There's a place in my mind where I can turn away time, where the sound of the fiddle is king.
I can forget about fax machines, cars packed in like sardines, cell phones that constantly ring.
Across the smooth hardwood floor, I sneak in through the back door to hear the fiddler bracing the strings,
And there are ladies and gentlemen, rounding a round again, dancing like their feet have wings.
Like their feet have wings,
Like the world's a world away,
Like their feet have wings,
Every turn's a shadow play,
Like their feet have wings,
When tomorrow becomes today, (I know)
They could dance for years; the music of the spheres
Propels them like their feet have wings.
It's like a hypnotic trance; I want to join in the dance; I want to throw my hat into the ring.
But as the next set convenes, I see I'm still in my jeans; my blouse is definitely second-string.
A tiny lady appears; my protests fall on deaf ears, and soon she's taken me under her wing:
Now I'm a princess in crinoline, stepping back out and then dancing like my feet have wings.
Refrain, with first person pronouns<br>
Bridge
The music's a magical spell,
Directs my steps clear as a bell.
We thread-needle, strathspey and fling;
It's just like my feet have grown wings
Repeat refrain, with first person pronouns
Three days later, I wake up sore, pick myself off the floor: maybe I dreamed the whole thing.
There's dirt and hay in my hair; the ceiling's just open-air, no signs of the big dancing ring.
I'll have to keep it a memory, cherish it privately, a dream full of magical strings.
No one will ever believe me: there are fairies in Tennessee, dancing like their feet have wings.
Refrain, with third person pronouns
No one will ever believe me, but there's fairies in Tennessee, dancing like their feet have wings.
No one will ever believe me: I saw fairies in Tennessee, dancing like their feet had wings.
Notes: I wanted to write a country song, a two-step. This is a great example of things just not turning out how you want them to. The song ended up sort of a Jimmy Buffet-Calypso tune. Don't ask me how this happened. My head is just capricious and weird. Anyway, I don't even remember what the original song was going to be about but it certainly wasn't going to be about fairies. For someone who isn't really even into fairies, I sure write a lot of songs about them. Anyway, I was driving home from work, singing the beginnings of the tune for what was to become this song into my cellphone, which has a memo feature. It only records for 60 seconds, but it's helped me out of lots of songwriting jams. It's better than calling up the voicemail, that's for sure. Right. So I'm driving home from work in Atlanta traffic, and there's a truck to my left that has a bumper sticker. It says, I brake for fairies. The license plate says Tennessee. And all of a sudden, the line comes to me, "No one will ever believe me; there are fairies in Tennessee," and it changed the nature of the song forever.
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