Story Behind the Song
I never really like to think of myself as being particularly influenced by anybody ('cept of course Lead Belly, Tom Paxton, Elvis, The Beatles...). Certainly not by Bobby Dylan!
However, even I gotta admit The Hilltop sounds like it comes straight out of the Donovan songbook. Think Donovan with a half-decent twelve-string style, and you won’t be far away!
It's a song I used to play quite a bit on the radio. Still sounds nice, too; in an acetaty, crackly sort of way...
Lyrics
I was sitting on a hill in the early morning, singing.
Way up high in the sky was a bluebird winging;
And away in the valley a bell someone was ringing.
And we were all together in the early morning, living.
Out on the sea, a small white yacht was sailing.
In a hospital, a newborn child was wailing;
And some were passing exams, and others failing.
And we were all together in the early morning, living.
And I heard the hoofbeats of the horses of the men out a-riding;
And the railway engineer shunted several swaying trucks into a siding;
And Parliament arose after hours disagreeing and deciding;
And we were all together in the early morning, living.
And the water in the river bubbled noisily along as it was flowing,
And the salmon swam against the current; maybe they knew just where they were going.
And the seamstress with her needle and her thread sat silently a-sewing.
And we were all together in the early morning, living.
And the clinking of the cups drowned the radio and what the man was saying,
And the breakfast-time DJ introduced the next artist who was playing;
And the conductor on the bus asked the couple on the seat which one was paying.
And we were all together in the early morning, living.
And the rain that was dropping on the windowsill started freezing,
And the man whose feet had been wet started sneezing;
And from where I was sitting, the view was rather pleasing
'Cause we were all together in the early morning, living.
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