[Verse 1]
I was nineteen when I came to town
They called it the Summer of Love
They were burnin' babies, burnin' flags
The hawks against the doves
And I took a job at the steamin'
Way down on Cauldrum Street
Where I fell in love with the laundry girl
Who was workin' next to me

[Chorus]
She was a rare thing
Fine as a bee's wing
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
And she was a lost child
She was runnin' 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 2]
Brown hair zig-zagged around her face
And a look of half-surprise
Like a fox caught in the headlights
There was animal in her eyes
She said "Oh man, Can't you see
I'm not the factory kind
And if you don't take me out of here
I'll surely lose my mind"
[Chorus]
She was a rare thing
Fine as a bee's wing
So soft I might crush her where she lay
And she was a lost child
She was runnin' 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 3]
We busked around the market towns
And we picked fruit down in Kent
Tinkered lamps and pots and pans
And knives wherever we went
And I said that we should settle down
And get a safe acre dug
Fire burnin' in the hearth
And a babiy on the rug
She said, "Oh man, you foolish man
That surely sounds like hell
You might be lord of half the world
But you'll not own me as well"

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

[Verse 4]
We were campin' down in Gower one time
The work was mighty good
She she said we shouldn't wait for the frost
I thought maybe we shuold
We were drinkin' more in those days
Our tempers reached a pitch
Like the fool I let her run with the ramblin' itch
And the last I heard she's livin' rough
Way on the Derby beat
White Lightning in her head pocket
And a wolfhound at her feet
And they say that she even married once
A man named Romany Brown
But even a gypsy caravan
Was too much like settlin' down
They say her fleadh has faded now
Hard weather and hard booze
Maybe that's the price you pay
For the chains that you refuse

[Chorus]
Oh, she was a rare thing
Fine as a bee's wing
And I miss her more than ever words can say
If I could just taste
All of her wildness now
I'd hold her in my arms and I'd love her today
I wouldn't want her any other way