a next move
When I have to think again
The dog lifts his gaze to plead
Believes the wizard has a magic stick
Leans his weight into my tweed
I give an unholy hand to lick
I take a swig of sheep dip from my flask
And once again I ask
What made you think there’d be a living in sheep?
Eat, work, eat, work and sleep
They were at this game
Two hundred years ago
Had thirty ways of dying young, poor souls
Laid to rest in their soggy rows
Rain on their holy books
Blood and whisky
On the tongue
And no-one watching over anyone
No-one left but your stubborn one
And the crows and rooks
Ah, the dying young
Well I’m not done
You watch me and I’ll watch thee
I can still work for two men
And drink for three
And I raise my flask to the clearing skies
To you, sweepers, you carrion spies
To scavenge and survive
If you can do it so can I.
Don’t make me laugh
Here all you’ll get's the pattering rain
Or yon two crows up over the hill
Looking for winterkill
Always at your boots
The mud behind the byre
With its clammy hold
Would mock you up a grave
Here in the mire of a wrecked sheepfold
And all you’ll bring to this
Is muscle and grit
Persistence, that’s just about it
What made you think
There’d be a living in sheep?
Eat, work, eat, work and sleep
Duck under the eaves of the bothy
To sit here, caged by rain
Somewhere to go conjure a next move
When I have to think again
The dog lifts his gaze to plead
Believes the wizard has a magic stick
Leans his weight into my tweed
I give an unholy hand to lick
I take a swig of sheep dip from my flask
And once again I ask
What made you think there’d be a living in sheep?
Eat, work, eat, work and sleep
They were at this game
Two hundred years ago
Had thirty ways of dying young, poor souls
Laid to rest in their soggy rows
Rain on their holy books
Blood and whisky
On the tongue
And no-one watching over anyone
No-one left but your stubborn one
And the crows and rooks
Ah, the dying young
Well I’m not done
You watch me and I’ll watch thee
I can still work for two men
And drink for three
To you, sweepers, you carrion spies
To scavenge and survive
If you can do it so can I.
Song Info
Submitted by
mike On Sep 13, 2012
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An amazing song both lyrically and musically. The lyrics seem ambiguous as in a very melancholy type poem. No idea really. Musically it's quite unique since the main hook isn't played until halfway through the song.
@hardlikker12 Well, the singer is a sheep farmer, sheltering from the rain under the eaves of some little outbuilding with his dog (who thinks his master is a wizard, his shepherd's crook a magic stick). It's a hard life, maybe a bad choice ("What made you think there'd be a livin' in sheep?" he asks himself twice), but he's not giving up. He can work as hard as any two men, and drink as much as three. That's not really sheep-dip in his flask - probably whiskey.
@hardlikker12 Well, the singer is a sheep farmer, sheltering from the rain under the eaves of some little outbuilding with his dog (who thinks his master is a wizard, his shepherd's crook a magic stick). It's a hard life, maybe a bad choice ("What made you think there'd be a livin' in sheep?" he asks himself twice), but he's not giving up. He can work as hard as any two men, and drink as much as three. That's not really sheep-dip in his flask - probably whiskey.
@hardlikker12 Oh, and the shepherd toasts "the clearing skies" and the two crows ("carrion spies"), and proposes that they look out for each other. If they can scavenge a living, so can he. Being visited by a pair of crows or ravens carries a heavy weight symbolically, usually indicating change, transformation (as do the clearing skies; Google that and make what you will of it!
@hardlikker12 Oh, and the shepherd toasts "the clearing skies" and the two crows ("carrion spies"), and proposes that they look out for each other. If they can scavenge a living, so can he. Being visited by a pair of crows or ravens carries a heavy weight symbolically, usually indicating change, transformation (as do the clearing skies; Google that and make what you will of it!