An interesting subject. For me, sometimes it's one song, sometimes it's one singer, one song (sung by someone else, it'd be fine). But for my singing, the Ruth Pelham one mentioned above brings to mind one I wrote for a Bob Franke songwriting class at Pinewoods. I lamented that I kept rewriting as I wrote, and over-intellectualizing, so he told me to write from a child's perspective, about something emotional.

This is the result, and I've never been able to sing it all the way through:

        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 police man 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 (C)1990, Bob Clayton


Another song I would have trouble with is "The Boy Who Live Here Has Gone to War," from Sara Cleveland (and Colleen), but I've never learned it, since I can't even get through it hearing it as such.

And I recall a gathering of some of us here where we got into mining songs, and it was all I could do to finish "Sully's Pail."

But of songs I know, the one above is the worst for me.

Bob