Papa is a song I wrote that tells the fictitious story of a young person’s difficult relationship with their father.  Their father was a drifter who lived a hard life of drinking, gambling and womanizing while neglecting his wife and his family – both emotionally and financially. Despite this rocky and stormy relationship the young person never gives up hope and confirms, “But you know I still loved him so.”  The song hits a high point with the young person acknowledging that, “My Papa was a dreamer, And a ladies man, He always had ideas, But never had a plan, He spent his life dreamin’, Gamblin’ his life away, But you know he always dreamed, I’d live my dreams one day, And you know I still love him so.”

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“Papa” is a song of mine from Set 4 using my acoustic 12-string Ovation guitar, and this song just seemed to nicely click in one take. “Papa” speaks to human fallibility, weakness, good intentions gone wrong, dreams, forgiveness and love within the fictitious setting of a relationship between the singer and his/her father. Enjoy! ♡ 🙂 Mark

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(Note: Emailed versions of these songs lose their chord alignment and formatting, so refer to the original post and/or the scanned lyric sheet as your guide!)

Papa

“Pages Of Life”, Collected Works Volume XII, Copyright 1992, Mark D. Jones, All Rights Reserved

Verse One:

     D              C

My Papa was a drifter

     G                   D

He was a gamblin’ man

     D                C

He lived a life of drinkin’

          G       D

I could never understand

  D                    C

I never knew my Papa

  G                        D

I never knew him at all

     D              C

My Papa was a drifter

   G               D

A man I never saw     (x3)

            C        G                  D

But you know I still loved him so     (x4 and End)

Verse Two:

     D              C

My Papa was a gambler

     G               D

He never had a dime

D                  C

Always out of money

     G                    D

He never spent the time

     D                    C

To take care of his wife

G       D

Or his family

           D                          C

He was always runnin’ from trouble

       G                         D

And never saw much of me     (x3)

            C        G                  D

But you know I still loved him so     (x4)

Verse Three:

     D              C

My Papa was a dreamer

G                D

And a ladies man

     D              C

He always had ideas

      G               D

But never had a plan

     D                C

He spent his life dreamin’

G                     D

Gamblin’ his life away

            D                     C

But you know he always dreamed

    G                          D

I’d live my dreams one day     (x3)

             C        G                D

And you know I still love him so     (x4 and Repeat Verse One to End)