Oh Bad Daddy

All harmonica players are attracted to trains. Who knows why; but it is absolutely true and apparently without exception. I took the lyrics of “Oh Bad Daddy,” which came from a comic strip by Lynda Barry, as an invitation to engage in the ultimate train song.

Oh Bad Daddy – Lyrics
your bad daddy live across the street
from my bad daddy
your bad daddy and my bad daddy
walk down the dusty road
to the Alibi Tavern

they walk laughing
come back stumbling
don’t care if we pitch rocks at them
they can’t run
say if they catch us
they gonna kill us
but they never gonna catch us

you and me
gonna ride a freight train
all the way to Florida
where there’s oranges
hanging from the trees
you and me
swear to do it
on the way down the dusty road
to the alibi tavern

you say it
no you say it
no you
is my daddy here?
Come for him
That’s him

you and me
gonna ride a freight train
just like the hoboes
and eat oranges
and live in the woods
if woods is what they got in Florida.
That’s him

Mom says come home
She got dinner on

your bad daddy
don’t care nothing about dinner
and my bad daddy shout
“get on away from here
‘fore I skin you alive”

The tavern is dark inside.
dark as a old box car.

Hop the train
down this hill
past the wooden bridge
past the hobo camps
burnt tin cans
burnt pieces of everything

can you cook oranges
you ask me
Mmmmmmhm
Possibly.
Possibly can

We gonna hop a train
gonna climb to the top
of a freight car
and watch your bad daddy and my bad daddy
get as small as two flies
Hear that whistle blow
Hear that whistle when it blow

Credits
from Broken Glass Promenade, track released 15 September 2014

Track Credits
Composed by The StiKman with lyrics by Linda Barry
Produced and Engineered by The StiKman
Production consultants: Nicholas Dobson and Dan Rathbun

The StiKman: Vocals, Harmonica, Jaw Harp, Percussion, sound design
Toby Hawkins: Pie Tins, Hose Nozzle and Break Drum
Eric and Nini: Vocals
Kristen Fairfield: small person wrangler

Special thanks to Val Esway, Matt VanDerende, Mike Silverman, Ayelet Donner

Toby Hawkins