Song Lyric Sunday – Animal

My contribution to this week’s Song Lyric Sunday (prompt: Animal)

Rickie Lee Jones wrote The Horses with Walter Becker (of Steely Dan). It appears on the album Flying Cowboys (1989) and was written about her daughter Charlotte Rose. The song was also featured in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire.

A sweet song of a mother’s fierce love…it could be any mother’s…or father’s…message to a child.

The Horses

by Rickie Lee Jones
& Walter Becker

We will fly
Way up high
Where the cold wind blows
Or in the sun
Laughing having fun
With the people that she knows
And if the situation
Should keep us separated
You know the world won’t fall apart
And you will free the beautiful bird
That’s caught inside your heart
Can’t you hear her?
Oh she cries so loud
Casts her wild note
Over water and cloud

That’s the way it’s gonna be, little darlin’
We’ll be riding on the horses, yeah
Way up in the sky, little darlin’
And if you fall I’ll pick you up, pick you up

You will grow
And until you go
I’ll be right there by your side
And even then
Whisper the wind
And she will carry up your ride
I hear all the people of the world
In one bird’s lonely cry
See them trying every way they know how
To make their spirit fly
Can’t you see him?
He’s down on the ground
He has a broken wing
Looking all around

That’s the way it’s gonna be, little darlin’
You go riding on the horses, yeah
Way up in the sky, little darlin’
And if you fall I’ll pick you up, pick you up

That’s the way it’s gonna be, little darlin’
You go riding on the horses, yeah
Way up in the sky, little darlin’
And if you fall I’ll pick you up, pick you up
And if you fall I’ll pick you up, pick you up
And if you fall I’ll pick you up, pick you up

I’ll pick you up darlin’ if you fall
Don’t worry ’bout a thing little girl
Because I was young myself not so long ago
And when I was young
When I was young
And when I was young, oh I was a wild, wild one.