A Song for Olympic Gold: Fields of Gold





Photo: Daniel Schwen



Though this tune (available for free from Freegal) is most associated with the Winter Olympics, I think it is a nice fit with the summer Olympics, especially since the actual “fields of gold”—the fields of  barley—are ripening right now.

Michelle Kwan skated beautifully to Eva Cassidy’s rendition during her exhibition skate at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

Written by the Brit rock star, Sting, in 1993, this tune has turned into a folk song classic. Rumor has it that he wrote this song after buying a property next to a field of barley.

On Freegal, you can find it in just about every style you’d like. I prefer Celtic Fayre’s simple vocal rendition. It seems closest to Cassidy’s. Peter Kater also has a nice piano/guitar version.

But if you want to branch out, you can find it in sax, cello, Finnish, German, Michael Bolton and “Barenaked Celtic.”