Sentimental Boy

Baby's in the cradle, robin's in the nest
Mommy's in the kitchen and Daddy knows best
And the grader's going to smooth the whole thing over
Weeping tile will soon be growing clover
Can't you see our baby throwing a bone to Rover
He's bound to be a sentimental boy...
Surely be a sentimental boy

Snowshoes in the winter, gumboots in the spring
Sandals in the summer, in the fall you'd better bring
Your wool socks and your work boots with the steel toes
Stack that firewood up into neat rows
Don't stand there wondering where the wondering geese go
Oh no...
You're bound to be a sentimental boy
Don't be such a sentimental boy

But the seasons keep on turning
That's the reason that I'm yearning
While the leaves are burning

(instrumental)

And it's high time for some changes
Cuz in my time, we keep fencing in the ranges
Leaves me feeling strange...

First it was a forest, then it was a field
Then it was a suburb and now all the signs say yield
To the freely-flowing freeways of our future
Constant clash and clamour that's our nature
Forget about the old man in the pasture
Don't be such a sentimental boy
You always were a sentimental boy...

This is a strange one. It was written for the uke, but it's not a silly little ditty like Strawberry Season or others I've written. It's got a ton of changes in it, if you'll pardon the pun, and an odd melody. The lyrics are sensitive and hesitant and the recording I have of me debuting it on stage reveals a very shy, intimate side of myself that I felt was important to dig around in.

The song was first inspired by driving north to Barrie from Toronto, where all the land is being overtaken with new developments. But fort the first verse I reached all the way back to my very earliest moments, when, as an infant I used to sleep through the sounds of the bulldozers while the septic bed was being put in outside our family home in Parry Sound.

This recording was made the first time I played the song on stage, at the Mariposa Sentimental Songs revue at Toronto's Tranzac Club. I was more nervous than I've been in years, for reasons I don't understand. I had just driven in from Montreal, and I ran into trumpet man Caleb Hamilton at the club. We ran through the changes once out on the sidewalk and then we performed it. Dave Lang captured it, and here it is.

Sentimental_Boy