Henry! It's gettin' t'wards supper time , ya know. Henry!
There she calls from her second floor room,
The end of a back porch afternoon
Where we'd stand on the bows of our own man-of-war.
No longer the back porch anymore.
And we'd sail pullin' for China.
The pirates of Stone County Road all weathered and blown,
And we'd sail ever in glory,
'Til hungry and tired the pirates of Stone County Road
Were turnin' for home.
Henry! You'd better be gettin' on up to bed now, don't ya know, Henry!
There she calls from her high wicker chair,
As I climb to my room up the stairs
Where the wind through the shutters sends the mainsail to fall
From the bedpost on the wall.
Henry!Can you hear me, Henry. Are you up there, Henry! Henry.
All lyrics copywright John Stewart
This song was composed in only twenty minutes. Wheras many of the other songs were based on real life experience this one was composed in a sudden burst of imagination. On his Phoenix Concerts album John suggests the inspiration came in childhood memories - of listening to radio dramas while lying on the floor.
John in an interview talked of the vibration of the guitars in these songs. Here it suggests a reaching out from the past -as the sound vibrates out to the listener. The distance, created through overdubbing, of the woman's voice calling out suggests the major theme of this song. It can be looked at in two different ways. The woman (mother?) could be in the present asking John to leave his reveries of the past. Alternatively it could be seen as a voice calling from the past (which can't be heard because of the unbridgable distance). The 'high' chair and second floor again suggest a distance (from a child's point of view?). Imagination is used as in track 3 to link between past and present. This transforms the back porch into a ship 'pulling for China', the journey of the imagination into the past to the image of the Pirates. They are weathered and beaten on the road back home. Again the distance and the need to journey (and the weariness of it) is shown. This image within the past reflects the singer's own journey back home into the past/or from the past. The mood is one of quiet determined celebration of the successful recreation of the past. John's introduction on the Phoenix concerts version - shows both the imaginitive recreation of the listener and his dramatic sensibility. The past is a secure and good world as it is so knowable, while the future is uncertain.