Dan Fogelberg - Forefathers Lyrics
They came from scandinavia, the land of midnight sunAnd crossed the north atlantic when this century was youngTheyd heard that in america every man was freeTo live the way he chose to live and be who he could beSome of them were farmers there and tilled the frozen soilBut all they got was poverty for all their earnest toilThey say one was a sailor who sailed the wide world roundMade home port, got drunk one night, walked off the pier and drownedMy mother was of scottish blood, its there that she was bornThey brought her to america in 1924They left behind the highlands and the heather-covered hillsAnd came to find america with broad expectant dreams and iron willsMy granddad worked the steel mills of central illinoisHis daughter was his jewel, his son was just his boyFor thirty years he worked the mills and stoked the coke-fed firesAnd looked toward the day when hed at last turn 65 and could retireAnd the sons become the fathers and their daughters will be wivesAs the torch is passed from hand to handAnd we struggle through our livesThough the generations wander, the lineage survivesAnd all of us, from dust to dustWe all become forefathers by and byThe woman and the man were wed just after the warAnd they settled in this river town and three fine sons she boreOne became a lawyer and one fine pictures drewAnd one became this lonely soulWho sits here now and sings this song to youAnd the sons become the fathers and their daughters will be wivesAs the torch is passed from hand to handAnd we struggle through our livesThough the generations wander, the lineage survivesAnd all of us, from dust to dustWe all become forefathers by and by
