Rockies naturalist, writer, interpretive guide, speaker, instructor & consultant, now retired
Rockies naturalist, writer, interpretive guide, speaker, instructor & consultant, now retired

Colin the Raven

Words and music copyright 2000, 2014 by Ben Gadd. First performed at Jasper Elementary School, Dec 20th 2000, after he had finished reading a draft of his novel Raven’s End to the grade-five students.





(His voice and guitar-playing are terrible, but perhaps you could learn the tune and do a better job on it.)

Start with the chorus

  A                G                    D                   A

Colin has feathers, and all of them black

   A                  G                D                A

Wings to fly far and to carry him back

  A                G              D               A

Colin has eyes of a beautiful brown

               Bm                                           E

And he looks down to you on the ground

               Bm                                        E

And he calls out to you with this sound  (Croak! Croak!)

 G     D     A

Fly with me!

 G     D    A

Fly with me!

 G               A             D    G    D

Fly in the sky with me—e—e

Now these two verses, with no chorus between them

 

1.

  D              G                    A                       D

Colin, oh Colin, where did you come from

   D                      G                  A                       D

Who was your father, and who was your mum

           D               G                A              D

You couldn’t remember the tumbling game

       G                                 A

Or even your very own name

       G               A                D

Or even your very own name

 

2.

         D                 G                A                   D

But Colin grew wiser and Colin grew strong

         D              G                    A             D

He flew very high and he flew very long

          D                  G                      A                         D

He found all the answers he’d been searching for

         G                                           A

And he found out very much more

G                        A                 D

He found out very much more

Now the chorus, and repeat the second part of it (“Fly with me!”),

ending with a loud “Rawk-a-taw!”

 

 

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