Judy Collins - La Colombe

Why all these bugles crying for squads of young men drilled
To kill and to be killed and waiting by this train
Why the orders loud and hoarse, why the engine's groaning cough
As it strains to drag us off into the holocaust
Why crowds who sing and cry, and shout and fling us flowers
And trade their right for ours to murder and to die

The dove has torn her wings so no more songs of love
We are not here to sing, we're here to kill the dove

Why has this moment come when childhood has to die
When hope shrinks to a sigh and speech into a drum
Why are they pale and still, young boys trained overnight
Conscripts forced to fight and dressed in gray to kill
These rain clouds massing tight, this train load battle bound
This moving burial ground sent thundering toward the night

Why statues towering brave above the last defeat
Old word and lies repeat across the new made grave
Why the same still birth that victory always brought
These hoards of glory bought by men with mouths of earth
Dead ash without a spark where cities glittered bright
For guns probe every light and crush it in the dark

And why your face undone with jagged lines of tears
That gave in those first years all peace I ever won
Your body in the gloom, the platform fading back
Your shadow on the track, a flower on a tomb
And why these days ahead when I must let you cry
And live prepared to die as if our love were dead
Why all these bugles crying for squads of young men drilled
To kill and to be killed and waiting by this train
Why the orders loud and hoarse, why the engine's groaning cough
As it strains to drag us off into the holocaust
Why crowds who sing and cry, and shout and fling us flowers
And trade their right for ours to murder and to die

The dove has torn her wings so no more songs of love
We are not here to sing, we're here to kill the dove

Why has this moment come when childhood has to die
When hope shrinks to a sigh and speech into a drum
Why are they pale and still, young boys trained overnight
Conscripts forced to fight and dressed in gray to kill
These rain clouds massing tight, this train load battle bound
This moving burial ground sent thundering toward the night

Why statues towering brave above the last defeat
Old word and lies repeat across the new made grave
Why the same still birth that victory always brought
These hoards of glory bought by men with mouths of earth
Dead ash without a spark where cities glittered bright
For guns probe every light and crush it in the dark

And why your face undone with jagged lines of tears
That gave in those first years all peace I ever won
Your body in the gloom, the platform fading back
Your shadow on the track, a flower on a tomb
And why these days ahead when I must let you cry
And live prepared to die as if our love were dead
Judy Collins - LA COLOMBE

Uploaded from the 1976 reissue LP of her 1966 album IN MY LIFE. Photos are from the front and back covers, except for the beautiful close-ups which are from ...

Judy Collins - La Colombe

ELEKTRA 8E-6002.

Judy Collins sings in French LA COLOMBE

In 1967 Judy Collins and Ethel Raim Dunson produced an album for "Women Strike For Peace" called "Save The Children - Songs From The Hearts of Women.

Judy Collins (en français) LA COLOMBE / La fin de l'Algerie française.

Tragique et inévitable...Charles de Gaulle et la fin de l'Algérie française.

LA COLOMBE - Jacques Brel and Joan Baez

This recording of La Colombe by Brel is from his 1960 "American Debut" album. The 1967 Baez recording was a new version of Brel's song with lyrics by ...

Judy Collins

Judy Collins