He had a blue wing tattooed on his shoulder
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Well it might have been a blue bird I don't know
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But he'd get stone drunk and talk about Alaska
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The salmon boats and 45 below
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He said he got that blue wing up in Walla Walla
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And his cellmate there was Little Willy John
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And Willy he was once a great blues singer
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And Wing and Willy wrote 'em up a song. They said¡¦
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CHORUS:
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It's dark in here; can't see the sky
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But I look at this blue wing and I close my eyes
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And I fly away beyond these walls
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Up above the clouds where the rain don't fall
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On a poor man's dream.
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They paroled Blue Wing in August, of 1963
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He moved north picking apples to the town of Wenatchee
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Then winter finally caught him in a run down trailer park
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On the south side of Seattle where the days grow gray and dark
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And he drank and he dreamt of visions when the salmon still ran free
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And his fathers' fathers crossed that wild old Bering Sea
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And the land belonged to everyone and there were old songs yet to sing
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Now it's narrowed down to a cheap hotel and a tattooed prison wing
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CHORUS:
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Well he drank his way to LA, and that's where he died
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And no one knew his Christian name and there was no one there to cry
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But I dreamt there was a funeral, a preacher and a cheap pine box
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And half way through the service, Blue Wing began to talk. He said¡¦
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CHORUS:
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Hey hey, On a poor man's dream
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Hey hey, On a poor man's dream.
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-----------------
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Blue Wing
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| Tom Russell |
