Trying my best to shelter you from harm/When everything is so crazy and wrapped up in shiny/Problems so big and you’re so tiny today" always hit home. The very best "dad rock" I've ever heard.
"Granddaddy" is special to me because Jenn B sent me a demo to use at my wedding a year before MO was released. We had a segment of our wedding dedicated to our granddaddies who had both died shortly before our engagement, and the song was played in honor of them.
PRIDE OF THE YANKEES
This was the last song written or recorded for the album. I wrote an earlier draft utilizing the same piano progression a few weeks after Ava was born, then re-wrote it successfully while on tour opening for The Black Crowes a year later. I’m a very beginner at piano, but I was drawn to this melody and this song as if it was calling to me. Bringing a baby into this crazy post-911 world is a terrifying thing and this song is my attempt at making some sense out of it. My friends Will Johnson and Scott Danbom from Centro-matic make golden contributions to this track.
Ladies and Gentlemen pull out your hankies
Lou Gehrig was the Pride of the Yankees
Mothers and Daddies, wrap up your children
King Kong has fallen off the building today
The sky is falling the sky is falling
Wish I could hideaway safe in the mall
Something is constantly scheming and brewing
To make our lives a disaster movie
And all of the pundits and bandits and speakers
And gadgets and two hundred dollar sneakers
Will all be so useless in conjuring Jesus
In baseball and science and naming diseases away
Too many firemen and virgins in heaven
It’s all been fucked up since Nine Eleven
What we’re all fighting and what we’re defending
One big long story with two different endings today
Now I am holding you here in my arms
Trying my best to shelter you from harm
When everything is so crazy and wrapped up in shiny
Problems so big and you’re so tiny today
Lyrics and Music by Patterson Hood (Elko Nevada – June 19, 2006)
Patterson Hood – Piano and Vocal / Brad Morgan – Drums / David Barbe – Bass / Will Johnson – Guitar and Harmony / Scott Danbom – Fiddle and Harmony / John Neff – Pedal Steel
GRANDDADDY
I wrote this song shortly before Ava was born and it was my first love song to her. I was forty when she was born, which is basically the same age my grandparents were when I was born. I spent a lot of time with them and my Great Uncle as a child and always felt that I was blessed to have the input of that generation into my upbringing. I hope I can make her feel as blessed about that aspect of her raising when she is grown up.
When I was a kid, George A. (my Great Uncle) would hide candy in this old Nash that he had parked out at his farm. My cousins and I would explore that old car looking for candy and always find some. This was one of my fondest memories and I’m thrilled to have a place to put that imagery in this song.
Someday I will be a granddaddy
I’ll be the laziest sonofabitch you ever seen
I won’t care if the children are being bratty
I’ll just walk around as if it’s all a dream
And if the whole world loses its mind
I’ll be fine
Ride the roller coaster round the bend and back again
If I live to be bout ninety five
I’ll just sit there on my porch and eat an apple
They say one a day helps keep the doctor away
And that’s ok
But I ain’t taking any chances on my fate
Gonna bounce you on my knees just in case
When the time comes to burn out or fade away
Like the rest of my life, I’ll be running late
If the time comes to put me in a home
I’ll be gone
No desire to wander round alone
I’ll be gone, I’ll be gone
Someday when I’m a granddaddy
Be as sweet as pumpkin pie, just wait and see
We’ll hide chocolate candy all around the house
So all the little ones will come and see me
We’ll hide chocolate candy all around the house
Then all the little ones will come and see me
Lyrics and Music by Patterson Hood – October 7, 2004 – For Ava Ruth (The Lil’ Stranger)
Patterson Hood – Gtr and Vocals / Brad Morgan – Drum / Scott Danbom – Fiddle / Will Johnson -2nd Gtr
