Love and War Song

It takes a bit of time to get to the point of squeezing a tear from the eye, but eventually, this week's Objet d'eBay does. The 1969 release, the Grammy-winning"Color Him Father" by The Winstons (a one-hit wonder band with a bit more back story) is a soulful ballad of love for a man by his son.

The father is a paragon of virtue, but about midway through, the lyrics offer the twist that opens the faucet:

My real old man he got killed in the war
And she knows she and seven kids couldn't of got very far
She said she thought that she could never love again
And then there he stood with that big wide grin
He married my mother and he took us in
And now we belong to the man with that big wide grin

Then it was a dad lost to Vietnam, now Iraq. Another day, another war. But ever a time for a song expressing the need for a man to be a father.