Song For My Daughter

I have joked about writing a book called How to Beat Procrastination in Just 30 Years. I am a world-class procrastinator, and today’s big announcement is the proof in the pudding.

I wrote in December 2022 that for the first time in 12 (!) years I had written a song — actually I had completed a song that I’d been tinkering with for 15 years.

“Sunday morning, I picked up the old 12-string and an old notebook,” said I. “There were words on one page that I’d written in June 2007, a couple of verses to a song, and a line that I added in October 2020, and words for another verse and a bridge that I wrote in June 2021. The hint of a melody has lingered in my mind over all that time, but I never set down chords for it. Sunday morning, I married the words to music.”

I said that the song was named “Song For My Daughter,” but that I was still tinkering and it was “not ready to be shared.”

Fast-forward a year or so, and I announced that I had started putting together a new album, to be titled New Dog, Old Tricks, and I even designed the album cover. I did not mention it at the time, but needless to say “Song For My Daughter” is among the 10 songs I chose for the album.

Now, a mere 29 months after I revealed the existence of “Song For My Daughter,” I have humbly unveiled it for the world to hear. You can find it to stream or to download on all the usual platforms by searching for the title and/or “w.p. bluhm.” .

It is the first single release from the forthcoming album New Dog, Old Tricks. Yep, it may take some time, but eventually I do occasionally release material that I announced would be forthcoming. “Song For My Daughter” is literally 18 years in the making, which is a long time even for a world-class procrastinator. I hope you agree it was worth all that percolation.

UPDATE: It’s possible there’s a lag between when I submit my material to CD Baby and when it’s distributed to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon Music and all the others. But I swear it’s on its way.

UPDATE UPDATE: Click on this link. Then click on the “Play” button. Pandora will take you to a different song with the same name by another artist.

Song For My Daughter

Consider this a song for my daughter
Or the son who I never will know
Or the boy who I was when I became a man
These 50-odd long years ago.

Consider this an echo in passing
Of a lost song that I meant to sing
Or a poem that I wrote for all the world’s lovers
That nowadays don’t mean a thing.

Hi ho, taking it slow —
The world is a-spinning so fast.
Fee fum, bottle of rum —
And this is the line that I cast,
This is the line that I cast.

A life is a series of choices,
Hard lessons and debts to be paid,
And I may regret some of these choices,
But these are the choices I’ve made.

Consider this a poem for the ages
Or a bad joke told over a beer
Or a secret once shared in conversation
With a good friend from back in the years,

When we sang
Hi ho, taking it slow —
The world is a-spinning so fast.
Fee fum, bottle of rum —
And this is the line that I cast,
This is the line that I cast.

So consider this a song for my daughter
Or the son who I never will know,
Or the boy who I was when I became a man
These 50-odd long years ago —
To the man who I was when I became a man
These 50-odd long years ago.