Music & Lyrics: M.L. Hammond

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

chorus:
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

chorus

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
the dance that’s in the heart of you
is still alive and thriving
flowing down through time to me