Click to listen to COPPERLINE
I was wondering since the age of two, down on Copperline.
Copper head, copper beech, copper kettles sitting side by each.
Copper coil, cup o'Georgia peach, down on Copperline.
Half a mile down to Morgan Creek, leaning heavy on the end of the week.
Hercules and a hog-nosed snake, down on Copperline we were down on Copperline.
One Summer night on the Copperline, slip away past supper time.
Wood smoke and new moonshine, down on Copperline.
One time I saw my daddy dance, watched him moving like a man in a trance.
He bought it back from the war in France, down onto Copperline.
Branch water and tomato wine, creosote and turpentine,
sour mash and new moon shine, down on Copperline, down on Copperline.
First kiss ever I took, like a page from a romance book,
the sky opened and the earth shook, down on Copperline, down on Copperline.
Took a fall from a windy height, I only knew how to hold on tight
and pray for love enough to last all night, down on Copperline.
Day breaks and the boys wakes up and the dog barks and the birds sings
and the sap rises and the angels sigh, yeah.
I tried to go back, as if I could, all spec house and plywood.
Tore up and tore up good down on Copperline.
It doesn't come as a surprise to me, it doesn't touch my memory
and I'm lifting up and rising free down on over Copperline.
Half a mile down to Morgan Creek, I'm only living for the end of the week.
Hercules and a hog-nosed snake, down on Copperline, yeah, take me down on Copperline.
Oh, down on Copperline, take me down on Copperline.
Copper head, copper beech, copper kettles sitting side by each.
Copper coil, cup o'Georgia peach, down on Copperline.
Half a mile down to Morgan Creek, leaning heavy on the end of the week.
Hercules and a hog-nosed snake, down on Copperline we were down on Copperline.
One Summer night on the Copperline, slip away past supper time.
Wood smoke and new moonshine, down on Copperline.
One time I saw my daddy dance, watched him moving like a man in a trance.
He bought it back from the war in France, down onto Copperline.
Branch water and tomato wine, creosote and turpentine,
sour mash and new moon shine, down on Copperline, down on Copperline.
First kiss ever I took, like a page from a romance book,
the sky opened and the earth shook, down on Copperline, down on Copperline.
Took a fall from a windy height, I only knew how to hold on tight
and pray for love enough to last all night, down on Copperline.
Day breaks and the boys wakes up and the dog barks and the birds sings
and the sap rises and the angels sigh, yeah.
I tried to go back, as if I could, all spec house and plywood.
Tore up and tore up good down on Copperline.
It doesn't come as a surprise to me, it doesn't touch my memory
and I'm lifting up and rising free down on over Copperline.
Half a mile down to Morgan Creek, I'm only living for the end of the week.
Hercules and a hog-nosed snake, down on Copperline, yeah, take me down on Copperline.
Oh, down on Copperline, take me down on Copperline.
It's well known James Taylor spent some of his youth in Chapel Hill, and one of his most popular songs, CAROLINA IN MY MIND, sheds a ray of light on that phase, evoking a yearning to return, as most of us do to a certain place that exists more in memory and in our hearts than maybe what was really there. Doesn't matter in my view, it's the urge for going that counts
In COPPERLINE though, "Half a mile down to Morgan Creek" referenced a spot near his family's home and now where James Taylor Bridge exists above that trickling water. Funny how things work out. Or perhaps, uncanny.
I tried to go back, as if I could, all spec house and plywood.
Tore up and tore up good down on Copperline.
It doesn't come as a surprise to me, it doesn't touch my memory
and I'm lifting up and rising free down on over Copperline.
The four lines above are personal, specific and inherently universal as long time Chapel Hillians can attest, having endured many aspects of progress — some that are not exactly improvements.
Taylor told ROLLING STONE in 2015, "This is another song about home, about my father, about a childhood that was very peaceful, which is a rare thing today. I felt like I was part of a landscape in those days - the trees, the streams and the rivers, the animals that lived there."
COPPERLINE is terrific, but I wonder if a large percentage of that terrific stems from my own past, that I grew older, and somewhat up, in Chapel Hill as well.
Then again, when a song's recipe includes Jerry Douglas on dobro and Mark O'Connor on fiddle, all the burners on the stove are in high gear.
In COPPERLINE though, "Half a mile down to Morgan Creek" referenced a spot near his family's home and now where James Taylor Bridge exists above that trickling water. Funny how things work out. Or perhaps, uncanny.
I tried to go back, as if I could, all spec house and plywood.
Tore up and tore up good down on Copperline.
It doesn't come as a surprise to me, it doesn't touch my memory
and I'm lifting up and rising free down on over Copperline.
The four lines above are personal, specific and inherently universal as long time Chapel Hillians can attest, having endured many aspects of progress — some that are not exactly improvements.
Taylor told ROLLING STONE in 2015, "This is another song about home, about my father, about a childhood that was very peaceful, which is a rare thing today. I felt like I was part of a landscape in those days - the trees, the streams and the rivers, the animals that lived there."
COPPERLINE is terrific, but I wonder if a large percentage of that terrific stems from my own past, that I grew older, and somewhat up, in Chapel Hill as well.
Then again, when a song's recipe includes Jerry Douglas on dobro and Mark O'Connor on fiddle, all the burners on the stove are in high gear.
' a certain place that exists more in memory and in our hearts than maybe what was really there. Doesn't matter in my view, it's the urge for going that counts'
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