[net.music] Trying to figure out a lyric

ericf@inmet.UUCP (06/27/83)

#N:inmet:6600005:000:561
inmet!ericf    Jun 26 21:00:00 1983

I have this song lyric whose meaning I have been trying to track
down for a while.  The lyric goes:

"See the drunkard in the tavern, stemming gold to make ends meet"

My question is: What does "stemming gold" mean?

The lyric is from the song "Don Quixote" by Gordon Lightfoot.
The "stemming gold" line is hard to understand on the record,
so I checked a song sheet to find out what he was saying.

Please respond via mail.

Thanks in advance...
				Eric Feigenson
				Intermetrics, Inc.
				Cambridge, MA
				harpo!inmet!ericf
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