CHANGING TIMES
© 1985 Dan MacArthur, BMI
Gordon – vocal & 12-string guitar
Will, Matt, Kat, Jim, David, Anne, Holly
-vocals
From my dear MacArthur family of Marlboro
VT, whose love and work has kept so many traditions of music, building and land
care alive and healthy in the world that feeds us all.
first chorus:
The
grasses grow tall until the hay it is mown
Then the
fields lie still till the new seed is sown
Many
children standing here have watched the grass wave in the wind
We're
the ones who stand here now but many others will again
Long, long ago these fields and the crops that they grew
here
Might decide a family's fate for another coming year
Like the grasses that grow tall and get cut down for hay
So generations moved in here, made their marks and moved
away
second chorus:
And the
fields lie still till the new seed is sown
Many
children standing here have watched the grass wave in the wind
We're
the ones who stand here now, but many others will again
After clearing off the land and piling up their long
stonewalls
They walked for miles for the seed, then
they hoped the good rains fall
And when the rains come down right and all the crops grew
tall and strong
Families had enough to eat for another winter long
(first chorus)
Perhaps the time will come again when these fields will mean
more
And we'll learn to care for them as others did so long
before
And like the seed that's newly sown and springs to life with
sun and rain
People's lives may grow to know the value of these fields
again
(second chorus)
We're the ones who live here now,
but many others will again
Changing Times is
recorded on the album Because You Asked
and also on the Folk-Legacy album Minneapolis
Concert.