Illegitimate One

Words: Ryan / Music: Ryan and Dachshund

No other could seem such a part of myself
I guess the wind never stops changin’
Lay claim to the line of somebody else,
Illegitimate one…

Your mother was not good enough for me
I needed the right to roam
I gave her the hand of history
I left you to curse your home

I got no comfort to give
and the truth is harder than stone
made of the grit of damage done
and the will to carry on.

I dreamed of the beauty built with my hands
but I had no money or meaning
I carved out a town like a scar on the land
Illegitimate one…

I was part of a Manifest Destiny
I laid the red-man to rest
I wrote what you folks call history
I settled your wild west

And written all over my skin
is the dust and the ashes and blood
of who stood their ground when fortune told
that the world was moving on.

There ain’t no lesson to learn
just a world that’s wicked and cruel
Men with a motive to turn
and fathers of fathers of fools
Learn to forgive and forget, child
and the world will find a new son
And in the ways that you will love,
You will find your heart a home.

 

From the album: “The Ballad of Shorty Long”

  • Ryan Dannar – Guitar, Vocals
  • Eric Hartley – Guitar
  • Andy Jenson – Bass
  • Matt Taylor – Drums