The beggar man and the mighty king are only diff’rent in name, For they are treated just the same by fate. Today a smile and tomorrow a tear, We’re never sure what’s in store, So learn your lesson before it is too late, so
Be like I, hold your head up high, Till you find a bluebird of happiness. You will find greater peace of mind Knowing there’s a bluebird of happiness. And when he sings to you, Though you’re deep in blue, You will see a ray of light creep through, And so remember this, life is no abyss, Somewhere there’s a bluebird of happiness.
Be like I, hold your head up high, ‘Til you see a ray of light and cheer. And so remember this, life is no abyss, Somewhere there’s a bluebird of happiness.
I can’t think of bluebirds without thinking of Tom Russell’s song, “Blue Wing” — one of my favorite. Both help me see the sky above.
— kenne
Blue Wing by Tom Russell
He had a blue wing tattooed on his shoulder Well it might have been a bluebird I don’t know But he’d get stone drunk and talk about Alaska The salmon boats and 45 below
He said he got that blue wing up in Walla Walla And his cellmate there was Little Willy John And Willy he was once a great blues singer And Wing and Willy wrote ’em up a song. They said…
CHORUS: It’s dark in here; can’t see the sky But I look at this blue wing and I close my eyes And I fly away beyond these walls Up above the clouds where the rain don’t fall On a poor man’s dream.
They paroled Blue Wing in August, of 1963 He moved north picking apples to the town of Wenatchee Then winter finally caught him in a run down trailer park On the south side of Seattle where the days grow gray and dark
And he drank and he dreamt of visions when the salmon still ran free And his fathers’ fathers crossed that wild old Bering Sea And the land belonged to everyone and there were old songs yet to sing Now it’s narrowed down to a cheap hotel and a tattooed prison wing
CHORUS: It’s dark in here; can’t see the sky But I look at this blue wing and I close my eyes And I fly away beyond these walls Up above the clouds where the rain don’t fall On a poor man’s dream.
Western Bluebird — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Western Bluebird Silhouette by kenne
Western Bluebird — Image by kenne
Western Bluebird — Computer Painting by kenne
Phainopepla
Western Bluebird — Images by kenne
