Play Pete Seeger

When my Dad would come home from work
He'd sit in the living room
For a silent second
Not even bothering
To turn on the light

The yellow light from Mom's kitchen
Would stretch its arms out to him
The same way we would stand in the doorway
And wait to see
If tonight was the night
He was going to tell us
That he'd lost his job

And every night, he'd go over to the radio
Switch it over to the tape deck
And play Pete Seeger

"She stood there bright as the sun on the California coast..."

Pete Seeger could relax Dad
The way scotch and beer
Used to soothe the fathers of the rich and poor
Respectively

Other kids got hit when their Dads got home
Other kids got silence, or in some lucky cases, hugs
Questions about their day

We didn't have a bad Dad, but we had a tired Dad
And the only thing our Dad wrapped his arms around
Was the music of Pete Seeger

So we'd sit on the floor of the kitchen
And watch our Dad lean over the coffee table
Fixing whatever he could find that was broken
And in our house, that wasn't hard to find
And he'd fix it--meticulously, quietly, with purpose
While we listened
To nothing
And nothing
And nothing

And Pete Seeger

We used to think of him
Like he was our Dad's friend

Someone who understood him
In ways we never could

And we don't remember liking Pete Seeger back then

'Old Time Rock 'N Roll' was kind of fun
Because you could dance to it
But everything else just sounded the same

Now we realize that Pete Seeger
Is something you grow to appreciate
Like good food and money
And your father

Every week we turn on the radio in our cars
As we drive home from work
And hear a new Pete Seeger song
And even though they all sound familiar
It seems like every time we hear them
We're hearing them in a different sort of way

And sometimes we just sit in our car
And let our Dad's friend
Tell us how our Dad was feeling
All those nights he was trying to fix what was wrong
While we sat a few feet from him
Listening to things
We couldn't hear