A THOUSAND LEAVES

also appears on:

• Tibetan Freedom Concert (live '97)
• Rarities 1 (live '97)
• 05/28/98 "LIVE IN LOS ANGELES 1998"

Line-up:
Thurston - guitar/vocals
Kim - guitar/bvox
Lee - guitar
Steve - drums

Lyrics   status: confirmed

Sing your children, your children song
Sing your child love, love is on
See through child eyes, eyes are old
And old is magic growing
See the child lights, spinning gold
Everyday girl, they blow away
Leaves falling to the water
Wildflowers for you today

Sing your birthday, your birthday blues
Sing your wild light, wildflowers bloom
They will not forget you

And down they go
To sleep, so slow
Away they grow
They go

I wait.. I wait all day
I wait.. I wait all day
I wait.. I wait all day
I wait.. I wait all day

Sing your child love, love is on
Sing your child lights
Sing your child lights, lights are gold
Sing your child life, wildflower soul

NOTES:

• Working title: "Wildflower"
• Performed instrumentally throughout 1997. It was first performed w/ vocals in Austin on 3/19/98.
• A live instrumental version was released in late '97 on the Tibetan Freedom Concert compilation. It was slightly different than the album version (besides having no vocals)... Thurston's flaming guitar leads in the middle of the song were reduced to plinky novelties on the record, and Steve plays more drum fills during the outro (which I love). It's hard to say which version is better.. in fact, I'd have to nominate the subsequent tour version, which was more similar to the '97 instrumental but had Thurston's vocals (most of them -- the "and down they go.." part remained instrumental).
• Performed on the Australian show "Recovery" on 10/10/98.
• Live version aired on 7/1/98 John Peel Session.

ALTERNATE VERSIONS:

• On Tibetan Freedom 3CD - LIVE - 9:29

  Recorded live on 6/7/97 in Randall's Island, NY @ the Tibetan Freedom Concert. Listed as "Wildflower". The song is completely instrumental. Preceded by Thurston's remark "Aaah the sun is coming out."