Song picture
CO 06 Emigre
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a waltz-time acoustic ballad about ancestry and what-if speculation
family usa whatif grandfather ancestry
Artist picture
Singer-songwriter, arranger and producer: acoustic contemporary folk but ranging into rock/blues/country/jazz/humour...all very eclectic, I'm afraid!
Martin Stirrup Singer/songwriter An old folkie who got back into it... These days I sing and play guitar(s) and other stringed instruments, then score and orchestrate where appropriate. My taste becomes increasingly eclectic ranging from finger-picked folk through country to soft rock mixed in with a few more alternative and eccentric numbers, including the odd novelty foxtrot...
Song Info
Genre
Acoustic • Acoustic General
Charts
Peak #48
Peak in subgenre #16
Author
Martin Stirrup
Rights
Martin Stirrup
Uploaded
November 16, 2020
Track Files
MP3
MP3 9.4 MB • 320 kbps • 4:06
Lossless
WAV 41.3 MB
Story behind the song
I knew my paternal grandfather had spent some time in the states but have only just discovered that he actually became a citizen of the USA in 1902... so some what-if speculation about why he returned and what might have happened if he hadn't!
Lyrics
CO 06 My grandfather was an émigré My grandfather was an emigre He reached for the unknown A citizen of the USA But he gave it up and shipped back home A passage out to Baltimore To forge a future there Just led to a revolving door No respite from despair What was it drove him back To the shores that he'd foresworn To try another tack Long before his son was born My grandfather was an emigrant Searching for some place to be Got drawn into a covenant With life upon the sea If he'd not come back then I guess that I'd1 be an American Well maybe not me but someone with a similar genetics What would they want with an English septuagenarian Could I claim citizenship now, dyou think I'd get it instumental I could have been a crew cut jock though maybe that ideas a little dippy there are so many different things controlled the way I am Maybe a business suit or else a full blown hippy Or maybe I got drafted and died in the war in Vietnam But instead he chose to return to the home of his birth I wonder the lessons he learned What family ties are worth Home to a new family And a wife fine and beguiling And the happiness to see When Irish eyes are smiling My grandfather was an emigrant Searching for some place to be Got drawn into a covenant With life upon the sea Upon the sea. Upon the sea CAm GF CAmCG CAm GF CAmEmF F F Cmaj11F CDmF F Cmaj11F CGF FFF CAm GF CAmEmF F FF DmDm CG Am CFGG DmDm CG Am CFGG 7 AmAmGG CCCC
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