The Girl at Pape and Danforth

Lyrics by Marion Parsons © 2003, music traditional

Fictional tale of a busking encounter.

As I walked out one May afternoon

To earn my hummus and pita

I took my pitch in merry Greektown

Where the air wafts spanakopita.

I tuned my strings and chalked my bow

And I salted up my case

But the music stopped as soon as it began

Entranced by a bonny face.

    I've stood on many corners since
    In Whitehorse, Charlottetown, and Perth
    But I never saw the likes again
    Of the girl at Pape and Danforth.

From her helmet to the bottom of her Birks

She was all beauty and charms

And her long brown braid made me forget

The rentacops and car alarms.

She dropped her knapsack in her milk crate

With a smooth and graceful move

So I played for her the Star of County Down

My love undying to prove.

    I'd hock my fiddle and pawn my soul
    And I would give all they were worth
    If I could just lay eyes again
    On the girl at Pape and Danforth.

Well I sighed as she unlocked her bike

For I knew we'd be parting soon

But she turned her head while waiting for the light

With a quick smile for my tune.

So she sped away into the setting smog

And I swore right there and then

That I'd be there each minute that I could

Till she pass this way again.

    I've stood on many corners since
    In Whitehorse, Charlottetown, and Perth
    But I never saw the likes again
    Of the girl at Pape and Danforth.

    I'd hock my fiddle and pawn my soul
    And I would give all they were worth
    If I could just lay eyes again
    On the girl at Pape and Danforth.



For this song I took the plot to "Star of the County Down" and put it to the tune of "Girl I Left Behind Me".  Pape and Danforth is an intersection in Toronto's Greek village where I have done a lot of busking.