Amazing track written by Richard Thompson and David Swarbrick and sung by Sandy
Denny on Fairport Convention's "Liege & Lief" album.
Bm D A F#m
Within the fire and out upon the sea
Bm A Bm
Crazy Man Michael was walking
Bm D A F#m
He met with a raven with eyes black as coals
Bm A Bm
And shortly they were a-talking
F#m Bm
"Your future, your future, I would tell to you
F#m A
Your future, you often have asked me
Bm A Bm F#m
Your true love will die by your own right hand
Bm A Bm
And Crazy Man Michael will cursed be"
Bm D A F#m
Michael he ranted and Michael he raved
Bm A Bm
And beat at the four winds with his fists-oh
Bm D A F#m
He laughed and he cried, he shouted and he swore
Bm A Bm
For his mad mind had trapped him with a kiss-oh
F#m Bm
"You speak with an evil, you speak with a hate
F#m A
You speak for the devil that haunts me
Bm A Bm F#m
For is she not the fairest in all the broad land?
Bm A Bm
Your sorceror's words are to taunt me"
Bm D A F#m
He took out his dagger of fire and of steel
F#m A
And struck down the raven through the heart-oh
Bm D A F#m
The bird fluttered long and the sky it did spin
F#m A Bm
And the cold earth did wonder and start-oh
F#m Bm
"Oh, where is the raven that I struck down dead
F#m A
That here'd lie here on the ground-oh?
Bm A Bm F#m
I see but my true love with a wound so red"
Bm A Bm
Her lover's heart it did pound-oh
Bm D A F#m
Crazy Man Michael, he wanders and walks
And talks to the night and the day-oh
Bm D A F#m
But his eyes they are sane and his speech it is clear
Bm A Bm
And he longs to be far away-oh
F#m Bm
Michael he whistles the simplest of tunes
F#m A
And asks the wild woods their pardon
Bm A Bm F#m
For his true love is flown into every flower grown
Bm A Bm
And he must be keeper of the garden
Chords by COTH