Glen Oaks Blues

Your mama was a manipulator
Your daddy was a world class hater
Of black people, brown people, yellow people, Indians, and Jews
And I don’t know how you came out of that mess
Why you’re not just like ‘em is anybody’s guess
But somehow you escaped those Glen Oaks Blues
The nuns at school were petty tyrants
Your lovers filled with senseless violence
Your bosses nearly always hit on you
Still you grew up straight and you grew up true
In spite of everything they tried to do to you
Somehow you escaped those Glen Oaks Blues

Your daddy’s daddy used to beat him
So he beat you till you were fifteen
Your mom denied she ever saw a bruise
Both her folks were alcoholic,
Melancholic, hyperbolic,
But somehow you escaped those Glen Oaks Blues
You grew up brave and you grew up strong
In spite of everyone that had done you wrong
They offered you their chains but you refused
And I don’t know how you came out of that mess
Why you’re not just like ‘em is anybody’s guess
But somehow you escaped those Glen Oaks Blues

Somehow you turned out kind
With an open heart and a fearless mind
They offered you their chains but you refused
And I don’t know how you came out of that mess
Why you’re not just like ‘em is anybody’s guess
But somehow you escaped those Glen Oaks Blues

words & music by Jim Patton © 2000 (Independent Alligator Publishing Co) (ASCAP)