Gold would be
worthless if it didn't require
Such heartbreak to seek,
to find it and mine it
Things remain precious the
more that they're rare
If gold could be found lying
round everywhere
Could be the lowliest of metals,
too soft for serious use
It's pretty, of course,
and warm to the touch
But no longer will you ring when
you've handled so much
The lowest of the doors
Will you come with me
Through the ice and the snow
She thought for a moment
Then she said, let's go
I rode behind her
And she'd hold her head
And all through that winter
I'd lose her and find her
Rations ran out
Horses were dead
She forgot what gold was
And I had to remind her
The loneliest of metals
Too soft for serious use.
Pretty of course, warm to the touch,
But no longer will you ring,
When you've handled so much,
The lowliest of letters.
In a prospector's shack,
she lay out of her mind
Describing how simple
gold is to find
Just under the surface, in zigzagging planes
It lies there like branches
amidst all the lightning
You just open a hole in
the crust of the flame
You reach in, she said,
and it's there for the taking
The lowliest of metals
So blind and starving, I sat by her side
As the fever raged in her,
and the storm raged
outside
She said, now we are rich, I told her the
Well, gold that we'd found
would not crown a tooth
She said, these things I
know without being told
We are rich in each other,
now what good is gold?
It's the loneliest of the
blues
Now sometimes I dream that the world is reversed
I dream that accountants are rarer than po ets
That things will get better if they
can 't get any worse
But a rich man has nothing
but dirt in his purse
Gold is the lowliest of metals
It's too soft for serious use
It's pretty, of course,
warm to the touch
But no longer will your ring, if you've handled too much,
the lowliest of metals.