Eastfield

Lyrics

[Verse 1] T'was the third of November in '79 When I crossed Bowden Moor in a flurry of snow And the heater blew warm in the old transit truck And the fuel gauge leaned over on low Away to the southwest the winter rolled in A swirl of white flakes caught the pale evening glow And the pinpoint of light from the farm on the hill Flickered bright through the trees and the snow [Verse 2] There's many's the pillow where I've lain my head From a bunk on a ship to my coat on the ground And there's many the door that I've closed at my back From a shack to the best place in town But there's a feeling you get when you're heading for home Be it ten thousand miles or a trip to the town And it came to me then as the winter sun set And the curtain of twilight came down [Chorus] The more that you win then the more there's for losing The more that you love then the more you've to fear And I changed down to third as I climbed to the farm Trying to silence that voice in my ear [Verse 3] T'was the fifteenth of March, '83 was the year On the West Midland motorway spattered with rain In a beat-up old Volkswagen bound for north When I next heard that voice once again I remembered the hopes that has been in my heart When I crossed Bowden Moor back in '79 And the years in between that had ripped me apart And the lightning that struck down the pine [Verse 4] I numbered each fence-post from roadside to burn And counted the rocks in each grey drystone wall And I numbered the golden-coiled flowers on the whins And I counted the autumn leaves fall I looked to the Northerly Eildon Hills crest And south to the crags of the Rubislaw crown And I heard the black rooks flying in from the west As the farm in my dreams tumbled down [Chorus] The more that you lose then the more there's for gaining The less that you ask for the more you don't mind Any road that you travel's a long lonely way When you know you've left nothing behind [Verse 5] I came down from a grandmother bound to the land On a West Island croft on the Vatersay shore And was named for a grandfather wed to the see And now I must wander once more And there isn't a trade where I won't try my hand There's never a hill I'm not ready to climb And there isn't a grief that I don't understand As I empty the fullness of time [Verse 6] And still when the Autumn's glow silvers to frost And the sweet scent of wood smoke is sharp in the air I remember the loves and the hopes that were lost And a part of me wants to be there So now when I cross Bowden Moor in the snow And the light beckons me, there's a game that I play I pretend to the crossroads that it's homeward I go Then I turn to the east and away [Chorus] The more that you win then the more there's for losing The longer you love then the more you've to fear And the more of the choice then the more of the choosing And the voice that will ring in your ear