My Father

by Gil & Sarah Jaysmith

Genre: Folk/Acoustic

Lyrics

MY FATHER
My father was a god amongst men, you see
He invented penicillin and wrote poetry
And he won the Nobel Peace Prize twice

My father was a real Casanova in his youth
But loyal and fierce and devoted to truth
And a Zen Buddhist who only ever ate rice

But that’s not true, no, it’s a lie
My father was just a regular guy
We’re all born and then we all die
To me he was bigger than life
But now I have to say goodbye

My father fought in World War Two
He told Churchill and Roosevelt what to do
And later on he taught John Wayne how to fight

My father was the first man into space
He had the most amazingly handsome face
That’s what all the girls said and they were right

But that’s not true, no, it’s a lie
My father was just a regular guy
We’re all born and then we all die
To me he was bigger than life
But now I have to say goodbye

I’d been preparing to impress him since I was eight
I spent twenty-seven years working up to be great
But he died before I was ready and now it’s too late

And I wish all your fathers had died and not mine
I wish there was some kind of blame to assign
But in my dreams he’s still there, and I guess that love is better than hate

In the cancer ward I saw him one last time
But he had the last laugh, it was sublime
It wasn’t him, it was just some old man miscast

They’d briefed him on his lines a bit
But I could tell it wasn’t him, his face didn’t fit
And my father would never have gotten so old so fast

And one month later, we’re in the funeral home
A cheap conveyor belt, a curtain, and a little chrome
So very somber and efficient and deft

Django Reinhardt playing on a cheap CD
My mother and my sister and my wife and me
Sitting in a room he had already left

But that’s not true, no, it’s a lie
Because my father will never die
In my heart he lives on like a star in the sky
To me he’s still bigger than life
And if I never forget him
I’ll never have to say goodbye
Goodbye
Goodbye