Song for Day 23 of a 4 Year Funeral - "Fields of Gold" by Sting, sung by Eva Cassidy

Songwriter Sting.

Day 23 - "Fields of Gold" by Sting, sung by Eva Cassidy 

      Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner (born 1951) began his solo career in 1985, after seven successful years with "The Police", whose final album, "Synchronicity" (1983), contained the megahit "Every Breath You Take".

      He derived his nickname, "Sting", from wearing a black and yellow striped sweater in the late 1970s when playing with "The Phoenix Jazzmen".  If you shouted "Gordon" in his direction he and everyone else would look around for Chef Ramsay.

     In May of 2001 The Eva Cassidy Story on NBC Nightline introduced Eva to the North American audiences...

      ...just as Mike Harding and Terry Wogan playing "Fields of Gold" and "Over the Rainbow" on BBC Radio 2 raised her profile in the United Kingdom.

       Paradoxically, there were few singers less political than Eva, yet no singer more so.

Singer Eva Cassidy (1963-1996)

        Who was Eva Cassidy?  She was a Washington area singer, famous posthumously for her covers of "Fields of Gold" (to which Michelle Kwan skated in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City , "Over The Rainbow", "Time After Time" and many other favorites.  Some of her choices were political, such as Paul Simon's "American Tune", but she was hardly a Joan Baez or Buffy Sainte Marie.  No one confuses her guitar playing with Liona Boyd's, her voice with Susan Boyle's or her composing with that of Loreena McKennitt.  Shy and self-effacing, she was hardly the media personality that Madonna or Lady Gaga are.  So what is the source of her posthumous success?  Why do we have tributes like "Elegy For Eva"?

      Please excuse the dead links in this cliché collage:

It's true you've changed. You are
at the dark end of the street
now. If there is time
after time
I'll meet with you
not here in fields of gold canola,
not by the old barquero's boat,
not where the water is wide
at river's bend,
not under those tall trees.

In Georgia? I'm resigned
to joining you
beyond the cold and tears,
in heaven (if fate will grace us both).

In the early morning,
rain reminds songbirds
that summertime is over.

The rainbow is swept away
with autumn leaves. Every colour wades
into your blue eyes.

Crying in the rain dilutes the drops from cheek to cheek
like words forgotten yesterday,
like vows unkept
or curses in a fever that soon fades.
A red, red rose is all
that may remain.

How can I keep from singing
"Kathy's Song"? It has the drizzling
rain, the street
and you.

I read the letter,
where you wrote that time
is a healer, death a nightbird
at your door, but these two cures
are taking far too long.

At least I can imagine drinks will do,
at last, what can't be done
by notes and rhyme. Perhaps
it doesn't matter any more.



      The answer lies in a rarely used word, one reserved for the royalty within an egalitarian society;  a word that is the greatest predictor of greatness itself; a fateful term that often mixes respect with sadness.  It describes the Roosevelts, Mahatma Ghandi, the Kennedys, the Carters, and, most recently, Malala Yousafzai and...:

From "Kemla's Aloha" in "Love is a Weakness"

Lyrics:

You'll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley
You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky as we walk in fields of gold
So she took her love for to gaze awhile upon the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down among the fields of gold
Will you stay with me, will you be my love among the fields of barley?
We'll forget the sun in his jealous sky as we lie in fields of gold
See the west wind move like a lover so upon the fields of barley.
Feel her body rise when you kiss her mouth among the fields of gold
I never made promises lightly and there have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left we'll walk in fields of gold
We'll walk in fields of gold
Many years have passed since those summer days among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down among the fields of gold
You'll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky when we walked in fields of gold
When we walked in fields of gold, when we walked in fields of gold

Links: 

Songs for a 4 Year Funeral