Elsie was a beauty

and she was a wild one

the only time she pleased the family

was when she married a banker's son



he enlisted in the Great War

there wasn't time to stop and grieve

Elsie knit mufflers for the men at the front

and slept with the ones on leave



Restless spirit, dance, dance on

maybe if you'd lived today

all that drive and passion

might have found a way

Elsie won't you dance



Elsie took a notion

in nineteen-twenty-five

left her husband for the man who taught her

how to sail the skies



tea-time at the Empress

oh how the scandal runs wild

my dear I hear she's in the family way

and they say it's the flyer's child



Restless spirit, dance, dance on

maybe if you'd lived today

all that drive and passion

might have found a way

Elsie won't you dance

2.



Together like outlaws into the heart of the North

Skeena Mountains, Bella Coola

Gypsy Moth flying where no one had flown before

Peace River, south Nahanni

hard drinking, fast-living, throttle wide-open

till the fast life laid him low

it was never the same again after he'd gone

no, it seemed there was no place left to go...



It ended on the highway

with the taste of whiskey and rain

for a moment she was sure he was there at her side

and they were flying again



hand-tinted photograph

of Elsie in her younger days

they say my sister's got her eyes

but I've got her wilful ways



Restless spirit, dance, dance on

maybe if you'd lived today

all that drive and passion

might have found a way

Elsie won't you dance, dance on

wherever you may be

can you see a part of you

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