Songs That I Love #76 & #77 Tom McRae - Alphabet Of Hurricanes & Ship Of Green And Blue

I wanted to find a studio version of this song as it lasts 8 minutes and 18 seconds, I know this as that is how long it takes me to drive home from visiting my Mum in hospital. Don't ask me how I discovered this but I did and then it became the song I played every night as I headed home after visiting.

The journey home is always a blur piecing together the events of the days conversations with doctors and consultants and wondering what to do for the best it felt that it was An Alphabet Of Hurricanes that was blowing me home on a nightly basis.

Caught in a whirlwind of
Broken sticks and bones
An alphabet of hurricanes
Can't blow this drifter home

And the train kicks up snow across
This cold New Mexico
And as I cross the Rio Grande
I finally let you go

To fall into the icy stream
Of different lives and different dreams

And we go lightly on our way
Yes you go lightly on the same

Woke up in Kansas from a
Dream of burning ships
And I still taste the ocean, girl
And you on my lips

But I can't seem to change the way
This story wants to play
Life is in the living
Not the telling anyway

Press myself into the glass
Silver moon lights up my path

As I go lightly on my way
And you will go lightly on the same
Yes we go lightly on our way

Shaken by a broken rail in
Princeton, Illinois
With time to kill I drank my fill
And gave the jukebox all my coins

This one's for the friends I've lost
The one I've left behind
No, this one's not for you, I take it back
I've changed my mind

The music drifts into the night
Calls to me and says it's time

To go lightly on my way
And I will lightly on the same
Yes you go lightly on your way

Sunset on the Hudson turns this city into gold
This stolen El Dorado it ain't mine, it sure ain't yours
I've been here for every season
Somehow you forget
You claim this city for yourself
Well take it, it's my gift
There's nothing left to divide
You take the days, I'll take the nights

And I'll go lightly on my way
And you will go lightly on the same
Yes we go lightly on our way

Caught in a whirlwind of
Broken sticks and bones
An alphabet of hurricanes

Can't blow this drifter home
Can't blow this drifter home
Can't blow this drifter home
Can't blow this drifter home

As my Mum was transferred to a different hospital then Alphabet of Hurricanes didn't fill my journey home but Alphabet along with Ship of Green and Blue filled the journey perfectly.

The lyrics to this song break my heart every time I play it,  the line 'the colours in my memory are brighter than those I see' sums up how I feel about life at the moment. 

Slow comes the waking from black and fever dreams
We were drifting on the high seas on a ship of blue and green.
Sounds from the street rip me from my sleep,
I’m slow walking out, empty city streets,
Shake myself awake, and thinking still of you,
In a ship of green and blue.

Oh, through a slow day my mind falls with me
And colours in my memory are brighter than those I see.
But our heart still beats here, it’s just a splendid souvenir,
I’m slow walking out, famous city streets,
Streets you’ll never know, I’ll describe them all for you,
On a ship of green and blue.

Cold was the morning, the sky of bloody blues
We were talking about the old times and singing songs for you
You were dressed up for the ride, silver dollars on your eyes
I’m slow walking out, darkened city streets,
Feeling nothing now, just following my fear
‘till land gives way to sea.
I’ll tell you everything, brother, when we meet.
When we’re drifting on a sea on a ship of blue and green.