[Verse]
I was eighteen when I came to town they called it the Summer of Love,
They were burning babies, burning flags, the hawks against the doves,
I took a job in the steaming way down in Caltrim Street,
And fell in love with a laundry girl, that was working next to me.

Brown hair, zigzagged all round face, a look of half surprise,
Like a fox caught in the headlights, there was animal in her eyes.

[Chorus]
She was a rare thing, fine as a beeswing,
So fine, a breath of wind might blow her away,
She was a lost child, she was running wild,
She said, "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay,
And you wouldn't want me any other way."

[Verse]
She said, "Your man, oh, can't you see I'm not the factory kind,
If you don't take me out of here, I'll surely lose me mind",
So we busked around the market towns and picking fruit in Kent,
We could tinker pots and pans or knives wherever we went.

I said to her, "We'll settle down, get a few acres dug,
A fire burning in the hearth and babies on the rug",
She said, "Ah, here you foolish man, that surely sounds like hell,
You might be Lord of half the world, you'll not own me as well."

[Chorus]
She was a rare thing, fine as a beeswing,
So fine, a breath of wind might blow her away,
She was a lost child, she was running wild,
She said, "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay,
And you wouldn't want me any other way."

[Verse]
We were camping down the Gower, the work was pretty good,
She wouldn't wait for the harvest, I thought we should,
We were drinking more in those days and tempers reached a pitch,
Like a fool, I let her run around when she took the rambling itch.

Last I heard, she's sleeping rough back on the Derby beat,
White horse in her pocket and a wolfhound at her feet.
And they say, "Her flower has faded, hard weather and hard booze",
Maybe that's the price you pay for the chains you'll refuse.

[Chorus]
She was a rare thing, fine as a beeswing,
So fine, a breath of wind might blow her away,
She was a lost child, she was running wild,
She said, "As long as there's no price on love, I'll stay,
And you wouldn't want me any other way."

[Outro]
She was a rare thing, as fine as a beeswing,
So fine, a breath of wind might blow her away,
If I could just taste all of her wildness now,
If I could hold her in me arms today,
Well I wouldn't want her any other way,
No I wouldn't want her any other way.