Songtext Fatherless Frank Turner

Fatherless

Well here’s a tale I’ve not yet told:
I was evicted when I was eight years old
I was shipped off to a dormitory
Full of kids who made no sense to me
And I cried myself to sleep each night
For three straight weeks til I was dead inside
But I’m not asking for your pity;
It’s just that fairytales about fathers make me angry

I was never taught how to deal with this
But I soldier onwards nonetheless
I’m fatherless
And it makes me feel like I’m an alien
Oh lord what I wouldn’t give
For a caregiver who had care to giv?
I’m alone and I don’t know
How or if to be a man

Look at me now

Vacancy, job vacancy:
I need som?body to be the making of me
Someone to take me fishing
You can’t blame a grown up kid for wishing
Someone to teach me how to shave
To tut over the mistakes I’ve made
And to offer me some fatherly advice
Some kind of acknowledgement would be nice
Do I make you proud?

Have you heard the news?
I finally found Jesus
He’d locked himself in the bathroom at the party
I had to talk him down he was having a whitey
And he said, “Francis, I don’t need this -
The expectations and relentless pressure
Of a distant and judgemental father.”
And I said, “I can see what you mean, JC
But at least he’s paying some kind of attention
To his miraculously spawned conception
But for some of us, we struggle to be seen
And I sold my soul to rock and roll
In a desperate throw to even be noticed at all.”

Am I enough of a man?