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  1. The Woman

From the recording Banishment

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Vocal: Tom Fairnie
Harmony vocal: Jane Fairnie, Karen Dietz
Guitar: Tom Fairnie
Violin: Emily Peppers
Accordion: Gordon Deans
Cello: Sally Ruel

Lyrics

The Woman

A woman like her only ever wears black
It flatters her figure and narrows her back
With dresses designed in some secret code
Deciphered by lovers in a game she adored
She dances to music only some of us hear
Her heart once beat to the fall of a tear
She learned to forgive you a lifetime ago
And learned to hold it and never let go, never let go, she never let go

She wore the look of a woman in love
Who wanted much more than all she could have
Though her smile was assured and her confidence high
Every man she met saw the fear in her eyes
Her lies were all dressed in the sound of her voice
You could take her for pleasure if she gave you the choice
She learned to deceive you a lifetime ago
And learned to hold it and never let go, never let go, she never let go

She dazzled her new friends with old repartee
Accustomed to men but never too free
I saw her once sleeping deep in your arms
But she saved all her dreams for some other man
She loved the scent he brought back from Rome
That she only wore knowing he’d come
She captured that moment a lifetime ago
And learned to hold it and never let go, never let go, she never let go

She slept in his bed and gave all that she could
She was a mystery, half understood
Guarded with strangers and open with friends
Never betrayed indiscretions she heard
She looked in the mirror and saw so much less
Than all of the women she longed to impress
She mastered that look a lifetime ago
And learned to hold it and never let go, never let go, she never let go

She was the woman, the one that we knew
If we took her for granted then we’d only lose
She never stayed long if the moment had gone
She followed her heart and her heart carried on
Looking for someone to love and admire
Someone to sleep with, to wake her desire
She dreamed that dream a lifetime ago
And learned to hold it and never let go, never let go, she never let go


© The Woman words & music by Tom Fairnie 26th April 2004

She is one and she is many
Her giving is the servant of life
And she is cloud and willow tears
She is sun and she is darkness
Her movement is the breath of all days
And she is seed and singing stars
She is Princess of Pentacles
And Queen of Swords
She is Esther’s breast
And Cassandra’s childless chord
She is Bessie Smith and Joni Mitchell
She is Billie Holliday
She is rain and Judy Garland
And the sparrow’s feet of clay
She is Scarlet Rivera’s gypsy
And someone else’s kiss
She tugs the waves and bleeds a promise
And she is, she is, she, is.

She Is One © Bob Shields