Nina Simone Sings My Father – The most beautiful of songs

I was driving up to London the other day and this song came on the radio and I had to stop the car, pull over on the side of the road and have a cry. Has anyone ever done that? This song is written by Judy Collins and sung by Nina Simone. Nina seems to draw each line down from the heavens and delivers each word with such concentration and care, as if at any moment the song may shatter into a million pieces.

MY FATHER

My father always promised me
That we would live in France
We'd go boating on the Seine
And I would learn to dance

We lived in Ohio then
He worked in the mines
On his dreams like boats
We knew we would sail in time

All my sisters soon were gone
To Denver and Cheyenne
Marrying their grownup dreams
The lilacs and the man

I stayed behind the youngest still
Only danced alone
The colours of my father's dreams
Faded without a sound

And I live in Paris now
My children dance and dream
Hearing the ways of a miner's life
In words they've never seen

I sail my memories of home
Like boats across the Seine
And watch the Paris sun
As it sets in my father's eyes again