From the Chair to the Door

The old man sits in his old man's chair
Telling an old man's stories
And the blanket that warms the old man's bones
Hides the weakness of an old man's body
And the tears that roll down his ancient face
Are the rains of the Normandy landing
Where a young man lay in the Normandy mud
His body... his body torn and bleeding...

And the old man feels what he felt that night
And he knows it's too soon to be dying
But the young man who survived for another day's fight
Now sits in an armchair weeping
And it's always too soon, and it's always too late
To say all the things that need saying
But an old man remembers what young men forget
And he knows, he knows there is no time for waiting...

So head for the beach men, and God be your guide
And never a thought of surrender
But the old man looks back with more sadness than pride
At the times no young man can remember
A voice that was sure, and a heart that was strong
The courage to land on that shore
Now the voice is a tremble, the heart barely beats
And it's miles, it's miles from the chair to the door...

The old man sits in his old man's chair
Alone with his own reminiscing
And he's young, and he's happy, with never a care
For the things that he'll one day be missing
And God damn the years, they just rolled by so fast
They left him so old and so sickly
And God damn the young man, he ran for the past
He surrendered, surrendered to old age to quickly...

So head for the beach men, and God be your guide
And never a thought of surrender
But the old man looks back with more sadness than pride
At the times no young man can remember
A voice that was sure, and a heart that was strong
The courage to land on that shore
Now the voice is a tremble, the heart barely beats
And it's miles, it's miles from the chair to the door...

My great-uncle, Stewart Cameron of Stellarton, Nova Scotia, is the hero of this song. He was a mentor to me as a young man and the home-made memoirs he left me inspire me still.

I wrote this song in the summer of 1992 or so, before I knew what I was doing, so it breaks a lot of rules.

I'm learning from it still.