The Man He Was - Emitt Rhodes
In a village in the woods they plant
A tree for every newborn babe
So they sowed a seed for a child
Named John and they watched it day by day
The tree it grew in a very strange way as twisted as a knot
And the child he grew in the very
Same way and never would his parents have thought
The lad was bright and he learned
To read as well as he could talk
But his limbs were as twisted as the
Tree and never would he walk
People would come to stop and stare
And you could hear them say
It doesn't seem to me to be
Quite fair and then be on their way
Sing a song of joy lift your hearts in song
For a newborn boy for a life that's long
For a life that's long
Now he loved the tree even
Though it was as twisted as himself
For somewhere deep inside his soul he thought of nothing else
And the boy he grew
Did the best he could but his limbs remained the same
Well whoever listens who will
Understand someone who is lame
Some came to cry and some
Came to laugh the day he passed away
He's really not dead
He's just taking a nap I heard somebody say
I can't explain the tree
Had died it withered without love
But a stump remains to remind us of the man that he was
Sing a song of death sing a song of peace
Sing a song of rest and a song of relief
Till the end of time
Till the end of time
Till the end of time
