My Old Man 3 (Jerry Jeff Walker) My old man had a rounder's soul He'd hear an old freight train and then he'd have to go Said he'd been blessed with a Gypsy bone And that's the reason he'd been cursed to roam. He came through town back before the war Didn't even know what he was lookin' for Carried a tattered bag for his violin Full of lots of songs of the places that he'd been. He talked real easy, and had a smilin' way He could pass along to you when his fiddle played Makin people drop their cares and woes To hum out loud those tunes that his fiddle bowed. Til the people there began to join that sound And everyone in town was laughin', singin', dancin' round Like the fiddler's tunes were all they heard that night As if some dream had said that all the world is right. The fiddler's eye caught one beauty there She had that rollin', flowin', golden kind of hair He played for her as if she danced alone He played his favorite songs, the ones he called his own. Til she alone was dancin' in that room The only thing left movin' to that fiddler's tune He played until she was the last to go Then he stopped and packed his case and said he'd take her home. And all the nights that passed a child was born All the years that passed, love would keep them warm All their lives they'd share a dream come true And all because she danced so well his fiddle tunes. The train next morning blew a lonesome sound As if she sang the blues of what she took from town And all that I recall and said when I was young Was no one else could really sing those songs he sung. ------------------ Copyright 1968, Atlantic Rec. Co. Rec. on "Mr. Bojangles" ATCO SD 33-259 Apr98
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!