For everyone who lost their Father (songs)

Subject: For everyone who lost their Father
From: olddude
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 11:26 PM

On this Fathers day here is the state, this is perhaps the most heartfelt performace John McDermott ever did. For everyone who lost their dad ... like me

I submit this masterpiece as a tribute

John McDermott The Old Man

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: olddude
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 11:34 PM

I saw John on TV perform this 100 times but I never saw him nearly lose it as I have in this heartfelt performance .. absolutely moved me to tears

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: olddude
Date: 20 Jun 09 - 11:35 PM

Most sorry
use this link instead. I also posted it to facebook
THE OLD MAN

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 12:46 AM

That is beautiful and makes me really miss my daddy. Thanks, olddude.

kat

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: open mike
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 02:15 AM

a perfect remembrance for father's day...thank you.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: maeve
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 04:25 AM

Thank you, Dan. I miss my dad.

maeve

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: KT
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 04:42 AM

That's so beautiful.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: wysiwyg
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 04:43 AM

Dan, can you email me the Cannonball?

:~)

Love,

~Susan

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 06:11 AM

I lost my father when I two years old; my mother never remarried, remaining devoted to his memory to this day. I've no memory of the man, only through family folklore & photographs, an archive going back to his own Northumbrian childhood in tiny monochrome images, including a recently discovered album of his own pictures taken during a visit to London Zoo where he appears to share the same fascinations with penguins as I have myself. My father died on Christmas Day 1963, aged 30; next year my daughter will be 30. Funny how it all adds up...

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 06:44 AM

I lost my dad five years ago but I still find myself wanting to show him my latest bit of decorating.

Miss you still Dad.

Andy

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: ranger1
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 06:58 AM

Thanks, olddude. I really miss my dad.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Midchuck
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 07:13 AM

While you're at it, go listen to Guy Clarke's "The Randall Knife."

Peter.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 07:18 AM

i was 15 when I lost mine.
A few more years would have been good.
Grateful for the years we did have.
keith.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: kendall
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 09:10 AM

I envy those who had a dad like that. Mine proved the old saying, "No man ever need be a total failure; he can always serve as a bad example."

That was so beautiful. Thanks Old Dude.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 09:39 AM

I lost my dad when I was 17, and I would have liked to have gotten out of that know-it-all phase and gotten to know him as a person. I don't really remember that much about him. The one thing I learned was that my immediate world is a fragile place and there's no guarantee that everything won't be upside-down tomorrow.

Nobody we love ever stays in our lives long enough.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 10:30 AM

This song was composed by Phil Coulter for the Furey Brothers after the passing of their father, Ted. (one of Ireland's greatest fiddlers)
It was first recorded with Finbar doing the vocals. I first heard it at a Furey brothers concert in Halifax quite a few years ago. I was so moved that at intermission I bought a tape just to get that song. Through the years I always dig it out at Fathers Day. I sung it at several concerts in the past two weeks and will do it at another this afternoon. While I can't match the vocals of John or Finbar I pack in as much emotion as I can.
I will also post a link to The Fureys singing it:

The Old Man

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Rapparee
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 10:49 AM

Sorry, but this is a day I can't think about my father, who died when I was 5, the oldest of four. It was a construction accident, he was a very good man, but I truly lament that I never got to know him.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 11:12 AM

I understand fully what Kendall is talking about. My Dad certainly had his demons, and my relationship with him just doesn't fit the sentimental attitude of the song. But we made it up with each other before he died, and when I think of him I choose to dwell on the good times, and there were many. And I do miss him.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Partridge
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 11:57 AM

I miss my Dad so much.........big sniff

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: GUEST,flyingcat (moira)
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 11:59 AM

My father died suddenly many years ago. I still miss him.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Mr Red
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 12:03 PM

My father died when i was 9 months old.
How can you miss someone you never knew?
It is all at one remove.
As my cousin said "He was everyone's uncle".
Good enough for me.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: The Sandman
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 12:49 PM

after my dad died,I found out I had another family,a bit like Keith Mardsens song.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 01:15 PM

By the time I was 23 I had lost both my Mom and Dad as well as all my grandparents so these days have often been a bit sad but always filled with great memories. My Dad came from a generation that often worked just to live with never a thought towards "being happy in your job." Having a good paying job was far more important than liking what you did. But I was always proud of Dad for having a passion for his job without ever saying so.......He said so in the way he did it.

The following I have posted before but it fits well here. I came from a railroad town and a railroad family. A strike in the 20's all but completely closed the huge yards that were there but as a kid I went over to the roundhouse and turntable often just to watch what little action was left. We moved to Columbus in '59 to make it easier on my Dad who ran between Columbus and Pittsburgh on the PanHandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

My Dad was an engineman on the Pennsylvania Railroad for the whole of his adult working life. He started out of high school on the Section Gang and went into engine service a couple of years later. He was in a Railway Batallion during WWII and came back to the Pennsy as soon as it was over. The PRR was early in converting to Diesels but Dad fired the last of the steamers. Advancement on the roads was based on seniority and although he had qualified as an engineer he stayed as a fireman for many years until he could hold a regular slot on the board. So when the last of M1's and K4's made their final runs on the PanHandle Division in the early 50's, Dad fired those engines. I remember years later in about 1962 when the last of the steamers were cut up for scrap in the Columbus Yards, it was about as close as I ever came to seeing him cry at that point in my life. From '58, he was an engineer for the rest of his days and even with the Diesels, an engineer still had a reputation of some sort and the Ol' Man was known as a "smooth rider"....a term used by those in the caboose to describe a good engineer who could stop and start, take in or run out slack as needed, without disturbing their rest or their pinochle game.

