Tupelo Honey Lyrics

You can take all the tea in China
Put it in a big brown bag for me
Sail right around the seven oceans
Drop it straight into the deep blue sea
She's as sweet as tupelo honey
She's an angel of the first degree
She's as sweet as tupelo honey
Just like honey from the bee 
You can't stop us on the road to freedom
You can't keep us 'cause our eyes can see
Men with insight, men in granite
Knights in armor bent on chivalry
She's as sweet as tupelo honey
She's an angel of the first degree
She's as sweet as tupelo honey
Just like honey from the bee 

You can't stop us on the road to freedom
You can't stop us 'cause our eyes can see
Men with insight, men in granite
Knights in armor intent on chivalry
She's as sweet as tupelo honey
She's an angel of the first degree
She's as sweet as tupelo honey
Just like honey from the bee 

You know she's alright 
You know she's alright with me
She's alright, she's alright (she's an angel) 

You can take all the tea in China
Put it in a big brown bag for me
Sail it right around the seven oceans
Drop it smack dab in the middle of the deep blue sea
Because she's as sweet as tupelo honey
She's an angel of the first degree
She's as sweet as tupelo honey
Just like honey from the bee 

She's as sweet as tupelo honey
She's an angel of the first degree
She's as sweet as tupelo honey
Just like the honey, baby, from the bee
She's my baby, you know she's alright..... 

A posting to the Van mailing list May/96 notes the existence of a lost verse to this song, here transcribed from a performance on the Van Morrison in Ireland concert video: 


There's a rose pressed inside a bible
That she reads on the balcony
She's sweet in slumber and I've got her number
For the beginning of the century. 

Van list member Art Siegel comments in Nov/97 that I don't think the rose in the bible is a true 'lost verse', but rather one that Van added to his live performances years after the original. There is, though, a true 'lost verse' which is in the original sheet music: 

I'll tell a tale of old Manhattan
Adirondack bus to go
Standing waiting on my number
And my number's gonna show. 

The Dusty Springfield cover version on The Van Morrison Songbook CD has a variant of this: 

I heard a tale of old Manhattan
I've never been there but I want to go
Standing waiting on my number
And my number's gonna show