Story Behind The Song

In Joe's words: Fields Of The Dawn - I was camping with some friends over a weekend, and we came back to the news that our friend James had drowned while we were away. The first verse is about how my friend Mark and I had watched an eagle flying overhead

Lyrics

Early this summer, before things went wrong
I watched as an eagle flew by
Sat with a friend, and we wrote a sad song
How one day the eagle would die

Then the next evening I heard you were gone
Taken from life yesterday
Came to my mind how we wrote in that song
?Nothing that?s golden can stay?

Sat myself down and the tears filled my eyes
It was so hard to conceive
Hoped that you didn?t remember the lies
That you?d been led to believe

Oh, while I was out walking the Fields Of The Dawn
Pathways of darkness and light
You stood alone on the side of the lawn
Walking the pathways of night

How can I tell you what went through my head
Hearing the news I?d been told?
That a young eagle was suddenly dead
When you were meant to grow old

Who can say now that your pathway was wrong?
Does it really matter much now?
Life can be short or a life can be long
As fate and pure chance will allow

Still in the end I hope you will find peace
Fear-driven leper and friend
And far down the road when my spirit?s released
Tell me, will we meet again?

Oh and if I went down to the ocean so wide
Cast myself into the sea
Drowned all the pain on the swift-flowing tide
Would you be waiting for me?