MAMA'S MAN

One of Monster Truck's greatest German hits.




This is what American soldiers do when forced to spend extended periods overseas.

That would be my brother on bass, by the way.

Bring the boys home.

For God's sake, bring the boys home!

I believe this was recorded somewhere around the first Gulf War.


And the lyrics are these:

Mama's Man
(N. Gifford & O. Cowan)

Daddy hit the bottle
When mama hit the bars
She spent a lot of nights
In the back of a lot of cars

I remember the day it happened
It came as no surprise
She knew he knew her secret
From the look in his eyes

And she knew she couldn't keep him
No words had to be said
He couldn't stand the shame
Of that stranger in his bed

Said he'd never really known her
And that ring on his hand
Couldn't stop my daddy
From takin' my mama's man

He spent his life a workin'
With all the men downtown
Oh they built this city up
But it tore our family down

As the love between him and mama
Withered and died
Oh the life he'd made it crumbed
'Cause he'd been livin' a lie

And she knew she couldn't keep him
No words had to be said
He couldn't stand the shame
Of that stranger in his bed

He said he'd never really known her
And that ring on his hand
Couldn't stop my daddy
From taking my mama's man

Couldn't stop my daddy
From taking my mama's man

By the way, Monster Truck is (or was):
Nathan "Giff" Gifford - Guitars and Vocals
Owen PD Cowan - Bass and Vocals
Scott Farnsworth - Acoustic Guitar and Vocals
Dynamite Daniel Fischer - Drums

They've been slowly converting old videos to a MySpace compatible format. More of their stuff is posted here, now including their fabulous versions of YMCA (from before it made its comeback in the 90s), Hey Jude, and a host of others.


Corrections and addenda:

Mama's Man was written in 1992, and the video was from a June 10, 1994, show at Lucky's Bar in Augsburg, so it was a bit after Desert Storm. It was Monster Truck's second to last show, their farewell show being August 6, 2004.

The drummer, Daniel Fischer, was not an American soldier. He was from Romania, the son of a German father. He spoke very little English, so he shouldn't be blamed for the lyrics.

Scott Farnsworth had a great voice and played a mean bluegrass guitar, but he came to the band sort of late, so he didn't have very many songs to sing before it all ended. On Mama's Man, that's Giff singing the first half and Owen singing the second.

In newer versions of the song, the line "I remember the day it happened" has been changed to "I remember the day he left her" to for clarity's sake.