Eva Cassidy : My My My

 

Some old hotel room in Memphis
I see the city through the rain
I'm just chasing me in my time
And remembering some pain

You see there once was a boy
And on the street he'd surely die
So the night bird took him in
And she taught him how to fly

See the night bird softly fly
Why does she fly alone
Is the moonlight just a flame
For her memory now she's gone

To big bars and honky tonks
Any pleasure can be found
You can get just what you want
If you lay your money down

And lonely sailors do their drinking
My my my how the brave men do die
And the night bird sells her pleasures
Bringing tears to my eyes

See the night bird softly fly
Why does she fly alone
Is the moonlight just a flame
For her memory now she's gone

So I guess I'll go out walking
Lord let the rain keep falling down
I guess I'll go and chase some memories
In the dark side of town

See the night bird softly fly
Why does she fly alone
Is the moonlight just a flame
For her memory now she's gone

For her memory now she's gone
For her memory now she's gone

Singer-songwriter Doug MacLeod, who wrote the song “Nightbird,” was interviewed for the web site “Early Blues.” In the interview he was asked about other artists performing his music. Here’s his reply:
‘I have a couple of favourites. One was Eva Cassidy’s version of Nightbird. That song is about a prostitute, a prostitute that I used to live with who really watched out for me. I have no idea if Eva Cassidy knew what that song was about and I never heard it until my wife played it for me during a drive to Los Angeles from San Luis Opisbo. I’m a huge baseball fan and my team, the Cardinals from St Louis, were playing the Dodgers and I wanted to listen to the game. My wife said “I got something for you to hear”, and I said, “But the Cardinals are on” and she said “This is more important than the Cardinals” and she put this CD on of Eva Cassidy. I tell you, it moved me so much, I pulled over to the side of the road and I was weeping. I have never done that song again. When people ask me to do Nightbird, I tell them that if they want to hear THE version, she is the one to listen to. And then of course she died before I got a chance to meet her to ask her how she interpreted it like that.’

https://evacassidy.org/nightbird/