Red-Winged Blackbird - Ray Sawyer
(Joel Jaffe)

The indians say that the blackbird
Was flying too close to the sun

And the bright burning flames changed his wings and his name
To remind him how far he had come

On the banks of the yellow Rio Grande
There's a little stone shack built by hand
And a young man with more than a lot on his mind
Sits and stares out across the desert sand

Red-winged Blackbird fly
Away from Neuvo Laredo
I'll be there by and by
When I'm on my way back home

In the dry dusty month of September
He arrived with the West Texas wind
In flight from the lies and the life he had lived
He'd return but he did not know when

Red-winged Blackbird fly
Away from Neuvo Laredo
I'll be there by and by
When I'm on my way back home

One morning the Red-winged Blackbird
Left his barbed wire fence before dawn
For the young man his flight had a magical meaning
And the day after that he was gone

Red-winged Blackbird fly
Away from Neuvo Laredo
I'll be there by and by
When I'm on my way back home

Red-winged Blackbird fly
Away from Neuvo Laredo
I'll be there by and by
When I'm on my way back home....

(c) 1977 Whispering Wind Publishing Co.