Swing Daddy (lyric excerpt)
Published in Verse Afire, the Literary Magazine published by The Ontario Poetry Society, January 2020
© Catherine M Thompson
Daddy was a bass man in a swing band
In those dirty thirties, dark depression days
They played dance halls in Hamilton
Muskoka dance pavilions
He played that upright at the old Palais
His bass rode high up on the band car rooftop
Late one night the wind was blowing fierce
It threw his case into the ditch
Smashed that fiddle all to bits
So Daddy waved goodbye to his career
The thirties taught Daddy's lot
Make good with what you've got
You can do what you have to do
To see it through if you ...
Swing, Daddy, swing! Swing, Daddy, swing!
Play that bass and chase those blues away!
So Daddy took the reins up on a bread truck
Delivered to the store that Mama ran
She'd been out dancing with her pals
Heard him swing those big dance halls
He bought a book of matches – love began
Then Daddy drove the railway locomotives
All up and down the New York Central line
While Mama cooked and Mama sewed
They built up a loving home
A half a dozen children – strong and fine
Well, in the end he was a labour leader
When he was sixty-two, at a railroad union do
They let him sit in for a set
Daddy hadn't lost it yet
He played that bass the way he used to do!
Well now you've heard the story of our family
Daddy was a bass man playing in a swing band
And Daddy we're so glad Mama swung with you
Swing, Daddy, swing! Swing, Mama, swing!
Play that bass and chase those blues away!