Blues For My Dad

Back on April 3rd, early in this whole pandemic lockdown thing, I woke up with a fragment of a blues song in my head. Once I got up and started writing the whole thing was done in about 20 minutes.

The lyrics go like this:

Oh I woke up this morning

Alive in my bed.

I woke up this morning

So I still ain't dead.

I woke up this morning

'cause I had to go pee.

Now that I've done that

What's next for me?

I could turn on the news

But I bet it's all bad.

Maybe I'll just stay here

And keep feeling sad.

My dear old daddy

Said that he's lived too long.

So I woke up this morning

And I wrote him this song.

He's kept on going

For ninety-five years.

He's had lots of laughter

And plenty of tears.

My mom passed on

A few years ago.

It damn near killed dad,

But it didn't, you know.

Now he's miles away

and I'm stuck in my home.

He can't hear very well,

So I really can't phone.

But I can write him this song

And drop it in the mail.

We're stuck in our homes,

But at least it ain't jail.

My daddy's still living

So I guess I can too.

I wrote him this song,

But it's also for you.

You may think you're alone

With no reason to live,

But you're somebody's reason,

That's what you give.

So if you woke up this morning

There's a reason for that.

Somebody needs you,

Perhaps it's your cat.

Maybe it's your neighbor,

Or the girl down the hall,

Maybe it's the old lady

Who thinks she's lost it all.

Oh I woke up this morning

Feeling pretty bad,

But I feel better now

'cause I wrote to my dad.

I woke up this morning

With nothing to do.

I woke up this morning

And I wrote this for you.

Now I did type up the song and mail it to my dad, along with a letter. I'm not any kind of musician and I told him and I'm telling you that he was lucky that he couldn't hear me sing it. I really didn't have much of a tune for it, more just a vague notion of a tune for it.

I also emailed the lyrics to my friend Anni, who is a musician and who knows musicians. She emailed it to her blues friend Carl and by later that afternoon Carl had set my lyrics to music and recorded this:

I was then able to email this audio to my sister, who was able to play the song on her phone for my dad.

So, the moral of this story is that you never know when inspiration will strike so be ready to write stuff down. And if you can't do something, you might know somebody who knows somebody who can. And somebody might need to hear what you need to say.

My dad is still hanging in there and so am I. I hope you are too.