Family Tree

Family Tree
by John Forster & Tom Chapin
© 1988 Limousine Music Co. & The Last Music Co. (ASCAP)

Before the days of Jello
Lived a prehistoric fellow,
Who loved a maid and courted her
Beneath the banyan tree.
And they had lots of children.
And their children all had children.
And they kept on having children
Until one of them had me!
We're a family and we're a tree.
Our roots go deep down in history
From my great-great-granddaddy reaching up to me,
We're a green and growing family tree.
My grandpa came from Russia;
My grandma came from Prussia;
They met in Nova Scotia,
Had my dad in Tennessee.
Then they moved to Yokohama
Where Daddy met my Mama.
Her dad's from Alabama and her mom's part Cherokee.
We're a family and we're a tree.
Our roots go deep down in history
From my great-great-granddaddy reaching up to me,
We're a green and growing family tree.
Well one fine day I may go
To Tierra Del Fuego.
Perhaps I'll meet my wife there
And we'll move to Timbuktu.
And our kid will be bilingual,
And though she may stay single,
She could, of course, comingle with the
King of Kathmandu.
'Cause we're a family and we're a tree.
Our roots go deep down in history
From my great-great-granddaddy reaching up to me,
We're a green and growing family tree.
The folks in Madagascar
Aren't the same as in Alaskar;
They got different foods, different moods
And different colored skin.
You may have a different name,
But underneath we're much the same;
You're probably my cousin and the whole world is our kin.
We're a family and we're a tree.
Our roots go deep down in history
From my great-great-grandmother reaching up to me,
We're a green and growing family tree.
We're a green and growing family.

This song appears on Tom Chapin's Family Tree CD.

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