Story Behind The Song

This Judy Collins number is one of my favorite songs of all time. I remember spending hours trying to figure out the piano as a girl growing up in Indiana. I chose this song as my solo number to sing at a concert given by my high school and was so disappointed when my father couldn't attend. Later, my son heard me play this at home and, one day years later, asked me to record it. When he heard the recording he gave me the greatest compliment I've ever received by saying "That's the most perfect song I've ever heard." So this is my gift to my son (and to my father).

Song Description

Ode to a father.

Lyrics

My Father

V1: 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 the mine
On his dreams like boats we knew
We'd sail in time

V2: All my sisters soon has flown
To Denver and Cheyenne
Marrying their grown-up dreams
The lilacs and the man
I stayed behind, the youngest still
Only danced alone
The colors of my father's dreams
Faded without a sigh

V3: And I live in Paris now
My children dance and dream
Hearing the ways of a miner's life
In words they've never seen
I sail my memories afar
Like boats across the Seine
And watch the Paris sun
Set in my father's eyes again