I had the Who Knows Where the Time Goes album when I was in college, and I listened to it over and over - but I guess I never paid close attention to the words of this song. I tried to sing it for my wife tonight, and I couldn't do it because I got all misty. What a lovely song!

For the record, words and music are by Judy Collins, copyright 1968 by the Rocky Mountain National Park Music Company, New York.

The Judy Collins Songbook has words that are just a bit different from what Peace posted. It may be that the book isn't exactly what Judy sings, too. Here's what's in the book:

My Father
(words and music by Judy Collins, 1968)

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 mines.
On his streams like boats
We knew we'd sail in time.

All my sisters soon were gone
To Denver and Cheyenne,
Marrying their grownup 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.

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.

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 afar
Like boats across the Seine,
And watch the Paris sun
Set in my father's eyes again.


Here's a MIDI based on the Judy Collins Songbook. It's a complicated piece, and I couldn't really do it justice. I think the songbook is still in print, if you want the arrangement.
-Joe Offer-

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