Franciscan Alert: ‘500 Miles’ by Roger McGuinn

Paul Keggington

August 01, 2011
St. Clare prayed: “May I feel what Your friends feel, O Jesus…” This August 2011, called to be sensitive to the growing needs of the poor and desperate across the many miles in our world, Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity offer for reflection ‘500 Miles’ by Roger McGuinn.

This August 2011 Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity offer for reflection Roger McGuinn's '500 Miles' as a free music download.

About Roger McGuinn

 
Jim McGuinn, later known as Roger, was already a veteran of the New York and Los Angeles music scene when he co-founded the group that would become the Byrds with Gene Clark and David Crosby in 1964.
Prior to forming the Byrds, Roger toured and performed folk music with the Limeliters, Chad Mitchell Trio and Bobby Darin as a guitarist and banjo player. McGuinn, a Chicago native, studied at the Old Town School of Folk Music and was active on Chicago’s folk scene, where he was strongly influenced as a teenager by Bob Gibson.
In November, 1995, McGuinn began recording and uploading to the internet a series of traditional folk songs. The recordings are available for free download at the ‘Folk Den’, part of his home page.

From Roger McGuinn’s Blog Entry about ‘500 Miles’.

Hedy West (April 6, 1938 – July 3, 2005) was an American folksinger and songwriter. Her song “500 miles,” has been covered by Bobby Bare (a Billboard Top 10 hit in 1963), The Highwaymen, The Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary, Peter & Gordon, The Brothers Four and many others. A great number of Hedy’s songs, including the raw materials for “500 Miles” came from her paternal grandmother Lily West who passed on the songs she had learned as a child.

This has a sweet melody and a sad story of poverty and desolation.

Lyrics

If you miss this train I’m on then you’ll know that I have gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
A hundred miles A hundred miles A hundred miles A hundred miles
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles

Lord I’m one Lord I’m two Lord I’m three Lord I’m four
Lord I’m five hundred miles from my home
Five hundred miles five hundred miles five hundred miles five hundred miles
Lord I’m five hundred miles from my home

Not a shirt on my back not a penny to my name
Lord I can’t go on home this a-way
This a-way this a-way this a-way this a-way
Lord I can’t go on home this a-way

If you miss this train I’m on then you’ll know that I have gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
A hundred miles A hundred miles  A hundred miles A hundred miles
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles

Website

http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/mcguinn/index.html

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