NANCI GRIFFITH
6 July 1953 – 13 August 2021
THERE'S A LIGHT BEYOND
THESE WOODS,
MARY MARGARET
NANCI GRIFFITH
from the 1978 BF Deal LP
There's a Light Beyond
These Woods,
Mary Margaret
THERE'S A LIGHT BEYOND
THESE WOODS,
MARY MARGARET
There's a light beyond these woods
Mary Margaret
Do you think that we will go there
And see what makes it shine
Mary Margaret
It's almost morning
And we've talked all night
You know we've made big plans
For ten year olds
You and I
Have you met my new boyfriend
Margaret
His name is John
And he rides my bus to school
And he holds my hand
He's fourteen
He's my older man
But we'll still be the best of friends
The three of us
Margaret, John and I
Let's go to New York City
Margaret
We'll hide out in the subways
And drink the poet's wine
Oh but I had John
So you went and I stayed behind
But you were home in time
For the senior prom
When we lost John
The fantasies we planned
Well I'm living them now
All the dreams we sang
When we knew how
Well they haven't changed
There's never been two friends
Like you and me
Mary Margaret
Nice to see your family growing
Margaret
Your daughter and your husband there
They really treat you right
But we've talked all night
And what about the light
That glowed beyond our woods
When we were ten
You were the rambler then
The fantasies we planned
Oh Maggie
I'm living ’em now
All the dreams we sang
Oh we damn sure knew how
But I haven't changed
There'll never been two friends
Like you and me
Maggie can't you see
There's a light beyond your woods
Mary Margaret
Words and music
NANCI GRIFFITH
© 1978 BMG Rights Management
Universal Music Publishing Group
The unexpected death (of undisclosed causes) of North American country/folk artist Nanci Griffith on 13 August 2021 came as a great shock to her many fans all over the world and triggered an outpouring of grief on YouTube and other social media platforms as we struggled to come to terms with what remains, for all of us, a deeply felt loss.
It's no surprise that many of these of comments were posted by people who said that Nanci Griffith's music had helped them to survive the rough times in their lives — divorce, mental and physical illness, the death of their significant other, the list goes on. This is a testimony to her gift for telling stories through the medium of music that consistently captured people's hearts, something she possessed an almost uncanny ability to do from the beginning of her recording career in 1978. She wrote in plain language but the stories she told were anything but plain, inhabiting that haunting world between the real and the imaginary that novels, if they're good, also inhabit.
There's A Light Beyond These Woods, Mary Margaret is one Griffith's tenderest tunes, with words that never fail to bring a tear to my eye each time I hear them. (She must have been especially fond of the song because she re-recorded it for her 1987 LP Lone Star State of Mind.) The fact that the song tells an entirely true story — her best friend while she was growing up in Texas was named Mary Margaret and her high school boyfriend John did die in a motorcycle accident after escorting her to her senior prom — only adds to its poignancy, conjuring up the vanished world of childhood, its hopes and dreams and disappointments, before seamlessly time-shifting to the present day. While the song is undeniably wistful in tone — friends growing up, moving on, fanciful dreams replaced by sometimes harsh realities — there's also a feeling of gratitude as Griffith acknowledges how lucky she was to have such a wonderful friend and how rare those types of friendships tend to be in life.
I'm sure that, wherever she may be, Mary Margaret shares the same sense of grief we all continue to experience at the loss of one of North American music's most gifted and original songwriters. And for her the grief must be all the more bitter because saying goodbye to a cherished childhood friend is never an easy thing to do.
Use the link below to listen to more great music by NANCI GRIFFITH:
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