The first Sunday of the new month, so we need lyrics from a song written and/or performed by somebody born in October.
As ever, there is plenty of choice. In other circumstances I would have plumped unhesitatingly for John Lennon, but he had his (latest) turn last week with ‘Revolution’.
However, it soon became clear what my second choice was going to be (and here I seem to be thinking along the same lines as Jim himself, to judge by his selection). October was the birth month of two members of the Grateful Dead, Bob Weir and Brent Mydland, as well as John Barlow, who co-wrote a number of songs with Weir. This is one of their most frequently performed collaborations.
The Cassidy of the title is said to be the daughter of Rex Jackson, the band’s road manager until his untimely death in a car crash in 1976. However, the lyrics also reference Neil Cassidy, a leading figure of the Bay Area psychedelic era in the mid to late sixties.
So where does Brent Mydland come into it?. Well, he is the keyboard player in the accompanying video, where he deservingly features prominently. He also collaborated with John Barlow on a number of his own compositions.
I have seen where the wolf has slept by the silver stream
I can tell by the mark he left you were in his dream
Ah, child of countless trees
Ah, child of boundless seas
What you are, what you’re meant to be
Speaks his name, though you were born to me
Born to me
Cassidy
Lost now on the country miles in his Cadillac
I can tell by the way you smile he’s rolling back
Come wash the nighttime clean
Come grow this scorched ground green
Blow the horn, tap the tambourine
Close the gap of the dark years in between
You and me
Cassidy
Quick beats in an icy heart
Catch-colt draws a coffin cart
There he goes now, here she starts:
Hear her cry
Flight of the seabirds, scattered like lost words
Wheel to the storm and fly
Fare thee well now
Let your life proceed by its own design
Nothing to tell now
Let the words be yours, I’m done with mine
Flight of the seabirds, scattered like lost words
Wheel to the storm and fly
Written by John Barlow and Bob Weir
