I'm starting a second section of the Sad Songs thread, 'cause 183 postings is enough!

Among the ones I didn't see mentioned are some intended to be tear-jerkers, like "Lightning Express" and "Mother's Lying Dead (In the Baggage Car Ahead)," and some more modern ones like Tom Paxton's "Jimmy Newman" and "Has Annie Been In Tonight?"

But the saddest for me is one I wrote, which I've only sung in public once, and I broke down in the middle of it. I didn't expect that reaction, and think it was the fact that I knew what was coming that got me. It also resonated with my own past, though I was much older than the protagonist in the song. Here is the lyric. The tune is the "Solid Gone" version of "Cannonball Blues," which some of you must know.

The Daddy Song

[Tune: "Cannonball Blues" ("Solid Gone")]

My Daddy left us, he left my Mom and me,
What a rotten thing to do to a little kid like me,
He's gone, my Daddy's gone.
Momma says my Daddy won't be coming back,
What kind of a man would treat a little kid like that?
He's gone, my Daddy's gone.

Cho:

I feel like crying 'cause he's gone,
So much like crying 'cause he's gone,
My Daddy's gone.

I hate my Daddy, I hope he goes to Hell!
I'm not supposed to say that word, so don't you go and tell.
He's gone, my Daddy's gone.
When I get all growed up, when I get real big,
I'll never, ever, ever do the same thing to my kid.
He's gone, my Daddy's gone.

Cho:

Dad said he would take me to the movies and the Zoo,
But when I saw him falling down, it scared me clear all through.
He's gone, my Daddy's gone.
The fireman and policeman came, and they took him away;
Now my Momma's crying, and there's nothing I can say.
He's gone, my Daddy's gone.

Cho:

I don't know what to think, like it's something that I did
To make him want to go away and leave his little kid.
He's gone, my Daddy's gone.
Now my Momma's crying, and I don't know what to do,
I might do it all again, and make her leave me, too.
He's gone, my Daddy's gone.

Cho:


Copyright © 1990, Bob Clayton


I wrote this at Pinewoods Folk Music Week, when Bob Franke, who ran the songwriting workshop, assigned me to write "an emotional song from a child's viewpoint," because I'd complained that my songs tended to be intellectual, and that I typically edited myself right out of writing anything. This is certainly what he asked for. Like I said, I couldn't finish singing it when I did it for the class the last day. An amazing reaction, I must say.

Bob Clayton