Mike Heron - Beautiful Stranger lyrics

John Cale: piano, harmonium, brass arrangement

Pat Donaldson: bass

Gerry Conway: drums

Tony Cox: VCS 3

Soft lapped the bark boats

A wounded shoulder hurt me not

Snake - like branches quietly hid my eyes so bright in the swamp-red sun

Soft edged the foreign words

Coloured by the dark waves splash in the mist

Brown the breasts and purple-stained

Dye deep-pounded with the stone

The warm wind now lifts the haze

I looked and I caught my breath

And I raised my head up high

And I shouted out loud in my soul

Beautiful stranger I'm glad I found you

Bright the sky above my head

Streaked with red and yellow wing

Warm the mud between my toes

Darkest green the inland trail

Distant now the bark boats

Golden beads on silver wire of sea

Long bathed by salty spray

Visions float on the dry earths smell

Drifting back through younger days

I looked and I caught my breath

And I shouted out loud in my soul

Beautiful stranger I'm glad I found you

Moist and cool the river bank

Laid me down against a tree

Remembering as in a dream

Shoulder cut in the dark waves splash

In that place no wound there was

Only a ring of finest bronze there gleamed

Soft lapped the back boats

Brown the breasts and purple stained

River green reflect the gaze

I looked and I caught my breath

And I raised my head up high

And I shouted out loud in my soul

Beautiful stranger I'm glad I found you