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My Family Tree Lyrics
dad, I watched you fall
and split your head on the dock
I couldn’t bear to see
a lion so meek
in the francis jay memorial wing
so I never came
my family tree is me
angela, sister near, once
stripper severe
your husband donnie
is pure fear
so I stay clear
my family tree is me
mother dear
your eyes are lost
gunpowder shot
gun tossed, there’s nothing left to brood
I lost you too
my family tree is me
now I’m set free
and split your head on the dock
I couldn’t bear to see
a lion so meek
in the francis jay memorial wing
so I never came
stripper severe
your husband donnie
is pure fear
so I stay clear
your eyes are lost
gunpowder shot
gun tossed, there’s nothing left to brood
I lost you too
now I’m set free
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this song is sad. i think that maybe that all of his family died and now the only person left in his family is himself. hence, "my family tree is me."
I think his parents died, and he just doesn't communicate with his sister at all anymore because her husband is so controlling, so he's lost her in a different way.
John's mom is alive and he loves her. :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9apxTf3EJ4
Also, John doesn't have any sisters. Angela in this song is said to be "sister NEAR". It's not really clear who Angela is.
Man, I really hate to break it to you like this, but sometimes singers adopt personas in songs that aren't necessarily them.
Maybe he's doing so here, and Angela is this sister of his imagined narrator...maybe he isn't actually a helicopter pilot, shooting at people with tracer bullets, as he claims to be in Heated Pool and Bar. Come to think of it, I don't think he was a pharmaceutical rep in Abilene or a P.O.W. in Vietnam either. I think he's a storyteller.