From the recording It's a Short Life
Lyrics
13) Sky Road
m.litton
I knew a man called Horse
He was a hard-drinkin’ hoss, a freeborn Eskimo
We were both young, friends for a day
Workin’ down a long hard road
I’d play my song, my sad dark song
Horse would close his eyes ‘n dream
He made me a hatband of many-colored beads
Said, “Hey listen, I’ll tell ya what they mean
“Yeah, look to the sun, the bright rising sun
“For there is the path you should walk
“Don’t ever look back on the dark-water past
“Don’t listen to dead spirits talk
“Walk the sky road, walk the sky road...”
When Horse was a boy he hunted with his father
For seal in the Arctic cold
One day he heard a sharp sound
And when he looked around
His father fell in a dark-water hole
“No don’t ever look back on the dark water past
“It’ll swallow you beneath the ice
“Look to the birds, the spirits in the sky
“They’ll lead you to the light
“To the sky road, to the sky road...”
At a fork in the road Horse headed north
I south with my one-man band
The years circled back, one day I found him in a bar
Too drunk to speak or even stand
He’d lost the sun, the bright rising sun
The birds had fallen from the sky
The dark-water past had taken him in hand
And I could not lead him to the light
To the sky road, to the sky road
I knew a man called Horse
He was a hard-drinkin’ hoss, a freeborn Eskimo
We were once young, friends for a day
And once was a long time ago
But maybe what was once will once come again
When we meet the spirit in the sky
And we’ll look down on the long hard road
And go with the birds where they fly
To the sky road, to the sky road