An old musical acquaintance grew up in Yellowknife and one day he showed me a photocopy of a newspaper obituary of a legendary town character. Recalling that John Lennon got all his inspiration for “Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite” from an old circus poster, I thought it would be fun to try and write a song based largely on what was written in the obit. Originally, the lyrics were set to very different music. Hanging onto the lyrics, I wrote this version in 2005 for a collection of songs I wrote to entertain some kids. This version was the last song I recorded for this project. I added a ukulele just before the final verse, for my ukulele-playing uncle, who died a week before I made this recording.

Lyrics

Old Town Tom in his long black coat was a nineteenth-century man / For twenty-five cents he would fill your tank with his home-made water can / A thousand steps to lake on steep and winding trail / A hundred trips he’d make a week to fill his empty pail / Ketchup soup and day-old tea were his favourite things to eat / No one there to mend his socks or rub his aching feet / The kids crossed to the other side if Old Tom came their way / His tiny shack is patched with tar and stolen joy they say / Waterman draw your water where the spring runs cold and deep / Waterman fill my cup with the secrets, the secrets you keep / Winds of change blew down the doors and progress sashayed in / A water truck now carves the earth worn smooth by moccasin / And Old Town Tom, his reason gone, he kept walking til he passed away / New Town folks all dipped their cups and drank to him that day / Waterman draw your water where the spring runs cold and deep / Waterman fill my cup with the secrets, yeah your secrets, the secrets you keep