Ewan And The Gold Lyrics

You caught the line they threw you, You helped to make her fast You heard the sailors talking in the rigging And when the captain said he'd take Another hand before the mast You knew you were halfway to the diggings So you rode the ocean swell To Bendigo and living hell In the camps and the creeks of Castlemane For like a million other souls You were haunted by the gold And you'd never know a peaceful day again And tell me Ewan Gillies did you still believe the dream When the hard men of Victoria bought and sold you? When you had to sell the farm that you'd sifted from the seams Did you curse the tale the sailor laddies told you? And did you fight against the call of the island You knew would never hold you? For all the gold Ewan Gillies ever found Could not buy him peace or freedom From the memory of the sound Of the waves on St Kilda's rocky shore And when the dream was done You'd lost your children and your wife And every single thing you'd ever had But you told your friends the gold Was still the centre of your life And they told you one and all that you were mad So you wandered through the years Never stopping once to rue And St Kilda heard your footsteps as you passed Old Glory even put you In a coat of faded blue Till the older glory claimed you back at last And tell me Ewan Gillies did you give the Lord your thanks When he showed you where the gold and riches lay? Or did you bow your head in prayer on the Sacramento banks And ask him should you go or should you stay? And did St Kilda call you home across the mountains At the dawn of every day? For all the gold Ewan Gillies ever found Could not buy him peace or freedom From the memory of the sound Of the waves on St Kilda's rocky shore So once more you made the journey To that bare and barren land To end your days among your kith and kin To a winter when the devil Held the island in his hand And the shadow of starvation rode the wind For it's hard upon St Kilda For the folk to keep their pride When every season brings them to despair And to hear you tell the tale Of a different ocean's tide Made their bitter burden harder still to bear Though they knew you for their own you were forced to stand alone In a solitude that no one could endure They made your home a living grave until the bravest of the brave Was forced to leave the poorest of the poor So you reached out once again and took hold of The bonnie golden lure For all the gold Ewan Gillies ever found Could not buy him peace or freedom From the memory of the sound Of the waves on St Kilda's rocky shore When first I heard the tale Of Ewan and the gold I was filled with bitter anger and with tears To hear a traveller return And be shut out from the fold Drove a shaft into the deepest of my fears For God made Ewan Gillies And God gave him wings to fly But only from the land where he belonged But I'd fight with God himself For the light in Ewan's eye Or with anyone who tells me he was wrong For there's some who use their dreams to tear themselves apart And some who never find a dream at all But how many find the courage to look deepest in their hearts To find a dream they can follow till they fall And when my heart cries out to wander I can hear him Answering the call For all the gold Ewan Gillies ever found Could not buy him peace or freedom From the memory of the sound Of the waves on St Kilda's rocky shore And on the island the greatest story ever told It was always Ewan Gillies, California and the gold So far from St Kilda's rocky shore