This song was written in 1963 by Ian Tyson, one half of the Canadian folk duo Ian and Sylvia (thanks to themusic for a timely clue-by-four to that effect).
Neil Young covered it on Comes a Time in 1978, and I suppose that's the version a lot of people are most familiar with. As for me, I cannot account for the fact that I never heard that Neil Young record until I was almost thirty years old, but it's true. For many years, the only way I'd ever heard this song was from an old girlfriend named Meg, the year after I graduated from college. She sang it well, but she wasn't much of a guitarist. She only knew the chords to two songs: This one, and "House of the Rising Sun". I liked this one better, so I got to hear it a lot and I came to know it pretty well. I came to know Meg pretty well, too, but I try not to think about that. I was still trying to teach her to play "Personality Crisis" when we finally admitted that we couldn't stand each other.
It's really a lovely song.
Think I'll go out to Alberta,
Weather's good there in the fall;
I got some friends that I could go to working for.
Still I wish you'd change your mind
If I ask you one more time,
But we've been through this a hundred times or more.
Four strong winds that blow lonely
Seven seas that run high
All those things that don't change, come what may.
If the good times are all gone
Then I'm bound for moving on.
I'll look for you if I'm ever back this way.
If I get there before the snow flies
And if things are looking good
You could meet me if I send you down the fare.
But by then it would be winter,
Not too much for you to do,
And those winds sure can blow cold 'way out there.
Four strong winds that blow lonely
Seven seas that run high
All those things that don't change, come what may.
If the good times are all gone
Then I'm bound for moving on.
I'll look for you if I'm ever back this way.
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