KATY
(by Tom Paxton c. 1973)

Oh I have a little daughter, and my daughter's name is Kate.
And she's every bit mischievous as a kitten on a skate,
With the bandage on her forehead and the bruises on her knees,
You would swear she'd fought with buccaneers on all the seven seas.
For it's up the stairs and down the stairs and in the room and out,
Like a miniature tornado she can blow the house about.
Take an angel with the devil in the twinkling of her eye,
And that's my Katy, little lady, and I love her.

Now, you might believe in miracles, you might believe in saints,
But you 'd never believe my Katy when she's playing with her paints,
For there's red upon her forehead and there's green upon her face,
In her hair and in her eyes, but on the paper not a trace.
When she's in her room and quiet and there comes a bit of calm,
You develop the sensation that you're sitting on a bomb.
Take an angel....I love her.

My Katy loves her games, you know, and thirty times a week,
i find myself dragooned into a game of hide and seek.
So I find myself in closets, under beds I quietly creep,
And I wait for thirty minutes till my brain has gone to sleep,
Yes i sit there in the closet and it seems liked half a day,
Till I find a friend has come to call and Kate's gone out to play.
Take and angel.....I love her.

You might have heard of fathers who would dote upon their girls,
Who get wrapped around their fingers by the tossing of their curls,
Who respond to hugs and kisses till there's nothing they wouldn't do-
Don't you believe a word of it, it simply isn't true,
For I'd only jump the moon for her, I'd only jump the sea,
For the hugs I get to give her and the kisses she gives to me.
Take an angel....I love her.

The song is recorded by Tom Paxton on the album: "New Songs For Old Friends" (1973, Warner Bros. Records MS 2144) and also on his album: "The Marvellous Toy & Other Gallimaufry" (1984 Flying Fish FF 408). I read somewhere once that Tom wrote the song for his younger daughter Katy at that time so she would have her own song just like her older sister Jennifer (i.e. "Jennifer's Rabbit")

rich r