Sandy Grey

Written by: 
R. Frederick
1 Aug 1967

Oh Sandy Grey, are you going away?
Leave me a message before parting.
Time has changed you and the things that pain you
Are the things you think of as you're starting.

Oh Sandy Grey, it's only this I'll pray:
That you might stay here one more day in laughter.
Won't you hang around and hold me, repeat all the lies you told me?
- Do your rambling after.

Oh Sandy Grey, whatever made you want to stay?
And now what makes you want to be a-leaving?
Is it the same thing they found when they laid your father down,
Or are your reasons even worth retrieving?

Oh Sandy Grey, don't leave me just today.
Don't think on the road you'll be a-going.
Think of all the time and the days we've had to mind,
Of the future, there's no way of knowing.

Oh Sandy Grey, I thought I heard you say
That you ain't heard one word that I've been speaking.
There's no use in trying you escaping from my mind
And I'll never see the world you're seeking.

Oh Sandy Grey, are you going away?
Leave me a message before parting.
Time has changed you and the things that pain you
Are the things you think of as you're starting.

*) sitenote:
Robin Frederick wrote about Nick Drake in Mojo Magazine (Febr. 1999; Truly. Madly. Deeply) and remembers:

"I spent the summer of 1967 in London with John Martyn, listening to Sgt. Pepper and the Incredible String Band, watching John learn to play sitar in about ten minutes, living on toast and tea while he recorded his first album, London Conversation. There's a song of mine on that album, Sandy Grey, which I wrote for Nick before I left France [end of summer 1967, HB]. John and Nick hadn't met yet - nor was there any reason to believe they ever would - so I had no cause to mention the song's connection with Nick. The song itself is not a particularly good portrait of him because I didn't know him well, but the name, Sandy Grey - an indefinable, shifting shade - that was Nick to a T."

First release: