Fishing With Bill - Bill Morrissey, Greg Brown

Man what a winter

Sorrow wide and deep

Is it just the media industry or the whole country

That is turning into sheep?

I wanna go to a good place

With a friend of mine

Cast our souls out in the river

And watch the whole deal shine

Some little crick in Massachusetts, just over the hill

Oh I, I’m goin' fishin' with Bill

Well, Bill, I bet he is a good fly caster

He grew up on these eastern brooks

Me, I grew up on the midwestern cricks

Casting crappie flies for chubs and such

But in my young imagination

I watched a Number 20 Coachman settle down

Sitting by the stove in that little library

Reading Roderick L. Haig Brown

I never did fish in Vancouver.

I probably never will

I don’t care.

I’m goin' fishin' with Bill

Well, it’s a long and noble tradition

Catching trout on the fly

When you’re done, with the setting of the sun

Gonna drink a little bourbon if you’re dry

See some folks out on the river

Cool, scientific and clean

They look like everything just kinda stuck to them

The last time they walked through ol' L. L. Bean

My friend, Dave, says the good fishermen are the ones who have fun and we will

Oh I, I’m goin' fishin' with Bill

Sittin' in a bar in Brattleboro

Thinkin' about one of his songs

The rain was pourin' down, and I was pourin' it down

And all I could do was hum along

We’ve talked about goin' fishin' so often

At some party when the gig was done

Well, life slips by like a little dry fly

Sliding down a deep slick run

So let us stand steady like an old mill

Oh I, I’m goin' fishin' with Bill

Maybe Handsome Molly will pass by

As we cast away the hours

Somewhere on a river somewhere far away

From stupid people in positions of power

Someday when we ain’t folk singers

Flyin' through the friendly skies

We won’t be waiting for the big break

Or anything except the evening rise

On some spring crick in Wisconsin or maybe the Batten Kill

Oh I, I’m goin' fishin' with Bill

I’m goin' fishin' with Bill… um um um

I’m goin' fishin' with Bill… yes, I am

I’m goin' fishin' with Bill

G: Y’know, Bill?

B: Wha?

Wha?

G: I think if we just tried a little, some kinda little streamer right

Over there;

go ahead and cast over…

B: What d’ya got — a blasting cap?

G: See that clump of grass over there…

B: A Number 12 blasting cap…

G: … on the other side over there?

B: Yeah, yeah I see that

G: I have a feelin' there’s about a 5 ½ pound rainbow under one of them…

B: Ah, 6…

G: …just waitin' for someone to come along… and catch…

B: I’ll catch the fish

G: We need to catch just one trout here, Bill… just one.

B: What?

Ya hungry?

G: …'cause I’m hungry, I don’t know about you…

B: Well, I’ll catch the fish

G: I know we’re both catch and release guys.

I know we believe in that

But if we caught just one trout, we could eat it, couldn’t we, so we could

Sustain ourselves and the beautiful spirit of the trout would become part of

Us… and I’m hungry

B: Ah, ah…

G: Well, I’m not complainin' 'bout gettin' lost today

B: We, we weren’t lost, Greg, ah…

G: We’ve seen a lot of parts of Massachusetts I’ve never seen before;

it’s

Not that, it’s…

B: …the map was broken

G: …it's late and we need to catch one trout and put…

B: …ok, ok, alright, I’ll…

G: …it on the grill if it’s OK

B: Alright

Goin' fishin' with Bill

Goin' fishin' with Bill

Goin' fishin' with Bill