I was born in San Franciso
When the bay was full of cruisers.
When the westwind smelled of fishing boats
For fifty miles around.
My Father wore a crewcut.
He was lean and he was handsome.
And my Mother wore a sash
Of yellow roses on her gown.
They would walk me down from Green Street,
Past cathedrals on the hillside.
And the carillons would fill the hearts
Of anyone in town.
I remember how they looked then,
When their eyes were always living.
When my Father loved a girl
With yellow roses on her gown.
Then we moved to Placer County,
Where the weather was a joker.
And I watched my parents laughter
Turn from amber into ice.
But my Father never stumbled.
He would tell me things would change soon.
He would bear and bear the insults
Of a pair of loaded dice.
And my Mother stood beside him
Though her heart was on the hillside
Of a city where a soldier
And his lover bedded down.
And at night amid the whisper
Of the pines and manzanita,
She would cry into her sash
Of yellow roses on her gown.
**Now the bay is calm and empty
And the wind is blowing coastward.
Oh, the smell of fishing boats
As a boy and as a man.
Now my Father's living Eastward
By the Sacramento River.
And he swears to me he's happy
With his practice and some land.
In the spring time and the summer
When the fog is off the valley
I visit him on weekends
His grass is overgrown.
Sometimes after dinner
I will gaze away the evening
In the attic, at a sash
Of yellow roses on her gown.
**Mr. Mathis does not sing this verse in concert,
but it is part of the lyrics in sheet music
provided by my friend, Maria Niemela.
John says "I've never met the writer of this song. It sounds
like my life. When ever I'm in northern California, I sing it
because of all the scenes, the word pictures, are from
northern California. I sing it mostly out of the love I had
for my mother. It seems to express everything I ever
felt about my mother."
Words and music by Michael Moore, copyright 1975.
It Is Well With My Soul