A song about John Joseph 'Sonny' Kelly (1876-1929), an Irish immigrant to the US and Canada. He was born in Monasteraden, Ireland, and died in Vancouver, BC.
lyrics
Verse. 1:
[Dsus2]What a man, what a daring man
[Gsus2]He made a journey from his harried land
To source the wonders, the gifts out there for all to see
And this took him to many foreign lands
Among the people, Giai’s sweet children
Living stories, and tales of love and woe and war and peace
Chorus:
[A]You know, that’s the way things ought to [Gsus2]go.
[A]A chance to live.
An even greater chance to [Gsus2]grow.
Verse 2:
On to a city and its hectic maze
Then to a prairie behind a horses mane
A life enchanted in the winds of an emerging world
But fate presented and he must engage
And this took him to an earthen grave
of torrid jungles and the trenches of a killing field
Chorus:
You know, that’s the way things often go
A chance to live
The toil it takes for us to grow
Bridge (a poem by Kevin Kelly):
The shell cracks
The sun beckons him
The beak affects the exit to
To a cold, where he will be wet, and weak, and wary, and alone
But kestrel and sparrow alight
And they have no guide, no tyrant
Not but nothing watches and wards
But what of that? I must away!
Verse 3:
The years progressing and he took a wife
For them a daughter, three sons a nestled life
A part-time writer he worked the forests and plowed the fields
And as it happened when new life began
An anxious whisper pointed to the end
In affliction, a stranded family watched him slowly die
Chorus:
You know, that’s the way things often go
A chance to live
A desperate chance for us to grow
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