Tom Russell Band - Blue wing

^CHe had a Blue Wing tattooed on his shoulder. Well it might have been a blue bird I don't ^Dmknow. ^GBut he'd get stone drunk and talk about Alaska. Salmon boats and forty- five b^Celow ^CHe said he got that Blue Wing up in Walla Walla. Where his cellmate there was a little W^Dmilly John ^DmWilly he was once a great blues sing^Ger. And Wing and Willy wrote him up a s^Cong:

^CHe said its dark in here…can't see the^F sky. But I^C look at this Blue Wing and I cl^Gose my eyes ^CThen I fly away, beyond^F these walls… Up abov^Ce the clouds, where the rain don't^G fall On a po^Amor man's dreams^G… (yaa^Am, On a poor m^Gan's dreams, yaa)

^CWell they paroled Blue Wing in August, 1963 ^CAnd he moved on pickin' apples to the town of W^Dmenatchee. ^DmWinter finally caught him in a run down trailer park, ^DmOn the sou^Gth side of Seattle where the d^Cays grow gray and dark ^CAnd he drank and he dreamt a vision of when the salmon still swam free ^CAnd his father's father's crossed that w^Dmide old Bering Sea. ^DmAnd the land belonged to everyone, and there were old songs left to sing. ^DmNow it's nar^Growed down to a cheap hotel and a tatt^Cooed prison wing.

^CWell he drank his way to L.A. and that's where he died. But no one knew his Christian name ^CAnd there was^Dm no one there to cry. But I dreamt there was a service. A^Dm preacher and an old pine box. ^DmAnd hal^Gfway through the sermon you know Blue^C Wing began to talk