Recorded live (vocal and guitar simultaneously) at Whiskey Hill Studios in Woodside, CA in 2011. Engineered by Roger Choplin. Mix-mastered by Vince Hudson in Redwood City, CA in 2012. Guitar and vocals by Paul Fifield.
This song began as a songwriting class exercise at California Coast Music Camp in 2011. Cosy Sheridan took the class on a guided meditation that went like this: I am in a forest and I walk up to a large tree. As I approach the tree I realize there is a door in it. This is the door to my soul. I open the door and step inside. A circular staircase takes me down to a large but cozy room, and in the middle of that room is my favorite chair. I sit in my chair and invite all my friends to join me. The first friend to join me turns out to be my dad, who died in 1976. It blew my mind, because I never had thought of him as my friend, and I was so inspired that I finished the song later that day and played it in the student concert the following evening. Several people approached me afterward and told me how much the song touched them and made them think about their own relationship with their father. This is a song that never would have been born without that meditation that Cosy guided us through.
My friend James Daggett made this video of My Old Man in 2012.
- Paul Fifield
My Old Man
© Paul Fifield 2011 All Rights Reserved
I opened the door to my soul
Invited all my friends on in
My old man was first to show
I never knew he was my friend
He made the choice to play his part
Now I see that it was tough
He had to subjugate his art
‘Cause there was never time enough
My old man, was my friend
He never knew how to show it
My old man, my old friend
I don't know how I couldn't know it
Dad's been gone a long long time
He met a solitary end
He's still alive inside my mind
And all along he's been my friend
My old man, was my friend
He never knew how to show it
My old man, my old friend
I don't know how I couldn't know it
My old man, my old friend
I wish I'd known how to know it