Railroaders back then were still a special breed who loved what they did. Over 35 years later, one of the most poignant memories I have of my Dad is from a time when he was quite ill within only a few weeks of his death. He had me take him to the Columbus Yards so he could pick up some things out of his locker. We cleaned it out and packed up his "Grip" for the final time. But on the way out we sort of had to "detour" through an engine shop and though I protested, he went that way. Walking through the shops, we stopped at an idling GP9 and he slowly started to climb to the cab. Again, I protested that this was way too much effort that he shouldn't be wasting, but he looked down at me and said, "Just one last time." So we climbed up in the cab for awhile. He sat on the seatbox and his hands touched the throttle, air brakes,dynamic brake, and all of those things that had been his world for so many years..........and if I was ever closer to him, I don't know when it would have been.

The rails were close at hand for people to see and hear and feel and as the country grew, they grew with us. For those who long for older and simpler times, the sound, feel, and the smell of a great steamer is all that is needed to trigger visions of a different life in a different world, far removed from this current time and place. And today as on many other days, I miss my Dad......W.J. "Unk" Patterson, Engineman, Pennsylvania Railroad. I'm sorry too he never knew my kids and sorrier still that they will never know him.


Spaw

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: wysiwyg
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 01:48 PM

Mother's Day and Father's Day are such weird holidays.... remembering one's own while also, often, being one. Getting (or not getting) the cards and calls in the midst of wishing you could send one yourself, to someone who's gone. Weird. Honoring the other flawed hoomins whose day it also is, 'round about oneself. Knowing they are probably thinking of all their own shortcomings. Weird.

~Susan

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Weasel
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 03:49 PM

On a similar thread, french speakers may appreciate this one:

mon vieux

Cheers

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: gnu
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 03:57 PM

Kendall... me too in many ways, but he was my old man and I miss him dearly.

Thanks Dan.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Peter T.
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 03:58 PM

my father (gone) would have thrown up at the mention of Father's Day, and the rest.   Part of his charm.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Padre
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 06:20 PM

My dad's been gone for 12 years, but it seems like only yesterday sometimes.


Padre

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: GUEST,GrannyInWales
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 07:18 PM

mine has gone too, four years ago. Miss the old bugger like mad....

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Weasel
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 07:26 PM

Mine died about 12 years ago - I still look for him at family gatherings. I don't think he'll ever leave me completely. I owe him everything.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: frogprince
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 08:05 PM

29 years now. Dad had an eighth grade education, and every so often you could tell that he regretted not having had the chance to at least finish high school; too much farm work. He never kept my sister or myself out of school to work for a moment, no matter how things were going. He had as much natural mechanical aptitude as anyone I've ever seen, maybe more. When it came to growing things on the farm, he worked like two men or more, had the straightest rows in the area, but never had quite the crop yields that a lot of the neighbors had. I didn't even try to date in high school, or do much of anything extracuricular outside school hours; There was too much chance that Dad would have the car at a neighbors, overhauling machinery for them, and not get back so I could use it. If I started a material project at home, he would generally take it over to be sure that it "got done right". It took years for me to develop a bit of confidence in my own abilities. He was a remarkable mixture of puritanism and easy good humor. At once the definitive simple farmer and an intelligent, complex man.
                           Dean

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Azizi
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 09:36 PM

Dan, thanks for posting that link to John McDermott "The Old Man".

It was very moving.

This thread is for Grandfathers too. That song said it all for me.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 21 Jun 09 - 09:59 PM

Spaw

My Dad worked with both his brothers at the L&N until the War. Then, he too, was sent to Europe as a member of a railway battalion. Funny thing if they knew each other. Both my Grandpas worked for the L&N, Grandpa Elbert retiring from there in 1968 after 51 years. I miss those black steam engines.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 04:28 AM

Thank you for the post, Dan.

My old man died in 1951, the year before the old King.

I was five, so I never really got to know him.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: goatfell
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 01:06 PM

I sang the song THe old man at my father's funerual no that was a tough gig

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: GlasgowCeltic88
Date: 24 Nov 09 - 09:06 AM

The Fureys - The Old Man

Finbar, Eddie, Paul (R.i.P) and George Furey, accompanied by Davey Arthur singing Phil's much loved ballad.

This was my tribute to my grandfather, who passed on back in 2004, just a week shy of my 21st.

He will always be forever remembered, in my family, thanks to this video.

Slán,

GC88.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 24 Nov 09 - 09:47 AM

I remember once my mother coming round to the house and knowing her fondness for all things maritime I played her the Bob Roberts album Songs from the Sailing Barges. Having listened to Bob's rude & rattling rendition of Bell Bottomed Trousers, she looked at me with a tear in her eye and said, "Your father used to sing that."

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: GUEST,Mr Red
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 09:23 AM

I am not sure loosing your father when you knew him is worse than loosing him when you are too young to know. I only fit in the latter camp. But growing-up with a widowed mother who didn't marry till I was 16 was not the best either. The marriage lasted 6 months. My father would have been a wonderful father. Not everyone gets to be that lucky. But you only know what you know.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: ranger1
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 09:45 AM

Today would have been my dad's 64th birthday. It hasn't been quite two years since he died and I really miss him.

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Art Thieme
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 06:08 PM

My father died in 1946. I was five years old, and he was 48. I've never forgotten or gotten over the memory of that pain and loss all those years ago.

Never really having having had a male role model, when I found our music, I picked my own mentors.

"And that has made all the difference..."

Art

Subject: RE: For everyone who lost their Father
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 06:20 PM

In many ways, my father was broken and all the king's horses and all the king's men never were able to put him together again. As a young man, my father's faults were far more obvious than his goodness. It took my failures in life to come to find compassion and love for my father, and we were blessed with many years of closeness before he passed away just short of 92 years old. I see a lot of him in me, both his strengths and his weaknesses, and I love him for both of them.

Jerry