Lyrics My Old Man - John Prine

My Old Man

I miss the old man tonight
And I wish he was here with me
With his corny jokes and his cheap cigars
He could look you in the eye and sell you a car
That’s not an easy thing to do
But no one ever knew
A more charming creature on this old earth
Than my old man
He was a pilot in the big war
In the U.S. Army Air Corps
In a C-47 with a heavy load
Carryin' combat cargo for Burma Road
And after they dropped the bomb
He came home and married mom
And not too long after that
He became my old man
And oh, the fights that we had
When my brother and me got him mad
He’d get all boiled up and he’d start to shout
We knew what was comin' so we tuned him out
And now the old man is gone
And I’d give all I own
To hear what he said when I wasn’t listenin'
To my old man
Well, I miss my old man tonight
And I can almost see his face
He was always tryin' to watch his weight
His heart only made it to fifty-eight
And for the first time since he died
Late last night I cried
I was wonderin' when I was gonna' go and do that
For my old man