And will the breezes blow the petals from your hand
And will some loving ease your pain
And will the silence strike confusion from your soul
And will the swallows come again?
Richard & Mimi Fariña
A Swallow Song
See also: “It was the Red, White, and Blue making war on the poor”
Two versions from YouTube:
- The studio recorded version, from 1965.
- Joan Baez & Mimi Fariña duet. Live, from Joan Baez’s 1995 shows at The Bottom Line club in New York City — 30 years after the original Richard & Mimi Fariña studio album.
Richard & Mimi Fariña, from the 1965 Vanguard Records album “Reflections In A Crystal Wind”
Joan Baez & Mimi Fariña duet — Live, from Joan Baez’s 1995 shows at New York’s The Bottom Line club. From the CD set “Ring Them Bells” featuring duets and trios with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Mimi Fariña, Dar Williams, the Indigo Girls, Mary Black, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, and Tish Hinojosa.
from the liner notes of the album:
“At the time of Richard Farina`s untimely death in April 1966 (at age 29) he was producing what could have been 25-year old Joan’s first electric folk-rock album, which she ultimately shelved. Only three song from those sessions have ever surfaced over the years, in various collections: “Swallow Song” was a remake of a tune from Richard & Mimi`s second LP, “Reflections in a Crystal Wind.” Three decades later, it sounded better than ever here, with Mimi`s magnificent guitar playing on display. “Mimi was a superlative guitar player, aiming for, achieving, and perfecting runnings, styles and gyrations which to this day leave me in awe. Siblings harmony, born of invisible bonds, love and genius, is like no other.”
Lyrics
Come here and listen to the sky
Come walking high above the rolling of the sea
And watch the swallows as they fly
There is no choir like their song
There is no power like the freedom of their flight
While the swallows roam alone
Hear the trembling in the stone
Do you hear the angry bells ringing in the night
Do you hear the swallows when they’ve flown?
And will some loving ease your pain
And will the silence strike confusion from your soul
And will the swallows come again?
Some notes. This may be basic to some of you, or fresh information to others.
Richard Fariña
Richard Fariña was one of the shining lights of the early-1960s folk scene in New York City. He was born in 1937 in Brooklyn, NY, to an Irish-born mother and a Cuba-born father.
At the age of 23, Fariña married the then-popular folk singer Carolyn Hester in 1960 and became her agent while she toured worldwide. While recording her third album, a little-known Bob Dylan played harmonica on a few songs. Carolyn Hester introduced Dylan to the producer John Hammond of Columbia Records who then signed Dylan with Columbia. As another aside, Carolyn Hester was asked by Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey to form a trio, which she declined. The two men joined with Mary Travers, together becoming Peter, Paul, and Mary.
(From Wikipedia: “John Hammond was instrumental in sparking or furthering numerous musical careers, including those of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Charlie Christian, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Big Joe Turner, Pete Seeger, Babatunde Olatunji, Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Freddie Green, Leonard Cohen, Arthur Russell, Jim Copp, Asha Puthli, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Mike Bloomfield. He is also largely responsible for the revival of delta blues artist Robert Johnson’s music.”)
In 1962, Richard Fariña, then 25, met Mimi Baez, the 17-year-old younger sister of Joan Baez. According to the book book “Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña,” the two Baez sisters and Richard Fariña and Bob Dylan were an inseparable part of the early New York folk scene.
Richard and Mimi married in 1963 (author Thomas Pynchon, his college roommate, was the best man) and moved to a small cabin in Carmel, California. Performing with Mimi Fariña on guitar and Richard Fariña on dulcimer, they debuted their duo act at Big Sur Folk Festival in 1964. They recorded two studio albums in 1965.
In April 28th, 1966, his first novel, “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me” was published. Two days later, after a book-signing celebration and while at a party for Mimi’s 21st birthday, he went out for a motorcycle ride in the Carmel Valley as a passenger with a man he’d just met that day. According to reports, the driver was travelling at an excessive speed. The motorcycle crashed and Richard Fariña was killed instantly. He was 29 years old.
For more on Richard Fariña:
Richard Fariña: lost genius who bridged the gap between beats and hippies
The Guardian, 2016
Richard and Mimi Farina — 1960s folksingers