Monday, January 3, 2011

My Father


By Judy Collins, who I know best as an interpreter of other people's songs, but clearly she had some writing chops because this song is great.
Rise Up Singing chapter: Dreams and Fantasies, p.30
Ok, so I checked, and Rise Up Singing has a different chord pattern. But I still think mine is pretty good. It's the same in all the important parts.
Here's mine:
D - G D / D - G A
Bm E A - / Am7 - G F D (I use some variable rhythm here this last line, depending on how slowly I feel like singing it)

And R.U.S.'s:
D (walk down the bass) G Em D A / D (walk down the bass) G Em A -
Bm - E - A (walk down that bass) / C - Am - G - F - D - - -

Here are the lyrics I hear in the song. Asterisks mark R.U.S. differences:

My father always promised us that we would live in France
We'd go boating on the Seine and I would learn to dance
We lived in Ohio then, he worked in a mine
On his dreams like boats we knew we'd sail in time

All my sisters soon were gone to Denver and Cheyenne
Marrying their grown-up dreams, the lilacs and the man
I stayed behind the youngest still, only danced alone
The colours of my father's dreams faded without a sound

And I live in Paris now, my children dance and dream
Hearing the weight* of a miner's life in words they've never seen
I sail my memories of home** like boats across the Seine
And watch the Paris sun set in my father's eyes again

My father always promised us that we would live in France
We'd go boating on the Seine and I would learn to dance
I sail my memories of home like boats across the Seine
And watch the Paris sun set in my father's eyes again

*R.U.S. has "words", the internet has "ways".
**on high

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